News & Publications

The USPTO, on March 31, 2020, announced extensions to the time allowed to file certain patent and trademark-related documents and to pay certain required fees.

The USPTO Patent Trial and Appeal Board on March 24, 2020, designated two decisions as precedential.

The Ninth Circuit on March 24, 2020, held that Burbank High School’s music education program didn’t infringe copyrights by incorporating four songs into show choir medleys.

The US Senate on March 25, 2020, passed by unanimous consent the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act which grants, among other things, “emergency relief authority” for a limited amount of time to the USPTO Director and the Register of Copyrights.

After serving as Executive Director for more than five years, Lisa K. Jorgenson is leaving AIPLA. In the time she has served us in that capacity, she has worked tirelessly to connect with AIPLA members—not only across the country but around the world—and to understand and address the challenges that IP practitioners are facing.

Visit aipla.org/coronavirus for the up-to-the-date information you need for your practice.

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on March 23, 2020, denied a petition for a full-court rehearing of its Arthrex Inc. v. Smith and Nephew, Inc. decision.

The US Supreme Court on March 23, 2020, ruled that state institutions can’t be sued for copyright infringement, in a case stemming from the use of videos and images featuring the wreck of Blackbeard’s ship, Queen Anne’s Revenge.

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on March 13, 2020, overturned the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB) unpatentability determination for a nail-fungus treatment patent.

The Fourth Circuit on March 12, 2020, affirmed a North Carolina District Court’s grant of two complementary injunctions granted to protect SAS Institute Inc.'s $79.1 million copyright infringement win against “collateral attacks” on the judgment in UK court.