Intellectual Property Law and Copyright Laws

Intellectual property due diligence often gets relegated to a final checklist item in acquisitions, but this approach can lead to costly oversights. Jason Balich explores why IP assessment should receive the same early, strategic attention as financial analysis, and provides a framework for evaluating whether a target company's patents, trademarks, and trade secrets are properly secured and enforceable.

CBP’s Intellectual Property Enforcement Branch briefed eRecordation holders on August 27, 2026 on changes to the recordation application, future expanded pre-seizure disclosure authority, pending legislation, and an enforcement posture that has to consequence delivery, especially collecting penalties for IP violations.

While this blog normally writes about the issues facing the patentability of AI inventions, we want to write about a topic that is high on our radar: the USPTO’s plans for integrating AI into the examination process. While certain programs, such as the USPTO’s Artificial Intelligence Search Automated Pilot Program (ASAP!) program were previously tested, a greater question looms on the availability of examiners to use large language models (LLMs) as a tool for examination.

Is this AI-generated, or is it real? As generative AI tools have become increasingly capable of creating realistic images, videos, and audio, they have also made it easier to impersonate real people without their consent. In response, states are increasingly adopting laws that impose civil and criminal liability for certain AI-generated content that replicates an individual’s identity, likeness, voice, or other personal attributes.

When you settle a patent dispute or license your technology, you may unknowingly trigger patent marking obligations that can eliminate your ability to recover pre-suit damages. A recent Federal Circuit decision demonstrates how settlement agreements transform patent owners into licensors with active compliance duties, and why failing to monitor licensee marking practices can result in case dismissal and substantial attorney fee awards.

The Sixth Circuit's decision in Nelson v. MillerKnoll examines whether a furniture company's ownership claims to the iconic Bubble Lamp design were authorized under a 2006 royalty agreement, and whether the designer's heirs ratified that arrangement by continuing to accept payments. The case hinges on interpreting contract language distinguishing between licensing rights and outright ownership of intellectual property.

A California federal court denied a defendant's motion to amend its invalidity contentions after discovering prior art through an AI-assisted patent search tool, ruling that the availability of new technology...

Takeda Pharmaceuticals has initiated its second BPCIA lawsuit over vedolizumab biosimilars, this time targeting Alvotech's AVT16 product with allegations of patent infringement across six method-of-treatment patents. The complaint raises questions about confidential access procedures and whether Alvotech's proposed confidentiality agreement exceeded statutory requirements under the BPCIA framework.

Artificial intelligence has revolutionized innovation at unprecedented speed, but its rapid advancement raises critical questions about intellectual property rights. Is AI a transformative tool that lawfully builds on existing knowledge, or does it systematically infringe on the creative works and patents of inventors and artists? The answer depends on which side of this intensifying legal debate you occupy.

Artificial intelligence has revolutionized innovation at unprecedented speed, but its rapid advancement raises critical questions about intellectual property rights. Is AI a transformative tool that lawfully builds on existing knowledge, or does it systematically infringe on the creative works and patents of inventors and artists? The answer depends on which side of this intensifying legal debate you occupy.

The U.S. government has filed a Statement of Interest of the United States of America under 28 U.S.C. § 517 in the Southern District of New York multidistrict litigation over OpenAI’s use of copyrighted works to train large language models. The filing appears to be the federal government’s first direct intervention in the wave of artificial intelligence (AI) training copyright cases, and it advises the court to treat model training (separate from use of AI to generate outputs) on copyrighted text standing alone as a highly transformative fair use under current law.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act's notice-and-takedown system, originally designed to combat online piracy, is being exploited through fraudulent copyright claims to suppress legitimate news coverage and erase critical reporting from the internet. Bad actors are using identity theft, backdated content, and automated platform algorithms to weaponize copyright law for digital censorship, creating serious implications for businesses, media outlets, and online publishers.