Intellectual Property Law and Copyright Laws

History is more than a record of what happened—it is a testing ground for how ideas are created, protected, shared, stolen, and commercialized.

Washington Governor Bob Ferguson signed ESHB 1155 into law on March 23, 2026, leaving Washington to join California, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Minnesota as states that broadly ban noncompetes.

Recent Ninth Circuit decisions clarify that, under the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA), plaintiffs do not need to identify trade secrets with "sufficient particularity" before discovery begins...

On April 1, 2026, USPTO Director Squires issued an Official Gazette Notice allowing patent owners a limited amount of time to respond to a request for ex parte reexamination...

In the April 1, 2026 issue of the Official Gazette, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published a new process permitting patent owners to file an early, limited response to a request for ex parte reexamination.

The following arguments will be available live to the public, both in-person and through online audio streaming. Access information will be available by 9 AM ET each day of argument at...

On February 25, 2026, Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen signed Legislative Bill 717 (LB 717) into law. LB 717 will expand the scope of the Nebraska Installment Loan and Sales Act (the “ILSA”) —Nebraska’s primary licensing law that governs the origination, making, and servicing of non-mortgage consumer-purpose loans—by raising the threshold loan amount for licensing under the ILSA, imposing new disclosure requirements for ILSA licensees, and expanding the prohibition against making l

Artificial intelligence is no longer a technology on the horizon — it is embedded in the daily operations of healthcare organizations, financial institutions, marketing teams, law firms, and manufacturers worldwide.

For the second time in less than a year, the USPTO, along with the DOJ's Antitrust Division, has stepped into a patent case pending in the Eastern District of Texas.

As businesses increasingly turn to generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools to develop brand and marketing assets – such as names...

Third-party trademarks and products show up in motion pictures and television productions in all sorts of ways. Cameras pan down busy urban streets with restaurant, retail signage, and billboards on both sides.

In this episode of The Upper Brand, hosts Rich Assmus and Kristine Young are joined by James Ferguson and Ana Leticia Allevato to discuss how IP licenses, distribution deals, and collaboration agreements can be recharacterized as franchise relationships under U.S. and Brazilian law.