By Andrew Velzen -- On January 19, 2024, Palworld launched into early access on Xbox and Windows. To say it was an overnight success is an understatement. By only a month in, Palworld had been played by over 25 million players.[1] To put this in perspective, monumental success stories like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Hogwarts Legacy (both released in 2023) have sold in the ballpark of 20-25 million copies.[2] It is not surprising that Palworld's meteoric rise has generated a lot of buzz in the industry. What is Palworld Palworld is a survival game developed...   &nb ..read more

By Kevin E. Noonan -- Over the past year suspended Federal CIrcuit Judge Pauline Newman's lawsuit (see "Judge Newman and the On-Going Attempts to Remove Her from the Federal Circuit") against Chief Judge Kimberly Moore, and Circuit Judges Sharon Prost and Richard Taranto (in their roles as members of the Special Committee of the Judicial Council of the Federal Circuit responsible for the Order suspending Judge Newman) has continued without much fanfare. However, in the face of Defendant's Motion for Judgment on the pleadings the status quo is likely to change no matter now the District Court r ..read more

By Kevin E. Noonan -- The Federal Circuit handed down an opinion last week that invalidated several asserted claims and found infringement under 35 U.S.C. § 271(e)(2) of the claims, while refusing to modify its judgment on infringement after Defendant Norwich submitted a revised ANDA containing a Section viii "carveout" in Salix Pharmaceuticals, Ltd. v. Norwich Pharmaceuticals Inc. The majority opinion raises issues in its invalidity analysis regarding the extent to which the prior art should be required to disclose the recited administered dose to satisfy the "reasonable expectation of succes ..read more

By Joshua Rich -- The Federal Trade Commission, voting 3-2 along party lines, adopted a Final Rule banning non-compete agreements. The Final Rule allows some narrow exceptions (based both on time and circumstances) but prospectively prohibits employment-related non-competes to the full extent of the FTC's jurisdiction when it takes effect in 120 days. As the FTC noted in adopting the Final Rule, mounting abuses and distortions of the labor market led to this action. But there remains a key question to be litigated before the Final Rule takes effect -- whether the FTC has the power to ban non-c ..read more

By Kevin E. Noonan -- In its recent decision in Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. the Federal Circuit reminds us that most verities in patent law are not eternal and frequently subject to case-by-case interpretation, in this case the purported verity being that reciting the indefinite article ("a") in a patent claim is construed to mean "one or more." Besides showing that "it ain't necessary so" the case is beneficial for motivating a review of when and under what circumstances "a" means "one or more" and when it means "one," but it is also illustrates how this ..read more

By Kevin E. Noonan -- A preliminary injunction is one of the most potent weapons in a patent plaintiff's arsenal, being capable of shutting down an accused infringer's continued infringement, prohibiting the infringing product from the stream of commerce, and forcing (or at least strongly motivating) a defendant to settlement. Being so powerful, such injunctions are not easily obtained and are cabined by several requirements, the most potent being the need to show a likelihood of success on the merits at trial. In Biomedical Device Consultants and Laboratories of Colorado, LLC v. Vivitro Labs ..read more

The American Conference Institute will be holding its 4th Annual Summit for Women Leaders in IP Law on June 25-26, 2024 at the National Union Building in Washington D.C. The Summit will enable women in Intellectual Property roles to come together to explore industry trends and important factors impacting today's women IP leaders and practitioners. This year's co-chairs are Vanessa Bailey, Head of Patent Policy at Amazon and Adrianna S. Luedke, Director and Associate General Counsel at Lockheed Martin Corp. In past conferences, attendees have been able to learn to advance and thrive in the inte ..read more

American Conference Institute (ACI) will be holding is 15th Annual Summit on Biosimilars & Innovator Biologics: Legal, Regulatory, and Commercial Strategies for the Innovator and Biosimilars Marketplace on June 20-21, 2024 at the New York City Bar Association. Conference Co-Chairs are Deidre Parsons, Senior Director, Public Policy & Governmental Relations, Alnylam Therapeutics; Harshika Sarbajna, Vice President Commercial and Head Global, Alvotech; and Paki Banky, Director, Senior IP Counsel, IP Lead Cell and Gene at Novartis. Conference attendees will hear from Administrative Patent J ..read more

American Conference Institute (ACI) will be holding its 22nd Advanced Summit on Life Sciences May 29-30, 2024 at the Fairfield Inn & Suites Manhattan Times Square South, New York, NY. This year's conference co-chairs include MJ Edwards (Senior Associate General Counsel, Patent Prosecution Team Lead, Gilead Sciences Inc.), Nicole Woods (Vice President, Assistant General Patent Counsel, Eli Lilly and Company), and Mercedes Meyer (Partner, Banner Witcoff LLP). This year's event highlights deep dives into the best regulatory and IP strategies for protecting digital health therapies and inventi ..read more

The American Conference Institute (ACI) will be presenting its 20th Annual Paragraph IV Disputes Conference on April 25-26, 2024 in New York City. As in the past, this curated program will not only address "hot" topics but also will put the issues within the context of pre-suit considerations, case filings, final adjudication, and every step in between. This year's conference co-chairs include Andrei Iancu (Partner, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP and former Director of the USPTO), Brian Malkin (Associate General Counsel, Teva Pharmaceuticals), and Mira Mulvaney (Assistant General Patent Counsel ..read more