Courtroom Classics
In this case, the Supreme Court upheld a rule stating that a patent holder cannot collect royalty payments after a patent has expired, even if they invented a popular Spider-Man "Web Blaster" toy.
What is Kimble v. Marvel Entertainment, LLC?
This contractual mechanism in a mission-critical software license requires the vendor to deposit source code and build materials with an independent agent. They are released to the licensee if a specified event occurs, such as the vendor's bankruptcy, a permanent end to support, or a material maintenance failure that goes uncured.
What is source code escrow?
This Ropes & Gray IPT lawyer has been with the firm longer than anyone else in the group.
Who is David McIntosh?
In an enterprise generative-AI agreement, this negotiated protection bars the provider from using the customer's prompts, inputs, or outputs to improve models it offers to other customers.
What is a model training restriction?
This actress and entrepreneur founded a digitally native lifestyle and travel brand.
Who is Shay Mitchell?
The Beatles' record label sued a Cupertino computer maker over a fruit-themed name in this long-running trademark dispute.
What is Apple Corps. V. Apple Inc.?
This right obliges a party to offer a protected group the first chance to bargain over a deal, but it does not let that group match a third party's final offer. That matching right is a different and stronger right.
What is right of first negotiation?
This T&B attorney enjoys “rucking” in the wee hours of the morning with a group of dads.
Who is Josh Jackson?
Often cited as the first mark registered under the UK’s Trade Marks Registration Act 1875, this device mark—registered for ale—demonstrates that nonverbal brand identifiers have anchored trademark portfolios since the modern registry began.
What is the Bass Red Triangle logo?
This owl-logo lifestyle brand went from Toronto roots to global fame with a little help from the rapper who made “The 6” part of pop-culture geography.
What is October’s Very Own?
In this Ninth Circuit case, the court held that generative-AI coding outputs were newly generated works—not copies from which copyright management information had been removed—for purposes of DMCA § 1202(b).
What is Doe v. GitHub?
This heavily negotiated technology NDA provision lets personnel use ideas they keep in their unaided memory. It still bars deliberate memorization and any use of source code, personal data, or information expressly excluded from the carve-out.
What is a residuals clause?
This T&B attorney has been to all six inhabited continents.
Who is Parker Elliot?
Consumer brands are increasingly turning first-party shopper data, website traffic, and marketplace placement into a high-margin advertising business through this fast-growing channel
What is a retail media network?
Basically the anti–Mean Girls approach to working out, this purple-and-yellow gym chain promises members a “Judgement Free Zone.”
What is Planet Fitness?
This U.S. Supreme Court case held that a debtor-licensor's rejection of a trademark license agreement under Section 365 of the Bankruptcy Code constitutes a breach of the contract, not a termination or rescission of it.
What is Mission Product Holdings, Inc. v. Tempnology, LLC (2019)?
In a co-branded product collaboration, this is the usual defined term for IP that each party owned before the collaboration or develops outside it. Each party keeps ownership of it.
What is background IP?
This T&B attorney’s first job was at McDonald’s, where they were an ace fry cook and McFlurry artist.
Who is Dan Freshman?
When a buyer acquires a connected-products company, counsel runs this workstream to map the dependencies among device firmware, mobile apps, cloud hosting, APIs, open-source components, and third-party licenses.
What is technology stack diligence?
A legacy U.S. chocolatier expanded beyond chocolate in late 2024 by acquiring this digitally fueled candy brand, praised for rapid growth and an unusually strong social-media following.
What is Sour Strips?
In this generative-AI copyright case, the court distinguished potentially transformative model training from the acquisition of unauthorized library copies, declaring piracy “inherently, irredeemably” infringing.
What is Bartz v. Anthropic?
Never assign a trademark without also assigning the associated goodwill. Otherwise the assignment would be invalid and classified as this kind of assignment
What is an assignment in gross?
This T&B attorney was the drummer in a Pearl Jam cover band in high school.
Who is Erica Han?
A global brand wants its virtual goods to move among games and online worlds. Beyond trademark scope, counsel must negotiate platform terms, technical compatibility, royalties, and this ability of digital assets to function across environments.
What is interoperability?
Serving comeback-tour energy in the freezer aisle, this bite-size frozen-novelty brand became the second-fastest-growing handheld treat in convenience stores
What is Mini Melts?