News & Press

The passing of the America Invents Act (AIA) in 2012 dramatically changed the landscape of patent litigation in the United States by establishing the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), an administrative tribunal within the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that resolves patent validity disputes. The number of new cases filed in this new forum grew from 111 cases in 2012 to…

The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) Rules of Practice have been amended and go into effect January 14, 2017 for all proceedings, including those then-pending. The changes include, among other things, allowing submission of testimony by declaration (subject to the other party's ability to cross-examine the declarant via live deposition), limiting the number of discovery requests allowed, and shortening the window…

Our firm is pleased to announce the three name partners of Harper & Bates LLP, including Scott Harper and Shannon Bates have been included in the 2016 edition of Texas Super Lawyers Magazine.Only the top five percent of attorneys in each state are selected as Texas Super Lawyers through an annual, state-by-state selection process that includes peer nominations, independent research and…

Judge Amos Mazzant of the Eastern District of Texas recently became one of the first federal judges to award treble damages for willful patent infringement under the new Supreme Court standard for enhanced damages laid out in Halo Electronics, Inc. v. Pulse Electronics, Inc. Judge Mazzant, citing Halo, enhanced the jury's $7 million award in IP Holdings (Cayman), Ltd. v. Samsung…

On August 17, in In re Andrew Silver, a panel of the Dallas Court of Appeals handed down a 2-1 decision refusing to recognize a patent-agent privilege. The appellate court, in affirming the trial court's decision to order production of emails between a client and his patent agent, held that communications between clients and non-attorney patent agents are not privileged. The…

On July 20, 2016, Judge Rodney Gilstrap of the Eastern District of Texas issued a revised docket control order for patent cases removing his prior requirement that litigants must be granted permission before filing motions for summary judgment. Judge Gilstrap, who handles substantially more patent cases than any other judge in the country (32% of patent cases filed in the US according to…

On July 11, the Federal Circuit clarified and limited the reach of the on-sale bar to patentability, which provides that an invention cannot be patented if, more than one year prior to the patent filing, it was: (1) the subject of a commercial offer for sale; and (2) ready for patenting. Focusing on the first prong, in The Medicines Co. v. Hospira, Inc.,…

With its May 2016 decision in Baker v. DeShong, the Fifth Circuit became the most recent appeals court to relax the standard for awarding attorneys’ fees in trademark disputes. Applying the Supreme Court’s Octane Fitness ruling on fee-shifting in patent cases to Lanham Act suits, the Fifth Circuit concluded litigants need only show a case “stands out” from others with…

Copyright is a term used to describe a legally recognized property right in a creative work.[i] Copyright law protects an author’s “original works of authorship,” including literary, musical, dramatic, choreographic, pictorial, audiovisual, sound recordings, and architectural works.[ii] Copyrights essentially protect artistic, original expression. The Constitution expressly protects copyrights by stating that “Congress shall have Power . . . To promote…

Scott Harper has been selected to present at the 7th Annual Essentials of Business Law Course, which takes place March 3-4, 2016 at the Hilton Houston Westchase Hotel in Houston, Texas. Scott's presentation, which takes place Thursday, March 3, will provide an introduction to intellectual property concepts relating to business transactions. The conference is presented by TexasBarCLE and is cosponsored by the…