The Seattle IP Inn of Court held its October 22, 2020, meeting in a virtual mixer format. The meeting included a overview presentation of recent developments in IP law. A section on trademarks covered willful infringement, the ability to protect “generic.com” terms, and the need for likelihood of confusion in counterfeit cases. A section on copyrights addresses the outstanding issues in the Google v Oracle case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. This included the copyright eligibility of application programming interfaces and associated fair use defenses. A section on patents covered recent developments in discretionary denials at the Patent Trial and Appeals Board (PTAB). The patent segment also contained a discussion of the Arthrex case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court to resolve whether PTAB judges are principal officers, and, if so, whether the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals cured any defects in the statutory scheme creating these judgeships.
Thank you to all the participants!