News/Events/Blogs

The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California recently issued its opinion in TCL Communications v. Ericsson (SACV 14-341 JVS(DFMx) and CV 15-2370 JVS (DFMx)) on standard-essential patents and whether a commit to license them was on terms that are fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory, or FRAND.  The Court determined Ericsson did not offer to license its standard essential patents on reasonable terms, and instead become only the fourth U.S. Court to determine a royalty rate for essential patents.

As everyone knows, in June, the United Kingdom passed the BREXIT referendum (driven by British voters), voting to exit the European Union.  What affect does BREXIT have on intellectual property rights in the United Kingdom and the European Union?  There is a two-year process of negotiation between the UK and the EU, provided for by law, to determine the specifics of the exit.  Until that process is completed, the UK remains an EU Member State. 

 

Jo Dale Carothers Joins as Shareholder, Strengthening Firm’s IP Capabilities and Extending Reach into San Diego

SAN DIEGO (January 14, 2015) – Weintraub Tobin, one of California’s leading full service law firms, announced that Jo Dale Carothers has joined the firm as a shareholder and will head the firm’s Intellectual Property group. She will also become a member of the firm’s Litigation group. Prior to joining Weintraub Tobin,

Attorney Wayne Kazan was named in Variety’s Dealmakers Impact Report. According to Variety, “Just a few years ago, videogame developers sought employment on massive console games, but now those same developers want to become entrepreneurs at the top of startup studios making casual games. Kazan says that the talent-driven studios ‘still need investors and, in some cases, publishers are investors’ for access to content and options to buy studios.

By Scott Hervey

Recently the 11th Circuit addressed on appeal the question of whether fair use insulates from copyright liability a University which offers to its students a digital repository of reading material culled from third party publications without the benefit of a license.   Three academic publishers filed suit against Georgia State University claiming that the University infringed their copyrights by maintaining a policy which allows GSU professors to make digital copies of excerpts of their books available to students without paying them a royalty.