South Carolina Lawyers Weekly

Mar 11, 2011

Pharmaceutical trademarks: Challenges and pitfalls

By JAMES A. THOMAS, Special to Lawyers Weekly [email protected] Trademark selection and clearance for pharmaceutical trademarks provides the trademark attorney with a plethora of challenges and potential pitfalls unique […]

Mar 11, 2011

How much is your nonprofit’s brand worth?

"It's fun to stay at the Y-M-C-A . . . " As the theme of the song goes, the YMCA has long been a leader in youth and adult recreation. The YMCA is a globally recognized nonprofit with a presence in over 3,000 communities. According to a 2009 study, the brand value of those four letters is over $6 billion and will only continue to grow as time goes on. Nonprofit organizations are an integral part o[...]

Mar 11, 2011

Federal Circuit strikes method used for determining patent-case damages

By DAVID E. FRANK, Dolan Media Newswires [email protected] A rule that lawyers and judges nationwide have been using to determine damages in patent infringement cases has been abolished by […]

Mar 11, 2011

Companies increasingly targeted in lucrative suits over expired patents

Are your numbers up to date? That's the question patent lawyers are asking corporate clients as plaintiffs nationwide continue to file dozens of lawsuits over mismarked patent numbers. The cases began piling up in 2009 after a lawsuit brought under a 1952 federal patent act tested a previously untried provision that bans companies from marking products with erroneous or expired patent numbers. The[...]

Dec 7, 2010

Intellectual Property – Patent License – Settlement Agreement – Validity & Enforceability Challenge – ‘Transacting Business’

Hilex Poly Co. LLC v. Omega Plastics Corp. Even though, when a patent license is part a settlement agreement ending litigation, licensees are generally estopped from challenging the validity of the underlying patents, since defendants also challenge the validity . . .

Dec 7, 2010

Intellectual Property – Trademark Infringement – Website Host – Site-Building Help – Counterfeit Golf Clubs – Rule 11

Roger Cleveland Golf Co. v. Price. The plaintiff-golf club manufacturer forecasted evidence that defendant Bright Builders, Inc., not only hosted the other defendants' websites, but also helped to build them. In doing so, plaintiff contends, Bright Builders must have . . .

Dec 3, 2010

Protected pleadings: Attorneys could copyright their documents, but should they?

Of course lawyers don't need anyone's blessing to copyright their own work. The question is, when they do, are their claimed rights enforceable? The short answer is yes, maybe. Intellectual property attorney John C. Nipp of Charlotte, N.C.-based Summa, Additon & Ashe told Lawyers Weekly that the requirements for obtaining a copyright are not strict. "It has to be a literary work in a tangible [...]

Dec 3, 2010

Commentary: Patents and collectivism – Snowballs in Hades

"Nearly two years ago, I exhorted business owners and inventors to protect their intellectual property due to - not in spite of - the depressed economy. My suggestion still stands. However, the passage of time begs this question: is intellectual property - patents in particular - incompatible with policies that trend toward such things as 'redistribution of wealth' and 'universal health care?'," G[...]

Nov 12, 2010

Q&A: Slowdown in IP gave her time to hone litigation skills

By DIANA SMITH, Staff Writer [email protected] Amy Allen Hinson is an attorney at Nexsen Pruet’s Greenville office and practices in the areas of intellectual property law and general litigation. […]