Insights

Washington – August 15, 2024: The 2025 edition of The Best Lawyers in America® has recognized 42 Crowell & Moring lawyers as "Best Lawyers" and 29 lawyers as “Ones to Watch.”

Washington – June 24, 2024: Crowell & Moring has been recommended in eight practice areas in the 17th edition of the Legal 500 United States. In addition, partner Daniel Forman, co-chair of the firm’s Government Contracts Group, has been named to the Legal 500’s “Hall of Fame” for Government Contracts.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued a Federal Register Notice on February 13, 2024 explaining how it will analyze patent inventorship issues for inventions that utilize artificial intelligence (AI) systems. Overall, the USPTO concluded that AI-assisted inventions are not categorically unpatentable, but that a human must have made significant contributions in every aspect of the invention, and reminds applicants of their duty of candor to disclose information that could evidence that an individual may not be an inventor where her/his purported contribution was the result of an AI system. 

On August 30, 2023, the Copyright Office announced it would be seeking public comment on the use of copyrighted works to train Artificial Intelligence (“AI”), the copyrightability of AI outputs, whether AI-generated works infringe existing copyrights, and how to treat generative AI.

It seems most everyone has been closely monitoring Taco Bell’s cancellation proceedings directed to federal trademark registrations covering the TACO TUESDAY trademark.  On July 15, 2023, one of the registrants, Spicy Seasonings, LLC, withdrew its registration after decades of ownership, supporting Taco Bell’s allegations that the phrase is generic and therefore not protectable as a trademark.

A 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision limiting the reach of U.S. trademark law outside of the country could lead to further litigation by trademark holders looking to push back on those boundaries, says Crowell & Moring partner Preetha Chakrabarti, a member of the firm’s Technology & Intellectual Property Department and the Advertising & Brand Protection Group.

Learn basic principles of copyright, trademark, trade secret, and patent law, with emphasis on how micro-entrepreneurs should be advised as they develop their business ideas and confront the need to protect their own intellectual property assets and avoid infringing the intellectual property rights of others. The session will include discussion of the advantages of timely registration, practicalities of various search options, strategies for obtaining federal registration, and issues raised when the micro-entrepreneur’s business includes an online presence.

This webcast presentation will provide key insights into the top parties, courts, and firms driving trademark and copyright litigation.  Panelists will discuss how legal analytics provides the winning edge for trademark and copyright.