Featured Articles

Top Patent Blogs

R. David Donoghue
July 17, 2009 11:12

Gene Quinn has done some great work in developing a list of the top 50 patent blogs at IPWatchdog, based on a combination of objective and subjective criteria -- click here to read the post.  With all of the usual caveats about the value of top blog lists and competitions, I am proud that the...

More on Judge Posner and the Intersection of Copyright and the Internet

R. David Donoghue
June 29, 2009 11:03

LexBlog's Kevin O'Keefe picked up on Judge Posner's proposal to make linking and summarizing news stories copyright infringement, which I blogged about Friday.  O'Keefe takes a different approach than I did, based in part upon a post by Jeff Jarvis at the Buzz Machine.  O'Keefe...

August Carnival of Trust

R. David Donoghue
August 03, 2009 10:48

Welcome to the August 2009 Carnival of Trust.  The Carnival of Trust is a monthly, traveling review of the last month's best posts related to various aspects of trust in the business world.  It is much like the weekly Blawg Reviews that I post links to and have hosted (click here and...

N.D. Illinois's Local Patent Rules Will Drive Patent Cases to Chicago

R. David Donoghue
October 05, 2009 11:08

While the Northern District has made clear that it is not transforming itself into a rocket docket like the Eastern District of Virginia or the Western District of Wisconsin, the newly enacted Local Patent Rules (“Rules” or “LPR”)* are going to have a significant impact on...

IP for Your Business: Protecting Your Brand on Twitter & Stopping Twitter Squatters

R. David Donoghue
January 20, 2010 10:36

My latest IP for Your Business column, published in the Southeast Texas Record, and its sister publications the West Virginia Record and the Madison (Illinois) Record, focused upon protecting your brand on Twitter and stopping Twitter squatters.  With the Record's permission I am...

Judge Posner Suggests Tighter Copyright Rules to Protect News Reporting

R. David Donoghue
June 26, 2009 10:18

The Seventh Circuit's Judge Posner has weighed in on the newspaper crisis at his Becker-Posner Blog suggesting that a fix to the news revenue issue might be to change copyright laws to prevent linking to or summarizing news content (click here to read the post): Expanding copyright law to bar...

Will Proposed Patent Rules Drive Patent Cases to Chicago?

R. David Donoghue
August 05, 2009 10:38

**  This post is cross-posted at Patently-O  ** The Northern District of Illinois judges are currently considering public comments on a new set of proposed Local Patent Rules – click here to download a copy of the proposed rules.  The Court expects to enact a finalized version...

Inventor/Plaintiff's Managing Director Not Given Highly Confidential Technical Information

R. David Donoghue
July 22, 2009 10:14

McDavid Knee Guard, Inc. v. Nike USA, Inc., No. 08 C 6584, Slip Op. (N.D. Ill. Jun. 9, 2009) (Mason, Mag. J.). Judge Mason denied plaintiffs' motion to disclose defendant's highly confidential technical information to plaintiff Stirling Mouldings' Managing Director ("MD") in this...

Recent Articles

N.D. Illinois Local Patent Rules: Additional Views

R. David Donoghue
February 19, 2010 10:34

I am working on some additional analysis of the Local Patent Rules, after I finish with a trial in the next several weeks.  But for now, this Chicago Daily Law Bulletin story quotes me and several others about the impact of the Rules: New rules could boost patent filings By Jerry Crimmins Law...

No Equitable Estoppel Where Parties Never Communicated

R. David Donoghue
February 17, 2010 11:09

Integrated Cards, L.L.C. v. McKillip Indus., Inc. d/b/a USA/Docufinish, No. 06 C 2071 (N.D. Ill. Nov. 19, 2009) (Kendall, J.).  Judge Kendall, following a bench trial, held that pre-suit damages were barred by laches, but that the claims were not barred by equitable estoppel, in this patent...