As more countries join the Madrid Protocol System for the International Registration of Marks (Madrid System), trademark owners should be sure to take full advantage of this trademark registration option.  There are now 89 members of the Madrid System.  Significantly lower application and maintenance costs, as well as streamlined portfolio management options, are just a few of the reasons why the Madrid System is advantageous for trademark owners.

On April 20, the Federal Circuit issued its long-awaited en banc decision in TiVo Inc. v. EchoStar Corp.,[1] vacating one ground for a contempt citation but affirming the other and upholding a $90 million sanction.  Along the way, the court significantly revised its approach to contempt proceedings in ways that may both help and hurt patentees in future cases.

By a 5-4 vote, the United States Supreme Court has rejected the notion that business methods are categorically unpatentable. By a unanimous vote, however, the Court has affirmed the PTO and Federal Circuit’s rulings rejecting Bilski’s patent claims on methods of hedging commodity risks. The Court also unanimously agreed that while the "machine or transformation" test adopted by the Federal Circuit is a useful indicator of patentability, it is not the sole test for patentability under Section 101 of the Patent Act. Although many had feared--and some had hoped--that all software patents were in jeopardy, the Court’s relatively narrow decision should allay those fears and dash those hopes.

In the past 19 years, more than 750 companies have sent employees to a Perkins Coie Product Liability Workshop.