The Federal Circuit is cranking out some interesting precedential opinions this week. Today, in SnapRays v. Lighting Defense Group, the court held that a patent owner's use of Amazon's Patent Evaluation Express ("APEX") program was sufficient to trigger declaratory judgment jurisdiction in the alleged infringer's home state. With the use of the APEX program on the upswing, this is definitely a case to read for both patent owners and potential defendants.

In a surprisingly quick (~3 week) turnaround, the Federal Circuit's out today with an important ruling on the "very muddled" (to use Judge Hughes' words) issue of standing in patent infringement cases. TLDR version of Intellectual Techs v. Zebra: the mere fact that a licensee has the ability to sublicense a patent doesn't divest the patent owner of standing to bring an infringement suit. Also, sorry about the years of conflating Section 281 and Article III...

A piece from Erick Robinson that's worth a read, arguing that some of the calls for litigation funding-related disclosure go way too far. But I'm curious if there's any data to back up the statement that "most funders readily welcome disclosing their presence and identity" in litigation.

Fun time at the Managing IP awards in NYC last night, bringing home some hardware for the Ropes & Gray LLP IP lit and IP transactions practices with Kathryn Thornton, Jolene Wang, Ryan Brunner, and Matthew R. Shapiro. Congrats to all the winners, and great job by Rani Mehta hosting!

Interesting and lively discussion yesterday on SEPs, IoT, and FRAND licensing with Megan Carpenter, Chris Storm, and David Soucy at the Unified Patents Patent & Administrative Law Conference. And a great dinner to boot -- thanks Jonathan Stroud!

If you're interested in AI/emerging technologies, you'd be well-advised to watch this space...

With the A's moving to Sacramento and then Vegas, apparently we needed a new way to keep the Bay Bridge rivalry going. ENTER THE AIRPORTS. Sometimes it seems like the world is just trying to give Alexandra J. Roberts material.

All you IP law professors who have been thinking "all these name-image-likeness issues involving college sports are getting a bit stale, I need a new NIL hypo for my exams" -- here you go. https://lnkd.in/eSXDBkKJ

Really interesting story showing the intersection of intellectual property and consumer product regulatory issues, with SawStop promising to dedicate a patent to the public if the CPSC adopts a rule requiring active injury mitigation technology on all table saws. Thanks to Scott Lovejoy for flagging this for me!

The U.S. International Trade Commission recently issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, seeking comments on a number of potential revisions to its rules of practice and procedure. For Section 337 investigation, these changes range from the mundane (correction of typos) to the more significant (imposing durational limits on depositions, and making explicit that discovery most be proportional to the needs of the investigation). Comments are due by May 20. Thanks to Yenis Argueta for helping to prepare this summary!