In 2019, as an intellectual property law update, the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) announced that their electronic system will again be down for maintenance for the entire weekend.
Strike 3 Holdings, a prolific adult movie producer, who filed almost 2,000 copyright infringement lawsuits last year, has seen many of its copyright lawsuits dismissed for failing to establishing jurisdiction over the alleged downloaders of the pornographic movies.
The US Intelligence community warned American tech companies that China is stealing intellectual property and that it is a dangerous place to do business. In response, Google, Intel and Qualcomm have refused to sell software, hardware or offering licenses of its intellectual property to Chinese manufacturer, Huawei.
Qualcomm’s anti-competitive licensing practices has resulted in the FTC forcing them to stop bundling patent licensing deals with sales of its hardware. In addition, the court ordered Qualcomm to be monitored for continued anti-competitive conduct for the next seven years.
Wallmart, Kmart, CVS and others are subject to trade dress infringement claims by the maker of UGG boots for selling knock-off footwear.
Cisco avoided a patent infringement lawsuit becasue the Plaintiff’s patent was ruled to be invalid by a federal judge for failing to name all inventors.
As of June 2019, Canada was joined to the Madrid Protocol allowing for trademark applications through WIPO.