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Good morning. The USPTO has a new warning for patent lawyers: Don’t pass off AI inventions as created by humans. Plus, the Harvard Law Review is taking on court reform, Florida is barred from enforcing a ban on transgender and nonbinary teachers using their preferred pronouns, and a federal judge reinstated a fee award that a federal appellate court found potentially unreasonable. Welcome to Thursday.
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The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office told lawyers seeking patents that they must disclose any “material” part played by artificial intelligence in creating an invention, our colleague Blake Brittain reports.
The office issued new guidelines cautioning patent attorneys against omitting AI involvement from their patent applications and using AI to draft documents without verifying the underlying information, which it said could result in “critical misstatements and omissions.”
USPTO director Kathi Vidal said in a statement that the guidance “encourages the safe and responsible use of AI to benefit the IP and innovation ecosystem.” The new guidance follows the Biden administration’s order last year for federal agencies to address emerging AI technology.
The USPTO said in separate guidance in February that it will only grant patents for AI-assisted inventions that feature “significant” human contributions. The office elaborated on Wednesday that if there is a question about the extent of human contribution to an invention, information regarding the interaction with the AI system should be submitted to the USPTO.
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- The Harvard Law Review released what appears to be its first student-authored issue dedicated to the topic of court reform. As part of the issue, the prestigious law journal published a study that found nationwide injunctions blocking U.S. government policies overwhelmingly are coming from federal judges appointed by a president from the party opposite the one sitting in the White House, a trend that risks politicizing the judiciary. The study was based in part on data obtained from the DOJ through a FOIA request.
- U.S. District Judge Gene Pratter in Philadelphia approved $3.2 million in legal fees for consumer lawyers who led a data-privacy case against convenience store chain Wawa, reinstating an award that the 3rd Circuit last year saw as potentially unreasonable. The appellate court had vacated the award and directed Pratter to take a second look.
- Legal technology company CS Disco hired a new chief executive following the exit of its former leader amid sexual misconduct allegations last year. The Austin-based electronic discovery software maker said that Eric Friedrichsen will start as president and CEO on April 29. He takes over from interim CEO and board member Scott Hill, who has held the role since co-founder Kiwi Camara’s abrupt departure last September.
- The U.S. Judicial Conference’s Advisory Committee on Appellate Rules called for greater transparency requirements for outside groups that file amicus briefs in cases by mandating that they disclose when much of their revenue comes from a party involved in the lawsuit or its attorneys.
- A Brooklyn lawyer known for representing individuals involved with New York’s nightlife pleaded not guilty to criminal charges that he stole nearly $3.8 million from his clients to fund his extravagant lifestyle, state prosecutors said. Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said for the past three years, Salvatore Strazzullo has used his escrow account as a Ponzi scheme, using funds stolen from one client to pay off another all the while spending tens of thousands of dollars on high-end restaurants and hotels. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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That is the upper range of the percentage of the 66,000 public drinking water systems subject to a new EPA rule that may have to take action to reduce toxic “forever chemicals” to meet new standards. The agency announced its first-ever drinking water standard to protect people against a group of chemicals known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), found in many household and everyday items. The EPA offered $1 billion to states for public water system testing. The standard is the agency’s first major move to curb the cancer-causing chemicals.
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A former Walmart supplier won a $101 million verdict on Tuesday from an Arkansas federal jury that found Walmart breached its agreement to buy millions of boxes of nitrile gloves in the first 18 months of the Covid pandemic. London Luxury, which failed after Walmart canceled the deal to buy 72 million boxes of gloves, persuaded jurors that Walmart ditched the agreement not because of problems on London Luxury’s end but because of the collapse of Walmart’s plan to resell the gloves to a medical equipment supplier at a hefty profit. And according to London Luxury’s lawyers at Holwell, Schuster & Goldberg, Walmart can blame its own privileged documents, in part, for helping them make their client’s case. Alison Frankel has the story, including Walmart’s continued insistence that the case is really about London Luxury’s misconduct.
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“The answer is a thunderous ‘no.’ “
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—Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker, who said the First Amendment would not allow Florida to enforce a ban on transgender and nonbinary teachers using their preferred pronouns in class against a high school math teacher who sued to strike it down. Walker said the law adopted last year violates the free-speech rights of plaintiff Katie Wood, who is transgender, by barring her from expressing her personal identity as a woman. But the judge refused to extend the ruling statewide, saying Wood had challenged the law as being unconstitutional as it applies to her and not on its face.
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- The full 8th Circuit will hear Arkansas’ appeal of an injunction blocking enforcement of a state law, the SAFE Act, which prohibits doctors from providing gender-affirming care including puberty blockers, hormones and surgery to transgender minors. Arkansas in 2021 became the first U.S. state to ban gender-affirming care for minors. In June 2023, U.S. District Judge James Moody in Little Rock granted an injunction against enforcing the law after finding that science supported gender affirming care. An 8th Circuit panel upheld that ruling, finding that the law was unconstitutional.
- A 9th Circuit panel will consider whether to allow California to enforce a law that bans carrying guns in most public places, after a lower-court judge declared it unconstitutional. The state’s attorney general in court papers had argued “tens of millions of Californians will face a heightened risk of gun violence” if the law is blocked.
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Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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- The DOJ lost its bid to convince the 1st Circuit to break with its counterparts in other circuit courts and rule that a defendant’s conviction does not get wiped away just because he died while his appeal was pending. The court joined with all 11 other regional federal appeals courts by recognizing a legal doctrine that requires former PixarBio Corp CEO Frank Reynolds’ securities fraud conviction to be scrapped because he died in 2022.
- The SEC notified Uniswap Labs of a potential enforcement action. Uniswap Labs, the main developer behind one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, said in a blog post that the reason for the SEC’s warning against it was not immediately clear, but that it could be pegged to the regulator’s campaign to apply U.S. securities law to the digital asset-related companies like Coinbase. The SEC declined to comment on the post.
- Pfizer subsidiary Wyeth agreed to pay $39 million to resolve claims from drug purchasers that it conspired with rival Teva to delay launching a less-expensive version of the antidepressant drug Effexor XR. The settlement would end more than 12 years of litigation accusing Wyeth of violating U.S. antitrust law in its dealings with Teva. The drug purchasers’ case against Teva will continue, according to the settlement papers.
- Texas and other states suing Google over its digital ads practices should be barred from questioning top executives including CEO Sundar Pichai and co-founder Sergey Brin, attorneys for the company told a U.S. judge. Google argued in a filing that Pichai and Brin, now a member of the tech giant’s board, have no unique and relevant personal information to share in the states’ lawsuit accusing Google of illegally monopolizing critical parts of the online advertising market.
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- Frost Brown Todd opened an office in Denver with nine partners from other law firms, including Moye White, Brownstein Hyatt, Lewis Roca. (Frost Brown Todd)
- Ropes & Gray added D.C.-based partner Amy Kossak to its government enforcement group. She most recently was senior trial counsel in the DOJ civil division’s fraud section. (Ropes)
- Morgan Lewis added partner R. Latane Montague in the firm’s DC office. Montague previously worked at Hogan Lovells, where he led the transportation practice. (Morgan Lewis)
- Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner hired litigation and investigations partner Erin Ehlert in Seattle. Ehlert most recently was at Corr Cronin. (BCLP)
- Ogletree Deakins brought on employment partner Corie Anderson in Minneapolis from Peters, Revnew, Kappenman & Anderson. (Ogletree Deakins)
- Jackson Lewis added litigation partner Lindsey White in Baltimore from Shawe Rosenthal. (Jackson Lewis)
- Paul Weiss hired Matthew Hearn as an M&A partner in London. He most recently was at Linklaters. (Paul Weiss)
- Seyfarth Shaw brought on labor and employment partner Alan Marcuis in Dallas. Marcuis previously served as co-head of the unfair competition and information task force at Hunton Andrews Kurth. (Seyfarth)
- Littler added employment litigation partner John Tripoli as shareholder in Milwaukee from Eimer Stahl. (Littler)
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