Jessica Bell, Kalus Kenny Intelex, Melbourne, Australia

From fresh market insights to proposed regulatory reform and a new AI tool, IP Australia is signalling an important period of change for intellectual property (IP) in Australia. IP Australia has recently released its Australian IP Report 2026, which provides valuable insight into current trends and developments in…

Malisheia Douglas

Companies outside traditional tech sectors may be sitting on IP goldmines without realizing it. Manufacturing, e-commerce, and consumer products businesses routinely use AI technologies from predictive maintenance to automated pricing. These technologies represent valuable intellectual property assets. While these companies may not self-identify as “tech companies” in the Silicon Valley sense, their AI…

Commodore, What Can You Learn From Drifters?  

By James P. Flynn, Epstein Becker Green 

Trademark lawyers eventually learn a hard truth: brands often do not die; instead, they drift. 

Sometimes they drift quietly into nostalgia. Sometimes they drift into the hands of the entrepreneurial and well-advised. Other times, they drift along unattended.  Of course, sometimes, they drift straight into court. 

Few issues in intellectual property law reveal the fault lines…

Introduction

The new United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Director John A. Squires was sworn in on September 22, 2025 and wasted no time that week in expanding patent eligibility for AI related inventions. In particular, the new Director presided over the September 26 Appeals Review Panel (ARP) decision in Ex parte Desjardins, Appeal 2024-000567.…

Creative Expression, Feuds, & Cross Words Across Borders 

By James P. Flynn, Epstein Becker Green 

The legal intersection of music, poetry, and defamation presents a fascinating landscape where creativity collides with reputational interests. The recent decision in Graham v. UMG Recordings, Inc.—filed by Canadian rapper Aubrey “Drake” Graham over the diss track Not Like…

For many lawyers practicing outside the United States, intellectual property protection and risk are most often associated with patents, trademarks and copyrights. Trade secrets are frequently treated as the forgotten stepchild—associated with employment law and contracts rather than as an independent body of law. But since the passage of the Federal Defend Trade Secrets Act…

After more than a hundred years of settled U.S. trademark policy, an interesting problem has developed for the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). How to square the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decisions striking down parts of the federal Lanham Act with the USPTO’s historical rejection of immoral, scandalous, or disparaging trademarks?  Whether by…