The Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) recently announced the date for the 2012 Entrepreneur Expo, its second year for the event. The BWI Airport Marriott will again provide the location for this year's gathering of over 300 entrepreneur companies and individuals. The event will kick off on Tuesday, November 13, 2012.
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Terrell “T-Sizzle” Suggs roams the gridiron looking to make his presence known to opposing quarterbacks by delivering some of the most devastating sacks in the game of professional football. His lawyers, meanwhile, tackle a different kind of foe off the field: people they say are violating Suggs’ trademark and affecting his right of publicity.
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In an effort to reduce the number of multi-defendant patent infringement lawsuits often brought by non-practicing patent owners, the America Invents Act (AIA) includes a new statutory provision that addresses joinder of accused infringers in patent actions or trials not involving certain drugs and biologics. Under the new law (35 U.S.C 299), parties accused as defendants may be joined in one action in a single judicial district as defendants or counterclaim defendants only if:
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Patent litigation activity in Maryland increased in 2011 compared to the previous four years, as the chart at right shows. According to records available from Justia.com and PACER, plaintiffs filed 35 patent lawsuits in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland (Greenbelt and Baltimore divisions combined) last year, compared to just 22 lawsuits in 2010 and 31 in 2009 (59-percent and 13-percent differences, respectively).
Plaintiffs filed 38 copyright lawsuits in the Maryland federal court in 2011, compared to 27 lawsuits in 2010 (a 41-percent difference) and 27 lawsuits in 2009 (a 12-percent difference).
Bucking the upward trend, trademark plaintiffs brought 34 lawsuits in 2011 compared to 40 in 2010 (a 15-percent slide), but matched the number of lawsuits in 2009.
All combined, plaintiffs brought 107 copyright, patent, and trademark lawsuits in Maryland's federal district court in 2011, a 20-percent increase over 2010, reversing a 10-percent drop in filings from 2009 to 2010 (note, these figures and those shown in the charts do not include cases with multiple plaintiffs or cases having multiple nominal counterclaim plaintiffs).
Maryland's neighboring federal district courts saw significantly more IP litigation last year: Delaware, 499 combined cases (compared to 272 in 2010); Virginia, 204 cases (compared to 176 in 2010); Pennsylvania, 265 cases (compared to 255 in 2010).
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