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Jordan Sigale, Dunlap Codding Director and Co-Practice Group Leader, Quoted in Law360
Posted Oct 15, 2015 at 10:22 am See More

On September 14, 2015, Erin Coe, quoted Jordan Sigale in an article entitled “6 Tips For Using An Expert Witness to Win An IP Trial.”  Coe wrote, “[P] icking the right expert witness who resonates with jurors can be a critical factor for bringing home a win.” 

Sigale said, “I look for expert witnesses who take a position and whatever they believe, they hold it to their core, which either works for my case and I hire them, or it doesn’t, and I either figure out a way to use that opinion or I don’t hire them,” he said. “If I only go with an expert that adopts the opinion I want to hear, opposing counsel is going to shake the crud out of the expert.”

Douglas J. Sorocco, Dunlap Codding Shareholder and Practice Group Leader, Quoted in Corporate Counsel Article
Posted Oct 15, 2015 at 10:06 am See More

On October 13, 2015, Lisa Shuchman wrote an article for Corporate Counsel covering a 22-page legal opinion issued in September by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) regarding the use of F**K.  The TTAB denied the appeal of a ruling denying trademark registration to an Italian apparel company for one of its marks: “F**K Project.

Doug Sorocco was quoted as saying, “Five to ten years ago, this would have been a slam dunk case,” says Douglas Sorocco, a partner at the Intellectual Property law firm Dunlap Codding. “The panel would have ruled unanimously that this mark was scandalous or immoral and could not be registered.”

Read more: http://www.corpcounsel.com/id=1202739728336/Trademark-Appeals-Board-Opinion-Has-People-Asking-What-the-FK#ixzz3oeYqhAhG

Emily E. Campbell, Dunlap Codding Shareholder and Practice Group Leader Quoted in LifeZette
Posted Oct 15, 2015 at 9:55 am See More

LifeZette, recently quoted Emily Campbell in an article by Christian Toto on “The Politicization of Music.”

Toto wrote, “In recent years, as pop music became entrenched in our lives, candidates began choosing Billboard hits to boost their electoral chances. Emily Campbell, an attorney with Dunlap Codding, said in most situations the candidates in question backed down if they were challenged with legal action by the corresponding artists.

Politicians would stand on firmer ground if they didn’t play the songs in question repeatedly, and obtained the proper license in the first place, Campbell said. But campaign songs are like jingles, she said, and to work best they need to resonate and be remembered by potential voters. That demands repetition.”

Dunlap Codding Shareholder Emily E. Campbell Named an Oklahoma Rising Star 2015
Posted Oct 8, 2015 at 10:45 am See More

OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA—October 8, 2015— Dunlap Codding is pleased to announce that Emily E. Campbell has been named to the Oklahoma Rising Stars 2015 list for Intellectual Property as one of the top up-and-coming attorneys in Oklahoma. Campbell was previously listed as a Rising Star in 2010 and in 2013-2014.  Each year, no more than 2.5 percent of the lawyers in a state receive this honor. 

Campbell is a shareholder and practice group leader at Dunlap Codding, providing strategic counsel to clients on trademarks, copyrights, Internet law, and licensing.  She was recently named to the University of Oklahoma’s College of Engineering Industrial & Systems Engineering Advisory Board and the Oklahoma City Geological Society Board of Directors.  She received her J.D. from the Oklahoma City University School of Law and received her B.S. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Oklahoma.  Campbell is registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Dunlap Codding, with offices in Austin, Chicago, Oklahoma City, and Washington, D.C., serves sophisticated international, national, and regional clients.  Established in 1957 as Oklahoma’s original intellectual property firm, Dunlap Codding remains the region’s largest and most versatile IP boutique providing counsel in the areas of patent, trademark, copyright, and entertainment law as well as related litigation and licensing services.

Dunlap Codding is a member of Primerus, an International Society of Law Firms.

Dunlap Codding Sponsors the 2015 Women in Law Conference
Posted Sep 23, 2015 at 11:28 am See More

The Oklahoma Bar Association’s Women in Law Committee held its annual Women in Law Conference on September 18, 2015, in Oklahoma City. Dunlap Codding was a proud sponsor of the event. The conference topic this year was Fearless Leadership and featured keynote speaker, Carey Lohrenz, the first female Tomcat F-14 Fighter pilot. The conference also included discussions by panels of leading female attorneys from the community, the Oklahoma Bar Association, the Oklahoma legislature, and the Oklahoma judiciary. 

Jordan Sigale Quoted in Bloomberg BNA Article re Apple v. Samsung
Posted Sep 23, 2015 at 9:16 am See More

Bloomberg BNA reported on September 18, 2015, that “Samsung must remove or replace Apple-patented features from its smartphones and tablets, according to a Sept. 17 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Apple Inc. v. Samsung Elecs. Co., Fed. Cir., 2014-1802, 9/17/15).”  The court was divided in this ruling, offering three separate opinions.  The majority, however, held that Apple had shown a connection between the patented feature and downstream sales, noting that the patent features were important to consumers.  In a concurring view, Judge Jimmie V. Reyna “said that a patentee’s reputational harm will “certainly” occur “when customers find the patentee’s innovations appearing in a competitor’s products.””

Jordan Sigale said, “The real crux of the majority’s opinion is its holding that to prove irreparable harm the patentee need not prove in a multi-featured product that the infringing feature was the sole feature driving consumer demand for the product.”

Disputes between Apple and Samsung include two cases tried in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on different sets of patents, according to Bloomberg.  “The U.S. Supreme Courot in eBay, Inc. v. MercExchange LLC, 547 U.S. 388, 78 U.S.P.Q. 2d 1577 (2006) (72 PTCJ 50, 5/19/06), chastised the appeals court for defaulting to an injunction for patent infringement, absent a “sound” reason for denying it.”   In the case at hand, “[u]nderlying the three opinions is a dispute in the Federal Circuit about injunctions generally.” 

Sigale put the differing views in perspective, as to how eBay addresses the circumstances of cases like this specifically.  “As much as the Supreme Court made clear in eBay that injunctive relief should not automatically follow every finding of patent infringement, the Federal Circuit made clear today in Apple IV that not every infringing feature in a multi-feature product should receive an automatic pass on irreparable harm either.”

Bloomberg noted that the Federal Circuit, should it decide to take the case en banc, “may have more to resolve than what to do with injunctions on multi-featured products specifically.  The court’s decision vacates the denial of a permanent injunction and remands for further proceedings.”

Dunlap Codding Director Jordan A. Sigale Quoted in Law360 on Michael Jordan Verdict
Posted Aug 27, 2015 at 11:42 am See More

Jordan Sigale was quoted in a Law360 article by Zachary Zagger on August 24, “Jordan Verdict A Warning For Advertisers On Image Use.”  The article commented on the verdict in Jordan et al. v. Dominick’s Finer Foods, LLC, in which lawsuit Jordan was awarded $8.9 million in damages by a jury “in a trial over a full-page advertisement in Sports Illustrated taken out in 2009 by former Chicago-area grocery chain Dominick’s Finer Foods LLC, now owned by Safeway Inc., without the superstar athlete’s approval.”  The ad offered a coupon for $2 off a steak and depicted and congratulated Jordan, saying “you’re a cut above the rest.”  Jordan’s likeness was used without his approval and he testified in trial that he does not take less than $10 million for advertising deals using his image or likeness, and that he would not have approved this use at any price because it was not in keeping with his strategy.

Sigale was quoted as saying the case forced the jury to decide what the true fair market value of the ad was in 2009 and that it says a lot about how a “jury of our peers” views the way in which we compensate people for their right of publicity.  He went on to observe, “While this jury was clearly comfortable with the notion that some people’s right of publicity can be extremely valuable, it wasn’t willing to completely side with Mr. Jordan.”  Dominick’s had argued that the fair market value was closer to $100,000.  Sigale noted that the jury didn’t award Jordan the full $10 million, but also didn’t go as low as Dominick’s sought.  

Dunlap Codding Shareholders Selected For Inclusion In The Best Lawyers In America® 2016
Posted Aug 17, 2015 at 22:17 pm See More

OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA —August 17, 2015—Dunlap Codding is pleased to announce that Marc A. Brockhaus, Nicholas D. Rouse and Douglas J. Sorocco have been selected by attorney peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® 2016, the oldest and most respected peer–review publication in the legal profession.  Firm managing shareholder Nick Rouse said, “We’re delighted to be included in the publication.  We have always worked to provide excellent service and value to our clients and to uphold the reputation of our industry.”  

Marc Brockhaus was listed in The Best Lawyers in America® 2016 for Patent Law.  Marc leads Dunlap Codding’s Electrical Engineering & Systems group.  His practice includes all areas of intellectual property, including technology, computer and patent law, and extends to counseling, transactions, litigation, and prosecution before the United States Patent and Trademark Office.  He is ranked in the top band of Oklahoma’s top intellectual property practitioners by the highly regarded Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business. Marc has been an adjunct faculty member at the University Of Oklahoma College Of Law and received his J.D. and his Masters of Business Administration from the University of Oklahoma in 1997, where he was inducted into Beta Gamma Sigma.  He received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Oklahoma in 1993. 

Nick Rouse, listed in The Best Lawyers in America® 2016 in the fields of Patent Law and Trademark Law, has served as Dunlap Codding’s managing shareholder since 2007 while continuing an active practice.  In its inaugural coverage of intellectual property law in Oklahoma, the highly regarded Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business ranked Nick in the top band of leading practitioners, and he continues to be ranked in the top band. Nick provides a broad range of patent counseling to clients ranging from individual inventors to large multinational manufacturing companies. His practice includes patent preparation and prosecution, patent portfolio management, validity and infringement opinions, evaluations of new designs, and licensing strategy.  Nick graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 1987 with a B.S. in Petroleum Engineering, and received his J.D. from the University of Oklahoma College of Law in 1990. He is a member of the Intellectual Property Law Section of the Oklahoma Bar Association, and served as its president in 2006.

Doug Sorocco is listed in The Best Lawyers in America® 2016 in the field of Technology Law.  He practices in the areas of intellectual property, technology, licensing, life sciences and patent law and is involved in counseling and transactional work involving all aspects of intellectual property. He is registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Doug regularly counsels clients in all aspects of intellectual property including acquisition and commercialization of intellectual property, portfolio management, licensing and transactional matters. He is ranked in the top band of Oklahoma’s top intellectual property practitioners by the highly regarded Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business. Doug was also selected by attorney peers for inclusion in Oklahoma Super Lawyers–Rising Stars Edition (2010).  He is an adjunct faculty member at the Oklahoma City University School of Law and in the Physiology Department at the University of Oklahoma’s Health Sciences Center. 

Since its inception in 1983, Best Lawyers has become universally regarded as the definitive guide to legal excellence. Because Best Lawyers is based on an exhaustive peer–review survey on the legal abilities of other lawyers in their practice areas, and because lawyers are not required or allowed to pay a fee to be listed, inclusion in Best Lawyers is considered a singular honor. Corporate Counsel magazine has called Best Lawyers “the most respected referral list of attorneys in practice.” 

Dunlap Codding P.C., with offices in Austin, Chicago, Oklahoma City, Wilmington, and Washington, D.C., serves sophisticated international, national, and regional clients. Established in 1957 as Oklahoma’s original intellectual property firm, Dunlap Codding remains the state’s largest and most versatile IP boutique law firm.  

Dunlap Codding is a member of Primerus, an International Society of Law Firms.

Julie L. Langdon Selected As An Emerging Lawyer in Illinois
Posted Aug 13, 2015 at 10:38 am See More

Julie L. Langdon, a senior associate in Dunlap Codding’s Chicago office, has been selected as an Emerging Lawyer in Illinois by Leading Lawyers, a division of Law Bulletin Publishing Company, which recognizes the top two percent of lawyers who are under the age of 40 or who have been practicing law for fewer than ten years.  Julie’s practice encompasses a number of areas of intellectual property law, including litigation, licensing, counseling, and asset protection of copyrights, trademarks, patents, and trade secrets. Her primary practice is patent litigation with a concentration in the areas of biotechnology and life sciences, chemical, and pharmaceutical arts. Julie represents plaintiffs and defendants in patent-related litigations involving infringement and other disputes arising over patent rights.

Emily Campbell Quoted in Bloomberg BNA’s Patent, Trademark & Copyright Journal on Trademarks and Likelihood of Confusion
Posted Aug 11, 2015 at 13:54 pm See More

On August 7, Bloomberg BNA covered DC Comics v. Gotham City Networking, Inc., T.T.A.B., No. 91194716, 7/17/15.  The case involves a trademark application filed by Gotham City Networking Inc. for “Gotham Batmen” with a stylized bat-like logo to be used in networking referral services and “entertainment in the nature of amateur softball games.”  According to Bloomberg, “DC Comics, which owns the rights to Batman and numerous trademarks related to the superhero, opposed the registration on dilution and likelihood of confusion grounds.”  The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ruled on July 17, that the use of the name “Gotham Batmen” was likely to cause confusion with a number of different marks owned by DC Comics.

Administrative Judge Jyll Taylor provided a dissenting opinion, noting that DC Comics had failed to establish that “Batman” was a famous mark, having not proven the connection between DC and Warner Bros. Studies.  According to BloombergBNA, “[t]he majority had found “Batman” to be famous, largely because of the films.

Gotham City argued that its trademark constituted a parody.  Dunlap Codding Shareholder Emily Campbell was quoted as saying that “for a parody defense to succeed in trademark law, the parodist has to walk a “fine line” between resembling the parodied mark and making a point…. [A] poster of a pregnant woman wearing a Girl Scout uniform with the Scouts’ slogan “Be Prepared” written underneath qualified as an example of an outrageous joke that worked as a trademark parody.”  She explained that the “Batman” –  “bat men” softball joke was not nearly as obvious and therefore did not bode well for Gotham City’s chances that its mark was a parody and would not cause confusion.

Campbell also said that Judge Taylor’s concerns were valid, and the majority’s famous mark analysis could be an issue on appeal.  “The dissent is interesting because there does seem to be a hole in the evidence.  The majority filled in the blanks to come to the conclusion that we all recognize the Batman name, but I think to adhere to the law [the board needed to make a fuller analysis.]”

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