News & Publications

On May 21, 2024, the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (in a proceeding known as an en banc rehearing) issued a decision in LKQ Corp. v. GM Global Technology Operations LLC, No. 2021-2348 (Fed. Cir. 2024). The Federal Circuit overruled earlier cases that dictated the long-standing, rigid two-part test for determining the obviousness of designs in the context of design patents. Instead, it adopted a more flexible four-part test applicable to utility patents. One Circuit [...]

On 16 February 2024, the Supreme Court of Alabama published its opinion, "Supreme Court of Alabama, SC-2022-0515,"1 regarding whether embryos located outside the biological uterus are considered unborn children pursuant to Alabama's Wrongful Death of a Minor Act2 (the Act). The court held that the Act applies to all born and unborn children regardless of their location, which includes embryos created through in vitro fertilization (IVF). Therefore, under the Act, the court concluded a civil wrongful death [...]

On May 10, 2024, the Ninth Circuit decided Yuriria Diaz v. Macy's West Stores, after the employer appealed the district court's decision ordering arbitration of both an employee's individual and non-individual claims under the California Private Attorney Generals Act (PAGA). The Ninth Circuit held that even though the arbitration agreement made no mention of PAGA, an employee's individual PAGA claim was still subject to arbitration because the parties' intended to arbitrate all employment disputes between them. [...]