On October 26, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari, in part, to review Return Mail, Inc. v. United States Postal Service, et al. The question before the Supreme Court is whether the government is a ”˜person”™ who may petition to institute review proceedings under the 2011 America Invents Act (“AIA”).

On January 4, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari in Iancu v. Brunetti. On appeal from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“Federal Circuit”), the Supreme Court will answer the question of whether § 2(a) of the Lanham Trademark Act (“§ 2(a)”), which prohibits the federal registration of “immoral” or “scandalous” trademarks (“scandalous provsion”), is a violation of the First Amendment”™s free speech clause.

On October 26, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari to review Mission Product Holdings Inc. v. Tempnology, LLC. The question before the Supreme Court is whether, under 11 U.S.C. § 365 (“§ 365”) of the Bankruptcy Code, a debtor”™s rejection of a license agreement terminates the obligations of the agreement, including the loss of a trademark license.

On June 25, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court (“Supreme Court”) granted certiorari in Helsinn Healthcare S.A., v. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. The question before the Supreme Court is whether, under the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (“AIA”), an inventor”™s sale of an invention to a third party qualifies as prior art when the claimed invention was not publicly disclosed before one year of its application filing date.

On June 28, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court (“Supreme Court”) granted certiorari to Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.com. The question before the Supreme Court is whether, under 17 U.S.C. § 411(a) of the Copyright Act, a copyright owner can bring an infringement suit after delivering the proper deposit, application, and fee to the U.S. Copyright Office (“Copyright Office”), but before the Register of Copyrights has acted on the application for registration.