Weintraub Tobin Intellectual Property attorneys understand that protecting intellectual property is vital to achieving and increasing commercial success for individuals and businesses in the global marketplace. Our Intellectual Property team provides the highest quality legal services using practical and effective approaches that consistently achieve outstanding results for our clients in cutting-edge transactions and complex intellectual property disputes.
Weintraub Tobin is a full-service IP firm representing clients in both transactional and litigation matters. We provide strategic advice and counseling to companies at all stages of growth to help them develop or acquire all forms of intellectual property, and to protect, manage, license, enforce, and defend that intellectual property.
Our attorneys have broad industry experience and specialized academic backgrounds, including advanced technical and scientific degrees. We understand our clients’ technology as well as their business objectives.
We have substantial experience in a wide array of fields, including:
Weintraub attorney Justin M. Borrowdale presented a virtual workshop with StartupSac focusing on intellectual property control and protection for tech startups. Summary: How do you protect the great ideas that launched your tech startup? There’s more to it than filing a patent or registering a trademark. In this workshop, attorneys…
Weintraub attorney Jessica Corpuz hosted a one-hour webinar about Intellectual Property Law and will specifically address The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021. A recording of this webinar can be viewed on the Weintraub Tobin YouTube page. Please note that this webinar is for educational purposes only and should not be construed…
Weintraub attorney Scott Hervey was a speaker for the IP Year in Review Webinar co-hosted by The SCBA Intellectual Property Law Section and the Intellectual Property Student Association of McGeorge School of Law.
Attorney Jo Dale Carothers speaks at the Women Leadership in San Diego Intellectual Property event on Thursday, October 24, organized by the San Diego Intellectual Property Law Association. Please join us as the panelists provide their thoughts and perspectives about the past, present, and future of careers within the San…
Summary of Program Join attorneys from Weintraub Tobin’s Intellectual Property Group (Jo Dale Carothers and Audrey Millemann) for this 1 hour MCLE program. Program Highlights Overview of Cloud Computing and Cloud StorageWho owns the information in the Cloud?How are Patents, Copyrights, Trademarks and Trade Secrets affected by the Cloud?How private…
Summary of Program Join a panel of Weintraub Tobin attorneys and Touchdown Ventures venture capitalists to discuss the preliminary work that must be done before looking for investment and the details of seed and A round financing.
Three Weintraub attorneys will speak to wineries and winemakers about legal challenges for facility development, land management and business operations at two half-day seminars on Wednesday, November 9th and Thursday, November 17th. The seminar for the Motherlode & Northern California Wineries and Vineyards will cover recent trends and topics relating…
On September 15, 2008, intellectual property and new media shareholder Scott Hervey will speak at the annual UC Davis Entrepreneurship Academy. Scott will provide an informative review of intellectual property rights from a legal prospective.
This article was first published in Bloomberg Law, reprinted by permission Anti-SLAPP motions help studios knock down idea theft claims Creatives’ protection ‘hanging by the thinnest of threads’ Hollywood giants accused of stealing ideas from writers often play a powerful free speech card to freeze lawsuits in a way attorneys…
Weintraub Tobin is pleased to announce that 41 of its attorneys have been recognized in the 2025 editions of The Best Lawyers in America® and Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in America. 32 Weintraub attorneys are included in the 2025 edition of The Best Lawyers in America, of which six…
Weintraub Tobin is pleased to announce that Jo Dale Carothers, Ph.D., has been selected to the 2024 San Diego Super Lawyers© list. Each year, no more than five percent of lawyers in the state are selected to receive this honor by the research team at Super Lawyers. This is the…
In a February 21st article for the Sourcing Journal, Meghan Hall writes that the Supreme Court rejected Brandy Melville’s request to review the 9th Circuit’s decision in its dispute with Redbubble, which overturned a previous ruling finding the print-to-order company guilty of contributory trademark infringement. When asked about this lawsuit,…
In a November 21st article for The Lever, Freddy Brewster writes about the growing concern over artificial intelligence’s use of copyrighted materials and how the U.S. plans to apply copyright laws to the A.I. industry. Many tech companies are concerned that their investments would be at risk if they were…
In an August 22, 2023, article for The Information, Weintraub shareholder and IP attorney Scott Hervey provided guidance on what can be copyrighted under existing U.S. Copyright Office rulings when it comes to AI-generated material. Only the human-created portion of work containing AI-generated material can be copyrighted. – Scott Hervey…
Weintraub Tobin is pleased to announce that 25 of its attorneys have been recognized in the 2024 edition of The Best Lawyers in America®, and eight attorneys have been named to the 2024 edition of the Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in America. Three attorneys have also named “Lawyer of…
Weintraub Tobin is pleased to announce that 31 of its attorneys have been selected to the 2023 Sacramento Magazine Top Lawyers list. Weintraub’s attorneys are recognized in various categories, including Business/Corporate law, Employment & Labor law, Estate Planning & Probate law, and Real Estate law. The complete roster of Weintraub…
Weintraub Tobin is pleased to announce that Jo Dale Carothers, Ph.D., has been selected to the 2023 San Diego Super Lawyers© list. Each year, no more than five percent of lawyers in the state are selected to receive this honor by the research team at Super Lawyers. This is her…
Weintraub Tobin is pleased to announce that Weintraub has been recognized as the Top Trademark Law Firm and attorney Scott Hervey has been named a Top Trademark author in the 2023 JD Supra Readers’ Choice Awards. The Readers’ Choice Awards recognize authors and firms across 31 cross-industry topics for their…
In a January 25th article for The Optionist, Andy Lewis spoke with Weintraub shareholder Scott Hervey about their video and podcast series “The Briefing by the IP Law Blog.” They addressed commonly asked IP questions and discussed cases currently making headlines. When asked whether former Lakers coach Jerry West’s threat…
On April 19, 2024, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO or Office) issued proposed modifications to the rules of practice for inter partes review (IPR) and postgrant review (PGR) proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB or Board). According to the USPTO, the proposals are to…
OpenAI, Inc. develops artificial intelligence software involving large language models (“LLM”) known as ChatGPT. In 2023, several authors, including the comedian Sarah Silverman, filed putative class action lawsuits alleging various copyright infringement claims. On February 12, 2024, a District Court in the Northern District of California issued its Order and…
The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals has struck down many patents on the grounds that they are invalid as directed to an abstract idea, relying on the Supreme Court’s Alice decision. In In re Elbaum (Fed. Cir. 12/20/2023) 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 33719, the Federal Circuit affirmed the Patent Trial…
On February 12, 2024, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) issued guidance on the patentability of inventions developed with the assistance of artificial intelligence, saying that a human must have made a “significant contribution” to the invention. The USPTO explained that while AI-assisted inventions are not categorically unpatentable,…
The holding in the Supreme Court case, Jack Daniels Properties v VIP Products, the case of the infringing Bad Spaniels dog toy, limits the applicability of the Rogers test. A recent case in the Ninth Circuit, Punchbowl Inc v. AJ Press, addressed the interplay between the decision in Jack Daniels…
Companies rely on intellectual property (“IP”) rights to protect their valuable information, creations, and branding. IP rights come in several forms: copyrights, trademarks, patents, and trade secrets. As the U.S. Copyright Office explains, copyrights protect “original works of authorship including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, such as poetry, novels,…
In 1991, the grunge band, Nirvana, was one of the most popular musical acts in the U.S. with its anthem Smells Like Teen Spirit, which was featured on its album, Nevermind. Many will remember the cover of Nevermind that featured a naked baby swimming underwater and reaching for a dollar…
Every year, I write about patents that have to do with Christmas. Here are a few I have found, some of which were issued in 2023 and others of which are older. Design patent D990,096 is a rather strange patent entitled “Elf Hand.” The design looks like a prickly glove…
On December 4, 2023, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit vacated a $2.18 billion damage award against defendant Intel Corporation because it found plaintiff VLSI Technology LLC had erred on its damages calculation, that one of the asserted patents was not infringed, and that Intel was wrongly barred…
The Delaware District Court’s Ruling on cross-motions for summary judgment in the case of Thomson Reuters v. Ross Intelligence Inc will provide guidance for similar AI training/copyright infringement cases and, as a bonus, it provides a bit of clarity (or muddies the waters… depending on your point of view) in…
Many of us have said, “Bacon makes everything better.” Can you imagine the accolades someone would receive if they contributed to an invention that improves bacon? Well, it turns out that not all contributions count when it comes to being an inventor of a patent for a better method of…
