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03.15.21
Preserve Your Active Trademarks by Understanding and Avoiding New USPTO Fees
By Procopio Associate Lisa Teixeira Águeda The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is imposing new fees in an effort to ensure the trademark registrations on the federal register are in use with all of the goods/services listed. If an owner fails to delete or provide proof of use for all the goods/services listed, a fee will be imposed. Ensuring registrations cover only the goods/services in use allows the USPTO to grant new applications and increases the utility of the federal regi...
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03.02.21
Responding to a Data Breach? Preserve Your Privilege and Work Product
By Procopio Partner and General Counsel Carole J. Buckner In a recent opinion that provides important lessons for anyone dealing with a cyber incident, including law firms, the U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia in Wengui v. Clark Hill, PLC 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5395 (D. D.C. Cir. Jan. 12, 2021) addressed the application of the attorney client privilege and work product doctrine in the context of a data breach investigation involving a law firm. The plaintiff alleged th...
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02.26.21
Five Tips for Tribal Employers to Reduce Liability
By Procopio Associate Racheal M. White Hawk Employment law claims have been on the rise as employers grapple with changes in the workforce due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Tribes act as employers in various capacities, but this article focuses on tribal gaming enterprises as employers. The following are five employment law tips to help tribal gaming operators reduce their employment law liability. Although many federal and state employment laws may not apply to tribes or tribal entit...
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02.23.21
Case Study: China Licensing to Save Lives Worldwide
How an enterprising biotech company was able to advance trials of a promising cancer treatment by inking a critical licensing agreement in Greater China. THE CLIENT: Cend Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotech company focused on a novel approach to treating solid tumor cancers. Its investigational drug CEND-1 is a cyclic peptide that targets tumors and modifies the tumor microenvironment to enable better penetration of the tumor by anticancer drugs and immunotherapies. THE CHALLENGE...
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01.28.21
Obtaining a Patent at Lightning Speed, in as Little as Three Months
How to Fast Track Your Patent Application with a One-Two Punch Combination! By Procopio Partner Stephen C. Beuerle The average time it takes to obtain a patent at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) is about 25 months. However, for many startups, obtaining a patent quickly is imperative for attracting needed investment. Waiting for over two years to obtain a patent is not an option. The USPTO has a number of programs for accelerating the time it takes to ob...
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01.14.21
Ensure Your Trademarks and Brands are Adequately Protected in the UK
As we all know, on January 1, 2020, the United Kingdom (UK) left the European Union (EU) under Brexit. There hasn’t been an immediate impact on trademark protection as a result of this change. However, if you have a EU trademark and you fail to “clone” your EU mark in the UK, you will eventually lose that trademark’s UK protection. To preserve UK protection, you must file a comparable UK trade mark application by September, 30 2021, based on your existing or pending EU trade...
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01.11.21
Commercial and Residential Landlords Need to be Familiar with the California Relief Act
By Procopio Associate Pooja Pujara Property owners and tenants find themselves in a changed legal landscape in 2021, as we recently reported. One significant change to California law that went into effect immediately after passage last year under an emergency statute was the Tenant, Homeowner, and Small Landlord Relief and Stabilization Act of 2020 (AB 3088). Part of its purpose was to provide continued protection to tenants for inability to make rent payments, especially as most local or...
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01.11.21
What Tribes Need to Know About the Changed Legal Landscape in 2021
By Procopio Associate Gabriela Magee 2020 was a year like no other. Many parts of our everyday lives were put on hold, but Tribal governments displayed extraordinary resilience and quickly adapted to the changing environment. Procopio’s Native American Practice Group is proud of its role in serving tribal communities and ensuring that tribes have the tools they need to address the difficult challenges resulting from, and exacerbated by, the COVID-19 pandemic. The historical inequities f...
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01.07.21
2021 Rings In Impactful New California Real Estate Laws and Regulations
By Procopio Real Estate Associates Sara Neva and Pooja Pujara By any measure, 2020 was an unprecedented year. The California commercial and residential real estate landscape changed significantly with the spread of COVID-19 and the resulting economic impacts. Throughout last year our Real Estate team provided updates on the latest legal changes through laws and emergency measures in a series of articles that can be found online on the firm’s COVID-19 resources page. It’s important...
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12.17.20
What A New COVID-19 Legal Order Means for San Diego County’s Hospitality Industry
By Procopio Hospitality Industry Group Leader Brook Barnes A significant order impacting San Diego County businesses could mean a welcome respite for local restaurants and other hospitality businesses. The Honorable Joel R. Wohlfeil issued an order December 16, enjoining the County of San Diego, California Governor Gavin Newsom, and the California Department of Public Health (“government agencies”) from shuttering Midway Venture LLC, which does business as Pacers Showgirls and&n...
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