The Ninth Circuit Sends Bad Spaniels Home Again. Three years ago, we wrote about the Supreme Court's 2023 decision in Jack Daniel's Properties, Inc. v. VIP Products, LLC, the case pitting the world's best-selling whiskey against a squeaky dog toy called "Bad Spaniels."
If you tuned into Last Week Tonight on Sunday, you saw John Oliver launch a full-scale merchandise line for "Buc-Off," a parody brand sporting a seven-foot squirrel named Mr. Nutterbutter. The launch included a circular logo, yellow background, and red hat designed to poke at Texas travel-center giant Buc-ee's.
A drag queen inspired by a South American mountain range. An outdoor apparel giant that pledges 1% of sales to environmental causes. A shared passion for climate activism and now a federal lawsuit that has become one of the most-watched trademark disputes of 2026.
As we discussed previously, intellectual property (IP) is everywhere; brands, content, and all manmade physical and virtual objects may have protection in IP. Businesses that create and innovate do not want competitors to free-ride on their efforts, and IP provides the legal tools to enforce the exclusive rights owned by those creators and innovators.
Patent protection gives companies legal rights to their technology. But enforcing those rights can be expensive. The cost of patent enforcement is often one of the biggest challenges companies face when protecting intellectual property. A recent example illustrates why: Sony Interactive Entertainment recently filed European patent application EP4686497.
Renewal season for intellectual property insurance should not be reactive. Too often, IP insurance policies only receive attention when the expiration date is right in front of you. By then, there is little time to evaluate coverage limits, policy structure, or operational changes.
For many startups and other Small to Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), the most valuable part of the business is the idea behind it. The code, the special technology, the product design, the brand, or the formula is often the reason investors are interested, and the reason customers pay attention.
In today's digital economy, your company's most valuable assets often live online, which typically includes your data, brand, trade secrets, and intellectual property. While many businesses invest in a cyber insurance policy to protect against data breaches or ransomware, one major risk often goes overlooked, which is intellectual property infringement.
Software may be a company's most valuable asset. In custom platforms and proprietary code, software drives operations, revenue, and innovation across industries. Unfortunately, with this value comes risks. Software disputes are often assertions of infringement of intellectual property (IP) in copyright, patent or trademark, and a loss can wipe out your commercial advantage.
For many businesses, intellectual property (IP) is one of their most valuable assets. Shockingly, it's also one of the least protected when it comes to insurance. As a broker, you're in a unique position to start the conversation before your client learns the hard way through an unexpected lawsuit or infringement dispute.
