Ropes & Gray

For the world’s leaders in business and finance, Ropes & Gray’s global team of professionals has the industry savvy and legal experience to identify critical issues, solve problems and pave the way for clients’ success.

Privacy Year in Review: 2020’s Hottest Topics

By Fran Faircloth & Samantha Ong

January 21, 2021

As we stand at the beginning of 2021 and a new presidential administration, we look back on the year behind us. Hindsight is always 2020, and 2020 may be best viewed in hindsight. We saw rapid changes in the privacy space, prompted in part by the global COVID-19 response. Infrastructure and services across multiple sectors continue to rely on data and digital platforms to function. Five prominent developments shaped the data privacy environment in 2020.…

Patents Post-Grant

Activist Director Moves On – What’s Next for the PTAB?

By Scott McKeown

January 19, 2021

Agency Left to Defend Unsettled Legacy Upon taking the reins at the USPTO, Director Iancu made clear that he believed the Patent Trial & Appeal Board (PTAB) was cancelling too many patent claims in AIA trial proceedings. Of course the PTAB was simply implementing the statutory framework given to it by Congress – and the Federal Circuit was largely affirming the PTAB’s work. So, the only possible “fix” for the Director was to rebalance the rules/practice…

RopesDataPhiles

UK Group-Style Data Breach Actions Continue

By Clare Sellars

January 19, 2021

Organizations which fail to implement appropriate technical and organizational security measures to protect personal data and suffer personal data breaches as a result, increasingly may find themselves facing the double whammy of both enforcement action by the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), (which can include significant financial penalties) and potentially also group-style legal actions brought by data subjects. British Airways, which suffered a cyber incident that is believed to have started in June 2018 and…

Disputing Tax

Tax Controversy Coronavirus Thought Leadership

By Kat Gregor, Isabelle Farrar & COVID-19 Developments Team

January 14, 2021

In response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19), the tax controversy group has put together a chart detailing tax controversy-related developments as they arise. Please refer to the following list of tax and tax controversy-related alerts and original articles for additional insight and guidance: Tax Controversy Coronavirus Developments: Court, Federal and State-by-State Updates (Last Updated January 14, 2021) Phase 4 Stimulus Package—Highlight of Certain Key Tax-Related Provisions in the Phase 4 Stimulus Package Massachusetts Extends COVID Guidance Relating …

Disputing Tax

Tax Controversy Coronavirus Developments: Court, Federal and State-by-State Updates

By Isabelle Farrar, Eunice Um & Zachary Zamore

January 14, 2021

In response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19), the tax controversy group has put together a chart detailing tax controversy-related developments as they arise.…

RopesDataPhiles

Supreme Court Reviews Definition of Auto-Dialer Under TCPA To Clarify Circuit Split

By Kevin Angle, Fran Faircloth & Shong Yin

January 11, 2021

On December 8, 2020, the Supreme Court heard oral argument to consider the TCPA’s definition of an “automatic telephone dialer system” (ATDS) in Facebook, Inc. v. Duguid, Noah et al., Dkt. 19-511. The Supreme Court is tasked with interpreting the scope of liability under the TCPA, and its resolution may bring much needed clarity to companies struggling with the meaning of that definition, particularly in light of a current split among circuits on the question…

Patents Post-Grant

Prosecution Bars & The PTAB – An Evolving District Court View

By Scott McKeown

January 11, 2021

Litigators Amending Claims? Patent prosecution bars are prophylactic provisions typically included in district court protective orders when there is a risk that a recipient of confidential technical information may use (inadvertently or otherwise) that information while prosecuting patent applications in related technology. Prosecution bars eliminate this risk by preventing individuals who have access to technical information from directly or indirectly drafting, amending, advising, or otherwise affecting the scope of patent claims in a technical field…

Patents Post-Grant

Top 5 PTAB Developments of 2020 for District Court Litigators

By Scott McKeown

January 8, 2021

New PTAB Roadblocks & Strategies Earlier this week I laid out my Top 5 PTAB cases of 2020 for PTAB Practitioners, focusing on those cases that changed day-to-day practices before the agency. Like the practitioner list, my Top 5 PTAB developments of 2020 for District Court Litigators will focus on those practical PTAB developments that will impact parallel litigation practices outside of the agency. In 2020, there were a number developments of interest to…

Disputing Tax

Tax Challenges Arising from Digitalisation — Report on the Pillar One Blueprint

By Kat Gregor & Elizabeth Julia Smith

January 7, 2021

Tax partner and tax controversy group co-founder Kat Gregor and tax controversy group counsel Elizabeth Smith were participants in the International Bar Association (IBA) Working Group that submitted comments to the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration regarding the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on BEPS Public Consultation Document entitled Tax Challenges Arising from Digitalisation — Report on the Pillar One Blueprint. The OECD’s Pillar One and Pillar Two proposals seek to change the taxation of…

Patents Post-Grant

PTAB Applies Nautilus 112 Standard to AIA Trials…For Now

By Scott McKeown

January 7, 2021

Director Memo Decides Against Standard of In Re Packard Back in 2018 I noted the current PTO administration had backed away from a dispute on the appropriate 112 standard to apply in AIA trials (after intervention by the previous PTO administration). That is, the initial intervention sought to support the application of the standard enunciated by In re Packard to AIA trial proceedings. After Director Iancu came on board, that Intervenor Brief was withdrawn. Today,…

Ropes & Gray

Ropes & Gray Blogs

Blog Authors

Privacy Year in Review: 2020’s Hottest Topics

Activist Director Moves On – What’s Next for the PTAB?

UK Group-Style Data Breach Actions Continue

Tax Controversy Coronavirus Thought Leadership

Tax Controversy Coronavirus Developments: Court, Federal and State-by-State Updates

Supreme Court Reviews Definition of Auto-Dialer Under TCPA To Clarify Circuit Split

Prosecution Bars & The PTAB – An Evolving District Court View

Top 5 PTAB Developments of 2020 for District Court Litigators

Tax Challenges Arising from Digitalisation — Report on the Pillar One Blueprint

PTAB Applies Nautilus 112 Standard to AIA Trials…For Now

Stay Connected

Company

Products

Support

New to the Network

Ropes & Gray Blogs

Blog Authors

Latest from Ropes & Gray