Training Your Inner Spock: Logic and Legal Advocacy Resources from the Washington State Law Library

July 11, 2025 |  By: Thomas Dunlap    Many individuals and businesses are turning to Chat GDT or other generative AI tools to support and provide patent applications. But the ease of use does not imply that the outcome will be of high quality. A free patent application generated by AI technology might become your most costly blunder ever.   2024 (DIY) patent applications achieved rejection or abandonment rates exceeding 60%, which resulted in significant financial losses for inventors and startups regarding their protection and market positions.   The complexity of patents exists because they require precise definition while also being easily misinterpreted. A U.S. patent application is a legal document to define your invention while protecting it and ensuring its defense. A U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) evaluation, together with competitor challenges and investor and licensee opposition, stands as the minimum requirement for patent approval.…

It’s not every day you watch a company faceplant so theatrically in public, but Cloud Innovation’s latest stunt deserves a slow clap. Cloud Innovation, which you’d probably never heard of unless you’re neck-deep in African IP registry battles (stay tuned), just managed to make a legal play whose end result should be calling a lot more attention on its own legal actions and threats. The move? They sent a cease and desist letter to Joe Hall—demanding Hall delete a tweet. Not a tweet where he said anything defamatory. Not a tweet where he made false claims. Indeed, not a tweet where he said anything at all. Just… a tweet with a link. Literally, a URL to a Medium article discussing the AfriNIC saga, in which Cloud Innovation is a central player. That’s the entire complaint: someone shared a link. The letter, signed illegibly by someone calling themselves “Legal Counsel,” gives Hall 24 hours to…

When medical care goes wrong, the consequences can be life-altering. Patients place a deep level […] The post Medical Malpractice: Step-by-Step Legal Response Guide first appeared on OA Law.

By Carla Rydholm | Lex Machina General Manager and Head of Product The 2025 Lex Machina® Patent Litigation Report reveals a striking 22% increase in U.S. patent case filings and a record-breaking $4.3 billion in damages awarded in 2024. Drawing from the industry’s most comprehensive Legal Analytics(R) platform, the report offers critical insights into patent litigation trends, including shifts in venue, rising specialty patent disputes, and strategic implications for legal teams and IP stakeholders. The high-stakes landscape of U.S. patent litigation saw trends of record-breaking damages awards and a reshuffling of preferred venues, according to the Lex Machina 2025 Patent Litigation Report . Over the past four years, annual patent damages have consistently exceeded $1 billion, with both the number of awards and their monetary value growing year over year. In 2024, patent damages set a new benchmark, with record-breaking total damages alongside the highest number of…

The 2025 Oregon legislative session adjourned on June 27, 2025. Six bills passed with respect to cannabis. Of these, I covered SB 162 and SB 558 last month in Oregon Cannabis Roundup: June 2025, so please head over to that post if you’d like a full recap. Today I’ll give an extremely brief summary of each of those keys bills, and better explain the other four. SB 162 This one contains myriad law enforcement provisions, as detailed in last month’s post. It also allows OLCC to extend marijuana license terms from one year to five, which would be great. Finally, it has a “grandfather” provision for retailers that were legislated out of viability by the 1,000 foot radius rule. SB 347 This is another bill related to law enforcement. It doesn’t appear that Governor Kotek signed (or vetoed) it, but both the Senate President and House Speaker signed, so it’s law at this point. SB 347 disqualifies land from farm use special assessments (tax…

Justice for Family? Daniel Chavez Work Accident. We have over 25 years of experience representing victims of work accidents and safety failures across the United States, and we have recovered nearly $250 million dollars for our Clients.  Read Our Legal Take below to find out what legal options are available to the family of Daniel Chavez. Daniel Chavez Dies in Canton, OH Industrial Work Accident. (Stock Photo: MurrayLegal.com) Canton, OH News – A young man tragically lost his life after a work related incident Monday night, July 7, 2025. CantonRep.com is reporting, “[t]he Perry Township Fire Department was called to the factory at 4575 Southway St. SW at 8:34 p.m.” JordanMiller.news is reporting, “Daniel Chavez died of blunt force trauma after being struck by an object at the industrial facility.” According to the report, “[e]mergency personnel transported Chavez to Cleveland Clinic Mercy Hospital, where he arrived at 9 p.m. He was…

Potential Legal Claims? Shaunquan Walker Shooting Columbus.  We have over 25 years of experience representing victims of security failures across the United States, and we have recovered nearly $250 million dollars for our Clients.  Read Our Legal Take below to find out what legal options are available to the family of Shaunquan Walker. Shaunquan Walker Killed in Columbus, OH Gas Station Shooting. (ABC6onyourside.com) Columbus, OH – Gunfire rang out at a gas station early Saturday morning, July 5, 2025, leaving one young man dead. As reported by ABC6onyourside.com, “[t]he shooting happened Saturday at approximately 1:31 a.m. at [a gas station] on West Broad Street.” According to the report, “[p]olice arrested [a suspect] and charged him with the murder of 32-year-old Shaunquan Walker.” CWColumbus.com is reporting, “surveillance video shows an interaction between Walker and [the suspect]. In the video, [the suspect] shot…

Justice for Family? Ayden Hadding Work Accident. We have over 25 years of experience representing victims of work accidents and safety failures across the United States, and we have recovered nearly $250 million dollars for our Clients.  Read Our Legal Take below to find out what legal options are available to the family of Ayden Hadding. Ayden Hadding Dies in Minster, OH Industrial Work Accident. (Stock Photo: MurrayLegal.com) Minster, OH News – A young man tragically lost his life after a work related incident Monday morning, July 7, 2025. WDTN.com is reporting, “[a] young man [tragically lost his life] in an occupational accident at a steel fabricator shop on Monday morning in Auglaize County. Auglaize County Sheriff…said Ayden Hadding was crushed by a large I-beam… at approximately 7 a.m. on Monday, July 7.” MercerCountyOutlook.net is reporting, “[t]he Auglaize County Sheriff’s Office said Hadding was crushed by a large…

For the Balkinization Symposium on Richard Primus, The Oldest Constitutional Question: Enumeration and Federal Power (Harvard University Press, 2025). Jonathan Gienapp  When we interpret the U.S. Constitution, we often rely on deep-seated intuitions. We take certain things for granted and see things through a particular lens. Among the valuable things an interpretive tradition offers is it furnishes us with these kinds of shared points of entry and pedagogical groundings allowing a common conversation to flourish and endure while permitting new interpreters to join the community. Over time, however, those shared assumptions can calcify into rigid axioms, and interpreters can slowly lose their capacity to critically evaluate their intuitions as intuitions. Rules of thumb are crucial. But if essentialized, they can cloud one’s vision, making it hard to see alternatives that might merit attention. Among the many achievements of Richard…

New open access books:Civic Refugee Support: The Shifting Landscape of Pro-Refugee Communities in Germany After 2015 (transcript Verlag, July 2025) [open access]- "What became of the upsurge in civic action that saw millions of volunteers rally in support of migrants during the 2015/16 refugee reception crisis in Germany? Clara van den Berg examines the aftermath of that unprecedented mobilization, exploring how pro-refugee communities evolved in Germany. Drawing on interviews, observations, and document analysis, she finds that some pro-refugee communities managed to survive. The study provides fresh insights into how mobilization periods impact the local structure of civil society and its networks, and offers a new perspective on the role of solidarity with refugees and migrants today."Undoing Nothing: Waiting for Asylum, Struggling for Relevance (Univ. of California Press, June 2025) [open access]- "Based on four years of ethnographic…

Editor’s Note: The European Commission’s new General-Purpose AI Code of Practice arrives at a pivotal moment for professionals navigating compliance, security, and legal oversight in AI-rich environments. As general-purpose models underpin an increasing number of enterprise tools—from cybersecurity threat analysis to automated document review—this voluntary code provides actionable standards for transparency, copyright compliance, and systemic risk management. For cybersecurity experts, it offers clearer AI supply chain visibility. For information governance leaders, it outlines data origin practices that withstand audit scrutiny. And for eDiscovery teams, it brings clarity on lawful training data use. This document is more than policy—it’s a practical lens for AI accountability. Industry News – Artificial Intelligence Beat European Commission Unveils General-Purpose AI Code of Practice Ahead of AI Act Enforcement ComplexDiscovery…

I wrote recently about the chilling jurisprudence of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who has drawn the ire of colleagues in opinions for her rhetoric and extreme positions. Many have expressed alarm over her adherence to what has been described by a colleague as an “imperial judiciary” model of jurisprudence. Now, it appears that Jackson’s increasingly controversial opinions are serving a certain cathartic purpose for the far-left Biden appointee. On ABC News, Jackson stated, “I just feel that I have a wonderful opportunity to tell people in my opinions how I feel about the issues, and that’s what I try to do.” Her colleagues have not entirely welcomed that sense of license. The histrionic and hyperbolic rhetoric has increased in Jackson’s opinions, which at times portray her colleagues as abandoning not just the Constitution but democracy itself. Her dissent in the recent ruling on universal injunctions drew the rebuke of Justice Amy…

By Andrew Dearman The exquisite ancient bronze statue of a draped figure, housed at the Cleveland Museum of Art since its acquisition in 1986, has long been a centerpiece of the museum’s collection. Following an extensive legal and scientific investigation into its provenance and rightful ownership, the statue was scheduled to be repatriated to the Republic of Türkiye on July 8, 2025.[1] A Case Overview The Turkish government has asserted that it first approached the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) in 2008 to inquire about the provenance of the bronze statue, but received a delayed response and no supporting documentation.[2] In 2012, Türkiye escalated their campaign to reclaim their cultural heritage, publicly announcing their intention to reclaim dozens of artifacts from notable US institutions, including the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.[3] This list included twenty-one contested objects from the CMA’s collection, most notably…

The following is a guest post by Foreign Law Specialist Sayuri Umeda, and the following foreign law interns who work with Sayuri: Raksmei Dara, Inseol Hong, Nguyet Le, and Panicha (Yuri) Rattanaboonsen. As lawyers from Japan, Cambodia, South Korea, Vietnam, and Thailand, we were curious about the different rules and regulations for voting in public elections for each of the countries we represent, and decided to compare the voting methods of these countries. To our surprise, we found that each country had a different voting method. The following three questions were asked: What is the voting age; What is the right of convicted criminals to vote, and What is the method of voting (national elections only, excluding proportional representation elections if that is not the only electoral system)? Question 1 – What is the voting age in the countries above? All countries have a voting age of 18. Voters must be 18 years of age or older on election day. Question 2 – Do…

Dentons Dublin has acted as Irish counsel on the following two transactions for eir, the largest provider of fixed line telecommunications services in Ireland. Banking and Finance, Debt Capital Markets, Telecommunications, Dublin

Facing criminal charges in New Jersey can be an overwhelming experience. The criminal trial process involves several key steps, each crucial for ensuring a fair trial. Understanding these steps can help you prepare and alleviate some of the uncertainty that comes with navigating the legal system. Here’s an overview of what typically happens during a criminal trial in New Jersey. 1. Pre-Trial Motions and Plea Negotiations Before a trial officially begins, there are pre-trial motions and sometimes plea negotiations. Pre-trial motions are requests made by your attorney (or the prosecution) to the judge regarding issues that may affect the trial. These motions can include requests to suppress evidence, dismiss charges, or address other legal issues that might come up during the trial. During this time, plea negotiations can also take place. A criminal defense attorney Jersey City can help determine if a plea deal is in your best interest, potentially reducing the severity of…

Is this the year for associate raises?

Australia’s surrogacy laws remain inconsistent and outdated, varying widely between states and lacking a unified, national approach. In response to the Australian Law Reform Commission’s review, renowned family and fertility lawyer Stephen Page has submitted a detailed and passionate proposal for reform. Drawing from decades of experience, Stephen advocates for a surrogacy framework that is ethical, inclusive, and centred on the rights and well-being of all parties—particularly the children born through surrogacy. His submission highlights the urgent need for legal clarity, support for intended parents and surrogates, and a system that reflects modern Australian families. Download the full submission to read Stephen Page’s expert recommendations and learn why national surrogacy reform is not only necessary—but long overdue. DOWNLOAD THE PAPER The post A Call for National Reform: Stephen Page’s Submission on Surrogacy to the ALRC appeared…