Now more than ever, technology is influencing the way we do business, communicate, move through and around the world, access and manage our homes, receive and administer healthcare, make purchases, secure information, and protect our most valuable property. Morrison Foerster keeps pace with this rapidly evolving landscape across our internationally recognized corporate, finance, intellectual property, and litigation practices. MoFo Tech brings together our insights relating to fields such as blockchain and distributed ledger, cloud and as-a-service technologies, driverless cars, drones, fintech, computer hardware and software, the Internet of Things, semiconductors, and telecommunications. The MoFo Tech blog offers real-time, in-depth analyses of the trends and complex issues shaping the global technology industry.<h2>ABOUT MORRISON FOERSTER</h2>Morrison Foerster is a leading global law firm that transforms complexity into advantage for its clients. Our clients include some of the largest financial institutions, banks, consulting and accounting firms, and Fortune 100, technology, and life sciences companies. Highlighting the firm’s commitment to client service, leadership in market-changing deals and impact litigation, and values-based culture, Morrison Foerster has been repeatedly recognized as one of the top 10 firms on The American Lawyer’s A-List. Year after year, the firm receives significant recognition from Chambers and The Legal 500 across their various guides, including Global, USA, Asia‑Pacific, Europe, UK, Latin America, and FinTech Legal. Our lawyers passionately care about delivering legal excellence while living our values. Morrison Foerster has a long-standing commitment to creating a culture that respects and celebrates differences, while providing an inclusive environment. The firm has achieved Mansfield Certification Plus since 2018 as a result of successfully reaching at least 30 percent women, communities of color, and LGBTQ+ lawyer representation in a notable number of current leadership roles and committees. The firm also has a long history of commitment to the community and society through providing pro bono legal services, including litigating for civil rights and civil liberties, improving public education and fostering the wellbeing of children, advocating for veterans, promoting international human rights, enforcing the right to asylum, and safeguarding the environment.

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Scott Llewellyn’s practice focuses on complex litigation in federal and state courts around the country, with an emphasis on patent and trade secret disputes. Over the past decade, he has worked on some of the most significant, high–profile IP cases involving technology for televisions, smartphones, and self–driving cars, relying on 40 years of experience with computer hardware and software. Scott also has significant experience with business divorce cases before courts and arbitrators, involving a mix of trade secret, patent, tort, and contract claims relating to technology development and implementation.Scott also has successfully tried general commercial arbitration and agency matters, briefed and argued various appeals in federal appellate court, and tried more than 20 cases for the Denver City Attorney’s office, most of them jury trials.Scott also has an active pro bono practice, having worked on a variety of criminal and immigration appeals, and having represented Colorado criminal defense and mental health organizations in high–profile suits against the state of Colorado for violations of the constitutional rights of defendants.At MoFo, Scott serves on the board of the Morrison & Foerster Foundation. In the broader legal community, he serves on the boards of the Colorado Lawyers Committee and Drop in the Bucket (a charity that builds wells and sanitation systems in sub–Saharan Africa).After law school, Scott clerked for the Honorable Clarence A. Brimmer, District of Wyoming, and the Honorable Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain, Ninth Circuit. He was also previously an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center.

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Scott Llewellyn’s practice involves complex litigation before state and federal courts around the country, with an emphasis on patent and trade secret disputes for high-tech companies, to which he brings more than 35 years of experience with computer hardware and software, in particular relating to the processing and transmission of audio, video, voice, and other types of data. Mr. Llewellyn has also tried commercial arbitration and agency matters; briefed and argued various appeals in federal appellate court; and tried more than 20 cases for the Denver city attorney’s office, most of them jury trials.

Scott F. Llewellyn

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MoFo Tech brings together legal insights and in-depth analyses on trends and complex issues shaping the global technology industry, covering fields such as blockchain and distributed ledger, cloud and SaaS technologies, driverless cars, drones, FinTech, computer hardware and software, the IoT, semiconductors, and telecommunications.

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Provides insights and reports on the most current class actions lawsuits and product liability issues that affect consumer-facing companies.

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News and thought leadership from lawyers who are adding value to the legal profession and the communities we call home.

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MoFo Tech brings together legal insights and in-depth analyses on trends and complex issues shaping the global technology industry, covering fields such as blockchain and distributed ledger, cloud and SaaS technologies, driverless cars, drones, FinTech, computer hardware and software, the IoT, semiconductors, and telecommunications.

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At the Intersection of Technology, Law, and Business

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AI Transparency in Healthcare: Navigating a Changing Regulatory Landscape

Recentive: Federal Circuit’s Patent-Eligibility Guideposts for Machine-Learning Inventions

Japan’s Approach to AI Regulation in 2025

Federal Circuit Clarifies Requirements for Prior Art Under Pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. § 102(e)

AI Agent as a Service in Medtech - Key Considerations for Commercial Contracts

New regulations from California’s Department of Motor Vehicles are the first in the nation to allow permits for the testing—and the post-testing deployment—of automatic vehicles (AVs) without a human driver present in the vehicle.California’s new regulations aren’t without significant requirements, however. Find out what qualifications must be fulfilled to permissibly test and deploy a vehicle that is not carrying a human driver in California. And learn the status of federal self-driving policy, which is developing at a slower rate than California’s but is nevertheless maintaining some momentum.

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Tessa J. Schwartz, partner, has extensive experience in complex intellectual property and technology law, copyright law, and patent litigation. Tessa is also the founder and co-chair of the firm’s Artificial Intelligence Group.

Tessa J. Schwartz, partner, has extensive experience in complex intellectual property and technology law, copyright law, and patent litigation.

Tessa Schwartz

Tessa Schwartz has an active practice counseling companies on intellectual property and technology transactions issues, and negotiating complex intellectual property and commercial agreements.

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California Opens the Road to Fully Driverless Cars; Federal Policymaking Slowly Rolls Forward

California Opens the Road to Fully Driverless Cars; Federal Policymaking Slowly Rolls Forward

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New regulations from California’s Department of Motor Vehicles are the first in the nation to allow permits for the testing—and the post-testing deployment—of a

Subject to certain exceptions, the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) makes it unlawful to enter into a transaction in any commodity with someone who meets the CEA’s definition of a “retail customer.” Nevertheless, many cryptocurrency platforms currently serve retail customers, relying on the CEA’s “actual delivery exemption.” But what does “actual delivery” really mean in the cryptocurrency context?The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued a proposed interpretation of “actual delivery” in the cryptocurrency retail commodity transaction context. Learn the contents of that proposed legislation, why it matters to the cryptocurrency industry and the questions that arguably remain unexplored. Read Morrison & Foerster’s blockchain and capital markets experts’ article in <a href="https://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2018/02/128766-understanding-cftcs-proposed-interpretation-actual-delivery-cryptocurrency-retail-commodity-transactions/">Crowdfund Insider</a>.

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Understanding the CFTC’s Proposed Interpretation of “Actual Delivery” for Cryptocurrency Retail Commodity Transactions

UK Regulations: Urgent Action Required from Loan-Based Crowdfunding Platforms

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Subject to certain exceptions, the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) makes it unlawful to enter into a transaction in any commodity with someone who meets the CEA’s 

Understanding the CFTC’s Proposed Interpretation of “Actual Delivery” for Cryptocurrency Retail Commodity Transactions

This year’s notable U.S. Supreme Court patent decisions include opinions that: make it more difficult to file patent cases outside a domestic defendant's state of incorporation; prevent defendants from asserting laches as a defense within the six-year statute of limitations period; hold that supplying a single component of a multi-component invention for manufacture abroad does not give rise to §271(f)(1) liability; hold that overseas sales exhaust all patent rights; and make it harder for patentees to retain control over downstream use and resale of patented products.Also notable is a Federal Circuit opinion that shifts the burden of proof in inter partes review proceedings from the patentee to the petitioner challenging the validity of a patent. The actual effect of that burden shift remains unclear, however.Read the full article in Bloomberg BNA, Patent, Trademark & Copyright Journal.

Smartphone Litigation

Whirlpool Corp. v. TST Water LLC

Good Technology Corp. v. AirWatch, LLC

Data Speed Technology LLC v. VMware, Inc.

Unified Messaging Solutions v. VMware, Inc.

Augme Technologies LLC v. Yahoo, Inc.

Discovery Communications, Inc. v. Amazon.com, Inc.

Medtronic Spine LLC v. Cozmed, LLC

Waugh v. Doyle, et al.

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Co-Chair, Litigation Department

Rich is the Global Co-Chair of Morrison Foerster’s Litigation Department. He previously co-led the firm’s IP Litigation Group and the cross–disciplinary Intellectual Property Group for over a decade. He brings his knowledge as a registered patent lawyer and a Federal Circuit clerk to lead complex technology matters for clients in state and federal trial and appellate courts.

Richard S.J. Hung

Rich is the Global Co-Chair of Morrison Foerster’s Litigation Department. He previously co-led the firm’s IP Litigation Group and the cross–disciplinary Intellectual Property Group for over a decade. He brings his knowledge as a registered patent lawyer and a Federal Circuit clerk to lead complex technology matters for clients in state and federal trial and appellate courts.

Richard Hung

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End of Year Wrap-Up: 2017's Hottest Patent Decisions

Supreme Court Restricts the Extraterritorial Reach of U.S. Patent Law for Exported Goods

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This year’s notable U.S. Supreme Court patent decisions include opinions that: make it more difficult to file patent cases outside a domestic defendant's state 

End of Year Wrap-Up: 2017's Hottest Patent Decisions

The Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Jay Clayton, urged market professionals who in any way participate in initial coin offerings (ICOs) to “act responsibly.”Having once stated that all the ICOs he’s seen have had “a sufficient number of hallmarks of a security,” Chairman Clayton’s warnings for ICO professionals were consistent with the SEC’s guidance to those professionals in 2017.Learn what the SEC said about ICOs in 2017.

KISS

U.S. Silica Holdings, Inc.

Ascendent Capital Partners

Astellas 

Qatalyst Partners/Multiple Transactions

Southwest Gas

Axalta

Winterhawks Sports Group

Vimian Group AB/Multiple Transactions

Fidelio Capital/Multiple Transactions

Odevo AB/Multiple Transactions

Verdane

Aegis Ventures

Evercore Partners/Multiple Transactions

Ducera Securities/Multiple Transactions

Exantas Capital Corp.

Vonage/Multiple Transactions

Whitestone REIT/Multiple Matters

DaVita/Multiple Transactions

Inovalon/Multiple Transactions

DST Systems/Multiple Transactions

Banc of California/Proxy Contest Defense

Rao’s Specialty Foods/Advent International

TMI Hospitality/Starwood Capital Group

Kajima/IDI

Terumo/CaridianBCT

AmREIT/Takeover Defense

American Pacific/Proxy Contest Defense

NTT Data/Multiple Transactions

GMAC LLC/Transformative Transactions

HLTH Corporation/Multiple Transactions

Jean Coutu Group/Eckerd and Brooks

New York Stock Exchange/Transformative Transactions

Merrill Lynch/Entergy-Koch Energy Trading Business

Novartis AG /Multiple Transactions

JLB Group/Sneakz

Catalyst Biosciences/Targacept

Mighty Leaf Tea/Peet’s Coffee

VIEW Entertainment/ESOP

Braintrust Investments/Multiple Transactions

Robert’s American Gourmet Foods/VMG Partners

Seal-It/Printpack

Quest Diagnostics/Focus Diagnostics

Soros Fund Management/Dune Capital Management/Purchase of DreamWorks Library

Regis Corporation/Reverse Morris Trust Acquisition of Sally Beauty

Apropos Technology/Proxy Contest Defense

Specialty Laboratories/AmeriPath

Centerpulse Ltd./Sale of Multiple Business Segments

IDT/Unsolicited Offer for ITXC

Strategic Software Holdings/Unsolicited Offer and Proxy Contest

Click Commerce/Unsolicited Offer by Insight Venture Management

Dycom Industries/Arguss Communications

Barrick Gold/Homestake Mining Company

Merlin BioMed Group/Multiple Transactions

Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson/Multiple Transactions

S.A. Industrias Votorantim/Lafarge S.A.

Dycom Industries/Shareholder Rights Plan

Profit Recovery Group/Shareholder Rights Plan

Syngenta AG/FLINT Fungicide Business

Welch Allyn Data Collection/PSC Inc.

Brach’s Confections/Tootsie Roll

Groupe Danone/McKesson Water Products

First Bell Bancorp/Shareholder Proposal

Consolidated Fruit (BVI) Ltd. /Chiquita Brands Investment

SMG-II/Multiple Transactions

Hochtief AG/Turner Corporation

Sulzer Medica Ltd./Guidant Corporation

Tiger Management/Provident Companies Stock Purchase

Ispat International N.V./Inland Steel

The BOC Group plc/Ohmeda Healthcare

Global Co-Chair of M&A Practice

Spencer Klein

Do You Want to Launch an ICO? Please, Listen to the SEC