James P. Flynn, Managing Director of the Firm and Member in the Litigation and Employment, Labor & Workforce Management practices, in the firm’s Newark office, authored an article in ILN IP Insider, titled “Seconds & Leftovers After Thanksgiving: Cleaning Up & Emptying Out the IP Fridge.”

Following is an excerpt:

The American holiday of Thanksgiving is tradition-laden and is celebrated as much for the leftovers after that November Thursday as it is for the turkey on that day, at least according to the US Department of Agriculture.  Indeed, Americans “idolize Thanksgiving left overs,” and the “[t]he overstuffing of America’s fridges has become something of a tradition every November,” as Grist noted. Indeed:

“A lot of people talk about loving Thanksgiving leftovers even more than the dinner itself,” said Helen Zoe Veit, a professor who studies the history of food at Michigan State University. For some Americans, they’re the whole point: Nearly three-quarters say that a fridge teeming with surplus food is the best part of the holiday."

[Yoder, In defense of leftovers]

"Of all the possible ways to use Thanksgiving leftovers — Dagwood sandwiches, turkey enchiladas, turkey potpies — soup may well be both the most widespread and the most variable. It’s definitely among the coziest."

[Clarke, Leftover Thanksgiving Turkey Makes the Best, Coziest Soups]

And going “back to the table for seconds and thirds…and may be even fourths” is, like watching football, “a time honored and practically sacred Thanksgiving tradition in many families.”  But, despite such fondness for keeping the leftovers around so seconds can, a day or two later, maybe move past fourths, one needs the space, things get stale or spoil, and it is time to clean out that fridge or pantry because more holiday parties and a new year is right around the corner.

So, it is with intellectual property matters as well—there are matters, some previously addressed, where recent developments require us to use what we have before it gets too stale.  Or maybe we just want to return for seconds.

Either way, let’s jump in …

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