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Mealey's Intellectual Property

  • March 28, 2025

    Federal Circuit: Costs Incurred In Hatch-Waxman Litigation Are Deductible

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a precedential opinion, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held that the U.S. Court of Federal Claims did not err when it held that a generic drugmaker could deduct costs it incurred while defending itself from patent claims under the Hatch-Waxman Act as ordinary business expenses, rejecting arguments made on appeal by the federal government.

  • March 28, 2025

    Federal Circuit: Patent Holder’s Claims Against U.S. Precluded By Earlier Suit

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed the decision of a judge in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims dismissing patent infringement claims against the federal government; the panel agreed that a pro se plaintiff-appellant failed to show infringement of patents involving the detection of chemical and other hazards.

  • March 27, 2025

    Federal Circuit: Meta Showed Obviousness Of Xerox Messaging Patent

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) rightly held that all challenged claims in a patent held by Xerox Corp. related to messaging are unpatentable as obvious, affirming the results of an inter partes review (IPR) proceeding brought by Meta Platforms Inc.

  • March 27, 2025

    Invalidity Of Imaging Device Patents Affirmed By Federal Circuit

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said it saw no error in a finding from the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that held all challenged claims in a series of patents related to medical imaging unpatentable, holding that the appellant patent holder failed to show that the board erred in construing relevant patent claims during inter partes review (IPR) proceedings before the board.

  • March 27, 2025

    2nd Circuit: Judge Missed Confusion Analysis In Lego Figure Injunction Order

    NEW YORK — A Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held March 26 that it cannot determine whether a Connecticut federal judge was right to rule that a toy company’s redesigned figurines still ran afoul of a preliminary injunction previously ordered in an intellectual property dispute with Lego A/S and affiliated Lego entities (collectively, Lego).

  • March 26, 2025

    Federal Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of Patent, False Ad Claims In Tape Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals largely affirmed an Ohio federal judge’s finding that a patent describing a floor-marking tape product was anticipated by a prior art reference and the judge’s decision to grant summary judgment in favor of defendant entities on false advertising claims.

  • March 26, 2025

    Plaintiffs Drop 1 YouTube AI Training Suit, Let State Law Claims Be Dismissed

    SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in California granted a voluntarily motion to dismiss California unfair competition law (UCL) and other state law claims from a pair of cases involving the use of YouTube videos in the training of artificial intelligence while the plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed a third case in the wake of a motion to dismiss their amended complaint.

  • March 25, 2025

    Supreme Court: No Certiorari In Dispute Over Amazon’s Patent Evaluation Process

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court rejected on March 24 a patent holder’s petition for a writ of certiorari, leaving in place a finding from the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that the initiation of an evaluation under the Amazon Patent Evaluation Express (APEX) system — which triggers the potential removal of an allegedly infringing product listing from Amazon.com if a seller fails to respond — constitutes a purposeful direction of activities at the seller’s forum state sufficient to confer specific personal jurisdiction.

  • March 25, 2025

    Copyright Plaintiffs: Microsoft Has Relevant Evidence In OpenAI Suit

    SAN FRANCISCO — A magistrate judge imposed the wrong standard in concluding that Microsoft Corp. has to produce records related to OpenAI entities’ alleged copyright infringement because Microsoft’s $13 billion investment in the entities and their close relationship with the tech giant means Microsoft almost certainly possesses evidence relevant to the case, plaintiffs told a federal judge in California in seeking relief from the ruling.

  • March 25, 2025

    Supreme Court Rejects Another Challenge To Federal Circuit’s Rule 36

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court won’t consider whether a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals practice of affirming findings from the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) in one-word affirmations violates a section of the Patent Act requiring the issuance of an opinion; the court on March 24 rejected a patent owner’s petition for a writ of certiorari.

  • March 24, 2025

    High Court Won’t Hear Patent Holder’s Challenge To Federal Circuit Rule 36

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 24 rejected a patent holder’s petition for a writ of certiorari, turning down the request to consider whether the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals was wrong for applying a local rule that allows it to affirm holdings from federal judges and agencies in single-word rulings; as such, the high court left untouched a federal judge’s finding that defendant banking organizations did not infringe on the company’s patents.

  • March 24, 2025

    Supreme Court Won’t Hear Estoppel Arguments In Earphone Patent Fight

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 24 rejected a petition for a writ of certiorari from the assignee of wireless earphone patents; the company had argued that the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals inappropriately adopted “a novel and expansive rule of collateral estoppel” when it held that two appeals it brought were moot because it failed to appeal a federal trial court order holding that the patent claims at issue were invalid in a separate case.

  • March 24, 2025

    Judge Allows Limp Bizkit Copyright Claims Against UMG To Survive

    LOS ANGELES — A federal judge in California allowed to stand copyright infringement claims from band Limp Bizkit and associated entities against Universal Music Group Inc. (UMG) in a royalty dispute, largely denying a motion to dismiss the band’s amended complaint.

  • March 21, 2025

    Home Depot Showed LED Device Patent Claim Invalid, Federal Circuit Says

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) was wrong to hold that Home Depot USA Inc. failed to show the invalidity of one of three challenged claims in inter partes review (IPR) proceedings over another company’s LED lighting device patent; the panel said substantial evidence did not support the board’s finding.

  • March 21, 2025

    Federal Circuit Agrees Company Failed To Show Invalidity Of Lighting Patent

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) was correct to find that a petitioner lighting company failed to establish obviousness as to a claim in a patent for a recessed lighting system, holding that the company’s arguments are based in part on an attempt to raise new unpatentability grounds on appeal.

  • March 20, 2025

    Federal Circuit: TTAB Rightly Canceled Pawn Shop Marks Due To Earlier Use

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on March 19 held that a financial group could not use the zone of natural expansion doctrine in support of its claims of priority of use of the mark “Money Mart” in connection with pawn shops and pawn brokerage, affirming a partial grant of another company’s petition for trademark cancelation.

  • March 20, 2025

    Federal Circuit: No Review Of ITC’s Sanction Denial In Dropped Patent Row

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said in a brief precedential opinion that it could not review a decision by the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) refusing to enter a show cause order sua sponte on sanctions in a lawsuit over the importing of allegedly infringing semiconductor parts that was eventually dropped by the plaintiff company.

  • March 19, 2025

    Copyright Act Contemplates Human Authors, Not AI, D.C. Circuit Affirms

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Copyright protections require a human author and the U.S. Copyright Office properly denied an application listing an artificial intelligence as the author, the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said March 18 in affirming a district court ruling.

  • March 19, 2025

    4th Circuit: Judge Wrong To Focus On Location In Retirement Home Trademark Row

    RICHMOND, Va. — A Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on March 18 vacated a Virginia federal judge’s finding that there was no risk of confusion between the trademarks associated with retirement communities based on opposite coasts of the United States; the panel said the judge was wrong to rely purely on the geographical distance between the respective companies when analyzing the risk of confusion.

  • March 19, 2025

    Magistrate Denies Motion To Compel Production Of Source Code In Patent Dispute

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A California federal magistrate judge denied in part a motion to compel discovery in a digital rights patent infringement suit, denying the motion to compel production of ground server source code and finding that the patent holder’s “one-sentence argument” “as to relevance does not satisfy its burden.”

  • March 19, 2025

    Federal Circuit Agrees Location Data Patent Obvious Due To Prior Art

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a finding from the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that an appellant company’s patent on location-based services for mobile devices was unpatentable as obvious; Apple Inc. sought inter partes review (IPR) of the company’s patent.

  • March 19, 2025

    PTAB’s Rejection Of Alternate Claims In Fracking Patent Row Affirmed

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed findings of the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that proposed alternate claims in two patents related to fracking were unpatentable as indefinite.

  • March 18, 2025

    Federal Circuit Agrees Location Data Patent Obvious Due To Prior Art

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a finding from the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that an appellant company’s patent on location-based services for mobile devices was unpatentable as obvious; Apple Inc. sought inter partes review (IPR) of the company’s patent.

  • March 18, 2025

    AI Search Engine Sufficiently Targets New York, Dow Jones Says

    NEW YORK — Artificial intelligence company Perplexity AI markets its highly interactive website nationwide and is registered to do business in New York and transacts business in the state, providing a sufficient anchor to the jurisdiction, Dow Jones & Co. Inc. and a related affiliate tell a federal judge in opposing dismissal or transfer.

  • March 17, 2025

    ISP To High Court: 5th Circuit Wrong To Find Liability In Piracy Fight

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — An internet service provider (ISP) tells the U.S. Supreme Court that the question of whether ISPs can be held to be vicariously liable for copyright infringement based on the behavior of internet customers is a “major question” that could have far-reaching impact on ISP companies; according to the ISP, the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals was wrong to find in favor of plaintiff-appellee music labels that it was liable for failure to prevent instances of infringement.