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Mealey's Intellectual Property

  • January 21, 2025

    Magistrate Judge Rejects Meta’s ‘False Dichotomy,’ Faults Some AI Discovery

    SAN FRANCISCO — Meta Platforms Inc.’s “false dichotomy” about the possible answers regarding its use of copyrighted material in an artificial intelligence case is based on minor quibbles about the extent of the copying and does not “justify the hopelessly vague” answers it offered about what its search of the training data revealed, a federal magistrate judge in California said Jan. 17 in partially granting motions to compel.

  • January 21, 2025

    Supreme Court Rejects Jurisdictional Appeal In Counterfeit Doll Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court left in place an opinion by the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversing a New York federal judge’s finding that the court lacked personal jurisdiction in a case brought by dollmaker American Girl LLC against a Chinese company for allegedly selling counterfeited goods; the high court denied the Chinese company’s petition for a writ of certiorari on Jan. 21.

  • January 21, 2025

    Supreme Court Won’t Consider If Canadian Codes Are Uncopyrightable ‘Law’

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Rejecting the petition for a writ of certiorari from a developer of Canadian legal codes on Jan. 21, the U.S. Supreme Court left in place a holding from the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that a publishing company did not infringe on the developer’s copyrights because the codes are effectively uncopyrightable “law” in the country.

  • January 21, 2025

    Medical Services Provider Accused Of Unlawfully ‘Annexing’ Sports Clinic

    LOS ANGELES — Two entities involved in operating a provider of sports medicine and orthopedic surgery and two affiliated doctors filed a complaint in California state court accusing a nonprofit medical services provider and its executives of unlawfully seeking to “absorb . . . and unlawfully control” the sports medicine providers in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL), trademark dilution laws and other state laws prohibiting employment-related retaliation.

  • January 21, 2025

    Sushi Restaurant Could Not Have Been Unaware Of Copyright Claims, Judge Rules

    NEWARK, N.J. — A New Jersey sushi restaurant either recklessly or willfully ignored copyright infringement claims brought against it by an artist who claimed that the restaurant used an unauthorized copy of his work in advertising, a federal judge in the state held, denying the restaurant’s plea to vacate an entry of default.

  • January 17, 2025

    8th Circuit: Floor Plans Don’t Infringe On Home Designer’s Copyright

    ST. LOUIS — Two real estate agents’ use of floor plans of homes in resale listings was a noninfringing fair use, a panel in the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held; the panel rejected arguments from the designer and his company that a Missouri federal judge should have found copyright infringement.

  • January 17, 2025

    2nd Circuit: Judge Erred In Similarity Analysis In Nut Trade Dress Fight

    NEW YORK — A Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Jan. 16 reversed a New York federal judge’s dismissal of a trade dress infringement dispute between competing nut companies, holding that the plaintiff company adequately alleged the possibility of confusion between the packaging of the companies’ respective pistachio products.

  • January 17, 2025

    Split 4th Circuit Finds MOKE Mark Genericness Finding Lacked Evidence

    RICHMOND, Va. — A split Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel reversed a Virginia federal judge’s holding that MOKE is a generic term describing a type of vehicle that is unable to be trademarked, holding that there is a “dearth of relevant evidence in the record” because the matter of genericness was raised only after the conclusion of a trial.

  • January 16, 2025

    Split Federal Circuit Reverses Noninfringement Finding In Tub Patent Fight

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A largely split panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed multiple findings from a Rhode Island federal judge in a patent infringement dispute between two manufacturers of bathtubs for infants, including a finding of noninfringement, with the panel majority holding that there are genuine disputes of material fact as to infringement.

  • January 16, 2025

    9th Circuit: Kinetic Sculpture Company’s Copyright Claim Survives Dismissal

    SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held that a plaintiff company adequately alleged that another company infringed on copyrighted elements of its kinetic sculptures that could be manipulated into various shapes to survive a dismissal motion; the panel reversed a California federal judge’s order dismissing the copyright infringement claim.

  • January 15, 2025

    Ozempic Maker Sues Seller Of Compounded Drugs, Alleging Trademark Infringement

    ATLANTA — The manufacturer of Ozempic, Wegovy and Rybelsus sued a weight-loss center in Georgia that sells and promotes compounded drug products that purport to contain semaglutide for false advertising and trademark infringement in a Georgia federal court.

  • January 15, 2025

    Bitcoin Miner Doesn’t Show He Invented Crypto Patent, Federal Circuit Says

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Delaware federal judge was right to reject hearsay evidence regarding a conversation over cocktails at a cryptocurrency conference when holding that a cryptocurrency mining company and its founder failed to show that the founder should be added as the named inventor to another crypto company’s patent, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held.

  • January 15, 2025

    No Error In PTAB’s Obviousness Finding For Hitch System Patent

    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 claims in a company’s patent related to a hitch mounting system were unpatentable as obvious; the panel held that there was no error in the PTAB’s motivation-to-combine analysis when addressing prior art references.

  • January 15, 2025

    Federal Circuit Rejects Novartis’ Bid To Issue Mandate In Drug Patent Row

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Jan. 14 denied Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp.’s motion to expedite the issuance of its mandate after finding only a few days earlier that a district judge was right to reject arguments that a Novartis heart failure drug patent was invalid as obvious but wrong to hold that the claims were invalid for lack of written description.

  • January 15, 2025

    Magistrate Finds Patent Invalidity Argument Barred, Infringement Not Shown

    AUSTIN, Texas — A Texas federal magistrate judge recommended that summary judgment motions by both parties in a long-running patent infringement suit be denied, finding that the defendant’s invalidity argument is precluded by a previous inter partes review (IPR) ruling, while concluding that the plaintiff has not met its burden to make a prima facie showing of infringement of the sole remaining patent claim at issue more than a dozen years after the suit was initially filed.

  • January 14, 2025

    Novartis Seeks Immediate Mandate After Drug Patent Invalidity Reversal

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A maker of generic drugs on Jan. 13 told the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that it should deny Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp.’s motion to expedite the issuance of its mandate, saying the motion comes too soon after the appeals court’s Jan. 10 finding that a district judge was right to reject arguments that a Novartis heart failure drug patent was invalid as obvious but wrong to hold that the claims were invalid for lack of written description.

  • January 14, 2025

    2nd Circuit Agrees: Vimeo Protected By DMCA Safe Harbor For Posts

    NEW YORK — A group of record labels failed to show that video sharing website Vimeo Inc. had “red flag” knowledge that user-uploaded videos contained copyrighted musical recordings, a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held Jan. 13, affirming a New York federal judge’s finding that the company is covered by a safe harbor in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) that offers protection from infringement liability to some websites for user behavior.

  • January 14, 2025

    AI Voice Cloning Company Voice Actors Brief Motion To Dismiss

    NEW YORK — Responding to an artificial intelligence company’s contention that voice actors’ claims were time-barred and suffered from other defects, two named class action plaintiffs told a federal judge in New York that they own the rights to their voices and that the ongoing use of cloned voices sold under different names places the case within the applicable time frame.

  • January 14, 2025

    Supreme Court Won’t Hear Roku’s Arguments On Importing Infringing Products

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 13 decided that it will not consider whether the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) was right to hold that electronics company Roku Inc. failed to show that another company’s telecommunications patent was invalid as obvious, leaving in place an opinion from the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirming the ITC’s findings.

  • January 13, 2025

    Supreme Court Rejects Cert Bid In Patent Safe Harbor Dispute

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 13 decided that it will not hear arguments from a medical device company that the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals inappropriately expanded a safe harbor found in the Patent Act in a dispute involving heart valve importation.

  • January 13, 2025

    High Court Won’t Consider Fee Award In Copyright Dispute

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 13 denied a copyright defendant’s petition for a writ of certiorari, leaving in place a finding from the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that he was not the “prevailing party” under federal copyright law in the face of the copyright owner’s voluntary dismissal of the case.

  • January 13, 2025

    Broadcom Network Connection Patent Deemed Abstract, Not Infringed By Netflix

    SAN FRANCISCO — In a patent infringement legal dispute between Broadcom Corp. and Netflix Inc. that has been significantly pared down in its almost five-year history, a California federal judge ruled in favor of Netflix by finding two of the remaining patent claims at issue to be directed to an abstract idea, per Alice Corp. Pty. Ltd. v. CLS Bank Int’l, and thus ineligible for patent protection.

  • January 10, 2025

    Invalidity Of Task Scheduler Patents Affirmed By Federal Circuit

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) was right to hold that patents related to the scheduling of tasks for a computer’s processor were unpatentable as obvious, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said, finding in favor of Microsoft Corp., which sought inter partes review (IPR) of the patents.

  • January 10, 2025

    Judge: Defendants Don’t Show Invalidity Of Baby Bag Trade Dress, Copyright

    MIAMI — A federal judge in Florida dismissed counterclaims brought by two companies accused of trade dress and copyright infringement by the maker of baby carrier products, holding that the defendant companies failed to show that the plaintiff company’s trade dress or copyright were invalid.

  • January 10, 2025

    3rd Circuit: Hockey Merch Items In Copyright Fight Not Similar

    PHILADELPHIA — A Pennsylvania federal judge was right to dismiss a copyright infringement complaint brought against a sports memorabilia company, a Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said, holding that a man who designed a piece of hockey-themed merchandise failed to show what part of his copyrighted design was infringed.