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Mealey's Intellectual Property

  • 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 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.

  • January 09, 2025

    Judge Finds Probiotic Infant Product Patent Claims To Be Invalid

    CHICAGO — A federal judge in Illinois granted summary judgment in favor of a defendant biopharmaceutical company accused of infringing on two patents related to probiotic products for infants, holding that the relevant claims of the patents were anticipated by prior art references.

  • January 09, 2025

    Company Must Produce Witness’ Lawsuit Funding Evidence In OpenAI Trademark Case

    SAN FRANCISCO — A company locked in a suit with OpenAI Inc. over trademark infringement must produce documents related to a nonparty witness who is an investor and is funding the company’s defense as the evidence goes to his credibility and bias, a federal magistrate judge in California said Jan. 8.  In a second order the court granted OpenAI additional time to depose the company’s founder.

  • January 09, 2025

    Federal Circuit: PTAB Right To Find Some Claims Patentable In Equipment Row

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held that the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) did not err when finding that most of the claims in a patent describing a product for hanging construction equipment were unpatentable while some were not, rejecting an equipment manufacturer’s contention that all claims should have been found to be unpatentable.

  • January 09, 2025

    Judge: Bar’s Arbitration Arguments In Trademark Fight With Chicago Cubs Fail

    CHICAGO — A federal judge in Illinois refused to dismiss a trademark infringement complaint brought by the Chicago Cubs Baseball Club LLC against a bar that overlooks Wrigley Field and its owner, alleging that the bar defendants knowingly falsely promote the business as a partner with the baseball team; the judge held that the bar defendants could not hinge their dismissal motion on an argument related to arbitration.

  • January 08, 2025

    Federal Circuit OKs $154K Judgment Against United States For Infringing Software

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Jan. 7 upheld the U.S. Court of Federal Claims’ entry of $154,400 in damages against the United States to be paid to a software company that accused the U.S. Navy of infringing on its software; the panel rejected the company’s arguments that damages should have been calculated based on individual instances of infringement and not on a hypothetical licensing contract.

  • January 08, 2025

    Split Federal Circuit Panel Reverses PTAB Finding Of Patent Validity

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A split Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel reversed a decision of the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) finding that multiple telecommunications companies failed to show that another company’s patent related to information encoding was unpatentable as obvious; the dissenting judge said that the panel should only have vacated PTAB’s holding.

  • January 07, 2025

    Color Of Hip Implants Functional, Not Trademarkable, Federal Circuit Says

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) was correct to cancel trademarks owned by an artificial hip parts manufacturer, a panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held, saying that the pink color of the relevant parts is a functional element referenced in the company’s now-expired patent.

  • January 07, 2025

    Federal Circuit Agrees: DNA Testing Patent Not Shown To Be Obvious

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) did not err when it held that a biopharmaceutical company failed to show that a patent held by another company related to in utero DNA testing is invalid as obvious, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held Jan. 6.

  • January 06, 2025

    Music Publishers, Anthropic Agree To Lyric Output Injunction

    SAN JOSE, Calif. — A federal judge in California granted a stipulated preliminary injunction in a music industry lawsuit over the use of lyrics to train artificial intelligence, requiring Anthropic PBC to keep in place existing guardrails preventing output of lyrics owned by music publishers.

  • January 06, 2025

    Split 9th Circuit Panel Revives Authors’ Trademark Suit Over Film Name

    SAN FRANCISCO — A split Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel reversed a California federal judge’s decision to dismiss trademark claims brought by co-authors of a book called “Gringo” against makers of an otherwise unrelated film bearing the same name, with the majority holding that the co-authors plausibly alleged the likelihood of confusion between the works.

  • January 06, 2025

    9th Circuit Holds Equity Shares Aren’t ‘Goods’ Under Lanham Act

    SAN FRANCISCO — A partly split Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a California federal judge’s dismissal of an American legal services website company’s trademark infringement suit against a similarly named Japanese legal software company beginning to sell equity shares to American investors, holding that selling equity does not meet the Lanham Act’s criteria of the sales of goods and services.

  • January 03, 2025

    9th Circuit Accepts Appeal In GitHub DMCA AI Case

    OAKLAND, Calif. — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals agreed to hear an appeal in an artificial intelligence (AI) copyright case alleging that the defendants ignored or removed licenses from software published on the online repository GitHub.

  • January 03, 2025

    Judge Right To Find Oxycontin Patents Obvious, Federal Circuit Says

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in Delaware did not err in ruling that claims in a series of patents owned by Purdue Pharma LP and related entities directed at changes to the formulation of the company’s Oxycontin drug were invalid, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held.

  • January 03, 2025

    9th Circuit Affirms $56 Million Trademark Award Against Molson Coors

    SAN JOSE, Calif. — A panel in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a California federal jury’s entry of a $56 million award against the Molson Coors Beverage Co. USA LLC in a trademark dispute commenced by a craft brewery that alleged that the beer giant infringed on its trademark related to the word “stone.”

  • January 03, 2025

    Patent Owner Appeals Unpatentability Finding For File Backup System

    BOSTON — A company that owns a patent directed at a digital file backup process has appealed to the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals a Massachusetts federal judge’s November ruling that the central claims of the patent are directed at unpatentable abstract ideas, thus rendering the patent invalid.

  • January 02, 2025

    Rap Producer Appeals Dismissal Of Trademark Suit To 2nd Circuit

    NEW YORK — A producer of rap music appealed to the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals a New York federal judge’s decision to dismiss with prejudice his copyright and trademark claims stemming from a dispute over ownership of intellectual property associated with a seminal hip-hop group; the judge held that the producer failed to show that the relevant trademark was valid.