Mealey's Intellectual Property : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Intellectual Property

September 12, 2025
High Court Requests Response To Cert Petition In Entresto Patent Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court requested a response from Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. to generic drugmakers’ petition for a writ of certiorari in response to the petitioners’ argument that the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals wrongly considered after-arising technology in a dispute over the patent for heart medication Entresto.
September 11, 2025
Clothing Maker Seeks Fees After Federal Circuit Reverses Infringement Verdict

PHOENIX — After the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed an Arizona federal jury’s more than $20 million award against a clothing maker in a design patent and trademark infringement dispute related to oversized sweatshirts, the company now tells the court that it is owed roughly $3.6 million in attorney fees and costs, arguing that the case was “exceptional.”
September 11, 2025
Federal Circuit Won’t Rehear Obviousness-Type Double Patenting Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Sept. 10 denied generic drugmakers’ petition for panel rehearing or rehearing en banc, leaving in place a panel’s June opinion affirming a Delaware judge’s grant of summary judgment of no invalidity to a biopharmaceutical company that holds the patent for a medication used to treat hallucinations.
September 11, 2025
Split Panel Enjoins Interference With Copyright Register’s Job Pending Appeal

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A divided District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Sept. 10 enjoined various federal government parties from interfering with Shira Perlmutter’s service as the register of copyrights and director of the U.S. Copyright Office pending appeal; Perlmutter appealed a trial court’s denial of her motion for preliminary injunction in a case challenging her purported firing in May by President Donald J. Trump.
September 11, 2025
Designers, Shein Settle Claims Retailer Used AI To Misappropriate Works

LOS ANGELES — A federal judge in California dismissed a case after eight independent designers reported having reached a binding settlement with Shein Distribution Corp. and related entities over claims that the retailer used an artificial intelligence algorithm to identify popular styles and then misappropriated copyrighted works.
September 11, 2025
No Special Master, But Judge Will Hear AI Metadata Discovery Issue

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A federal judge said she would not take up artificial intelligence copyright plaintiffs’ request to appoint a special master but would hold a hearing on a motion to compel after plaintiffs complained that discovery lacked metadata critical to identifying copyrighted material. Google LLC filed its response to the motion on Sept. 10, saying it had “gone above and beyond” what was required of it.
September 11, 2025
8th Circuit: No Errors In Family Name HVAC Trademark Jury Instructions

ST. LOUIS — An Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said it found no error in a Missouri federal judge’s grant of summary judgment on copyright claims or jury instructions on trademark claims in a dispute over the use of a family name between two heating and air conditioning entities after a founding member of the family business started a new company, affirming findings adverse to the plaintiff-appellant entity.
September 10, 2025
Superman, Tweety Bird Owners Sue Midjourney Over AI’s Outputs

LOS ANGELES — Midjourney Inc. knowingly trains its artificial intelligence on copyrighted works and allows users to generate unauthorized reproductions despite having the technological prowess to prevent it, the owners of characters such as Batman, Superman, Bugs Bunny and Tweety Bird allege in a lawsuit filed in California federal court.
September 10, 2025
9th Circuit: Judge Tossed Trader Joe’s Trademark Suit Against Union Too Soon

SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel revived Trader Joe’s Co.’s trademark infringement suit against a labor union representing employees at the company’s grocery stores, finding that a California federal judge wrongly applied the likelihood-of-confusion test when evaluating if tote bags and other products sold by the union infringed the company’s marks and prematurely held that the Norris-LaGuardia Act (NLGA) barred injunctive relief.
September 10, 2025
Judge Questions Completeness Of $1.5B Settlement Between Authors, Anthropic

SAN FRANCISCO — The federal judge overseeing the artificial intelligence copyright class action against Anthropic PBC questioned the completeness of the $1.5 billion settlement, expressing concerns that important questions remained that could not be answered in the timeframe proposed by the parties. The judge postponed preliminary approval of the agreement until the parties could submit clarifying information.
September 10, 2025
Federal Circuit: Applicants’ Vitamin Claims Anticipated By Own Prior Applications

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB) rejection of a patent application based on previous applications from the appellants for a vitamin C and betaine product; the panel also dismissed arguments about patent term adjustment and abandonment for lack of jurisdiction.
September 10, 2025
Federal Circuit: Fees Owed To Chipmaker In Tossed Infringement Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Texas federal judge should have granted attorney fees to Realtek Semiconductor Corp. because it was the “prevailing party” after the judge converted a patent owner’s voluntary dismissal of a pair of infringement suits to a dismissal with prejudice, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held Sept. 9.
September 09, 2025
Federal Circuit Orders New Trial In Oil Refining Patent Infringement Dispute

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Texas federal judge should have approved Magēmā Technology LLC’s request for a new trial in a patent infringement suit it brought against Phillips 66 and related entities, a panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held Sept. 8; the panel said it could not be certain if an improperly introduced theory from Phillips informed a jury’s verdict in its favor.
September 09, 2025
Federal Circuit: PTAB Wrong To Skip Alice Analysis For Patent Application

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) failed to fully consider the indefiniteness and abstractness of an inventor’s proposed patent describing a system for distributing content between online users, a panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held in a nonprecedential judgment, vacating part of PTAB’s findings and reversing other aspects.
September 08, 2025
Federal Circuit Won’t Disturb Sanctions In Floor Tape Patent Fight

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In the fourth consideration of a dispute over a patent describing a floor-marking tape product,a panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Sept. 5 summarily affirmed an Ohio federal judge’s entry of sanctions against an inventor and his company, holding that the mandate rule applied because the appeals court explicitly affirmed the entry of sanctions in its March 2025 opinion related to the third appeal.
September 08, 2025
Authors, Anthropic Reach $1.5 Billion Settlement Of AI Copyright Class Action

SAN FRANCISCO — Anthropic PBC has agreed to pay no less than $1.5 billion to resolve claims it improperly pirated nearly half a million books while obtaining data for use in training its Claude artificial intelligence, a class of authors says in a Sept. 5 motion for preliminary settlement approval.
September 08, 2025
ISPs, U.S. To High Court: ISP Infringement Liability Ruling Could Stifle Web

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A coalition of trade organizations representing internet service providers (ISPs) tells the U.S. Supreme Court in a Sept. 5 amicus curiae brief that the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ finding that an ISP was liable for contributory infringement for piracy actions from internet users could “undermine decades of progress in getting Americans everywhere connected to the Internet.”
September 05, 2025
11th Circuit: ‘Shotgun’ Copyright Case Against Sub Shop Rightfully Tossed

ATLANTA — A Florida federal judge’s decision to dismiss a pro se plaintiff-appellant’s copyright infringement claims against the commercial entity behind the Firehouse Subs restaurant chain was affirmed by a panel in the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, which found no abuse of discretion in the judge’s finding that the complaint was an impermissible shotgun pleading.
September 05, 2025
Generic Med Amicus Echoes Calls For High Court Look At Entresto Patent Ruling

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Association for Accessible Medicines (AAM) tells the U.S. Supreme Court in an amicus curiae brief in support of MSN Pharmaceuticals and related entities (MSN) that the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals created a situation where medicine patent holders “will see a new strategy they can employ to fashion overbroad claims to delay generic competition” while skirting patent law requirements “that protect the public’s interests in ensuring that patents do not let inventors control more than they invented.”
September 05, 2025
No Errors In TTAB’s Denial OF Applicant’s Logo Marks, Federal Circuit Says

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a pair of nonprecedential opinions, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) did not err in denying a pro se applicant’s request for registrations of two marks related to his sensor network product, leaving in place TTAB’s findings that the applications lacked a clear identification of the goods or services covered by the marks, among other issues.
September 05, 2025
Judge: Tech Company Established Ownership In IP Fight With TikTok Before Trial

SAN FRANCISCO — In a pair of orders, a California federal judge held that a China-based company adequately established that it owns the asserted copyrights and trade secrets in a “heavily litigated” dispute with TikTok Inc. and affiliated entities, including source code from an earlier video-editing app that preceded the plaintiff entity’s app. The judge found that there is no triable issue of fact as to the ownership of the code.
September 05, 2025
Union Sues Over Elimination Of Patents Office Workers’ Collective Bargaining Rights

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An August executive order (EO) that expanded on a March EO and nullified the collective bargaining rights of additional agencies, including the Office of the Commissioner for Patents, was “retaliatory and not based on the statutory criteria” contained in the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute (FSLMRS), the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) argues in a complaint filed in a federal court in the District of Columbia.
September 05, 2025
9th Circuit Transfers Fee Issue In Facebook Cybersquatting Trademark Suit

SAN FRANCISCO — Without providing explanation, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals granted a motion filed by Instagram LLC and Facebook Inc., now known as Meta Platforms Inc., (collectively, Meta) to transfer consideration of attorney fees on appeal to a district court in Meta’s trademark infringement suit against multiple Chinese-based companies for their alleged cybersquatting by using domain names purportedly infringing on Meta’s trademarks.
September 04, 2025
N.Y. Federal Judge: Jurisdiction Discovery Needed In IP Row Started In California

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — A federal judge in New York partly granted a professional employer organization (PEO) service company’s request for limited jurisdictional discovery in a trademark dispute with another entity offering similar services over the name “Pinnacle in what the judge called a “seemingly endless tug-of-war over jurisdiction,” noting that a California federal judge dismissed a trademark dispute with the same parties in opposite roles for jurisdictional reasons in early 2024.
September 04, 2025
4th Circuit Upholds Preliminary Injunction Denial In Dance Team Name Mark Row

RICHMOND, Va. — There was no error in a North Carolina judge’s decision to deny a charter school and its parent-teacher organization’s request for a preliminary injunction against a local dance company in the parties’ dispute over a trademark on a logo using the name “Inspire,” a Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held, finding that factual questions remained as to the ownership and priority of use of the marks.