Mealey's Intellectual Property
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May 21, 2024
With Panel ‘Bound By’ Herbal Brands, ‘Detoxify’ Trademark Cases Reinstated
SAN FRANCISCO — Two online sellers of products that allegedly make an infringing use of the “Detoxify” trademark must defend their actions in court, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled May 20, reversing dismissal of the cases on jurisdiction grounds by two separate California federal judges.
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May 20, 2024
Cert Bid By Self-Professed ‘Digital Nomad’ Fails In Trademark Jurisdiction Row
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on May 20 revealed that it will not weigh in on a finding by a divided Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel that a California court can exercise jurisdiction over a one-person company that has not operated in the Golden State since 2016.
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May 20, 2024
Divided Panel Clarifies Scope Of Recoverable Fees Under Section 285
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Four years after reversing a determination that defendants DISH Network L.L.C. and Sirius XM Radio Inc. (SXM) did not qualify as prevailing parties in a patent infringement action, a divided Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on May 20 affirmed a Delaware federal judge’s finding on remand that DISH and SXM cannot recoup the attorney fees they incurred during a “voluntary” and “parallel” proceeding before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB).
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May 20, 2024
High Court Won’t Consider Copyright Discovery Rule In Online Photo Use Row
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Hearst Newspapers LLC’s plea that the U.S. Supreme Court settle the application of the atextual discovery rule to the Copyright Act fell on deaf ears, as the high court in its May 20 order list denied the media company’s petition for certiorari in a dispute over its use of a photographer’s copyrighted photographs on the websites of several of its publications.
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May 20, 2024
Defamation Claims Over Infringement Warnings Preempted By Patent Law
MIAMI — A patent owner should be awarded summary judgment on counterclaims of defamation and tortious interference leveled by an infringement defendant that alleged, among other things, that the defamatory statements caused it to lose out on profits it could have made in Russia’s war on Ukraine, a federal magistrate judge in Florida ruled May 17.
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May 20, 2024
California Federal Judge Denies JMOL, New Trial In CoComelon Copyright Case
SAN FRANCISCO — A copyright infringement verdict and $17.7 million award by a California jury in July in a dispute between competing YouTube channels will not be undone, a federal judge there has ruled, deeming the outcome of the trial supported by substantial evidence.
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May 17, 2024
In Win For Invisalign Maker, ‘Showdown’ Remote Dentistry Patent Claims Held Ineligible
SAN FRANCISCO — When “stripped of excess verbiage and techno-jargon,” two “showdown” patent claims directed to a deep learning device for monitoring the progress and performance of an orthodontic aligner recite abstract ideas, and their introduction of “generic neural networks” to the field of remote dentistry, “without more,” is not enough to transform the ideas into patent eligible subject matter, a federal judge in California concluded May 16.
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May 17, 2024
Illinois Federal Judge: Fix For ‘Technological Hiccup’ Satisfies Alice Step 2
CHICAGO — Although agreeing with an infringement defendant that four web chat patents recite the abstract idea of organizing conversations, a federal judge in Illinois on May 16 said that because the patents are directed to a sufficiently inventive solution to the “technological hiccup” of statelessness when communicating in a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) web browser, they survive an early patent eligibility challenge.
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May 16, 2024
Judge Won’t Compel Authors Guild Evidence In Authors’ AI Copyright Suit
SAN FRANCISCO — While authors portray documents in a related case as clearly relevant to their artificial intelligence copyright claims against OpenAI Inc. and others, their failure to go beyond declaratory statements and explain the relevance of any evidence requires denying the request to compel production, a federal judge in California said.
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May 16, 2024
Record Companies Beat Motion To Dismiss; Copyright Claims Over Digitization Proceed
SAN FRANCISCO — Entities at the helm of the “Great 78 Project” — an initiative dedicated to converting 78 rpm records into digital format and then making the recordings available online for free — were denied dismissal of copyright infringement allegations leveled against them by various recording companies by a federal judge in California on May 15.
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May 16, 2024
Despite Phonetic Similarity, Confusion Unlikely Between ‘SUNSAUCE,’ ‘SON SAUCE’
SAN FRANCISCO — Litigation between two sauce makers will proceed without preliminary injunctive relief in place, a federal judge in California has ruled, because the Thailand-based plaintiff, owner of the “SUNSAUCE” trademark, has not shown that it is likely to succeed on the merits of its allegation that a California company infringes with its “SON SAUCE” product.
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May 16, 2024
Appellants Say Court’s OpenAI Secondary Meaning Ruling Was In Error
SAN FRANCISCO — A trial court erred in finding that the OpenAI mark acquired a secondary meaning with the release of its Dall-E website and before the release of the vastly more popular ChatGPT while ignoring analogous uses of the mark and that all the allegedly irreparable harm was speculative, a company tells the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
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May 16, 2024
Fees, Sanctions Wrongly Awarded, Patent Owner Tells Federal Circuit
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in California, assigned to a patent case after it had already been closed, erred in granting a Google LLC request for attorney fees to the tune of $191,302.18 and in subsequently sanctioning counsel for the patent owner $63,525.30, the patent owner tells the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
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May 15, 2024
PUMA Design Patent Claim Survives Early Challenge In Washington
SEATTLE — A motion for judgment on the pleadings by Brooks Sports Inc. was partly granted May 14 when a federal judge in Washington ordered a purported trademark licensor to be joined to an infringement action initiated by a rival athletic footwear company.
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May 15, 2024
Planned Hearing In Review Of Dissolvable Magnesium Patent Canceled
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The Patent Trial and Appeal Board will consider the patentability of dissolvable magnesium alloy technology used in the fracking industry without the benefit of oral argument, canceling a hearing that had been planned for May 31 in a contentious inter partes review (IPR) that has yielded threats of sanctions in connection with an expunged motion and invocation by a patent owner of an Executive Order signed by President Donald Trump.
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May 15, 2024
Grubhub Calls Likelihood Of Confusion Cert Petition ‘Unremarkable,’ Poor Vehicle
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A trial court’s determination of whether there is a likelihood of confusion between two trademarks is due “great deference,” Grubhub Inc. tells the U.S. Supreme Court in a brief opposing a petition for certiorari in a trademark dispute, representing that nothing about the case is noteworthy or in need of attention from the high court.
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May 14, 2024
PREP Act Immunity In Swab Patent Row Not Ripe For Appeal, Federal Circuit Says
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Denial by a federal judge in Maine of a swab maker’s motion to dismiss patent infringement allegations on grounds that it is immune from suit as part of the federal coronavirus response will not be reviewed, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said May 14.
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May 14, 2024
Tiger King Case Will Be Reheard; Panel Seeks More Briefing On Impact Of Warhol
DENVER — A March ruling reinstating copyright claims against Netflix Inc. and a production company over video footage taken at the funeral of the late husband of Joseph Maldonado-Passage — also known as “Joe Exotic,” the “Tiger King” featured in the docuseries of the same name — is back on hold, after a panel of the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals agreed May 13 to a limited rehearing in the case.
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May 14, 2024
Judge Orders Discovery In Bid To Enforce $1.5M Award Against Bankrupt German CEO
SAN JOSE, Calif. — A California federal judge refused to dismiss a video game streaming platform’s petition to confirm a JAMS award worth nearly $1.5 million against two German entities and their shareholder, the former CEO of the original award-debtor, and ordered further jurisdictional discovery to determine whether the court can exercise jurisdiction over the German defendants.
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May 14, 2024
2nd Circuit: Miscategorized Copyright Registration More Than An Inaccuracy
NEW YORK — An appellant who saw his infringement case against rapper Donald Glover, performing as Childish Gambino, and others dismissed for failure to satisfy the copyright registration requirement was unable to secure reversal from the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, which rejected arguments that mistakenly registering a musical work as a sound recording is tantamount to an inaccuracy.
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May 14, 2024
Kiwi Farms Operator Can’t Persuade High Court To Hear Copyright Case
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on May 13 said it won’t weigh in on a reversal by the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals of a Utah federal judge’s decision that dismissed copyright infringement claims leveled against the owner and operator of the Kiwi Farms website.
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May 14, 2024
AI Health Company Seeks Dismissal Of Counterclaims In Sci-Fi-Based Trademark Case
NEW YORK — An artificial intelligence health care company named in honor of a word created by science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein asked a federal judge in New York to dismiss counterclaims against it, saying courts lack jurisdiction over trademark applications and that the lone exception to the rule does not apply.
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May 13, 2024
Appellant Seeks Rehearing Of No Coverage Ruling In Dispute Over Gold Treasure
SEATTLE — An appellant on May 10 asked the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to rehear its April 26 opinion that affirmed a lower federal court’s summary judgment ruling in favor of an ocean marine general liability insurer in a declaratory judgment lawsuit disputing coverage for an underlying $7.5 million covenant judgment that resolved claims that the appellant was denied possession and use of the tangible and intangible work product that was created during gold salvage expeditions.
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May 13, 2024
Patent Board Upholds Rejection By Examiner Of Regeneron Application
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — An effort by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. to undo a final rejection of an application to patent a method of characterizing proteins failed May 13 when the Patent Trial and Appeal Board said it found no error in a determination by an examiner that substituting prior art neonatal fragment crystallizable receptor (FcRn) resins with Regeneron’s claimed protein A resins would have been obvious.
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May 13, 2024
Eligibility Of ‘Charge-Back’ Patents Debated At Federal Circuit Oral Arguments
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Counsel for an appellant told the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on May 10 that five patents were wrongly declared ineligible for patenting by a Georgia federal judge, calling the “point of the invention” an “unconventional data flow” that provides merchants cost savings and other benefits.