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

Mealey's Intellectual Property

May 01, 2024
Panel: Texas Federal Judge Wrongly Found Standing Lacking In Patent Row

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Allegations that a radio frequency identification (RFID)-related patent was infringed were revived May 1 by the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, which found that contrary to the conclusion reached by a federal judge in Texas, a creditor’s “unexercised” right to license a patent does not deprive a patentee of its right to exclude.
May 01, 2024
Website Owner Asks High Court About Scope Of Contributory Copyright Infringement

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The owner and operator of the Kiwi Farms website, who was found liable for contributory infringement over site users’ posting of copyrighted materials, tells the U.S. Supreme Court in a petition for certiorari that the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ ruling improperly expanded secondary liability by holding that receiving a takedown notice sufficiently establishes knowledge of infringement meriting action by a site operator.
April 30, 2024
Panel: Discretion Not Abused By Board In Sustaining Trademark Opposition

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A panel of the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on April 30 said it will not disturb a decision by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board that turned away an application to register the “#TODECACHO” trademark.
April 30, 2024
Temu Beats Trademark Claims In Illinois, But Leave To Amend Granted

CHICAGO — Allegations by the maker of a hand grip strengthener that the retail platform Temu sells counterfeit products bearing the “FitBeast” trademark were dismissed without prejudice on April 29 by a federal judge in Illinois, who said the accused conduct is not a use in commerce.
April 30, 2024
Ownership Challenge By Valve Referred To U.S. Copyright Office

SEATTLE — A federal judge in Washington on April 29 ordered a copyright infringement action stayed while the register of the U.S. Copyright Office addresses allegations that a plaintiff knowingly provided inaccurate information when declaring himself author of the allegedly infringed work.
April 30, 2024
California UCL Claims At Core Of Briefing In ChatGPT AI Case

SAN FRANCISCO — Briefing recently wrapped in California federal court on a motion to dismiss claims in consolidated lawsuits in which authors allege that OpenAI Inc. and others violated the California unfair competition law (UCL) by training artificial intelligence on copyrighted material.
April 30, 2024
Former Governor Defends AI Copyright Suit From Vagueness, Fair Use Challenges

NEW YORK — Allegations of a news and finance organization’s illicit use of copyrighted material in the training of artificial intelligence suffice to survive a motion to dismiss, and the company’s conclusory statements about fair and intended uses could open “Pandora’s box,” former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and others argue in opposing a motion to dismiss filed in a federal court in New York. The defendants argue that general statements about training of AI and the lack of allegations of commercial usage of the product doom the complaint.
April 29, 2024
Infringement Judgment Will Stand, But Redo On Validity Ordered By Panel

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Although a divided Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on April 29 said it found no genuine dispute that an appellant literally infringed a patented panoramic viewing system, it said evidence of obviousness presented to a California federal judge should have precluded summary judgment in favor of the patent owner on the question of validity.
April 29, 2024
9th Circuit Affirms No Coverage Ruling In Dispute Arising From Gold Treasure

SEATTLE — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on April 26 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.
April 29, 2024
Motion To Dismiss Partly Granted In Dispute Over NFTs, Source Code

SEATTLE — A federal judge in Washington on April 26 said unjust enrichment claims leveled against two companies in connection with their procurement of source code and other proprietary information must be dismissed because the benefit they allegedly received was indirectly conferred.
April 29, 2024
Trademark Owner Tells High Court Jurisdiction Requires Causal Link To Venue

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Impossible Foods Inc. “pushe[s] the minimum-contacts test” for jurisdiction “past its breaking point,” a petitioner argues in a reply supporting its petition for certiorari, in which it asks the U.S. Supreme Court to clarify when specific jurisdiction over a trademark defendant requires a causal relationship between the venue and purported infringement.
April 29, 2024
Abiomed: ‘Revolutionary’ Heart Pump Rightly Cleared In Infringement Action

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in Massachusetts did not err in rejecting on summary judgment allegations that five patents are infringed by “Impella” heart pump product line, Abiomed Inc. tells the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in an April 26 appellee brief.
April 26, 2024
Board Breathes New Life Into Halliburton Effort To Patent Charge Liner

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Although rejecting a position advanced by Halliburton Energy Services Inc. that an examiner erred in conducting an appeal conference with an unqualified conferee, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board on April 26 found examiner error in a rejection of all 25 claims of Halliburton’s application to patent a liner used in shaped charges.
April 26, 2024
N.Y. Federal Magistrate Judge Recommends Fee Denial In Clash Between Music Schools

NEW YORK — A request by a music school and its founder for reimbursement of the attorney fees they incurred in successfully defending allegations of copyright infringement, unfair competition and trade secret misappropriation should not be granted, a federal magistrate judge in New York has recommended.
April 26, 2024
Patent Owner’s Post-Trial Motion Denied In Full By Delaware Federal Judge

WILMINGTON, Del. — A bid by the owner of a pipe coupling patent declared not infringed by a Delaware federal jury to undo the verdict and a pretrial ruling that eliminated two other patents from the case failed April 25.
April 25, 2024
Contract, Patent Case In Massachusetts Stayed In Favor Of Inter Partes Review

BOSTON — A recent decision by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board to institute inter partes review (IPR) of a patented method for allocating employee gratuities led a federal judge in Massachusetts on April 24 to stay litigation there, in a case that also involves allegations that the IPR petitioner breached two nondisclosure agreements.
April 25, 2024
Parties Spar Over Motivation To Combine References At Patent Board Hearing

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — In a dispute over an oft-litigated patent that allows users not only to track a vehicle but also to control, remotely, various vehicle functions, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board on April 24 heard oral arguments that focused primarily on a motivation to combine two prior art references and the patent owner’s secondary considerations of nonobviousness.
April 24, 2024
Professors Tell High Court Disgorged Profits Shouldn’t Include Separate Affiliates

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Filing an amicus curiae brief in support of a company that was hit with a $43 million disgorgement of profits award in a trademark infringement dispute, two law professors tell the U.S. Supreme Court that the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals erred in upholding the award, which exceeded the trial court's authorization under the Lanham Act to award a defendant’s profits “subject to the principles of equity.”
April 24, 2024
Copyright, Trademark, Trade Dress Case Against TikTok Will Largely Proceed

SAN FRANCISCO — Although a motion to dismiss by TikTok Inc. was partly granted April 23, the copyright, trademark and trade dress claims by a China-based company can be repleaded in a fourth amended complaint (FAC), a federal judge in California ruled.
April 24, 2024
On Remand From SCOTUS, Panel Takes 2nd Look At Foreign Conduct, Sales

DENVER — In a revised opinion issued April 23, the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, acting on remand from the U.S. Supreme Court, clarified that downstream, foreign sales and steps taken domestically to facilitate foreign sales cannot factor into the analysis of disgorged profits in a trademark infringement case.
April 23, 2024
California Federal Judge Disqualifies Defense Counsel In Trademark, Antitrust Case

SAN FRANCISCO — The nearly decade-long assistance to HDMI Licensing Administrator Inc. (HDMI LA) by members of a law firm’s Beijing office bars the firm’s New York office from representing a trademark infringement defendant that has leveled antitrust counterclaims against HDMI LA, a federal judge in California ruled April 22.
April 23, 2024
Judge Notes Importance Of Music Industry’s AI Suit, Won’t Provide Timeline

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A federal judge said two motions, one seeking a preliminary injunction and another seeking dismissal, in music publishers’ case alleging copyright infringement against Anthropic PBC over the training of its artificial intelligence remain “a priority” and that he was aware that the plaintiffs hoped for expedited disposition but said he would provide no timeline for a decision.
April 23, 2024
Challenge By Meta To Eligibility Of Object Detection Patent Fails

WILMINGTON, Del. — A partial motion to dismiss by Meta Platforms Inc. was granted in part on April 22 by a visiting judge in Delaware federal court, who said that although one of the two patents being challenged by the social media giant is ineligible for patenting, allegations that Meta infringed the other patent will proceed.
April 23, 2024
Briefing Complete In Row Over Digital Imaging Patents Declared Ineligible

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An appellee brief by Google LLC “incorrectly diminishes” the role of a patent specification in “providing guidance” on whether the claims of the patent “recite a computing improvement” and in so doing “manufactures its own facts as a substitute,” the owner of four invalidated digital image processing patents tells the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in an April 22 reply brief.
April 22, 2024
Rejecting Recommendation, Delaware Federal Judge Deems Patent Ineligible

WILMINGTON, Del. — An objection to a February report and recommendation by a federal magistrate judge was sustained April 19 by a Delaware federal judge, who agreed with a defendant that the patent it stands accused of infringing recites the abstract idea of “communicating identification information using an image” and lacks sufficient inventiveness at step two of the eligibility inquiry.