Mealey's Intellectual Property
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February 06, 2024
Panel Upholds Sanction But Reinstates Loofah Patent Infringement Case
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal magistrate judge in Arkansas did not abuse his discretion in sanctioning a patent owner for discovery abuse but committed several errors during claim construction, leading to a jury verdict and final judgment of noninfringement that must be vacated, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals found Feb. 5.
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February 06, 2024
Panel Affirms: Intake Form Insufficiently Creative For Copyright Protection
ST. LOUIS — A win for infringement defendant Berkshire Hathaway Automotive Inc. (BHA) has been confirmed by the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on grounds that the multinational conglomerate’s accused customer intake form is not copyrightable.
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February 06, 2024
Parties Debate Injunction Record, Await Ruling In OpenAI Trademark Dispute
SAN FRANCISCO — OpenAI Inc. submitted what it portrays as an administrative motion to supplement the record but really is a local-rule-breaking attempt at filing a surreply in support of its motion for a preliminary injunction and fails to show the type of confusion the relief it seeks would warrant, defendants in a suit over a trademark and domain name argue in an opposition brief filed in California federal court.
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February 06, 2024
Patent Dispute Over Nasal Antiseptic Product Mooted, Michigan Federal Judge Finds
DETROIT — Citing an infringement defendant’s decision to pull from the market an accused nasal antiseptic and promise to refrain from manufacturing or selling the product in the near future, a federal judge in Michigan has dismissed the case as moot over the objection of the patent owner.
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February 05, 2024
Panel Upholds Denial Of New Trial, Does Not Reach Patent Ineligibility Claim
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 2 said it need not address a conditional cross-appeal by prevailing patent infringement defendant Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (SIE) in which the video console maker sought a determination of patent ineligibility in view of the panel’s holding in the same ruling that a patent owner is not entitled to a new trial.
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February 05, 2024
Microsoft Can Amend Invalidity Contentions, Defense In OneDrive Infringement Row
SEATTLE — In a Feb. 2 order addressing three motions he deemed “separate but ultimately related,” a federal judge in Washington granted Microsoft Corp. leave to amend its claim that three patents are invalid along with its counterclaims and affirmative defenses to allegations of infringement based upon a recent appellate ruling.
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February 05, 2024
Delaware Federal Judge Denies Bid For New Trial In Decade-Old Patent Case
WILMINGTON, Del. — A federal judge in Delaware on Feb. 2 closed a case initiated in 2013 against Google LLC, in which the tech giant was cleared at a May 2023 trial of allegations that it infringed a patent the jury also said is invalid.
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February 02, 2024
Panel: ‘Distributed Hypermedia’ System And Method Properly Declared Patent-Ineligible
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A patent owner failed to persuade the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to undo a determination of ineligibility by a federal judge in California, with the appellate panel declaring in a Feb. 1 decision that “interacting with data objects on the World Wide Web is an abstraction.”
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February 01, 2024
Hearst, Photographer Argue In High Court Briefs Over Copyright Discovery Rule
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a reply brief supporting its petition for certiorari, Hearst Newspapers LLC asserts that the U.S. Supreme Court “has never applied a discovery rule to the Copyright Act” and has twice left the question open, representing that the present copyright dispute over the online use of photographs, presents “a simple and clean record” for the court to resolve the “flawed” reasons that circuits have applied the atextual rule.
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February 01, 2024
Scope Of Blue Cross Common-Law Trademark Rights Not Ripe For Adjudication
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — A federal judge in Alabama on Jan. 31 denied a bid for summary judgment that the first two plans to use the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) trademarks acquiesced to later use by other plans or engaged in naked licensing of the marks.
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February 01, 2024
Appellant: Defendant Wrongly Deemed A Noninfringer Of Pump Deployment Patent
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Findings by a federal judge in Massachusetts that a heart pump product line does not infringe six patents were premised on an erroneous construction of several disputed claim terms, a patent owner argues in a brief filed with the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
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February 01, 2024
Home Chef Asks High Court To Standardize Trademark Likelihood-Of-Confusion Test
WASHINGTON, D.C. — After being denied injunctive relief in a trademark dispute with GrubHub Inc., a food preparation firm filed a petition for certiorari, asking the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that courts must consistently consider all of the relevant factors when undertaking a likelihood-of-confusion analysis in an infringement lawsuit.
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February 01, 2024
Panel Backs District Court, Says Irreparable Harm Unproven In Patent Case
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in Delaware committed no abuse of discretion in denying a patent owner’s request for a preliminary injunction that would bar a competitor from launching its planned 5G in-flight broadband network, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals concluded Jan. 31.
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February 01, 2024
Harvard Patent, Licensed To 10X Genomics, Should Be Canceled, Petitioner Says
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Nanostring Technologies Inc. in a petition for inter partes review (IPR) tells the Patent Trial and Appeal Board that although a challenged independent claim of a patented method for imaging nucleic acids is “lengthy and detailed,” “length and detail should not be mistaken for inventiveness.”
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January 31, 2024
Dismissal Bid Denied In Rare Criminal Trademark Counterfeiting Case
PHILADELPHIA — A federal judge in Pennsylvania on Jan. 30 said that criminal charges against the operator of a website where the trademarks of brand name drugs were used in connection with the sale of “prop” pills will remain in place.
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January 31, 2024
5th Circuit Issues Limited Remand Over Typos In Trademark Injunction
NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge in Texas properly declared the “Rolex” trademarks infringed by a watch reseller, but two typographical errors in a subsequent permanent injunction render the ordered relief “vague and unqualified,” the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has concluded.
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January 30, 2024
9th Circuit Stays Mandate Reversing Court’s Dismissal In FCA Drug Pricing Suit
SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals granted a 90-day stay of the mandate reversing and remanding a district court’s dismissal of a relator’s qui tam suit alleging violations of the False Claims Act (FCA) against pharmaceutical companies related to their alleged fraud by artificially inflating drug prices.
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January 30, 2024
Celebrity Tattoo Artist Cleared By Jurors In Copyright Infringement Case
LOS ANGELES — A jury empaneled in California federal court has resoundingly rejected allegations that Katherine Von Drachenberg, better known as Kat Von D, infringed a copyrighted photograph of the late jazz musician Miles Davis with a tattoo she created in 2017.
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January 30, 2024
Novo Nordisk Tells Patent Board Mylan Petition Is Procedurally Improper
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A “copycat” challenge to a patent associated with the weight loss drug Ozempic filed 18 months after the petitioners were accused of infringement — and that seeks joinder to an existing and timely inter partes review (IPR) initiated by Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc. — falls outside the time limits proscribed in federal patent law, Novo Nordisk A/S tells the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.
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January 30, 2024
Halliburton Defends Patent Board’s Anticipation, Obviousness Determinations
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Substantial evidence supports a final written decision (FWD) by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board that technology directed to the automation of hydraulic fracturing processes is unpatentable, Halliburton Energy Systems Inc. maintains in a recent appellee brief filed with the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
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January 29, 2024
No Laughing Matter: Dudesy AI Sued Over George Carlin Comedy Video
LOS ANGELES — Individuals using an artificial intelligence created and publicly posted a “click-bait” video of deceased comedian George Carlin without authorization for the use of his likeness or any license to use copyrighted material, the comedian’s representatives allege in a lawsuit filed in California federal court.
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January 29, 2024
Honeywell Wins Mandamus Relief; Panel Orders Transfer Of Patent Case
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Because several factors favor a North Carolina venue for allegations that Honeywell International Inc. infringed patented radio frequency identification (RFID) technology while “nothing of significance” ties the case to Texas, a federal judge there wrongly denied Honeywell’s motion to transfer, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled Jan. 26.
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January 26, 2024
Widow’s Bid To Terminate ‘Funny Girl’ Copyrights Rejected By 2nd Circuit
NEW YORK — A lawsuit by the widow of a lyricist who sought a declaratory judgment that she can terminate rights to songs from the Broadway musical “Funny Girl” was properly rejected on summary judgment by a federal judge in Connecticut, the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled.
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January 26, 2024
N.Y. Federal Judge Voices Skepticism Over Viability Of Atari Trademark Claims
NEW YORK — Three months after entering a temporary restraining order (TRO) in the case, a federal judge in New York on Jan. 25 denied a bid by Atari Interactive Inc. to obtain a preliminary injunction against a print-on-demand company, questioning whether the video game maker is likely to succeed on the merits of its trademark infringement claims.
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January 26, 2024
Patent Case Over YouTube Live Streaming Features Tossed In Washington
SEATTLE — Google LLC has secured dismissal with prejudice of allegations that YouTube violates a patent relating to a web conferencing system with “time shifting” capabilities, with a federal judge in Washington concluding Jan. 25 that the claimed technology is ineligible for patenting.