Mealey's Intellectual Property
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April 04, 2024
Patented Binaural Sound Tech Not Obvious, Owner Argues To Patent Board
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The prior art relied on by Meta Platforms Inc. in an inter partes review (IPR) instituted in December fails to establish obviousness, the owner of the challenged patent maintains in a response filed April 3 with the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.
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April 03, 2024
Win For Microsoft Preserved By Federal Circuit In Dispute Over 3D Patent
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A final written decision (FWD) by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board that declared obvious various claims of a patented method for viewing three-dimensional (3D) images will stand, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled April 3.
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April 03, 2024
Supreme Court Turns Down Another Challenge To Abstractness Standard
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A machine company whose technology was deemed patent-ineligible has become the latest party to fail to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit its decade-old standard for assessing the abstractness of patent claims.
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April 03, 2024
Panel Majority: Applications Cancelable In Cases That Include Registered Marks
SAN FRANCISCO — In a pair of rulings issued the same day, a divided Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel reinstated an infringement action and found that federal courts have jurisdiction to consider challenges to applications for trademarks as long as infringement of at least one registered trademark is also alleged.
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April 03, 2024
Accused Of Infringement, Aldi Prevails When Judge Declares Patents Ineligible
CHICAGO — Three patents touted for providing shoppers with the ability to locate branded products in the vicinity via their mobile device recite the abstract idea of collecting, analyzing and displaying information, a federal judge in Illinois has ruled.
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April 02, 2024
7th Circuit Won’t Reinstate Pro Se Copyright Claims Against Amazon
CHICAGO — A federal judge in Indiana correctly rejected a copyright infringement action against Amazon.com Inc. and a company that helps authors self-publish their works, the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled, because the complained-of conduct was authorized by a license.
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April 02, 2024
New Jersey Federal Judge Must Revisit Schizophrenia Drug Patent Dispute
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on April 1 remanded a dispute over the validity of a patent directed to an injectable treatment for adult schizophrenia, with the court finding that a New Jersey federal judge’s “misunderstanding of claim scope carried throughout” her obviousness analysis.
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April 02, 2024
Pa. Federal Judge Clarifies, But Won’t Reconsider, Penn State Trademark Ruling
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Over the objection of The Pennsylvania State University, a federal judge in Pennsylvania on April 2 clarified a February 2024 ruling granting the school summary judgment on several affirmative defenses raised by an apparel maker accused of trademark infringement.
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April 02, 2024
Pandora Prevails, Panel Agrees: Asserted Patents Ineligible For Protection
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has upheld a judgment of patent ineligibility entered by a California federal judge, agreeing that all claims of three patents asserted against the music streaming service Pandora Media LLC are directed to “nonpatentable subject matter.”
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April 01, 2024
Collectibles Firm To 3rd Circuit: Hockey Sculpture Has No Protectable Elements
PHILADELPHIA — A Florida-based sports memorabilia company asks the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in its appellee brief to affirm a lower court’s finding that its hockey puck piece containing melted rink ice does not infringe the appellant’s puck-shaped item because the latter work has no copyrightable, nonutilitarian features.
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March 29, 2024
Panel Reinstates ‘Tiger King’ Copyright Case On 1 Of 8 Videos
DENVER — Findings by a federal judge in Oklahoma that seven videos featured in “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness” are non-actionable works-made-for-hire will stand, but Netflix Inc. and the producer of the documentary series must face copyright infringement allegations with regard to an eighth video, which was wrongly declared a fair use, the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled.
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March 29, 2024
Panel Orders New Patent Validity Trial, Says Jurors Wrongly Instructed
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has reinstated a dispute over the validity of patented tamper-resistant containers, agreeing with a patent owner that a Massachusetts federal judge gave an erroneous jury instruction on the objective indicia of nonobviousness.
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March 29, 2024
In Dispute Over Patented Medical Device, Panel Upholds Denial Of Relief
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Findings by a federal judge in California that substantial questions surround the validity of a patented heart valve testing device at the center of an infringement action will not be disturbed, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled March 28.
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March 29, 2024
Blockchain Technology Correctly Declared Patent-Ineligible, Panel Says
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has upheld a New York federal judge’s determination that a patented “framework” for determining and recording the unique pattern of imperfections on a gemstone to a blockchain recites the abstract idea of gathering and storing data.
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March 28, 2024
Federal Circuit: WesternGeco Framework Controls In Cases With Foreign Damages
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in Illinois did not abuse her discretion in denying a patent owner a new damages trial, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled March 27, rejecting an appellant’s claim that it was entitled to recover hundreds of millions of dollars, not the $6,610,985 it was awarded, but that its efforts to be awarded a higher amount were thwarted when a defendant refused to elaborate on how it was counting infringements.
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March 27, 2024
Panel: Evidence Supports Finding That Copyright Action Was Retaliatory
NEW YORK — A decision by a federal judge in New York to award the author of a novella upon which “Mafietta” was based $44,496.05 in attorney fees was upheld March 26 by the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, which said there was “a sufficient basis in the record to support” findings that a copyright infringement lawsuit by the producers of the film “was frivolous and retaliatory.”
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March 27, 2024
Patented Static Seizure Treatment Is Obvious, Petitioner Tells Board
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A patent owner maintains in a March 26 petition for inter partes review (IPR) that it was the first to disclose, via inherency, a daily dose of ganaxolone for the treatment of status eliepticus (SE), or static seizure, and not a competitor.
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March 26, 2024
AI Prompts Are Merely ‘Copyright-Laundering Facility,’ Artists Claim
SAN FRANCISCO — Artificial intelligence prompts used to create images are a “copyright-laundering facility designed to produce low-cost knockoffs of copyrighted images,” the plaintiffs argue in four wide-ranging oppositions to motions to dismiss filed in California federal court.
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March 26, 2024
Modelo Loses Appeal; 2nd Circuit Affirms ‘Beer’ In Contract Is Ambiguous
NEW YORK — The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said March 25 it will not disturb a summary judgment ruling by a federal judge in New York that a trademark license to make and sell “beer” in the United States under the “Modelo” and “Corona” trademarks was not shown to be violated by a sublicensee’s use of the marks in connection with fermented sugar-based hard seltzer drinks.
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March 26, 2024
UCL, Declaratory Judgment Counterclaims Tossed In Dispute Over Marks, Logo
HARTFORD, Conn. — Trademark infringement and false advertising plaintiffs secured dismissal on March 25 of allegations that they violated the California unfair competition law (UCL), with a federal judge in Connecticut ruling that complained-of securities transactions took place overseas.
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March 26, 2024
Deficiencies Cured By Amended Complaint In ‘Wicked Fish’ Mark Row
TRENTON, N.J. — A federal judge in New Jersey on March 25 denied dismissal of trademark infringement, false designation of origin and unfair competition claims leveled in a dispute between the owner of the “Wicked Fish” trademark and its former licensee, nearly one year after dismissing the case with leave to amend.
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March 26, 2024
Rapper To 7th Circuit: Evidence Shows His Song Was Sampled, Infringed
CHICAGO — Hip-hop artist Eddie Lee Richardson, known professionally as Hotwire, tells the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in his opening appellant brief that a trial court erred in finding that he did not establish that French Montana’s hit 2012 song “Ain’t Worried About Nothin’” (AWAN) directly sampled and, therefore, infringed the copyright in his song “Hood Pushin Weight” (HPW).
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March 25, 2024
In Dispute Over DNA Sequencing ‘Tag’ Technology, Appellants Seek Extension
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A molecular diagnostics company and its subsidiaries deemed liable by a jury for willfully infringing a patented method of preparing nucleic acids say they need more time to reply to a recent cross-appellant brief, in which the patent owners say there is “no support in the record” for the appellants’ “entire argument on appeal” that “a sequencing primer can only be a primer used to read out a sequence.”
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March 25, 2024
Patent Owner Tells Board Fintiv Factors All Support Denying Petition
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Citing the stage of its Texas federal infringement litigation against a petitioner for inter partes review, the owner of an anti-pestware patent on March 22 urged the Patent Trial and Appeal Board to pass on a newly filed invalidity challenge.
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March 25, 2024
Safe Harbor Ruling In Patent Row Affirmed On Appeal To Federal Circuit
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A divided Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on March 25 upheld findings by a California federal judge that an India-based medical device company is immunized from patent infringement liability for its importation of two transcatheter heart valve systems.