Mealey's Intellectual Property
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March 25, 2024
Publishers Ask 2nd Circuit To Find Internet Archive’s EBook Lending Infringing
NEW YORK — The “wholly manufactured” practice of “controlled digital lending” in which Internet Archive (IA) digitizes books and lends them online “is radical and unlawful,” book publishers tell the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in their appellee brief, seeking affirmance of a trial court’s finding that the practice infringed their copyrights.
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March 22, 2024
On Remand From Federal Circuit, Board Reverses Course, Sides With Netflix
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The Patent Trial and Appeal Board on March 21 issued a new final written decision (FWD) that canceled eight claims of a patented method of decoding encrypted content, nearly one year after the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals sent the case back to the agency.
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March 22, 2024
Panel: ‘Skill-Based’ Game Technology Correctly Deemed Patent-Ineligible
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A patent claim directed to an electronic game that is intended to lessen the likelihood of winning by chance and increase the likelihood of winning by skill was correctly deemed ineligible for patenting by a federal judge in Pennsylvania, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled March 21.
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March 22, 2024
Copyright Defendants Again Awarded Fees, This Time By 7th Circuit Panel
CHICAGO — A little over two months after their successful defense on appeal of a $1.5 million attorney fee award from an Illinois federal judge, an investment banking company and its managing director won $260,219.25 in fees and costs incurred in the appeal, despite the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals finding that the factors for such an award are in “equipoise.”
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March 22, 2024
New York Times: Copyright Violations, Not Hacking, At Heart Of ChatGPT Case
NEW YORK — OpenAI Inc. knew that ChatGPT would produce material protected by copyright, not only because of well-publicized incidents where artificial intelligences output protected works but because it was told as much and discussed the issue internally, the New York Times Co. (NYT) says in opposing a motion to dismiss.
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March 21, 2024
Board ‘Stripped,’ ‘Ignored’ Key Limitation In Patent Claims, Owner Says
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A pharmaceutical company is disputing findings by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB or board) that its patented form of polymorphic fingolimod hydrochloride is anticipated by prior art, telling the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that along the way, the board “ignored” a key limitation which is “indisputably absent from the prior art.”
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March 21, 2024
Panel Preserves Win For Teleflex, Joins Board In Rejecting Patent Challenge
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Patent Trial and Appeal Board committed no error in confirming as patentable various claims of a method for “using a coaxial guide catheter in interventional cardiology procedures” owned by Teleflex Life Sciences Ltd., the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled March 21.
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March 21, 2024
Accrediting Group Certifies 1st Large Language Model Trained On ‘Clean’ Data
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Nonprofit Fairly Trained on March 20 announced certification of the first large language model (LLM) trained with a consent-based approach to data, saying the step proves that artificial intelligence (AI) can be trained while treating creators fairly and ethically.
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March 21, 2024
Decision To Set Aside Jury Award Of Royalties Upheld By Federal Circuit
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in California correctly determined that a patent owner failed to establish the amount of a reasonable royalty, requiring vacatur of a jury’s damages award, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said March 20; however, in the same ruling, the panel said the judge must revisit the question of permanent injunctive relief.
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March 20, 2024
Panel Affirms: Confusion Unlikely Between ‘Jackpot,’ ‘Jackpocket’ Trademarks
NEW YORK — Findings by a federal judge in New York at the conclusion of a bench trial that consumers are unlikely to be confused by “Jackpot.com” and a lottery courier services company operating as “Jackpocket” have been upheld by the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
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March 20, 2024
Samsung Seeks Joinder To Meta-Initiated IPR In ‘Understudy’ Role
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — With the apparent blessing of Meta Platforms Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. is seeking joinder to an inter partes review of a targeted advertising patent initiated by the social media giant, asserting that its petition contains “substantively identical” grounds and prior art and vowing to assume the role of an “understudy” that will step in only if Meta “ceases to participate.”
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March 20, 2024
4th Circuit Stands By Contributory Copyright Liability Findings For ISP
RICHMOND, Va. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 19 denied dual petitions for rehearing or rehearing en banc, leaving in place a panel decision one month earlier that vacated a $1 billion award for vicarious copyright infringement by an internet service provider (ISP) while also upholding findings that the ISP is liable for contributory infringement.
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March 19, 2024
Parties Await Ruling On Reconsideration Requests In Trademark Row
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Briefing is complete in a bid for reconsideration of a wide-ranging Feb. 6 opinion by a Pennsylvania federal judge that, among other things, granted The Pennsylvania State University summary judgment on an apparel maker’s affirmative defense that its use of historical images incorporating the trademarks of others is ornamental in nature and thus nonactionable.
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March 19, 2024
Plaintiffs Fire Back In UCL, Copyright Case Involving Google AI Training Data
SAN FRANCISCO — Individuals enjoy a property right in their personal information, and a complaint alleges unlawful and unfair conduct sufficiently enough for claims under all three prongs of the California unfair competition law (UCL), plaintiffs in a copyright and privacy class action accusing Google LLC of “wide-scale data theft” in the training of its artificial intelligence tell a federal court in opposing dismissal.
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March 19, 2024
Case Accusing Apple Of Infringing 6 Patents Will Stay In Texas
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 18 denied a petition for writ of mandamus, which sought an order directing a Texas federal judge to transfer patent infringement claims leveled against Apple Inc. to the Northern District of California.
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March 19, 2024
MosaicML AI Model Comes Under Fire In Authors’ Lawsuit
SAN FRANCISCO — A trio of authors sued MosaicML, the provider of tools facilitating the training of artificial intelligence, and its parent company, claiming that they benefitted from the improper copying of potentially hundreds of thousands of copyrighted works.
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March 19, 2024
SCOTUS Rejects Patent, Antitrust Claims By Pro Se Petitioner
WASHINGTON, D.C. — An inventor has failed to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to revive his allegations that Qualcomm Inc. violated antitrust law by tying an infringing central processing unit (CPU) to wireless modems, with the high court on March 18 denying his petition for a writ of certiorari.
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March 19, 2024
Judge Says OpenAI Prevails In Dispute Over Use Of Name
SAN FRANCISCO — Since OpenAI Inc. saw its attempt to trademark its name denied, “the landscape has changed” through its introduction of two applications that have made it a household name, a federal judge in California said in enjoining defendants from using the Open AI mark or open.ai.
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March 19, 2024
Divided 2nd Circuit Won’t Undo Trademark Fair Use Findings
NEW YORK — A Connecticut federal judge’s determination that use by an appellee of the term “red gold” in connection with gold-copper luxury watches qualifies as fair under federal trademark law will not be disturbed, a panel majority of the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled.
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March 18, 2024
Executive Can’t Shake Claims Company Infringed ‘Playground AI’ Mark
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Litigation over the “Playground AI” trademark will proceed in California with the founder of the artificial intelligence company Mighty Computing Inc. named as a co-defendant, a federal judge there held in denying a motion to dismiss.
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March 18, 2024
Federal Circuit Won’t Stand In The Way Of Intel License Counterclaim
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A bid by VLSI Technology LLC for reversal of a California federal judge’s decision to allow Intel Corp. to amend its pleadings in a protracted patent battle between the parties has failed, with the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 18 denying VLSI’s petition for a writ of mandamus.
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March 15, 2024
Inventorship Correction Ordered By Virginia Federal Judge Will Stand
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 15 upheld an order by a federal judge in Virginia that mandated a correction of inventorship for a patented container for transporting gaseous fluids.
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March 15, 2024
Panel Upholds Dismissal Of Copyright Claims Per Extraterritoriality Principle
SAN FRANCISCO — A bid by the owner of a copyrighted widget for reinstatement of its infringement case against a foreign entity has failed at the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, which rejected the appellant’s assertion that a California federal judge failed to consider its claims under the correct statute.
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March 15, 2024
Federal Circuit Upholds Win For IRobot In Patent Row With SharkNinja
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A final written decision (FWD) by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board that confirmed as patentable an autonomous floor-cleaning robot vacuum will not be disturbed, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said March 15.
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March 15, 2024
Presuit, Not Post-Suit, Willful Patent Infringement Claims Tossed In Texas
MARSHALL, Texas — Comcast Corp. failed to win dismissal, outright, of allegations that it willfully infringed three video playback patents, with a federal judge in Texas concluding March 14 that claims of post-suit willfulness against the streaming service and cable provider are adequately pleaded.