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

Mealey's Intellectual Property

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
March 14, 2024
Subpoena For Deposition In Trademark Opposition Will Stay Quashed, Panel Rules

RICHMOND, Va. — Although with a different rationale than the one espoused by a Virginia federal judge, the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 13 upheld an order that quashed a subpoena issued to a foreign entity in opposition proceedings before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.
March 14, 2024
Designer, PTO Argue If Vulgar Word Was Properly Denied Trademark Registration

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An artist and designer who had four trademark registrations for a vulgar word denied by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) tells the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in his reply brief that the agency inappropriately relied on newly created doctrines regarding commonly used words in rejecting his applications, despite the fact that many other commonly used words have been used as trademarks.
March 13, 2024
Petitioner To Board: Patent Owner Should Be Sanctioned For Discovery Abuses

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — In a March 12 motion to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, petitioners for inter partes review (IPR) seek an order barring a patent owner from arguing that the commercial success of its WeatherTech vehicle floor liner products — and related praise that the floor mats have received in the automobile industry — supports a finding of nonobviousness.
March 13, 2024
Per Gucci, Jury Demand In New York Federal Trade Dress Row Stricken

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — A trade dress dispute between two ice cream makers will proceed but not before jurors because a request for disgorged profits is equitable in nature and thus will be decided at a bench trial, a federal judge in New York has ruled.
March 13, 2024
Board Grants Post-Grant Review Of Honeywell Aircraft Tracking Patent

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A petition for post-grant review (PGR) will likely prevail on at least one of its three challenges to a Honeywell International Inc. patent directed to “systems for detecting, tracking, and docking aircraft in a taxiway, apron, or ramp area of an airport,” including that the process claimed by the patentee can be performed by the human mind, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board has ruled.
March 12, 2024
Colorado Federal Judge: App Store Notices Not Enough For Jurisdiction

DENVER — A Colorado-based business on March 11 saw its infringement complaint dismissed without prejudice by a federal judge in Colorado, who said trademark notices sent by defendants to the Apple and Google app stores did not rise to the level of “express aiming” at the state.
March 12, 2024
Crocs Must Face Defamation Claims In Colorado Over Patent Press Release

DENVER — Allegations by a Canadian shoe seller and former patent infringement defendant that it was defamed in a press release by Crocs Inc. that touted a settlement of their longstanding litigation as a “judgment of infringement” were deemed plausible on March 11 by a federal judge in Colorado.
March 12, 2024
ISP Asks 4th Circuit To Rehear ‘Exceptionally Important’ Secondary Liability Suit

RICHMOND, Va. — Filing an amicus curiae brief on March 11 in support of fellow internet service provider (ISP) Cox Communications Inc.’s quest for rehearing in an appeal where it was found liable for contributory infringement for its subscribers’ file-sharing activities, Frontier Communications Parent Inc. tells the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that a panel’s holding on copyright liability for merely providing internet service that is misused by customers “drives a wrecking ball through the ordinary limits of secondary liability in direct conflict with [U.S.] Supreme Court precedent.”
March 11, 2024
Board Issues New Ground Of Rejection For Proposed ‘Medical Avatar’ Patent

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The Patent Trial and Appeal Board on March 11 disagreed with an examiner that all 21 claims of an application to patent a “method of using a simulation of a patient’s anatomy for engaging the patient” are anticipated by an application to patent a “medical avatar” but said that three of those claims are nonetheless rendered obvious by the same reference.
March 11, 2024
Judge Amends Consent Decree Order In Case Over Alleged Counterfeit Policies

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — In a March 8 amended ruling entering a consent decree in a sprawling suit over allegations of fraud, trademark counterfeiting and trademark infringement involving captive reinsurance programs, a Kentucky federal judge said he “inadvertently omitted the names of two parties.”
March 11, 2024
Nvidia’s NeMo Megatron AI Latest LLM Targeted With Copyright Suit

SAN FRANCISCO — Nvidia Corp. trained its NeMo Megatron artificial intelligence with 20 billion “weights” derived from an enormous amount of copyrighted and otherwise protected material, a trio of authors claims in a March 8 California federal class action targeting large language model (LLM) training methods.
March 11, 2024
Patent Owner Wins Interest, But No Enhancement Of $42M Jury Award

MINNEAPOLIS — A federal judge in Minnesota on March 8 denied a bid by the owner of a lighted artificial tree patent for enhanced damages after its win at trial in January.
March 11, 2024
Nevada Federal Judge Modifies Injunction After Finding Mark Use Not Fair

LAS VEGAS — On the heels of concluding, upon reconsideration, that a defendant did not fairly use “TASER” in connection with its conducted-energy weapon (CEW) refurbishing business, a federal judge in Nevada on March 8 modified her earlier permanent injunction.
March 11, 2024
Copyright Office Calls Human Authorship ‘Basic Prerequisite’ In AI Copyright Suit

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An artificial intelligence developer has not established any reason why the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals should “upend . . . well-established principles” that “nonhuman authors are not entitled to copyright protection,” the U.S. Copyright Office argues in an appellee brief, asking the court to find that a trial court properly upheld the office’s refusal to issue a copyright for a work of art to an AI machine.
March 11, 2024
Judge Won’t Overturn Jury’s $2.3M Verdict In Tobacco Rolling Papers Dispute

ATLANTA — A Georgia federal judge denied two defense motions asking the court to deem excessive or reduce a $2.3 million jury verdict against them for trademark infringement against a rolling papers company and order a new trial, finding that the jury properly weighed the evidence and that its verdict was proper.
March 08, 2024
Pa. Federal Judge Rejects 2nd, 9th Circuit Standard For Joint Authorship Intent

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Because it remains unclear whether a settlement agreement extends to a plaintiff’s original design for a dragon-themed boot button that, while proven to be a joint work, still may not encompass an accused “simplified, two-dimensional rendering” by an infringement defendant, a Pennsylvania federal judge largely denied summary judgment.