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

Mealey's Intellectual Property

February 16, 2024
Judge Disqualifies Law Firm From Job Search Sites’ Row Over Prior Representation

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A California federal judge hearing a lawsuit brought by the operators of a job search and resume-creation website against a competitor for copyright infringement and violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) granted the plaintiffs’ motion to disqualify a law firm whose attorneys included the defendant’s general counsel and one defendant’s wife, due to the firm’s prior representation of the plaintiffs.
February 16, 2024
Petition To Cancel ‘Babies’ Magic Tea’ Trademark Reinstated By Panel

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board must revisit its finding of no likely confusion between the “Baby Magic” and “Babies’ Magic Tea” trademarks, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals concluded Feb. 15.
February 15, 2024
Request For Contempt Finding In Trademark, Design Patent Case Denied

HOUSTON — A federal judge in Texas on Feb. 14 rejected as premature allegations that a defendant has violated a stipulated preliminary injunction in a trademark and design patent infringement case by manufacturing and selling a redesigned floating pool chaise.
February 15, 2024
Illinois Federal Judge Declares Trading Platform Technology Patent-Ineligible

CHICAGO — A defendant on Feb. 14 secured dismissal of allegations that it infringes three patents owned by a fellow provider of foreign currency trading and information services, with a federal judge in Illinois finding that although the technology improves upon prior art by providing “more accurate and reliable” metrics for traders, “the concepts of obtaining, filtering, and processing data to provide statistical information are abstract regardless of the quality of the process used to do so.”
February 15, 2024
RICO Claim Tossed From Suit Alleging App Captures Data With Cyberpirated Marks

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A federal judge in California denied arbitration and dismissed a Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act claim from a putative class complaint accusing a software company of collecting and selling personal data from a budgeting application for smartphones and of using cyberpirated trademarks and other information to entice users to enter their banking information but permitted the app user’s remaining claims under Utah and California law to proceed.
February 15, 2024
Panel Preserves Win For Samsung In Smartphone Functionality Patent Row

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A pro se appellant, inventor and patent infringement plaintiff who unsuccessfully sued Samsung Electronics America Inc. has failed to persuade the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to revive the case, which was dismissed with prejudice by a federal judge in California.
February 14, 2024
Consent Decree Entered Under 1 Dismissal In Case Over Alleged Counterfeit Policies

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A variety of claims and parties have been dismissed under agreements in a sprawling suit over allegations of fraud, trademark counterfeiting and trademark infringement involving captive reinsurance programs, with a Kentucky federal court permanently enjoining two defendants “from future infringement of Plaintiffs’ trademarks.”
February 14, 2024
Government: AI-Assisted Invention Patents Require ‘Significant Human’ Role

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Patent applicants must be “natural persons” — artificial intelligences cannot be listed as inventors — and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) analysis of applications including artificial intelligence-assisted inventions focuses on whether a significant human contribution exists, according to guidance published in the Federal Register on Feb. 13.
February 14, 2024
Injunction Entered Under Agreement To Resolve Lloyd’s Trademark Infringement Case

HOUSTON — After Lloyd’s America Inc. and Corporation of Lloyd’s and the individual they sued over alleged defamation and trademark infringement reported reaching an agreement to resolve the suit, a Texas federal court entered a permanent injunction according to the terms of their agreement.
February 14, 2024
Judge Dismisses Bulk Of Writers’ Copyright-Based Claims Against OpenAI

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge granted in part and denied in part a motion by OpenAI Inc. and its affiliated companies involved in developing the ChatGPT artificial intelligence (AI) program to dismiss claims brought against it in two putative class actions filed by authors who say ChatGPT’s development and operations infringe their copyrights.
February 14, 2024
Federal Circuit Declines Call To Construe ‘OFF,’ Declares Patent Indefinite

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A system and method for deterring identify theft was correctly deemed indefinite by a federal judge in Illinois because the “specification and claims fail to provide adequate guidance as to the identity” of a recited “transaction partner,” a divided Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled Feb. 14.
February 14, 2024
Challenge To USPTO Domicile Address Rule Turned Away By Panel

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A rule that bars reliance on a P.O. Box address in the broader U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) requirement that trademark applicants list domestic counsel was not arbitrarily enforced against a law firm, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said Feb. 13.
February 14, 2024
GitHub, Microsoft, Coders To Confer Over Discovery In AI Copyright Licensing Row

OAKLAND, Calif. — In a dispute over licensing and attribution of computer code in open-source artificial intelligence (AI) collaborations, a California federal judge scolded defendants GitHub Inc. and Microsoft Corp. and five John Doe plaintiffs for not complying with the proper procedures for submitting discovery letters, leading him to deny the relief sought by the parties and to once again order them to meet and confer over their remaining discovery disputes.
February 13, 2024
Genericness, Infringement Of ‘Appliance Liquidation’ Mark Debated In 5th Circuit

NEW ORLEANS — An appliance outlet operator maintains in its reply brief to the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that there is no evidence that it used the disputed “Appliance Liquidation Outlet” trademark “to identify the origin or sponsorship of its products” and, thus, the infringement claims against it failed and should have been dismissed by the trial court.
February 13, 2024
Claims Hip-Hop Artist Copied Song Dismissed By New York Federal Judge

NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York in a Feb. 12 order said no reasonable jury could find that “The Box,” a 2019 rap song that spent 11 weeks atop the Billboard “Hot 100” chart, is substantially similar to “Come on Down (Get Your Head Out of the Clouds),” a song released in 1975 by R&B artist Greg Perry.
February 13, 2024
9th Circuit Upholds Injunction In Trademark Dispute Over Tattoo Ink

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in California did not abuse his discretion in preliminarily enjoining a defendant from using the “Advanced Tattoo Ink” tag line or “ZUPER BLACK” and “INTENZE” trademarks while litigation over their potential infringement is pending, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled.
February 13, 2024
California Artists Want OpenAI Enjoined From Litigating New York Actions

SAN FRANCISCO — Artists urge a federal court in California to enjoin OpenAI Inc. and related companies from litigating similar actions in a New York federal court, saying the defendants are proceeding there in an effort to find a more friendly jurisdiction.
February 13, 2024
RIAA, MPA, Other Amici Back DOJ In DMCA 1st Amendment Fight

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Five trade associations teamed up on an amicus curiae brief supporting the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in a dispute over the constitutionality of certain provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), telling the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that a trial court was right to enforce the statute’s anti-circumvention provision because technological protection measures (TPMs) serve an important role in protecting copyrights and free speech.
February 13, 2024
Profits On Trademark Claims Affirmed But Punitive Damage Award Do-Over Needed

CINCINNATI — A jury verdict in favor of two trademark plaintiffs and corresponding award of infringer’s profits will not be disturbed, but the jury’s award of punitive damages against defendants on state law unfair competition claims was premised on an incorrect instruction by a Kentucky federal judge, according to the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
February 13, 2024
Dexcom Seeks To Add New Challenge To Abbott Glucose Monitoring Patent

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — In a new petition filed with the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, Dexcom Inc. says that two new claims of the same patent already the subject of inter partes review (IPR) should also be examined after patent owner Abbott Diabetes Care Inc. recently added allegations of their infringement in federal court.
February 12, 2024
New York Federal Judge Denies Reconsideration Request In Copyright Row

NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York has again found that musical artists Shawn Carter, professionally known as Jay-Z, Timothy Mosley, professionally known as Timbaland, and Elgin Baylor Lumpkin, professionally known as Ginuwine, are entitled to summary judgment on allegations of copyright infringement.
February 12, 2024
Frazetta Daughters Lack Standing In Copyright Row, Florida Federal Judge Says

TAMPA, Fla. — Although allegations of direct copyright infringement leveled in connection with a “Frazetta Book Cover Art” book were proven, two of late artist Frank Frazetta’s daughters cannot remain in the case as plaintiffs, a federal judge in Florida indicated in a Feb. 9 summary judgment ruling.
February 12, 2024
Studio To 2nd Circuit: Discovery Rule Applies In Posted Photo Infringement Suit

NEW YORK — In an appellant reply brief, a photography studio tells the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that it sued over the online posting of its copyrighted pictures within three years of learning of the purported infringing use, making its complaint timely under the “discovery rule.”
February 12, 2024
Injunction Is Part Of Agreement To Resolve Lloyd’s Trademark Infringement Case

HOUSTON — Lloyd’s America Inc. and Corporation of Lloyd’s and the individual they sued in Texas federal court over alleged defamation and trademark infringement have reported reaching an agreement to resolve the suit, with terms including entry of a permanent injunction.
February 09, 2024
Panel Issues Mixed Ruling In Appeal Of Post-Grant Review Of Vape Patent

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 9 said that although an obviousness challenge by Philip Morris Products S.A. to patented vaping technology was correctly decided in favor of the tobacco giant, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board wrongly found inadequate written descriptive support for two other claims.