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Intellectual Property
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July 18, 2024
Vidal Backs 'Egregious Abuse' Findings Against Vaccine Maker
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director Kathi Vidal has upheld a Patent Trial and Appeal Board decision to punish Longhorn Vaccines & Diagnostics for "egregious abuse of the PTAB process," a status report in a Utah federal case indicates.
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July 18, 2024
Fed. Circ. OKs Gilstrap's Alice Ax Of Background Check Patent
The Federal Circuit on Thursday upheld Eastern District of Texas Judge Rodney Gilstrap's invalidation of a background check patent for claiming only an abstract idea, as well as his refusal to award attorney fees to the small Texas city that prevailed in the case.
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July 18, 2024
Comcast Gets PTAB To Eye Patent Despite EDTX Trial
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board on Thursday said it will look into a petition by Comcast asking it to invalidate claims in a patent organizing "content on a display device" that is tied to a $338.7 million jury verdict and is being asserted in another case set to go to trial later this year.
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July 18, 2024
Google Warns Fed. Circ. Panel Backed Manipulating Damages
The Federal Circuit's decision to make Google pay EcoFactor $20 million for infringing a smart thermostat patent clears patent owners to "manufacture a royalty rate" and ignore both market realities and apportionment, Google told the full court in a bid for rehearing.
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July 18, 2024
Ye Brazenly Stole DJ Khalil's Music For 'Donda,' Suit Says
The musical artist formerly known as Kanye West has been slapped with a lawsuit in California federal court claiming that he stole music from DJ Khalil and three other artists for two leading tracks on his blockbuster album "Donda."
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July 18, 2024
Fed. Circ. Won't Deflate Air Mattress Patent Upheld At PTAB
The Federal Circuit on Thursday affirmed the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's conclusion that no claims of a Sun Pleasure Co. air mattress patent are invalid based on the grounds asserted by a Chinese company.
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July 18, 2024
Invalid Patents Sink Tech Co.'s Claims Against Lenovo
A North Carolina federal judge has cut claims in an infringement suit over data transfer patents by wireless and video technology company InterDigital against Lenovo, finding some of the challenged patents are invalid.
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July 18, 2024
Del. Judge Overrules ViaTech's $34M Jury Win Against Adobe
A Delaware federal judge has concluded that Adobe Inc. could not have infringed a ViaTech technologies licensing system patent, and threw out a jury's $33.8 million infringement verdict.
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July 18, 2024
Tech Giants Can't Sink Slide-To-Unlock Patent At Fed. Circ.
Samsung, Apple and Google failed on Thursday to persuade a panel of Federal Circuit judges to kill a patent covering the idea of sliding-to-unlock a phone, purportedly developed by a small Sweden smartphone developer over a decade ago.
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July 18, 2024
US Cheerleading Org. Loses TM Fight Over 'Worlds' Marks
A Florida federal judge handed a pair of cheerleading organizations a summary judgment win Wednesday in a trademark infringement lawsuit by U.S. All Star Federation that alleged the rivals ripped off the competitive cheerleading organizational body's signature event's name, finding the contested "Worlds" marks are too generic to be protected.
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July 18, 2024
Pool Co. Wants To Dig Into Rival's Alter Egos For $16M Verdict
Pool supply company Hayward Industries Inc. is looking to force responses from the alter egos of bankrupt rival Blueworks Corp. regarding their assets, bank accounts and property so that Hayward can collect on its $16 million false advertising and unfair business practices judgment.
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July 18, 2024
Rising Star: Robins Kaplan's Emily Niles
Emily Niles of Robins Kaplan LLP helped lead the trial team that scored a $71.4 million jury verdict on behalf of Taiwanese Christmas lights company Willis Electric against a rival in Hong Kong that is the world's largest maker of artificial Christmas trees, earning her a spot among the intellectual property law practitioners under age 40 honored by Law360 as Rising Stars.
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July 17, 2024
T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon Accused Of Using Negotiating Cartel
An intellectual property licensing business on Wednesday filed yet another suit against AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless, this time accusing the telecommunications companies of wielding their market power and conspiring to refuse to license innovative 4G and 5G wireless communications system technology.
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July 17, 2024
Western Digital Owes $305M Over Hard Drive IP, Jury Told
Hard drive goliath Western Digital owes $305 million for selling drives that infringe MR Technologies' patents for increasing storage capacity, MR's attorney told a California federal jury during opening statements Wednesday, while Western Digital's counsel said the patents are invalid and its products don't infringe anyway.
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July 17, 2024
'Hot Girl Walk' Says Rival Infringed, Set An 'Army' On Brand
Hot Girl Walk, a social media-fueled walking organization, sued the founder of a group called Hot Walk Indy in Indiana federal court on Tuesday, claiming trademark infringement and a plot to "aggressively bully" and "take down" its brand.
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July 17, 2024
Zoho Gets PTAB To Cut Bulk Of Conference Call Patent Claims
Several Patent Trial and Appeal Board decisions have wiped out claims in patents covering ways of coordinating conference calls online, following a challenge from a major Indian software company that's facing an infringement lawsuit over the patents in Texas.
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July 17, 2024
PTAB Tears Down Roof Measurement Patent On Remand
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board has found that Nearmap was able to show that all the challenged claims of an EagleView Technologies Inc. patent on measuring roofs were invalid as obvious, a move that came after the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's director remanded the case.
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July 17, 2024
Dykema Faces Sony Sanctions Bid In Baseball Game TM Suit
Sony has urged a Texas federal court to sanction a baseball training company and its counsel in a trademark dispute over the digital giant's use of the phrase "future star series" in a popular video game, claiming they launched a lawsuit without investigating material facts and refused to eliminate false allegations.
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July 17, 2024
ITC Affirms Lab Equipment Co.'s Patent Wasn't Infringed
The U.S. International Trade Commission has upheld an administrative law judge's finding that a California biotechnology outfit did not infringe a German laboratory equipment supplier's patent.
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July 17, 2024
Many AI Patent Eligibility Issues Still Hazy After Guidance
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's new guidance on patent eligibility for inventions involving artificial intelligence provides some helpful details for patent applicants, but attorneys say it leaves unanswered questions that will likely require court decisions or legislation to sort out.
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July 17, 2024
Fed. Circ. Tells ParkerVision To Close Fla. Case Before Appeal
The Federal Circuit has ordered ParkerVision and Qualcomm to make a Florida federal judge explicitly end counterclaims in long-running infringement litigation between the two before continuing with ParkerVision's appeal.
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July 17, 2024
CBP Clears Vilox Tiles Of Infringing Patents In Import Dispute
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has ruled Vilox has shown its licensees' vinyl floor panels do not infringe Mohawk Industries Inc. patents and can be imported into the U.S.
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July 17, 2024
Steve Madden Raises IP, Libel Claims In Sandal Feud
Steven Madden Ltd. has filed suit alleging Danish "affordable luxury" brand Ganni A/S falsely claimed two of the U.S. company's shoe designs infringed Ganni's intellectual property.
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July 17, 2024
Investigator Argues Mogul's Hacked Data Aren't Trade Secrets
A private investigator accused of taking part in an international hacking conspiracy targeting airline mogul Farhad Azima is looking for a win after a protracted discovery battle, saying Azima has failed to prove the allegedly stolen data contained his trade secrets.
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July 17, 2024
Yet Another Patent Owner Wants High Court To Review Alice
A small Alabama company that claims to have invented a new way of "processing returned mail" is the latest to complain to the U.S. Supreme Court about the state of patent eligibility law after the company was unable to enforce its patent against the U.S. Postal Service.
Expert Analysis
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F1 Driver AI Case Sheds Light On Winning Tactics In IP Suits
A German court recently awarded damages to former F1 driver Michael Schumacher's family in an artificial intelligence dispute over the unlicensed use of his image, illustrating how athletes are using the law to protect their brands, and setting a precedent in other AI-generated image rights cases, William Bowyer at Lawrence Stephens.
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8th Circ. Insurance Ruling Spotlights Related-Claims Defenses
The Eighth Circuit’s recent Dexon v. Travelers ruling — that the insurer must provide a defense despite the policy’s related-acts provision — provides guidance for how policyholders can overcome related-acts defenses, say Geoffrey Fehling and Jae Lynn Huckaba at Hunton.
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Counterfeits At The Olympics Pose IP Challenges
With the 2024 Olympic Games quickly approaching, the proliferation of counterfeit Olympic merchandise poses a difficult challenge to the protection of intellectual property rights and the preservation of the Olympic brand's integrity, says Kimiya Shams at Devialet.
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Series
Playing Chess Makes Me A Better Lawyer
There are many ways that chess skills translate directly into lawyer skills, but for me, the bigger career lessons go beyond the direct parallels — playing chess has shown me the value of seeing gradual improvement in and focusing deep concentration on a nonwork endeavor, says attorney Steven Fink.
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Patent Lessons From 7 Federal Circuit Reversals In May
A look at recent cases where the Federal Circuit reversed or vacated decisions by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board or a federal district court provide guidance on how to succeed on appeal by clarifying the obviousness analysis of design patents, the finality of a judgment, and more, say Denise De Mory and Li Guo at Bunsow De Mory.
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Litigation Inspiration: Attys Can Be Heroic Like Olympians
Although litigation won’t earn anyone an Olympic medal in Paris this summer, it can be worthy of the same lasting honor if attorneys exercise focused restraint — seeking both their clients’ interests and those of the court — instead of merely pursuing every advantage short of sanctionable conduct, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.
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Lean Into The 'Great Restoration' To Retain Legal Talent
As the “great resignation,” in which employees voluntarily left their jobs in droves, has largely dissipated, legal employers should now work toward the idea of a “great restoration,” adopting strategies to effectively hire, onboard and retain top legal talent, says Molly McGrath at Hiring & Empowering Solutions.
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Momofuku Chili War May Chill Common Phrase TM Apps
Momofuku’s recent trademark battle over the “Chili Crunch” mark shows that over-enforcement when protecting exclusivity rights may backfire not just in the public eye, but with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as well, says Anthony Panebianco at Davis Malm.
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Trademark In Artistic Works 1 Year After Jack Daniel's
In the year since the U.S. Supreme Court's Jack Daniel's v. VIP Products ruling, courts have applied Jack Daniel's inconsistently to deny First Amendment protection to artistic works, providing guidance for dismissing trademark claims relating to film and TV titles, say Hardy Ehlers and Neema Sahni at Covington.
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NCAA Settlement May End The NIL Model As We Know It
The recent House v. NCAA settlement in California federal court, in which the NCAA agreed to allow schools to directly pay March Madness television revenue to their athletes, may send outside name, image and likeness collectives in-house, says Mike Ingersoll at Womble Bond.
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Legal Battles Show Brands' Dilemma In Luxury Resale Trend
Recent litigation, such as Chanel's pending case against The RealReal, underscores the intricate balance luxury brands must strike between protecting their trademarks and embracing the burgeoning secondhand market that values sustainability, says Prachi Ajmera at Michelman & Robinson.
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AI-Generated Soundalikes Pose Right Of Publicity Issues
Artificial intelligence voice generators have recently proliferated, allowing users to create new voices or manipulate existing vocals with no audio engineering expertise, and although soundalikes may be permissible in certain cases, they likely violate the right of publicity of the person who is being mimicked, says Matthew Savare at Lowenstein Sandler.
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Why Jurors Balk At 'I Don't Recall' — And How To Respond
Jurors often react negatively to a witness who responds “I don’t remember” because they tend to hold erroneous beliefs about the nature of human memory, but attorneys can adopt a few strategies to mitigate the impact of these biases, say Steve Wood and Ava Hernández at Courtroom Sciences.
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Beware Of Trademark Scammers Leveraging USPTO Data
Amid a recent uptick in fraudulent communications directed at trademark applicants, registrants must understand how to protect themselves and their brand from fraudulent schemes and solicitation, say Michael Kelber and Alexandra Maloney at Neal Gerber.
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Series
Fishing Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Atop the list of ways fishing makes me a better lawyer is the relief it offers from the chronic stress of a demanding caseload, but it has also improved my listening skills and patience, and has served as an exceptional setting for building earnest relationships, says Steven DeGeorge at Robinson Bradshaw.