Mealey's Intellectual Property
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June 19, 2024
Microsoft Joins OpenAI’s Call For Consolidation Of Media AI Suits
NEW YORK — Microsoft Corp. joined in various OpenAI entities’ motion to consolidate a suit brought by eight news organizations challenging outputs from the ChatGPT artificial intelligence and its associated programs with a similar suit filed by The New York Times Co., saying in its joinder brief filed in a federal court in New York that doing so will combine suits that challenge similar technologies.
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June 19, 2024
Judge Rules ‘Florida Man’ Not Famous Enough For Dilution In Trademark Dispute
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A federal judge in Florida granted in part a Florida company and its principal’s motion to dismiss a complaint alleging that the company violated another company’s “FLORIDA MAN” trademark, finding that the mark is not “famous” under federal or Florida law.
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June 19, 2024
Federal Circuit: PTAB Used Wrong Construction In Dispute Over Control Devices
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) used an erroneous claim construction in rejecting an obviousness challenge filed by television manufacturer Roku Inc., which was sued for allegedly infringing upon a patent for enhanced appliance control methods, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals found June 18 in vacating PTAB’s final written decision (FWD).
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June 18, 2024
Judgment Requiring Inhaler Patents To Be Delisted Stayed For 30 Days
TRENTON, N.J. — While stopping short of granting a request to stay his recent order that a drugmaker must delist five patents from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s “Orange Book” pending resolution of an appeal, a federal judge in New Jersey has agreed to put the judgment on hold for 30 days.
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June 18, 2024
Federal Circuit Judge Stands By Nonobviousness Holding In Drug Dispute
WILMINGTON, Del. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals judge, visiting in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, said that a recent decision by a panel of his court that reversed and remanded findings that a patented schizophrenia drug is nonobvious won’t prompt him to revisit his own findings in a separate case that confirmed the same formulation as patentable.
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June 18, 2024
Counterclaims Tossed In California Patent Row Over Chipmaking Robots
SAN FRANCISCO — An automation company accused of infringing five reissue patents for chipmaking robots saw its counterclaim for inequitable conduct dismissed, with a federal judge in California rejecting arguments that during patent prosecution an industry standard was purposely withheld from the examiner when the same standard is identified in the specification of the parent patent.
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June 18, 2024
Claims Over Hotel’s Use Of Minors’ Photo On Instagram, Website Dismissed
LOS ANGELES — Citing issues of preemption and shotgun pleadings, a California federal judge dismissed claims of copyright infringement, unfair competition and misappropriation, among others, that were brought against a hotel for its online use of an Instagram picture of two minors that purportedly exceeded any consent granted by the copyright holder.
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June 18, 2024
Federal Circuit Denies 2 Petitions For Rehearing In Antibiotic Patent Case
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied two petitions for rehearing of its decision affirming a Delaware federal judge’s final judgment directing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to delay approval of generic rifaximin until three patents covering the antibiotic Xifaxan expire.
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June 17, 2024
Patent Covering Above-Ground Pool Frame Joint Singled Out For Review
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — In a June 15 request for post-grant review (PGR), a petitioner says that a patentee’s own above-ground-pool (AGP), sold since 2007, renders various claims of a recently-issued pool frame joint patent obvious, as well as that other claims of the same patent are cancellable as indefinite.
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June 17, 2024
4th Circuit: Lanham Act Does Not Preclude Judicial Review In Dispute Over Rum Mark
RICHMOND, Va. — A panel of judges in the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals found that the Lanham Act does not preclude judicial review under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), remanding to a Virginia federal judge a rum manufacturer’s claim that the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office inappropriately allowed a rival brand to renew a trademark a decade after its expiration.
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June 17, 2024
Judge Affirms Jury Verdict, Award Against Creators Of Video Game Cheat
SEATTLE — Affirming a jury’s finding that five defendants infringed copyrights in the popular Destiny 2 video game series by creating a cheat for it that they sold online, a Washington federal judge also entered a permanent injunction and a monetary judgment of $63,210 in favor of the video game developer, per the jury’s recommendation.
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June 17, 2024
Plaintiffs Won’t Amend Privacy Action Involving ChatGPT After Dismissal
SAN FRANCISCO — Plaintiffs confronted with a court ruling finding their privacy and California unfair competition law (UCL) action involving artificial intelligence raises policy concerns more appropriate in a town hall than a courtroom told a federal judge in California on June 14 that they will not amend their complaint and asked the court to close the case.
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June 17, 2024
Media Company May Update AI Suit With More Specificity, Federal Judge Says
NEW YORK — The Intercept Media Inc. may amend its artificial intelligence copyright complaint to address “seeming lack of specificity” in the action, a federal judge in New York said, noting that he will consider existing briefing on a motion to dismiss as targeted to the amended filing and will rule quickly after the filing of supplemental briefing.
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June 14, 2024
New York City Can Intervene In Cannabis Cruise Copyright, Trademark Litigation
NEW YORK — Citing the “undeniable interest” the city of New York has in a trademark and copyright infringement action involving the “NYC NEW YORK CANNABIS” logo, a federal judge in New York has granted the city’s motion to intervene.
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June 13, 2024
Magistrate Judge Denies Bid To Seal Financial Data In Patent, Trademark Row
NEW YORK — A letter request to redact “the factual basis” for a request for damages by a patent and trademark infringement plaintiff against defaulting infringement defendants has been rejected by a federal magistrate judge in New York.
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June 13, 2024
In Win For PTO, High Court Declares ‘Names’ Clause Constitutional
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The full U.S. Supreme Court on June 13 reversed a ruling by the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that a provision of federal trademark law barring registrations that “falsely suggest a connection with persons, living or dead” violates free speech rights, but the justices, in several concurrences, offered vastly different reasons why.
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June 13, 2024
Amazon Did Not Infringe Upon Mermaid Sleeping Bag Patents, Magistrate Judge Says
SEATTLE — Amazon did not infringe upon three design patents for a mermaid sleeping bag by selling 37 different mermaid-shaped blankets and sleeping bags because an ordinary observer would not believe that the products were the same, a Washington federal magistrate judge found in granting Amazon’s motion to dismiss patent infringement claims brought against it by the patent holder.
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June 13, 2024
Proctor & Gamble Tells 2nd Circuit Febreze Jingle Did Not Infringe Song
NEW YORK — A five-note melodic hook that is part of a copyrighted song is not separately protectable, Proctor & Gamble Corp. (P&G) and others argue in an appellee brief, asking the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to affirm a trial court’s dismissal of a musician’s complaint in which he alleged that the Febreze advertising jingle infringed the hook.
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June 12, 2024
Board Enters Adverse Judgment Following Patent Owner Disclaimer
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The Patent Trial and Appeal Board on June 11 denied a request to discretionarily terminate an inter partes review (IPR) without addressing allegations that petitioner BMW of North America LLC failed to follow through on a promise to drop the proceedings, purportedly causing a patent owner to miss the deadline to file its response.
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June 12, 2024
1st Circuit: No Final Judgment With Registration Requirement Dismissal
BOSTON — A graphic designer whose copyright infringement allegations against a former client were dismissed by a federal judge in Massachusetts saw the action reinstated by the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, which ruled that a prior action between the parties was not claim preclusive.
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June 12, 2024
Netflix, Amici Tell 10th Circuit Use Of Clip In ‘Tiger King’ Was Fair
DENVER — In a supplemental brief filed at the behest of a 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel that granted its petition for rehearing, Netflix Inc. argues that a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling supports a finding that its use of an unlicensed video clip in its wildly popular “Tiger King” docuseries constituted fair use under Section 107 of the Copyright Act.
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June 12, 2024
Panel Reinstates Trade Secret Liability Verdict, Affirms Denial Of Fees
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Allegations of patent infringement voluntarily dismissed midtrial and copyright infringement on the eve of trial were not so devoid of merit as to justify an award of attorney fees in favor of a defendant medical equipment company, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed June 11.
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June 11, 2024
Board: R.J. Reynolds’ Application For Cigarette Patent Properly Rejected
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Two prior art patents dating to the mid-1990s and assigned to R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. (RJR) have doomed the tobacco titan’s latest effort to patent a “smoking article,” with the Patent Trial and Appeal Board on June 10 upholding an examiner’s rejection of 20 claims on grounds of obviousness.
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June 11, 2024
New Jersey Federal Judge: Teva ‘ProAir’ Patents Improperly Listed
TRENTON, N.J. — Five patents listed by Teva Pharmaceuticals Inc. with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in connection with a new drug application (NDA) for ProAir HFA (albuterol sulfate) Inhalation Aerosol do not cover albuterol sulfate, a federal judge in New Jersey found June 10, granting judgment on delisting counterclaims by Amneal Pharmaceuticals Inc. and others, which were backed by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission as amicus curiae.
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June 11, 2024
Biotech Companies Agree To Dismiss Appeals Over DNA Sequencing Patents
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In orders issued June 10, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals granted voluntary dismissal in two appeals of final written decisions (FWDs) by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board where Guardant Health Inc. prevailed.