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Mealey's Intellectual Property

October 07, 2025
Supreme Court Rejects USAA’s Petition In Patent Row With PNC Bank

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 6 denied the United Services Automobile Association’s (USAA) petition for a writ of certiorari, leaving in place the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ affirmation of the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB) decision to invalidate USAA’s mobile banking patents; USAA contended that PTAB arbitrarily rendered opposing decisions on its patents in inter partes review (IPR) proceedings sought by different IPR petitioners.
October 07, 2025
High Court Won’t Review $95M Verdict In E-Cigarette Patent Row

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 6 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by e-cigarette company R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co. (RJR), which sought review of a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel’s ruling upholding a more than $95 million jury verdict against RJR for infringing three Altria Client Services LLC patents for pod-based e-cigarettes.
October 07, 2025
High Court Invites U.S. Input On 2nd Circuit’s Trademark Similarity Analysis

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 6 invited the U.S. government to participate in briefing while the justices consider whether to grant a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by a coffee brewing company that argues the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals “stands alone” in considering a trademark’s strength a question of law and not a question of fact.
October 07, 2025
No High Court Consideration Of PTO’s ‘Space Force’ Mark Rejection

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 6 rejected an attorney’s petition for a writ of certiorari, declining to hear his argument that the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals inappropriately deferred to the interpretation used by the U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) of a section of the Lanham Act when affirming the TTAB’s rejection of his application for a mark for US SPACE FORCE filed only days after President Donald J. Trump’s first proposals regarding the branch.
October 07, 2025
Anthropic Pushes Back On Ruling Delaying AI Copyright Damages

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Anthropic PBC told a federal judge in California that music publishers already have all the information they need to calculate damages and neither the novelty nor the complexity of an artificial intelligence copyright case requires delaying the disclosure.
October 06, 2025
High Court Won’t Consider Obviousness Of Oxycontin Patent Claims

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 6 rejected a petition for a writ of certiorari from Purdue Pharma LP and related entities, which told the justices that the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has created a rigid nexus test when considering evidence of nonobviousness in a dispute over patents controlling Purdue’s Oxycontin drug.
October 06, 2025
High Court Rejects Writer’s Claim That Copyright Expert Was Wrongly Excluded

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 6 rejected a petition for a writ of certiorari from a playwright who contended that the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals was wrong to affirm a California federal judge’s grant of summary judgment to film production entities the writer accused of copying elements of her work.
October 06, 2025
Federal Circuit Affirms Slashing Of Medical Staple Patent Damages To $1

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a Delaware federal jury’s finding that a medical technology company and affiliated entities infringed a single claim of a competitor’s patent on a surgical stapling product and also affirmed the judge’s decision to reduce the jury’s damages award from $10 million to only $1.
October 03, 2025
AI Copyright Plaintiffs Blocked From Expanded Discovery For 3rd Time

OAKLAND, Calif. — A federal magistrate judge in California on Oct. 2 declined to expand the datasets subject to discovery in an artificial intelligence copyright suit, relying on her previous conclusion that discovery should be limited to The Pile dataset, which contains the copyrighted works and was used to train Nvidia Corp.’s NeMo Megatron large language model.
October 03, 2025
Judge Tosses Temu’s Antitrust Claims Against Shein But Lets IP Claims Survive

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the District of Columbia dismissed much of a suit brought by the company behind online store Temu against the company behind competitor Shein, tossing claims of trade secret misappropriation, antitrust violations and others, but the judge will allow claims of copyright and trade dress infringement, along with other intellectual property claims, to proceed.
October 02, 2025
4th Circuit Rejects Petition To Reconsider Injunction For Dance Team’s Mark Use

RICHMOND, Va. — The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a charter school and its parent-teacher organization’s petition for panel rehearing and rehearing en banc, leaving in place a panel’s September ruling that affirmed a North Carolina judge’s decision to deny the school entities’ request for a preliminary injunction against a local dance company in the parties’ dispute over a trademark on a logo using the name “Inspire.”
October 02, 2025
D.C. Circuit Won’t Reconsider Copyright Register Job Interference Ruling

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals issued two per curiam orders Oct. 1 denying reconsideration and en banc reconsideration of a Sept. 10 order enjoining various federal government parties from interfering with Shira Perlmutter’s service as the register of copyrights and director of the U.S. Copyright Office pending appeal.
October 02, 2025
Judge Grants Summary Judgment On Some Counterclaims In ‘Vampire’ Wine Mark Row

TAMPA, Fla. — In a dispute over imported Romanian wine bearing marks related to the vampire Dracula, a federal judge in Florida partly granted a motion for partial summary judgment, setting aside counterclaims and affirmative defenses that suggested that the plaintiff entity committed fraud on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) to obtain its marks.
October 02, 2025
Federal Circuit Vacates PTAB Obviousness Finding For Social Media Map Patent

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled Oct. 1 that the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) correctly held that a technology company’s substitute claims in a patent related to displaying social media posts on a geographic map satisfy the written description requirement under the Patent Act; however, the panel also decided that PTAB erred in its consideration of the obviousness of those substitute claims.
October 01, 2025
Federal Circuit: Multiple Errors In Hookless Curtain Infringement Findings

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel issued a mixed opinion Sept. 30 in a long-running intellectual property dispute over hookless shower curtains, affirming a New York federal judge’s findings that one appellant company infringed multiple patents but vacating or reversing findings that another appellant company infringed the patents; the panel also vacated trademark and trade dress infringement findings against the appellant companies and set aside attorney fees.
October 01, 2025
11th Circuit Affirms Fees In 5th Consideration Of Commodores Mark Appeal

ATLANTA — Considering an appeal related to the case for the fifth time, an 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel upheld a Florida federal judge’s decision to award attorney fees in “protracted litigation” involving trademarks related to the funk band The Commodores against one of its founding members who formed groups with similar names after departing from the group.
October 01, 2025
6th Circuit: Software Company’s Copyright, Trade Secret Claims Fail

CINCINNATI — An Ohio federal judge properly granted summary judgment to a defendant software company on trade secret and copyright infringement claims, a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held, finding that the plaintiff software company’s trade secret claims were time-barred and that it failed to substantiate its copyright claim.
September 30, 2025
Judge: Prior And Pending Litigation Exclusion Does Not Bar Cyber Liability Coverage

WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware judge granted in part and denied in part an insured and its excess insurers’ summary judgment motions in a cyber liability coverage dispute, holding that the prior and pending litigation policy exclusion does not relieve the excess insurers of their duty to defend but they have no duty to indemnify the insured for the costs it incurred in a reciprocal lawsuit.
September 30, 2025
Federal Circuit Says Ride-Sharing Patents Were Obvious, Affirms Lyft’s Win

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Sept. 29 said Lyft Inc. successfully showed that certain claims of patents held by another technology company are unpatentable as obvious, affirming findings from the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) issued in multiple inter partes review (IPR) proceedings.
September 30, 2025
Federal Circuit: Company Lacked Standing To Appeal PTAB Lottery Ticket Decision

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held that a technology company lacked standing to appeal a final written decision from the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) wherein the PTAB held that the company failed to show that multiple claims of a patent related to lottery ticket printing were unpatentable; the panel held that the company failed to show that it had suffered an injury in fact.
September 30, 2025
Ross Intelligence Asks 3rd Circuit To Overturn AI Copyright Ruling

PHILADELPHIA — Headnotes quote judicial opinions that are public property and not subject to copyright protections, and their limited use in training artificial intelligence constituted fair use, legal search company Ross Intelligence Inc. told the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in an opening brief challenging direct copyright and fair use summary judgment rulings.
September 29, 2025
Tech Companies, PTO Tell High Court PTAB Can Review Expired Patents

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Apple Inc., Google LLC, LG Electronics Inc. and an affiliate tell the U.S. Supreme Court in a pair of Sept. 26 briefs that it should reject a patent-holding company’s petitions for writs of certiorari because they raise arguments about the constitutionality of inter partes review (IPR) proceedings before the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that the high court has previously rejected.
September 26, 2025
Federal Circuit: TTAB Misapplied DuPont Factors For Trademark Application

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) erred in its consideration of two of the likelihood-of-confusion factors when weighing whether to allow a banking entity to register marks using the name “Aspire Bank,” a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held Sept. 25 in an opinion that affirmed other aspects of the board’s analysis.
September 26, 2025
Mapping Patent Claims Rightly Found Abstract, Federal Circuit Holds

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel saw no errors in an Illinois federal judge’s finding that all asserted claims in patents related to methods for displaying brand information on a geographic map were invalid as abstract, affirming the judge’s dismissal with prejudice of the patent holder’s suit in a nonprecedential Sept. 25 opinion.
September 26, 2025
Judge Affirms Limits On Dataset Discovery In AI Copyright Fight

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge on Sept. 25 denied a motion for relief from a magistrate judge’s order limiting discovery into the datasets used to train artificial intelligence, saying courts regularly impose such limits when the discovery exceeds the allegations in a complaint.