Mealey's Intellectual Property
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July 09, 2024
In Financial Patent Dispute, N.J. Federal Judge Issues Claim Construction Order
TRENTON, N.J. — A New Jersey federal judge constructed the meaning of six patent terms in a dispute over whether a financial services company’s website infringed two patents that disclose a method for online currency transactions.
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July 09, 2024
Appliance Store In Trademark Fight Says 5th Circuit Wrongly Reversed Fees
NEW ORLEANS — An appliance store that the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held had its trademark on “Appliance Liquidation Outlet” infringed filed a petition for panel rehearing on a narrow aspect of the Fifth Circuit’s opinion, arguing that the panel majority was incorrect to reverse the award of attorney fees in the store’s favor.
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July 09, 2024
5th Circuit Orders New Trial In Trademark Dispute Over Guitar Shapes
NEW ORLEANS — A Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on July 8 held that a Texas federal judge abused his discretion in a trademark infringement dispute between electric guitar manufacturers by excluding decades of evidence regarding third-party use of the trademarks, ordering a new trial in the case.
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July 08, 2024
Electronic Document Signature Is Not A Patentable Idea, Federal Circuit Rules
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal trial court did not err in finding that a system and method for embedding a written signature into a secure electronic document is unpatentable because the idea is directed to an abstract idea and fails to contain and inventive concept, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found in affirming the trial court’s judgment.
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July 08, 2024
OpenAI, New York Times Debate Discovery Of Reporters’ Notes In AI Copyright Suit
NEW YORK — In letter briefing, the New York Times Co. (NYT) and OpenAI battle over whether copyright claims linked to artificial intelligence ChatGPT’s alleged reproduction of news articles permit discovery into reporters’ notes and associated materials underlying the stories.
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July 05, 2024
Microsoft, OpenAI Defend Need For Consolidation Of Media AI Suits
NEW YORK — Companies at the heart of suits over artificial intelligence urged a federal judge in New York in July 3 reply briefs to consolidate two cases brought by various newspapers and grant additional time for discovery required by the sprawling nature of the allegations.
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July 05, 2024
5th Circuit: Lower Court Misapplied Summary Judgment Standard In Trademark Row
NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge in Texas inappropriately granted summary judgment to a defendant hotel and restaurant group in an infringement dispute over the use of the phrase “Summer House” in a trademark, a panel of judges in the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held, finding that the judge misapplied the summary judgment standard by failing to consider the evidence in the light most favorable to the plaintiff.
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July 01, 2024
COMMENTARY: Non-Competes No More? What Businesses Should Do To Protect Trade Secrets And Confidential Information Now
By Geri Haight and Danielle Bereznay
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July 03, 2024
7th Circuit: Lower Court Must Reconsider Copyright Damages In Trade Secrets Suit
CHICAGO — A panel of the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on July 2 held that an Illinois federal judge incorrectly calculated damages against a mobile communications company for using stolen copyrighted code from another mobile communications company, with the panel finding that without specific proof that the code was stolen from an Illinois server, copyright damages should be lowered.
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July 03, 2024
PTAB Panel Agrees With Examiner That Cancer Treatment Method Was Obvious
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A patent examiner did not err in finding that a method for treating cancer was obvious in light of two previous publications because the publications described methods for treating different types of cancers with similar compounds, a Patent and Trademark Office panel found in affirming the examiner’s rejection of the patent application on July 2.
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July 03, 2024
Wooden Liquor Barrel Was Anticipated By Older Patent, Split Board Panel Finds
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A patent examiner did not err in rejecting a patent application for a wooden liquor bottle that ages liquor by allowing gas to flow into it because a previous patent for a wooden demijohn anticipated the claimed invention, the majority of a Patent Trial and Appeals Board (PTAB) panel found in affirming the examiner’s findings on July 2.
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July 03, 2024
3rd Circuit: Claims Of Copyright Violation Negated By Licensing Agreement
PHILADELPHIA — A panel of the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of a copyright infringement claim brought by a woman and the health company she owns against her brother and his affiliated health company, affirming the finding of a Pennsylvania federal judge that an agreement between the siblings allowed the brother total freedom to create and distribute works related to a hormone therapy system she created.
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July 02, 2024
9th Circuit Affirms Use Of Consumer Survey In Trademark Dispute
SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in California did not abuse discretion by admitting a likelihood-of-confusion survey as expert evidence in a jury trial that ultimately found no likelihood of confusion between two trademarks used by business financing companies, a panel of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held July 1, affirming the grant of final judgment in the defendant company’s favor.
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July 01, 2024
9th Circuit Affirms Use Of ‘Server Test’ To Reject Goat Photo Copyright Claim
SAN FRANCISCO — A Nevada federal judge correctly applied the “server test” to determine that a photographer’s copyright to a picture of an escaped goat was not infringed by a website operator showing the photo on the website, a panel of judges in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held June 28.
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July 01, 2024
Patent Board Agrees With Examiner That Watermelon Popsicles For Dogs Are Obvious
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In light of two former patents, a patent application and an online recipe, a Patent Trial and Appeals Board panel agreed in a June 28 opinion with a patent examiner’s findings that a patent application describing electrolyte-replenishing, watermelon-based popsicles for dogs was obvious.
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July 01, 2024
Judge Nixes Clothier’s Contributory Infringement Claim Against Website
NEW YORK — A streetwear company founded by rapper Young Thug does not show that online marketplace websites were aware that merchants were selling trademarked material and thus cannot pursue a contributory trademark infringement claim against them, a federal judge in New York found, dismissing one count against the websites from the complaint.
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June 28, 2024
High Court Overrules Chevron Deference, Changes Standard For Regulatory Review
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on June 28 voted 6-3 to overrule the doctrine of Chevron deference as incompatible with the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) in two cases arising out of federal fishing regulations, changing governing precedent for federal courts reviewing agencies’ regulatory actions.
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June 28, 2024
Federal Circuit Transfers Copyright Row Over Russian Band To 11th Circuit
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A panel of judges in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals found a that record label should not have appealed to that circuit a Florida federal judge’s finding that the label failed to establish personal jurisdiction against a French company for allegedly infringing on copyrights related to a Soviet-era Russian boy band, ordering that the appeal be transferred to the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
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June 27, 2024
Federal Circuit: Patent Defendant Not Entitled To Fees After Voluntary Dismissal
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A company that produces contactless data carrying technology that is used in federal identification documents is not entitled to attorney fees in a patent infringement case because the claims against it were voluntarily dismissed after the plaintiff removed the claims from its amended complaint, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found in affirming a judgment from the U.S. Court of Federal Claims on June 26.
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June 26, 2024
Music Industry Entities Sue Pair Of AI Companies Over Copying Of Recordings
NEW YORK — Two companies trained artificial intelligence on decades’ worth of copyrighted sound recordings with “rapid and devastating” effect, various music industry entities claim in a pair of June 25 complaints filed in Massachusetts and New York federal courts, warning that the technology presents both “promise and peril.”
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June 26, 2024
7th Circuit: Church, Not Founder’s Grandson, Owns Copyright To Photo Of Founder
CHICAGO — The son and grandson of the late founder of a Christian organization cannot bring copyright counterclaims about a photo taken of the founder by his son and used in promotional materials, a panel of the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled, affirming an Indiana federal judge’s grant of summary judgment in the company’s favor in part because the photo was a “work made for hire.”
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June 26, 2024
1st Circuit: Singer Is ‘Featured Artist,’ Entitled To Royalties From Records
BOSTON — The former lead singer of one of Puerto Rico’s most popular musical acts is a “recording artist . . . featured” on the band’s recordings and not the corporate entity that owns the band or that entity’s owner, a panel of the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled, reversing a Puerto Rico federal judge’s decision to deny summary judgment to the singer in a royalty dispute over certain of the band’s recordings.
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June 25, 2024
Counterclaims Will Continue In Patent Dispute Over Apple Watch’s Visual Designs
NEW YORK — Counterclaims of invalidity and noninfringement filed by Apple Inc. in response to patent infringement claims relating to certain visual designs used in the Apple Watch can go forward because Apple has met its pleading requirements, a New York federal judge found in refusing to dismiss the company’s counterclaims.
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June 25, 2024
Music Industry’s AI Suit Will Play In California After Transfer
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Music publishers sued a California-based artificial intelligence company in Tennessee and must live with the fact that they have not shown that the fact that the company employs a few individuals who chose to work from home in Tennessee satisfies the jurisdiction hurdle, a federal judge in Tennessee said June 24.
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June 24, 2024
Panel: Mobile Gambling Patents Abstract And Fail To Contain Inventive Concept
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge did not err in dismissing patent infringement claims regarding a series of patents that disclose a method for placing gambling bets from a remote location because the patents are based on an abstract idea and do not contain an inventive concept, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found in affirming June 21.