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WASHINGTON, D.C. — The District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Dec. 6 denied petitions filed by TikTok Inc., Tik Tok creators and a nonprofit promoting TikTok content seeking review of a federal law that promises to ban the popular social network absent a corporate ownership change, finding that provisions of the act related to the TikTok platform “are narrowly tailored to further” national security interests.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a patent infringement dispute between manufacturers of semiconductors, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Dec. 5 affirmed findings from the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that some claims in the relevant patents are ineligible as obvious while other claims are patent eligible, handing mixed results to both the appellant and cross-appellant companies.
PHILADELPHIA — A Pennsylvania state court jury on Dec. 6 handed down a verdict in favor of a medical device company in a lawsuit brought by a widow who contended that the company’s use of ethylene oxide (EtO) at a facility where it sterilizes medical instruments caused her husband’s wrongful death.
DENVER — The 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed and remanded a district court’s judgment for a liability insurer in a dispute between it and a health insurer regarding coverage to the health insurer in an underlying multidistrict litigation antitrust dispute involving an excess errors and omissions (E&O) policy issued by a now-insolvent insurer.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A New York federal judge did not err in granting summary judgment in a patent dispute between social media company Meta Platforms Inc. and a company that accused it of infringing patents related to methods of storing data chronologically, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said, affirming the judge’s holding that the evidence did not show that Meta’s product satisfied the patents’ claim limitations.
ATLANTA — An 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said a Georgia federal judge did not err in granting a preliminary injunction in a trademark infringement dispute between two manufacturers of dietary supplements over two alternative spellings of the word “cranked” in relation to energy drink products.
CINCINNATI — A district court did not abuse its discretion in rejecting a motion to exclude a fingerprint expert from testifying during a criminal trial, nor was there an error in its answer to a jury’s question, the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said.
SAN FRANCISCO — The California federal judge overseeing a multidistrict litigation involving claims against genetic testing company 23andMe Inc. for failing to protecting users’ data from hackers granted preliminary approval on Dec. 4 to a $30 million settlement of the claims on the condition that the plaintiffs amend their definition of the settlement class to exclude parties who are pursuing arbitration and despite “serious concerns” with the plaintiffs’ $7.5 million attorney fees request.
ATLANTA —The 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Dec. 4 held that a general liability insurance policy unambiguously relieves the insurer of its duty to defend or indemnify its insured for an underlying wrongful death lawsuit, affirming a lower federal court’s dismissal of a direct action brought against the insurer by the daughter of a man who died in a holding cell at a Georgia jail.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Dec. 4 said the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) was correct to hold that many of claims in a series of patents owned by a biopharmaceutical company related to the process of separating components from a mixture are unpatentable as obvious, but the panel reversed the PTAB’s findings that some of the claims were not unpatentable.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The clerk of the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 4 issued a letter stating that “consistent with the Code of Conduct for Justices of the Supreme Court, Justice Neil Gorsuch has determined that he will not continue to participate in” a case in which petitioners seek reversal of a ruling finding that the Surface Transportation Board (STB) failed to adequately examine the risk of wildfires and the impact on groundwater posed by the construction of a rail line in Utah that would carry products related to hydraulic fracturing to and from the shale formation in the Uinta Basin. Oral argument is scheduled for Dec. 10.