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October 29, 2026
CHICAGO — In a short Oct. 28 order, the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a Wisconsin federal judge’s decision to dismiss a man’s copyright infringement suit against the National Football League (NFL) and the Wisconsin Department of Revenue, holding that the phrases the man used in Green Bay Packers-themed songs were unprotectable slogan-like phrases.
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October 29, 2026
CHICAGO — A Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed an Indiana federal judge’s grant of summary judgment to two defendant-appellee authors on copyright claims brought against them by an organization focusing on a type of psychotherapy, holding that the authors had been granted permission to use an influential psychoanalyst’s article in their book by the previous copyright owners of the essay.
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October 28, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a California federal judge’s decision to dismiss an attorney’s patent infringement suit against a host of defendant-appellees because she failed to oppose dismissal motions.
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October 28, 2026
SHERMAN, Texas — A Texas federal judge adopted recommendations by a magistrate judge for a default judgment against various individuals who violated a company’s copyright on media related to its petal-shaped drinking cups for bees and awarded $472,878 in damages.
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October 28, 2026
MIAMI — A federal judge in Florida entered a default judgment against 28 imitation goods sellers and awarded $23.16 million in statutory damages and injunctive relief to a well-known athletic shoe and clothing brand in a trademark lawsuit; the ruling came several weeks after adidas AG, adidas International Marketing B.V. and adidas America Inc. (together, adidas) agreed to consent judgments with two other defendants.
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October 22, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A federal magistrate judge in California dismissed a copyright lawsuit after the digital creator behind the popular internet meme “Running Away Balloon” art and an artificial intelligence marketing company that allegedly infringed on the copyright by making the two-box comic available on its site resolved the case.
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October 22, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Google LLC failed to show that 23 claims of a patent related to technology designed to merge search results were unpatentable, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, affirming a decision by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) and rejecting Google’s attempt to point to a patent application filed five weeks earlier as well as a three-week gap between when the last inventor signed his oath and the filing of the patent application.
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October 19, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 19 denied a pro se inventor’s petition for a writ of certiorari filed after the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a U.S. Court of Federal Claims judge’s decisions to dismiss the inventor’s patent claims against the U.S. government for allegedly taking his cell phone related patents and deny the inventor’s motion to disqualify the judge.
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October 19, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 19 denied Google LLC’s petition for a writ of certiorari challenging an order by the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals declining to reconsider the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s (PTO) reliance on “‘settled expectations’” in denying Google’s petition for inter partes review (IPR) challenging a software patent.
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October 19, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In an Oct. 19 order list, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a videographer’s petition for a writ of certiorari challenging a Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel’s finding that a North Carolina federal judge was wrong to reopen the man’s complaint against North Carolina and multiple elected officials; the panel said the judge failed to justify the reasons for applying a 2006 high court ruling in the 2021 decision that revived copyright infringement claims centering around images depicting the sunken remains of the pirate Blackbeard’s flagship.
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October 19, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 19 due to lack of a quorum affirmed a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decision to uphold a Louisiana federal judge’s determination that a songwriter and his corporation, and not a music publishing company, own the worldwide copyrights associated with the early rock ‘n’ roll song “Double Shot (Of My Baby’s Love).”
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October 16, 2026
PITTSBURGH — A federal magistrate judge in Pennsylvania ordered that parties’ bonds remain in place in a dispute over intellectual property rights related to a fudge recipe while the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals mulls appellate attorney fees; a partially split appeals court panel in July affirmed an award of attorney fees against plaintiff entities for their unsuccessful copyright and trademark claims in the dispute and affirmed their jury victory on trade secret claims.
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October 16, 2026
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Concluding that multiple employees of third-party consultants “acted as functional employees of” the defendant in a patent dispute, a Florida federal magistrate judge ruled that he didn’t have enough information to issue a protective order but that the defendant “did not waive the attorney client privilege purely because information was disclosed to” the consultants and “the work product doctrine could apply to the documents at issue.”
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October 16, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — After a Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel in June affirmed a federal judge’s decision to cancel a patriotic clothing company’s trademark on the phrase “This We’ll Defend” because another company began using the phrase as a mark years earlier, the clothing company that saw its mark canceled is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to consider whether the Lanham Act authorizes prejudgment interest in ordinary trademark infringement cases.
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October 16, 2026
PHOENIX — A federal judge in Arizona correctly dismissed a man’s complaint against Google LLC alleging that it infringed a trademark on his name by allowing allegedly defamatory material about him to appear in search results, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held, finding that the plaintiff-appellant abandoned his theory of trademark infringement on appeal and failed to plead a newly asserted theory in the district court.
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October 16, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — After a Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel in June affirmed a federal judge’s decision to cancel a patriotic clothing company’s trademark on the phrase “This We’ll Defend” because another company began using the phrase as a mark years earlier, the clothing company that saw its mark canceled is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to consider whether the Lanham Act authorizes prejudgment interest in ordinary trademark infringement cases.
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October 15, 2026
GREEN BAY, Wis. — After a Wisconsin federal judge for a second time granted summary judgment of patent invalidity to a defendant eyeglass company, the company is requesting the judge find the patent infringement case against it to be exceptional and award it attorney fees.
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October 15, 2026
CHICAGO — A Chicago rooftop bar that overlooks Wrigley Field and its owner have appealed an Illinois federal judge’s entry of a permanent injunction that bars them from using marks owned by the Chicago Cubs Baseball Club LLC and from selling tickets to view Cubs games from the bar; the judge issued the injunction after granting the Cubs’ motion for summary judgment on trademark infringement claims but granting the defendants’ motion for summary judgment on the Cubs’ false advertising claims.
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October 15, 2026
SHERMAN, Texas — In an amended memorandum opinion, a Texas federal judge awarded guitar maker Gibson Inc. more than $4 million in attorney fees and costs from a company a jury held infringed trademarked guitar shapes, finding that fees were warranted based on the jury’s finding that the defendant entity intentionally infringed and counterfeited the trademarks.
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October 15, 2026
SAN DIEGO — In a motion for judgment as a matter of law (JMOL) or a new trial, Apple Inc. tells a California federal judge that the plaintiff technology company that a jury found was owed $5.7 billion in damages has “no way to support any damages award, not just the shocking record-setting award from the jury.”
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October 14, 2026
WILMINGTON, Del. — A federal judge in Delaware dismissed a biotechnology company’s complaint against an animal-free egg protein maker, finding that there was no imminent substantial controversy between the parties that would give the court subject matter jurisdiction over the plaintiff’s claim seeking a declaratory judgment that the defendant’s patent is unenforceable, invalid and not infringed; the judge also found that the plaintiff lacked statutory standing to pursue a false advertising claim under the Lanham Act and failed to state a claim for tortious interference.
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October 13, 2026
DENVER — A federal magistrate judge in Colorado denied a man’s motion for a stay of the execution of judgment entered in favor of the American organization for worshippers in the Bahá’í faith on trademark claims during the pendency of his appeal; the man remains obligated to transfer a web domain to the religious entity after the magistrate judge determined in March that the outcome of the trademark claims was determined by the defendant’s loss before the U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB).
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October 12, 2026
BOSTON — A Massachusetts federal judge “reluctantly” entered a default judgment against a coffee shop and its owner that were accused of infringing marks associated with two grisly 1800s murders owned by a paranormal tour company that owns the house where the murders took place; the judge said that while he had doubts about the tour company’s likelihood of success on the merits, the coffee shop’s ongoing failure to secure counsel and its owner’s failure to comply with discovery orders made the default judgment necessary.
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October 12, 2026
SAN JOSE — Impossible Foods Inc. is appealing to the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals a California federal judge’s amended judgment that established that it owes $1.5 million in damages after a jury found in March that it infringed a web company’s marks on the word “Impossible.”
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October 09, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB) decision to uphold the rejection of a pro se appellant’s application for a patent on a method for grouping messages on a mobile device as indefinite; the panel held that the appellant forfeited his challenges to the rejection before PTAB and on appeal.