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June 11, 2026
ST. LOUIS — A divided Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a South Dakota federal judge’s dismissal of a trademark infringement suit brought by the founder of a tobacco company and a cigar maker against the founder’s former company; the majority agreed with the judge that the dispute necessarily arose out of a stock purchase agreement that included a mandatory forum selection clause that required litigation in South Dakota state court.
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June 11, 2026
CHICAGO — A Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on June 10 agreed with an Illinois federal judge’s finding that a maker of patriotic clothes began using the phrase “This We’ll Defend” as a source-identifying trademark years before a different clothing company began using the same phrase as a mark, affirming the judge’s finding that a trademark registration was defeated by the timing.
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June 11, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled that the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) did not err when it affirmed an examiner’s finding that a robotics inventor’s application for a patent on automated kitchen systems was rendered obvious by prior art; the panel held that substantial evidence supported a finding that a person of skill in the relevant art would have motivation to combine two prior art patent applications.
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June 10, 2026
NEW YORK — A Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel vacated a New York federal judge’s summary judgment ruling that a 2004 U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) ruling had preclusive effect on the issue of likelihood-of-confusion on claims that a California winery infringed an Italian winery’s trademarks; the panel determined that TTAB’s order did not meaningfully consider the parties’ use of the marks at issue in commerce and thus did not have preclusive effect.
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June 09, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — PepsiCo Inc. and a coffee brewing company filed supplemental briefs on June 8 in the U.S. Supreme Court, reacting to the U.S. government’s call for the court to deny a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by the 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. The briefs follow a recent amicus curiae brief in which the government told the court that certiorari should be denied, even though it believes the Second Circuit’s opinion was erroneous.
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June 09, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held June 8 that a U.S. Court of Federal Claims judge was right to find that the court had no jurisdiction under the Tucker Act to consider a pro se computer scientist’s Fifth Amendment takings claim against the U.S. government because copyright claims against the government can be brought only under the statute the plaintiff used to pursue relief in a series of earlier suits.
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June 08, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on June 5 affirmed an Illinois federal judge’s finding that an appellant biopharmaceutical company’s generic version of an injectable antibiotic treatment method infringes another company’s patents. The panel also rejected the appellant company’s argument that the patents were invalid for lack of adequate written description (Melinta Therapeutics, LLC, et al. v. Nexus Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Nos. 25-1281, 25-1282, Fed. Cir., 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 16259).
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June 05, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on June 4 found that a Texas federal judge improperly combined four patents related to a heating and ventilation system into a single infringement question on the verdict form and wrongly gave the jury incomplete instructions on patent eligibility; the panel vacated the jury’s infringement findings and damages award of more than $11.5 million and ordered a new trial on both issues.
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June 04, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A unanimous U.S. Supreme Court on June 4 held that a biopharmaceutical company failed to plausibly allege that a bioequivalent maker actively induced patent infringement after considering arguments on the standard of induced infringement in medical patent cases, including ones with “skinny label” generic versions. The high court determined that the patent owner relied on vague language and speculation to attempt to show that the bioequivalent maker induced infringement.
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June 04, 2026
ATLANTA — In a matter of first impression, an 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held that a late rapper who was a member of hip-hop group 2 Live Crew lost ownership of copyright interests in the group’s earliest recordings to his bankruptcy estate upon declaring bankruptcy, reversing a Florida federal judge’s finding that the rapper maintained copyright interests.
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June 03, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — While a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said in a June 2 opinion that it agreed with a Nebraska federal judge’s finding that patents describing the sharing of farming data were directed at patent-ineligible abstract concepts, the panel also held that the judge failed to adequately explain why the case was not exceptional for the purpose of attorney fees under the Patent Act.
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June 02, 2026
PHOENIX — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel awarded an Italian wine company all of its attorney fees incurred defending against a “frivolous” appeal brought by an American distributor challenging the confirmation of an International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) award against it in a trademark dispute, and ordered further proceedings to determine the amount of fees owed.
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June 02, 2026
CHICAGO — A Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel reversed an Illinois federal judge’s finding that the Hague Service Convention allowed a plaintiff clothing company to serve alleged counterfeiters in China through email, holding that the convention bars email service to entities based in China; however, the panel also determined that the judge failed to address the threshold issue of whether the Hague Service Convention applies to the case at all.
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June 02, 2026
ST. LOUIS — An Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel determined on June 1 that it lacked jurisdiction to consider a Minnesota federal judge’s entry of sanctions against a man accused of copying business databases and selling data derived from them through a series of web entities; the panel held that the sanctions order was not a final appealable judgment.
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June 01, 2026
Over the last month, authors and other rights holders filed five federal lawsuits targeting artificial intelligence companies. In one of the most recent actions, Cable News Network Inc. (CNN) sued Perplexity AI Inc. claiming that the company’s bot unlawfully scrapes news stories and that its “answer engine” then outputs repackaged but nearly verbatim versions of original, copyrighted works.
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June 01, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO — Authors who opted out of a previous class action settlement that Anthropic PBC reached with authors over its use of their works to train its Claude large language model sued the company in a California federal court, alleging direct and contributory copyright violations and removal of copyright management information.
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May 29, 2026
LOS ANGELES — Companies that operate an artificial intelligence (AI) image and video generating service must face a suit alleging copyright infringement brought jointly by Disney Enterprises Inc., Universal City Studios Productions LLP and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. after a California federal judge rejected arguments that the film entities failed to state a claim.
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May 29, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) wrongly concluded that a technology company’s technical expert’s testimony was conclusory and unsupported while considering inter partes review (IPR) proceedings the company initiated challenging another entity’s patent describing a digital educational content delivery system, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held in a May 28 opinion.
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May 29, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A partially split Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on May 28 reversed a Massachusetts federal judge’s entry of judgment against defendant-appellants accused of misappropriating trade secrets related to an insulin patch pump, holding that the plaintiff-appellee’s claims were time-barred by the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA).
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May 29, 2026
CINCINNATI — A Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel reversed a Michigan federal judge’s summary judgment ruling in favor of the leader of Parliament-Funkadelic and a related company, holding that genuine questions of fact remain as to whether the defendant entities expressly repudiated a late former band member’s claims of copyright co-ownership interests.
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May 29, 2026
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A federal judge in North Carolina on May 28 dismissed a cabinet designer’s suit against homeowners and construction entities accused of infringing a copyrighted cabinet design, holding that the cabinet does not qualify as an “architectural work” despite being registered as such with the U.S. Copyright Office.
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May 28, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a Utah federal judge’s entry of judgment as a matter of law (JMOL) in a patent infringement case brought against DISH Network LLC and another entity, agreeing with the judge’s determination that a jury lacked sufficient evidence to reach its finding that the asserted patents were infringed.
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May 28, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the District of Columbia denied motions from three law firms to dismiss copyright infringement complaints against them filed by a jury consultant who prepared a jury attitude report in support of two criminal defendants accused of participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, finding that the consultant adequately pleaded infringement to survive dismissal.
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May 27, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held that a Michigan federal judge wrongly barred a technology company from seeking unjust enrichment damages against Ford Motor Co. and wrongly vacated a jury’s award of breach of contract damages; the panel also affirmed a finding that Ford had misappropriated the company’s trade secrets related to software used in vehicle development.
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May 27, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Kentucky mother is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to consider her arguments rejected by a Kentucky federal judge and the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that the fair-use exception of the Copyright Act permitted her to request a copy of a mental health survey that was to be administered to students at a Kentucky public high school.