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Mealey's Intellectual Property

  • May 09, 2025

    If Corporations Enjoy Copyright Protection, So Should AI, Man Says

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Corporations and artificial intelligences share similarities, such a lack of natural lifespans and families, yet copyright protections for the former “is simply not controversial” while a panel rejected such protections for the later, a man says in a petition for en banc review of a District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appealsruling requiring a human author for copyright purposes.

  • May 08, 2025

    Federal Circuit: TTAB Right To Affirm ‘Space Force’ Mark Rejection

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on May 7 affirmed a decision from the U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) to uphold the rejection of an attorney’s application for the mark US SPACE FORCE, which came only days after President Donald J. Trump’s 2018 initial public proposals of the military branch, which was subsequently formally created.

  • May 08, 2025

    Federal Circuit: Appellants Could Face Sanctions In IP Fight For Faulty Briefing

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Attorneys for two companies that appealed nearly $4 million in judgments against them in a decade-long intellectual property dispute over hookless shower curtains could face sanctions, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said in a sua sponte order, if they cannot show how they have not repeatedly violated circuit rules by inappropriately separating arguments between the companies’ respective briefs.

  • May 08, 2025

    Ad Patent Holders Expanded Scope In Reissuance Bid, Federal Circuit Rules

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The scope of a web advertising patent claim broadened when the patent holders submitted a reissuance application, a panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held, agreeing with the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB) sustaining of an examiner’s rejection.

  • May 07, 2025

    Medical Patent Injunction At Odds With Hatch-Waxman, Federal Circuit Finds

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Delaware federal judge abused discretion by ordering a defendant pharmaceutical company to perform no further experimentation on its medication for people with narcolepsy that a jury found infringed on a competitor’s product, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found May 6, holding that the finding is at odds with the “plain language and purposes of the Hatch-Waxman Act.”

  • May 07, 2025

    8th Circuit Won’t Reverse Noninfringement Finding In Website Building Suit

    ST. LOUIS — An Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed the findings of a Missouri federal judge and a federal jury in a sprawling dispute over copyrighted code between two companies owned by members of the same family, along with multiple veterinary companies whose websites were built by a defendant printing company; the panel agreed with the judge’s decision to find in favor of the defendants on copyright infringement claims.

  • May 06, 2025

    Federal Circuit: Judge Right To Find Geolocation Patent Claims Too Abstract

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said in a per curiam opinion that it saw no error in a Virginia federal judge’s finding that multiple asserted claims in a mobile device location data patent claimed patent ineligible subject matter for focusing only on abstract ideas.

  • May 06, 2025

    TTAB Rightly Denied Trade Dress Bid For Glove Color, Federal Circuit Finds

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — There was no error in the decision of an examiner with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) to reject a company’s proposed mark registration, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held, agreeing with a determination from the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) that the company’s proposed color mark for medical gloves is generic.

  • May 06, 2025

    Nvidia Wants Pair Of NeMo Megatron AI Training Copyright Suits Consolidated

    SAN FRANCISCO — Because plaintiffs in a pair of copyright suits involving the artificial intelligence training material already treat two cases similarly, consolidation would ensure ongoing conservation of judicial and party resources without any risk of delaying either action, Nvidia Corp. tells a federal judge in California in urging consolidating.

  • May 05, 2025

    High Court Won’t Hear Challenge to Federal Circuit Vacating $13.2M Patent Verdict

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court in a May 5 order list rejected a software company’s petition for a writ of certiorari, refusing to hear arguments on whether the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals was wrong to vacate a jury’s verdict of $13.2 million in damages.

  • May 05, 2025

    Supreme Court Won’t Hear Challenge To Patent Holder’s Failed Recusal Bid

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court denied a patent owner’s petition for a writ of certiorari on May 5, declining to hear arguments from the company that the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals wrongly upheld a federal judge’s denial of a patent owner’s recusal motion in an infringement dispute with Fitbit LLC and multiple other entities; the Federal Circuit previously suggested that the recusal motion could have been “strategic.”

  • May 02, 2025

    Damages In Rolling Paper Trademark Row Reasonable, 11th Circuit Says

    ATLANTA — An 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a Georgia federal judge’s decision to enter nearly $1.2 million in damages against defendant entities in a trademark dispute over tobacco rolling papers, noting both that the damages fell within the statutory standard and that the defendant entities did not object to jury instructions regarding damages.

  • May 01, 2025

    Federal Circuit Agrees With Judge, PTAB That Payment Patents Invalid

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on April 30 affirmed a Texas federal judge’s decision to toss a company’s patent infringement suits against PayPal Holdings Inc. and a similar decision by the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) in a dispute with Apple Inc., agreeing that the company’s patents are invalid as indefinite.

  • May 01, 2025

    9th Circuit Says Sam Smith Single Could Be Similar To Earlier Song

    SAN FRANCISCO — A panel in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appels revived a copyright infringement suit in a California federal court against singer Sam Smith and others over the song “Dancing with a Stranger”; the panel said that a jury could reasonably see substantial similarity between the song’s chorus and that of a song written by the plaintiffs-appellants.

  • April 30, 2025

    7th Circuit Affirms Jury’s Findings, Judge’s Injunction In Rolling Paper IP Fight

    CHICAGO — A Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a jury’s mixed verdict in an intellectual property dispute between two tobacco companies related to cigarette rolling papers made of hemp, which led to cross-appeals; the panel rejected arguments from the parties that a federal judge erred in responding to a question from jurors and that the judge’s injunction was overly broad.

  • April 29, 2025

    Supreme Court: No Certiorari For Challenge To 9th Circuit ‘Server Test’

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on April 28 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari from a photographer who challenged a decision from the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that upheld a California federal judge’s decision to dismiss the photographer’s copyright infringement suit based on the Ninth Circuit’s so-called “server test.”

  • April 29, 2025

    Supreme Court Won’t Hear AIA Arguments In Sweetener Patent Dispute

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on April 28 declined to disturb a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA) did not change longstanding precedent regarding the on-sale bar, denying a petition for a writ of certiorari from entities that sought to block the importing of an artificial sweetener that they said infringed on their patents into the United States.

  • April 29, 2025

    9th Circuit: Judge Abused Discretion By Tossing Copyright Suit With Prejudice

    SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge abused discretion when dismissing with prejudice a musician’s copyright infringement suit against another musician for alleged infringement of a song’s chorus, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held, despite the plaintiff-appellant failing to respond to the defendant’s motion for summary judgment on the pleadings.

  • April 28, 2025

    Both Supreme Court And District Court Deny Bids To Stay Patent Suit Sanctions

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Both the U.S. Supreme Court and a California federal court blocked requests to stay the entry of sanctions against three lawyers from a law firm representing a patent holder on April 25; the federal magistrate judge presiding over the lower court case said the attorneys failed to show that their pending appeal before the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has a substantial likelihood of success.

  • April 28, 2025

    OpenAI Scrapes Websites In Violation Of Its Own Instructions, Publisher Says

    WILMINGTON, Del. — OpenAI boasts about measures publishers can use to prevent the use of their online works in the training of artificial intelligence but then ignores those measures and scrapes copyrighted works from websites anyway, the online publishers of more than 45 media brands like Mashable, Lifehacker and IGN claim in an infringement complaint filed in Delaware federal court.

  • April 28, 2025

    Judge Says ‘Superman’ Copyright Suit Belonged In California, Dismisses

    NEW YORK — A New York federal judge dismissed the most recent complaint involving the rights to the copyrights to comic book character Superman, holding that the District Court lacked subject matter jurisdiction over the suit brought by the nephew of one of the character’s co-creators against DC Comics Inc. and other entities over alleged infringement of the character in multiple foreign nations.

  • April 25, 2025

    Federal Circuit: Epic Games Didn’t Show Error In PTAB Claim Construction

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The maker of popular video games like “Fortnite” cannot show that prior art rendered obvious another company’s patents related to user communications, a panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held April 24, affirming a finding by the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB).

  • April 25, 2025

    Federal Circuit: PTAB Again Misinterprets Applicant Admitted Prior Art Standard

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — For the second time, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel sent a patent dispute between Qualcomm Inc. and Apple Inc. back to the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), with the panel finding that the PTAB again misinterpreted a provision in the Patent Act involving applicant admitted prior art (AAPA).

  • April 24, 2025

    Partly Split Federal Circuit Says PTAB Got Game Controller IPR Wrong

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) committed multiple errors when it held that the first claim of a video game controller patent was not invalid as obvious, a partially split panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said on April 23; the panel said that PTAB ignored the Federal Circuit’s previous finding that the same claim was unpatentable in an earlier appeal.

  • April 24, 2025

    Federal Circuit Denies ‘Urgent Requests’ To Consider Motion To Stay Sanctions

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in an April 23 per curiam order denied a pair of “urgent requests” for ruling on a motion to stay the entry of sanctions against three lawyers from a law firm representing a patent holder, saying the court would rule on the attorneys’ primary motion “in due course”; the order was issued a day after the attorneys filed a notice of application to the U.S. Supreme Court.