Mealey's Intellectual Property
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May 27, 2025
Federal Circuit: PTAB’s Claim Construction Too Narrow In X-Ray Patent Row
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on May 23 held that the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) erroneously narrowed a disputed patent claim related to X-ray imaging, reversing the PTAB’s finding that claims of the appellee’s patent were not invalid as anticipated.
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May 27, 2025
Register Of Copyrights Sues, Seeks TRO After ‘Purported’ Removal By Trump
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The register of copyrights and director of the U.S. Copyright Office filed a complaint and a motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO) in a federal court in the District of Columbia challenging her “purported” removal by President Donald J. Trump “without any authorization from Congress or advice and consent from the Senate.”
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May 27, 2025
Federal Circuit Reverses Summary Judgment For Apple In Payment Patent Row
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel reversed a Texas federal judge’s grant of summary judgment in favor of defendant-appellee Apple Inc. in a dispute with Fintiv Inc. over a payment application, holding that Fintiv adequately raised a question of material fact as to Apple’s alleged infringement.
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May 23, 2025
Federal Circuit: PTAB Obviousness Finding For Gene Treatment Not In Error
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held May 22 that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) did not err when it ruled that a biopharmaceutical company’s patents on a hemophilia gene therapy treatment were unpatentable as obvious, affirming the board’s finding in an inter partes review (IPR) proceeding brought by Pfizer Inc.
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May 23, 2025
Federal Circuit: Collector Lacked Standing To Oppose Proposed Doll Trademark
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A doll collector lacked standing to oppose a company’s application for a registered trademark on the name “Rapunzel” for use with dolls, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held May 22, agreeing with the U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) that the collector’s alleged harm was “too remote to support a reasonable belief in injury.”
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May 23, 2025
Full Federal Circuit Orders New Trial On Damages For Google In Patent Fight
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The full Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held that a Texas federal judge should have granted Google LLC a new trial on damages after a jury found that the company infringed on a patent related to smart thermostat technology, finding that the judge allowed jurors to hear unreliable testimony regarding a royalty rate.
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May 22, 2025
Federal Circuit: French Word For Clothing Generic For Trademark Use
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on May 21 affirmed the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s rejection of a proposed trademark on the French word for clothing, agreeing with both the trademark examiner and the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) that the marks were generic as defined in the Lanham Act as per the doctrine of foreign equivalents.
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May 22, 2025
Kanye West Ordered To Supply Requested Discovery, Pay Fees In Copyright Fight
LOS ANGELES — Kanye West and associated entities must turn over evidence in a copyright infringement suit claiming the rapper included unapproved music samples in two tracks on his album “Donda,” a federal judge in California ruled; the judge held that West and the related entities were wrong to argue that they were not in possession of any responsive documents.
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May 21, 2025
Sheeran To High Court: Don’t Grant Certiorari In Gaye Copyright Dispute
WASHINGTON, D.C. — English pop singer Ed Sheeran tells the U.S. Supreme Court that it should leave in place a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmation of a federal judge’s finding that the singer did not infringe on a Marvin Gaye tune, arguing to the high court that the rights holder wrongly argues that the Second Circuit deferred to a finding from the U.S. Copyright Office.
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May 20, 2025
9th Circuit Affirms Preliminary Injunction In French Fry Mark Suit
SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a California federal judge’s decision to impose a preliminary injunction in a dispute over the ownership of trademarks associated with a french fry company in the Philippines, holding that the defendant-appellant company failed to show that the plaintiff entity was unlikely to succeed on the merits.
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May 20, 2025
Lil Nas X Photos Not Shown To Be Copies, 9th Circuit Agrees
SAN FRANCISCO — An artist failed to show that his semi-nude Instagram photo posts were reasonably likely to have been accessed by singer and rapper Lil Nas X, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held, upholding a California federal judge’s dismissal of the artist’s copyright infringement suit brought over the rapper’s own posts.
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May 20, 2025
Federal Circuit Splits On PTAB Review Of Stylus Patent; Majority Orders Reversal
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A split Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on May 19 held that the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) should have gone further in its findings that challenged claims in patents related to a device to be used with a stylus were unpatentable as obvious, reversing the PTAB’s findings related to one patent claim and affirming regarding multiple others.
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May 20, 2025
Magistrate Judge Won’t Reconsider ChatGPT Output Preservation Ruling
SAN FRANCISCO — A magistrate judge in California turned away OpenAI entities’ concerns over privacy and the technical issues in denying reconsideration of an order requiring preservation of ChatGPT outputs, saying the company had not shown that the outputs were not relevant to the case or that a different outcome was required.
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May 19, 2025
Lack Of High Court Quorum Begets 2nd Circuit Copyright Order Affirmation
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on May 19 affirmed a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decision to uphold a judge’s rejection of a pro se author’s copyright claims against a host of entities; the high court noted in an order list that the affirmation was the result of a lack of quorum of justices.
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May 19, 2025
Judge: Software Maker Failed To Show How Tech Firm Infringed On Program
NEWARK, N.J — A software company failed to show that a defendant technology company infringed on a copyrighted software program, a New Jersey federal judge held; the judge said that the plaintiff company failed to “explain when or how the allegedly infringing computers were used other than through vague and conclusory statements.”
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May 16, 2025
Magistrate Grants Discovery Motion In Trademark Row Involving Web-Based Retailers
DENVER — A Colorado magistrate judge granted a fencing company’s motion for leave to conduct jurisdictional discovery in its trademark infringement suit against web-based retailers, finding that the jurisdictional discovery information sought is necessary for the court to determine whether it has personal jurisdiction over the defendants.
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May 16, 2025
Anthropic Admits Its Claude AI Mangled Cite Used By Expert In Copyright Suit
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Anthropic PBC’s Claude artificial intelligence mangled a citation to a study referenced by an expert in a discovery dispute during formatting, but it was an “honest citation mistake” and the crux of the cite and the positions for which it stands were all correct, the company lawyer said May 15 in a response to a federal judge in California overseeing a copyright case.
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May 16, 2025
Federal Judge Grants Preliminary Injunction In ‘Breeze’ Vape Mark Case
DETROIT — A federal judge in Michigan preliminarily enjoined a vape product company from selling products bearing a mark with the word “breeze,” holding that plaintiff Breeze Smoke LLC adequately illustrated the likelihood of its success on the merits of its trademark infringement claims.
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May 15, 2025
Judge Finds No Video Patent Infringement After $26M Verdict Against Google
WACO, Texas — A federal judge in Texas granted Google LLC and YouTube LLC’s motion for judgment as a matter of law (JMOL) of noninfringement, reversing a jury’s nearly $26 million patent infringement verdict in favor of another online video company; the judge ruled that the plaintiff company’s infringement theory is not supported by the claim text of its patent.
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May 15, 2025
Judge Stays Discovery In ‘Miss Cleo’ IP Fight While Mulling Dismissal
NEW YORK — A New York federal judge held that defendant television networks illustrated that there was adequate reason to stay discovery while the court considers a motion to dismiss intellectual property claims related to the television psychic character “Miss Cleo”; the judge held that the Psychic Readers Network Inc. (PRN) failed to show that it would be prejudiced by the stay of discovery.
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May 15, 2025
OpenAI Must Preserve Output Data, Magistrate Judge Says
SAN FRANCISCO — OpenAI entities must preserve user output data and segregate output log data going forward after consolidated news plaintiffs indicated that the amount of data being deleted is significant and the company offered no evidence about any efforts it was taking or could take to preserve the evidence, a federal magistrate judge in California said while setting a briefing schedule and hearing on potential spoliation motions.
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May 15, 2025
Court Won’t Reconsider Limiting Copyright To Humans
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied rehearing and rehearing en banc of a ruling limiting copyright protections to human authors, turning away a man’s arguments that artificial intelligences share similarities with corporations entitled to such protections.
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May 14, 2025
3rd Circuit: Attorney Fees Valid Under Lanham Act In Robotics Company Squabble
PHILADELPHIA — A Pennsylvania federal judge correctly dismissed one contract claim but was wrong to dismiss another in a dispute involving the intellectual property rights of two robotics ventures and an early investor whose relationship with the ventures later soured, a Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held.
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May 14, 2025
PTAB Got Conception Analysis Wrong For CRISPR Patent, Federal Circuit Says
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) wrongly required scientists from the University of California and other facilities to show that their claimed invention would work to show that they conceived of a gene editing technology first, reviving a dispute over the CRISPR-Cas9 system.
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May 14, 2025
AI Plaintiffs Direct Court To Copyright Office Report On Fair Use
SAN FRANCISCO — The plaintiffs in an artificial intelligence copyright suit directed a federal judge in California to a recent U.S. Copyright Office (USCO) report suggesting that fair use defenses might not be available when the AI’s purpose is similar to that of the copyrighted training data and that “the speed and scale at which” AIs can produce similar works could be considered an effect on the market.