Mealey's Intellectual Property : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Intellectual Property

May 14, 2025
Company Can’t Use IPR Estoppel To Get New Trial, Federal Circuit Says

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said substantial evidence supported a jury’s finding that multiple claims in a tech company’s patents related to portable memory devices were shown to be obvious and anticipated as per prior art references, affirming that and other findings in the dispute, holding that inter partes review (IPR) estoppel “does not preclude a petitioner from asserting that a claimed invention was known or used by others, on sale, or in public use in district court.”
May 13, 2025
Authors, Nvidia Agree To Consolidate AI Copyright Suits

SAN FRANCISCO — Authors in a pair of federal suits in California alleging improper use of copyrighted material to train artificial intelligence agreed in a May 12 joint stipulation to consolidate their actions against Nvidia Corp.
May 12, 2025
6th Circuit Affirms Judge’s Dismissal Of Trademark Suit Over Word ‘Chipotle’

CINCINNATI — A Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said May 9 that an Ohio federal judge rightly dismissed a man’s trademark infringement suit against a food manufacturing company, agreeing with the judge that the man failed to state a claim of trademark infringement regarding marks he held on phrases related to chipotle peppers in salsas.
May 12, 2025
Tire Company: High Court Must Consider Question Of Illinois Litigation Privilege

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A tire corporation emphasized in a brief that the U.S. Supreme Court should grant its petition for a writ of certiorari, saying that an opinion from the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals “expanded Illinois’ traditionally narrow absolute litigation privilege beyond what any other court applying Illinois law has ever done” in its consideration of trade dress and patent claims brought against the company by another tire entity based in Japan.
May 09, 2025
Email Patent Applicant Failed To Rebut Obviousness, Federal Circuit Says

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) did not err when it affirmed an examiner’s rejection of a man’s application for a patent on an email annotation system, a panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said May 8, agreeing that the application’s claims were invalid as obvious.
May 09, 2025
Federal Circuit: Drug Maker Lacked Standing To Challenge PTAB Validity Ruling

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a pair of opinions, two Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panels ruled against Incyte Corp. and a related entity in patent disputes that involved Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Inc. and the compound ruxolitinib, the appellate court reversed a New Jersey federal judge’s grant of preliminary injunction in Incyte’s favor and said the company lacked standing to challenge a finding from U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that it failed to show the invalidity of Sun’s patent.
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
Federal Circuit: Alice Analysis Correct In Tax Patent Suit Dismissal

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on May 6 affirmed a Delaware federal judge’s decision to dismiss a tax company’s patent infringement suit, agreeing with the judge that the company’s patent describing a method to determine an aircraft’s taxability status is directed at an abstract concept without adding anything.
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.