Mealey's Intellectual Property
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June 20, 2025
Split 9th Circuit Says Walmart Infringed On Artist’s Lamps, Not Photos
SAN FRANCISCO — A partially split Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel issued a mixed opinion in a copyright dispute between an artist and Walmart Inc., with the majority holding that the company infringed on the artist’s copyrighted lamp designs by selling imitations but reversing a California federal jury’s finding that Walmart infringed on the artist’s copyrighted photos of the lamps.
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June 20, 2025
3rd Circuit Accepts Appeal In Legal Summary AI Copyright Suit
PHILADELPHIA — The Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals granted a petition for interlocutory appeal of a Delaware federal judge’s ruling that neither originality nor fair use protected a company from copyright claims stemming from its use of a competitor’s summaries of legal documents in the training of an artificial intelligence product designed to produce similar results.
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June 19, 2025
Federal Circuit Affirms PTAB’s Obviousness Finding For Sonos Playback Patent
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on June 18 rejected arguments from Sonos Inc. that the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) was wrong to invalidate multiple claims in its patent related to the playback of music on a device controlled by another device, affirming the board’s finding that the patent was obvious as per prior art in inter partes review (IPR) proceedings brought by Google LLC.
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June 19, 2025
Xerox’s User Profile Patent Invalid As Obvious, Federal Circuit Affirms
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a finding from the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that invalidated all claims in a patent held by Xerox Corp., agreeing with PTAB that Xerox failed to show that the board incorrectly construed a claim term involving the navigation of web pages.
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June 18, 2025
High Court Won’t Rethink Denial Of Cert For Patent Damages Case
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a petition for rehearing from the owner of a trading company whose petition for a writ of certiorari the justices denied in April, leaving in place a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ patent invalidity finding despite what the petitioner characterized as “two key developments.”
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June 18, 2025
High Court Rejects Challenge To Laches Finding In Speaker Trademark Row
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an electronics company’s petition for a writ of certiorari in which it argued that the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals wrongly applied the doctrine of laches to counterclaims it brought in a trademark infringement dispute over the use of the marks XTREME and INFINITY in connection with audio speakers.
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June 17, 2025
High Court Won’t Hear Argument That Federal Circuit Imposed Rigid Patent Rule
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on June 16 rejected a patent-holder’s petition for a writ of certiorari, leaving in place a split Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel’s decision affirming a Delaware federal judge’s grant of judgment as a matter of law (JMOL) in defendant Comcast Cable Communications LLC’s favor on accusations that it infringed on internet-based phone patents.
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June 17, 2025
High Court Won’t Hear ‘Let’s Get It On’ Copyright Claims Against Sheeran
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on June 16 passed on a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by a partial owner of the rights to Marvin Gaye’s song “Let’s Get It On,” leaving in place the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ affirmation of a New York federal judge’s finding that pop singer Ed Sheeran did not infringe on the Gaye classic.
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June 16, 2025
9th Circuit Revives IP Dispute Over 1980s Home Computer System
SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled that a Washington federal judge erred in finding that a software company lacked standing to bring a copyright infringement claim, partially reviving an intellectual property dispute involving a 1980s brand of computer that has had what the judge in a March 2023 grant of summary judgment called “a tortured history.”
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June 16, 2025
Federal Circuit Says TTAB Erred In ‘House Mark’ Wine Trademark Analysis
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on June 13 sent a dispute over a proposed wine trademark back to the U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB); the panel held that TTAB’s rejection of a wine company’s opposition to another wine entity’s proposed mark was based on an incorrect finding that both entities used their “house marks” within the marks at issue.
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June 16, 2025
Justices Reject Designer’s Copyright Discovery Rule Challenge In Photo Use Case
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on June 16 rejected a design company’s petition for a writ of certiorari, leaving in place a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decision to vacate a New York federal judge’s finding that copyright claims against the company were time-barred.
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June 13, 2025
9th Circuit Agrees ‘WallStreetBets’ Creator’s Trademark, UCL Claims Fail
SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a California federal judge’s dismissal of a trademark and unfair competition suit against Reddit Inc. by the founder of the “WallStreetBets” message board that was the center of the ballooning of GameStop Corp.’s share value in 2021; the panel said the board’s founder failed to show that he used the name “WallStreetBets” as a mark in commerce.
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June 13, 2025
Judge Says New York Times’ AI Use, Licensing, Irrelevant To Copyright Suit
NEW YORK — The New York Times Co. and other news entities’ use of artificial intelligence, stances on the technology and licensing deals are not relevant to their copyright claims against Microsoft Corp. and others over the alleged use of news articles used to train AI, a federal judge in New York said in turning away objections to a magistrate judge’s ruling on a motion to compel.
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June 12, 2025
Judge Says Golf League’s IP Declaratory Judgment Suit Was Strategically Filed
WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware federal judge said that a virtual golf league founded by Tiger Woods and others attempted to use the Declaratory Judgment Act as “a strategic device to gain some perceived tactical advantage” when it filed a declaratory judgment trademark action against a golf product company; the judge dismissed the complaint without prejudice.
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June 12, 2025
Federal Circuit Affirms Invalidation Of CRISPR Patents As Anticipated
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on June 11 said there was no error in the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB) finding that all claims of a biotechnology company’s patents on gene modification are invalid; the panel said that substantial evidence supported PTAB’s finding that prior art anticipated the patents.
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June 12, 2025
4th Circuit Won’t Revive Gunmaker’s IP, Contract Claims Rejected By Jurors
RICHMOND, Va. — A Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a Virginia federal judge’s denial of a Turkish firearms manufacturer’s motion for a new trial after a jury found in favor of a defendant distributor on the manufacturer’s trademark claims, saying that the manufacturer “had its day in court.”
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June 12, 2025
Movie, TV Titans Claim Midjourney AI Is ‘Bootlegging Business Model’
LOS ANGELES — Disney Enterprises Inc., Marvel Characters Inc. and other movie companies behind some of the most well-known movies and television shows of all time sued artificial intelligence company Midjourney Inc. on June 11, calling the company “the quintessential copyright free-rider and a bottomless pit of plagiarism.”
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June 11, 2025
11th Circuit Revives Georgia Park’s Trademark Claims Against Foreign IP Holder
ATLANTA — A federal judge in Georgia applied an overly strict standard when determining if a company based in the British Virgin Islands had sufficient contacts with the United States for the purposes of establishing personal jurisdiction in a dispute over the registered trademark “Summer Waves,” a panel in the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held June 10.
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June 11, 2025
Federal Circuit OKs PTAB Rejection Of Heart Valve Patent Invalidity Arguments
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) order that allowed Cardiovalve Ltd. to amend multiple claims in its patent, agreeing with PTAB that Edwards Lifesciences Corp. and a related entity failed to show that the claims of Cardiovalve’s heart implant patent were invalid.
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June 10, 2025
Federal Circuit Again Sends Sirius XM Patent Row Back To District Court
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on June 9 reversed a Delaware federal judge’s grant of summary judgment in favor of Sirius XM Radio Inc. (SXM), saying that testimony from a representative from the company raised question of material fact as to whether its behavior was driven by a lack of response from a plaintiff German research organization or business strategy.
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June 10, 2025
High Court Rejects Another Challenge To Federal Circuit’s 1-Word Patent Orders
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court denied a medical device company’s petition for a writ of certiorari, turning away the company’s request that the court reconsider both whether the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals should stop issuing one-word affirmations of lower court decisions in patent cases and if the high court must rethink its framework for analyzing a patent’s abstractness to prevent lower court “overreach” in invalidation.
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June 09, 2025
3rd Circuit: Generic Drug Maker Lacked Standing To Appeal Foreign Discovery Order
PHILADELPHIA — A Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found that it lacked jurisdiction over a discovery dispute in a New Jersey federal court that ultimately stems from an ongoing patent dispute in South Korea, holding that a discovery order under the federal statute that governs U.S. discovery for foreign proceedings was not an appealable final decision.
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June 09, 2025
Split Federal Circuit: Apple Relied On Unanalogous Prior Art Before PTAB
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A split panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a decision from the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) in which the board rejected Apple Inc.’s challenge to a patent related to camera-based computer interaction, holding that Apple failed to show that the prior art reference it relied on was analogous to the patent at issue.
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June 06, 2025
Federal Circuit: Dolby Lacked Standing To Appeal PTAB Finding In Its Favor
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corp. lacked standing to appeal a procedural issue in inter partes review (IPR) proceedings where the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) held that a petitioner failed to show the invalidity of Dolby’s patent, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled June 5, saying Dolby was unable to establish an injury in fact.
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June 06, 2025
Copyright Claims About Spanish-Language Religious Films Time-Barred, Judge Rules
LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge dismissed with prejudice a Mexican motion picture company’s copyright infringement complaint involving multiple Spanish-language films telling stories from the life of Jesus Christ, agreeing with the defendant film distributors that the plaintiff company’s claims are time-barred by the Copyright Act’s statute of limitations.