Mealey's Intellectual Property
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May 29, 2025
Register Of Copyrights Denied TRO In Suit Challenging ‘Purported’ Removal
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO) filed by the register of copyrights and director of the U.S. Copyright Office seeking to enjoin her removal was denied from the bench by a federal judge in the District of Columbia on May 28.
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May 29, 2025
OpenAI: No Reason To Reconsider Denying Leave To Amend For News Outlets
NEW YORK — News outlets’ motion for reconsideration of a ruling denying them leave to amend their artificial intelligence copyright suit is procedurally improper, and because the outlets never demonstrated that ChatGPT produced their copyrighted works, the motion lacks any foundation, OpenAI Inc. entities told a federal judge in New York in an opposition brief.
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May 28, 2025
Supreme Court Won’t Hear Law Firm’s Challenge To Ad-Buying Trademark Opinion
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on May 27 decided that it would not hear a law firm’s challenge to the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ affirmation of a judge’s finding that a defendant law firm’s purchasing of a competitor’s trademark in Google keyword ads was not trademark infringement, turning away the plaintiff-petitioner’s contention that the Ninth Circuit’s likelihood-of-confusion analysis conflicts with that used in other circuits.
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May 28, 2025
Supreme Court Denies Cert To Packaging Patent Holder’s Enablement Arguments
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on May 27 rejected a patent holder’s petition for a writ of certiorari, declining to consider whether the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals was wrong to summarily affirm the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB) invalidation of the company’s food packaging patents.
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May 28, 2025
Federal Circuit: PTAB’s Combination Analysis Wrong In Lighting Patent Row
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) erred in its analysis of the motivation to combine prior art references in post-grant review proceedings for a patent describing a type of lighting structure, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held May 27, finding that PTAB improperly imposed a quantification requirement that was “overly rigid and inconsistent with well-established precedent.”
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May 27, 2025
Federal Circuit: PTAB Erred On Some Claims In Mostly Affirmed Insurance Sensor IPR
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel issued a mixed opinion in a patent dispute involving devices for monitoring vehicle movement for insurance purposes, largely affirming findings from the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board; the panel held, though, that a portion of the PTAB’s findings were based on an erroneous conclusion during claim construction.
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May 27, 2025
Magistrate Judge Partially Strikes Expert After AI Mangles Study Citation
SAN JOSE, Calif. — A federal magistrate judge in California on May 23 struck a portion of an expert report offered by Anthropic PBC containing errors introduced by its Claude artificial intelligence and ordered the company to produce 5 million prompt-output pairs evenly divided between pre-suit and post-suit periods.
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May 27, 2025
OpenAI: ChatGPT Output Preservation ‘Unprecedented’ Privacy Violation
SAN FRANCISCO — Requiring preservation of ChatGPT outputs users wish to delete simply so news plaintiffs in a copyright suit can secure a litigation advantage constitutes an “unprecedented” privacy violation and sets a “dangerous precedent,” OpenAI entities tell a federal court in California in a May 23 supplemental opposition after a magistrate judge ordered the preservation and denied a motion for reconsideration.
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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.