Mealey's Intellectual Property
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July 14, 2025
4th Circuit: No Error In Injunction Barring Gaming Chair Mark Use In Europe
RICHMOND, Va. — A panel in the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on July 11 affirmed a Virginia federal judge’s implementation of a permanent injunction that bars a video game peripheral maker’s use of the mark “GTRacing” internationally; the panel held that the injunction does not run afoul of the Lanham Act’s territorial limitations because it enforces a previously negotiated and subsequently breached settlement agreement.
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July 14, 2025
Clothing Maker Seeks New Trial After Verdict In Penn State Trademark Fight
HARRISBURG, Pa. — An apparel maker argues that it deserves either judgment as a matter of law in its favor or a new trial in a Pennsylvania federal court after a jury found that it willfully infringed marks held by The Pennsylvania State University and a judge issued a permanent injunction barring it from further uses of the marks, maintaining its contention that the university failed to show the apparel maker used the marks in an infringing way.
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July 14, 2025
Judge Won’t Reconsider Ruling Denying Leave To Amend In AI Case
NEW YORK — News outlets will not get to amend their copyright action involving ChatGPT after a federal judge in New York determined that different rulings by other judges and the case’s inclusion in a recently created multidistrict litigation did not warrant revisiting denying leave to amend.
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July 11, 2025
Federal Circuit: Novelist Can’t Register Shrimp Mark For Florida Restaurant
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said July 10 that a crime fiction novelist and restaurant owner cannot register “Yucatan Shrimp” as a trademark because it is merely descriptive, affirming decisions by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) and the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB).
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July 11, 2025
Federal Circuit Affirms Invalidity Of Smart HVAC System Patent Claims
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a pair of opinions, a panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed decisions by the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that invalidated patents related to heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) held by EcoFactor Inc. in a series of inter partes review (IPR) proceedings brought by Google LLC, in the latest step in the battle between the companies over smart thermostat technologies.
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July 11, 2025
4th Circuit OKs Scrapping Of Manufacturer’s Repeat Copyright, Trade Secret Claims
RICHMOND, Va. — A Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held that a Taiwanese manufacturer’s copyright infringement, trade secret misappropriation and other claims against a machine distributor failed for being based on conclusory allegations; the panel further found no error in a North Carolina federal judge’s refusal to allow the manufacturer leave to amend its complaint after the company “engaged in pleading practices that approached bad faith.”
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July 10, 2025
Federal Circuit Again Finds For Janssen On Mental Health Drug Patent
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a New Jersey federal judge’s finding that two appellant medicine makers failed to show that claims in a patent related to dosing regimens for an injectable schizophrenia treatment were invalid as obvious, holding that it saw no error in the judge’s analysis of the motivation to combine prior art references.
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July 09, 2025
Device Maker Tells High Court Shortened Discovery Timeline Tainted Patent Trial
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A medical product company tells the U.S. Supreme Court that a North Carolina federal court violated its due process rights by changing both the time to trial and the time for discovery in a patent infringement case for which the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has already ordered a new trial.
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July 09, 2025
8th Circuit Agrees: No Federal Jurisdiction Over ‘Chicken Coop’ Mark Claims
ST. LOUIS — A panel in the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on July 8 affirmed an Iowa federal judge’s dismissal of a chicken restaurant company’s action seeking a declaratory judgment of noninfringement of another restaurant’s trademarks, agreeing that the District Court lacked jurisdiction because the complaint was filed to assert federal defenses to already pending state actions.
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July 09, 2025
6th Circuit: Songwriter’s Granddaughter Can’t Void Copyright Terminations
CINCINNATI — A panel in the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a Tennessee federal judge’s decision to dismiss a complaint from the granddaughter of the writer of American songbook standards like “Que Sera, Sera” and “Silver Bells” challenging her mother’s terminations of the copyrights for the songs.
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July 08, 2025
Federal Circuit Affirms Cisco’s Noninfringement Of Server Management Patent
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on July 7 affirmed a Massachusetts federal judge’s grant of summary judgment of noninfringement on some patent counts and a jury’s verdict of noninfringement on others, agreeing that Egenera Inc. failed to show that Cisco Systems Inc. infringed a patent on a server management system.
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July 08, 2025
Judge: Game-Maker Failed To Show Use Of Word ‘Pie’ Was Infringing
ANNISTON, Ala. — An Alabama federal judge dismissed without prejudice an educational game-maker’s trademark infringement and dilution suit against a seller of school products, finding that the game-maker failed to show that the defendant company used the word “pie” in an infringing way.
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July 07, 2025
Federal Judge Tosses Software Company’s IP Claims For Jurisdictional Issues
RALEIGH, N.C. — A federal judge in North Carolina on July 3 held that a software company was not the real party in interest in its intellectual property suit involving a software it makes for insurance companies after it assigned all of its intellectual property rights to its parent company, dismissing the complaint.
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July 07, 2025
5th Circuit: R&B Singer Can’t Target Bandmates Under Lanham Act
NEW ORLEANS — The Lanham Act does not allow for trademark’s co-owner to bring claims against other co-owners, a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held, affirming a Texas federal judge’s decision to grant summary judgment to defendant members of the 1990s rhythm and blues group Jade in a dispute over the group’s name brought by another member.
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July 03, 2025
Dismissal Stipulated In Coverage Dispute Over Loss Of Patent Litigation Counsel
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — An inventor, his Colorado-based company and a captive insurer filed a joint stipulation of dismissal in a Tennessee federal court, resolving and dismissing with prejudice all claims asserted in a case concerning a coverage dispute over loss of patent litigation counsel.
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July 03, 2025
Judge Grants Summary Judgment On FOIA Claim Involving Copyrighted JFK Film
SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge granted the National Archives & Records Administration’s (NARA) motion for summary judgment on allegations by an open records advocacy group that it violated the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), holding that it was not a violation for NARA to require proof of permission from the holder of copyrights to allow access to a well-known video showing the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
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July 03, 2025
Judge Finds For Meta On Fair Use, DMCA In AI Copyright Suit
SAN FRANCISCO — Plaintiffs in a copyright infringement suit over Meta Platforms Inc.’s artificial intelligence could potentially prevail on the theory that the technology threatens to so dilute the market for their works that fair use doesn’t protect the conduct, but the “half-hearted argument” presented by the plaintiffs falls short, a federal judge in California said in granting Meta summary judgment on fair use and Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) claims.
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July 02, 2025
High Court Rejects Micron’s Mandamus Bid To Protect Source Code
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an American chip maker’s request for relief from a California federal judge’s discovery order requiring it to turn its source code over to a Chinese rival in a patent infringement dispute.
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July 02, 2025
Federal Circuit Won’t Rehear Induced Infringement Arguments For Generic Drug
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a biopharmaceutical company’s petition for rehearing en banc in a July 1 order, rejecting the company’s contention that an appeals court panel improperly analyzed its intent to encourage practitioners to use its antipsychotic medication in a way that would infringe on another company’s patented injectable medication used to treat schizophrenia.
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July 02, 2025
PTAB Claim Construction Error Caused Fact Analysis Errors In Eye Med Patent Case
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held that the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) erred while construing a claim phrase during inter partes review (IPR) proceedings regarding an eye redness medication; the panel reversed the PTAB’s claim construction and vacated a finding of obviousness that stemmed from it.
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July 02, 2025
Federal Circuit: Can Patent, Mum On Location Of ‘Second Point,’ Invalid
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed an Ohio federal judge’s finding that certain claims of a food packaging company’s patents on a type of can for beverages are invalid as indefinite, upholding the judge’s grant of summary judgment in favor of other can-making companies.
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June 19, 2025
COMMENTARY: Can AI Be Patented? Navigating Patent Subject Matter Eligibility
By John H. Mutchler
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July 01, 2025
Federal Circuit Affirms Mixed PTAB Findings On Automatic Computing Patents
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a pair of June 30 opinions, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a set of mixed findings from the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that held that most, but not all, claims valid in patents describing a method for improving computer processor power for autonomous actions, despite arguments from Amazon.com Inc. and other entities that prior art rendered all claims unpatentable as obvious.
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July 01, 2025
Lyft’s Noninfringement Of Tech Patent Claims Affirmed By Federal Circuit
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a finding by a California federal judge that Lyft Inc. did not infringe on a technology company’s patents describing a computerized system for diagnosing problems with a vehicle remotely, saying that it saw no issues with the way the judge construed terms in the patents’ claims.
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June 30, 2025
Federal Circuit: No Mandamus For Qualcomm, Apple On Patent Suit Transfer Bid
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Texas federal judge did not clearly err when denying requests from Qualcomm Inc. and Apple Inc. to transfer a patent infringement suit against them to a California federal court, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found, denying the companies’ request for a writ of mandamus.