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

Mealey's Intellectual Property

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.
April 28, 2025
Both Supreme Court And District Court Deny Bids To Stay Patent Suit Sanctions

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Both the U.S. Supreme Court and a California federal court blocked requests to stay the entry of sanctions against three lawyers from a law firm representing a patent holder on April 25; the federal magistrate judge presiding over the lower court case said the attorneys failed to show that their pending appeal before the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has a substantial likelihood of success.
April 28, 2025
OpenAI Scrapes Websites In Violation Of Its Own Instructions, Publisher Says

WILMINGTON, Del. — OpenAI boasts about measures publishers can use to prevent the use of their online works in the training of artificial intelligence but then ignores those measures and scrapes copyrighted works from websites anyway, the online publishers of more than 45 media brands like Mashable, Lifehacker and IGN claim in an infringement complaint filed in Delaware federal court.
April 28, 2025
Judge Says ‘Superman’ Copyright Suit Belonged In California, Dismisses

NEW YORK — A New York federal judge dismissed the most recent complaint involving the rights to the copyrights to comic book character Superman, holding that the District Court lacked subject matter jurisdiction over the suit brought by the nephew of one of the character’s co-creators against DC Comics Inc. and other entities over alleged infringement of the character in multiple foreign nations.
April 25, 2025
Federal Circuit: Epic Games Didn’t Show Error In PTAB Claim Construction

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The maker of popular video games like “Fortnite” cannot show that prior art rendered obvious another company’s patents related to user communications, a panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held April 24, affirming a finding by the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB).
April 25, 2025
Federal Circuit: PTAB Again Misinterprets Applicant Admitted Prior Art Standard

WASHINGTON, D.C. — For the second time, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel sent a patent dispute between Qualcomm Inc. and Apple Inc. back to the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), with the panel finding that the PTAB again misinterpreted a provision in the Patent Act involving applicant admitted prior art (AAPA).
April 24, 2025
Partly Split Federal Circuit Says PTAB Got Game Controller IPR Wrong

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) committed multiple errors when it held that the first claim of a video game controller patent was not invalid as obvious, a partially split panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said on April 23; the panel said that PTAB ignored the Federal Circuit’s previous finding that the same claim was unpatentable in an earlier appeal.
April 24, 2025
Federal Circuit Denies ‘Urgent Requests’ To Consider Motion To Stay Sanctions

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in an April 23 per curiam order denied a pair of “urgent requests” for ruling on a motion to stay the entry of sanctions against three lawyers from a law firm representing a patent holder, saying the court would rule on the attorneys’ primary motion “in due course”; the order was issued a day after the attorneys filed a notice of application to the U.S. Supreme Court.
April 23, 2025
Judge Strikes Class Claims From Google AI Copyright Suit, Allows Amendment

SAN JOSE, Calif. — As originally defined, a proposed class in an artificial intelligence copyright action constituted an improper fail-safe class, a federal judge in California said while allowing an amendment that cures the defect and finding two Google LLC entities’ challenge to the new class definition premature.
April 23, 2025
Federal Circuit Says Inventor’s Prior Application Anticipates New Application

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on April 22 affirmed a finding by the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that a design patent applicant’s submission was anticipated by her earlier utility application.
April 23, 2025
High Court Rejects Fee Petition From Company Liable For Counterfeits

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court decided not to hear arguments from a distribution company and the man who controls it, who argued that the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals was wrong to uphold the entry of attorney fees against them in a trademark infringement suit; the petitioners were found liable for selling counterfeited beauty products.
April 22, 2025
Supreme Court Won’t Hear Invalidity Challenge In Foreign Damages Patent Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court decided April 21 that it would not hear arguments from the owner of a trading company that argued that the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals wrongly upheld an Illinois federal judge’s findings of patent invalidity.
April 22, 2025
Anthropic Says AI Copyright Action Too Unwieldy For Class Certification

SAN FRANCISCO — An artificial intelligence copyright class action spans a century, would include more than five million works owned by various people, trusts and other entities and would require the court to decide ownership millions of times over, a company tells a federal judge in California in an opposition to certification. In a separate letter brief, Anthropic PBC tells the court that the plaintiffs were misrepresenting a court’s order and the course and timing of discovery.
April 22, 2025
Motion To Compel Granted In Trademark Row Involving Health Care Fraudster

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — A New York federal magistrate judge on April 21 granted a pharmaceutical company’s motion to compel in a Lanham Act trademark infringement case, seeking documents related to fee arrangement between defense counsel and his client, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud in a related case, finding in part that “the requested information is relevant” because plaintiffs in Lanham Act suits may recover a defendant’s profits.
April 22, 2025
AI Challengers Ask Court To Reconsider Denying Leave To Amend

NEW YORK — The creation of multidistrict litigation governing copyright claims against OpenAI entities warrants reconsideration of a ruling denying leave to amend a complaint so that the consistency and finality goals at the heart of the consolidated litigation are assured, media outlets targeting the removal of copyright management information (CMI) from their works tell a federal judge in New York.
April 22, 2025
Supreme Court Rejects Rehearing Bid For Fees In Photo Copyright Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a rehearing petition from a real estate company sued by a photography company for copyright infringement in which the real estate outfit argued for a final time that it was due attorney fees as the prevailing party in the case after the photography company voluntarily dismissed the infringement suit.
April 21, 2025
Federal Circuit: Machine Learning Patent Invalid As Obvious Per Alice Inquiry

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on April 18 affirmed a Delaware federal judge’s decision to dismiss a machine learning patent holder’s suit against Fox Corp. and affiliated entities, agreeing with the judge that the patents describe an abstract idea without any additional creation on the patent holder’s part; the panel said the case presented a matter of first impression.
April 21, 2025
Supreme Court Rejects Challenge To Federal Circuit Affirmation Of Patent Judgment

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on April 21 rejected a patent licensing company’s petition for a writ of certiorari, declining to hear arguments from the company that the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ignored a genuine dispute of facts in its case with Amazon companies.
April 21, 2025
Xerox Mobile Device Data Patent Invalid As Obvious, Federal Circuit Agrees

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Xerox Corp. failed to overcome a finding of obviousness from the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) in a series of appeals involving social media entities, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held.
April 18, 2025
Judge Tosses Infringement Claims But Not Inventorship Claim From AT&T Patent Suit

NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York dismissed patent infringement claims brought against two AT&T entities over their use of “twinning” technology that allows one phone number to apply to multiple devices, finding that the patent applies to an inappropriately abstract concept; however, the judge declined to dismiss the plaintiff company’s claim seeking correction of inventorship.
April 18, 2025
Patent Holder Challenged Claim Construction It Sought, Federal Circuit Says

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A patent holding company forfeited its argument that a Washington federal judge erred in the construction of a claim phrase in a patent dispute over a network traffic manager patent by failing to bring up the construction argument earlier, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held April 17.
April 17, 2025
Judge Stands By Refusal To Dismiss Chicago Cubs Trademark Claims Against Bar

CHICAGO — An Illinois federal judge told a Chicago rooftop bar and its owner that she would not reconsider a January order denying the bar and owner’s motion to dismiss a trademark infringement complaint brought by the Chicago Cubs Baseball Club LLC; the judge also denied the defendants’ request to stay the case and compel arbitration.