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Mealey's Intellectual Property

  • December 09, 2025

    Recap Of Some Major Rulings And Developments In AI-Copyright Cases In 2025

    It has been more than five years since a news organization filed the first lawsuit challenging the training of artificial intelligence using copyrighted material.  Since that time, there have been dozens of similar suits filed, the creation of multidistrict litigation, certification of a class action, several ground-breaking rulings and one potentially precedent-setting settlement.  This story looks at some of the biggest developments in the litigation in 2025 and where those cases stand now.

  • December 08, 2025

    High Court Rejects Bid To Consider Federal Circuit 1st Impression AI Patent Ruling

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 8 rejected a machine learning patent holder’s petition for a writ of certiorari in which the company contended that the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ ruling on a matter of first impression that affirmed the invalidation of the patents for describing the abstract concept of machine learning without pointing to specific improvements was erroneous; the company told the high court that the Federal Circuit’s approach to patent eligibility “flouts this Court’s instruction to consider preemption.”

  • December 08, 2025

    Federal Circuit: Judge Wrong To Toss Meta Patent Row Without Claim Construction

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a Dec. 5 opinion, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel vacated a Texas federal judge’s dismissal of an advertising technology company’s patent infringement suit against Meta Platforms Inc., finding that the dismissal hinged on a premature resolution of a disputed claim construction in Meta’s favor and a failure to credit the plaintiff-appellant’s factual allegations.

  • December 08, 2025

    Fla. Federal Judge Rules That Dueling Experts Can Testify In Trademark Row

    MIAMI — All opposing experts in a trademark dispute pending in a Florida federal court can testify, a judge ruled, finding that the arguments for exclusion under Federal Rule of Evidence 702 and Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc. can best be resolved through cross-examination.

  • December 08, 2025

    Federal Circuit: PTAB Wrongly Found Apple Failed To Explain Arguments

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel largely affirmed the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB) findings of unpatentability of some computer file organization patent claims and patentability of other claims all challenged by Apple Inc.; however, the panel found in its Dec. 5 nonprecedential opinion that PTAB abused its discretion in finding that one of Apple’s petitions was not adequately explained.

  • December 08, 2025

    Federal Magistrate Judge Recommends Final Judgment For Lilly In Trademark Dispute

    TAMPA, Fla. — A federal magistrate judge recommended that a Florida federal court grant Eli Lilly & Co.’s motion for a default final judgment after finding that a cosmetic weight loss center likely infringed on trademarks held by the company while selling a compounded version of tirzepatide.

  • December 05, 2025

    Judge Rebukes AI Use By Plaintiff In Counterfeiting Suit Against New Balance

    LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — An “experienced” pro se litigant’s response to New Balance Athletics Inc.’s motion to dismiss his trademark infringement suit was riddled with factual errors, thanks to his use of a generative artificial intelligence (AI) program in drafting the response, an Arkansas federal judge held; the judge struck the response to the motion but also denied the motion itself.

  • December 05, 2025

    9th Circuit Affirms TRO Enjoining OpenAI From Use Of ‘IO’ Mark

    SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a California federal judge’s decision to grant a temporary restraining order (TRO) that bars a company recently purchased by ChatGPT-maker OpenAI LLC from using marks that could potentially cause confusion with another technology company with a similarly pronounced name.

  • December 05, 2025

    John R. Cash Trust Sues Coca-Cola Over ‘Infringing Ad’ In NCAA Marketing Campaign

    NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The John R. Cash Revocable Trust sued The Coca-Cola Co. in a Tennessee federal court, alleging violation of state laws and the Lanham Act over Coca-Cola’s “Infringing Ad” allegedly using a singing voice that is “identifiable and attributable to Johnny Cash” without permission in a 2025 NCAA college football advertising campaign on television networks and across social media platforms.

  • December 04, 2025

    Magistrate Judge Affirms OpenAI Must Produce 20 Million ChatGPT Chat Logs

    SAN FRANCISCO — OpenAI Inc. defendants must produce 20 million ChatGPT outputs in a consolidated copyright action against it, a magistrate judge in New York affirmed in denying a motion for reconsideration after finding the evidence relevant and proportionate.

  • December 04, 2025

    9th Circuit: Judge Right To Toss ‘Diva Lawyer’ Mark Suit For Lack Of Jurisdiction

    SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Dec. 3 affirmed a California federal judge’s decision to dismiss a California-based club’s trademark infringement suit against a Kentucky-based attorney over the use of the name “Diva Attorney,” agreeing with the judge that the club failed to show that the attorney had sufficient contacts with California to establish specific personal jurisdiction.

  • December 04, 2025

    Federal Circuit: Cancer Treatment Patent Not Properly Enabled Or Disclosed

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A biopharmaceutical company’s patent on a cancer therapy called antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) is invalid for lack of written description and lack of enablement, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held in two opinions that reversed a Texas federal judge’s refusal to grant judgment as a matter of law (JMOL) to defendant biopharmaceutical entities and dismissed as moot a related appeal of a U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) ruling.

  • December 04, 2025

    Bloomberg Must Face Book Copyright Owners’ Suit, Judge Says

    NEW YORK — Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and others successfully allege copyright ownership and that two Bloomberg companies used their protected works as training material for their artificial intelligence, a federal judge in New York said in denying a motion to dismiss.

  • December 04, 2025

    Magistrate Judge Orders OpenAI To Produce Dataset-Deletion Communications

    NEW YORK — OpenAI Inc. entities waived any attorney-client privilege protecting communications by offering shifting positions that resulted in the disclosure of some of the purportedly privileged reasons for the deletions and by putting their state of mind at issue, a federal magistrate judge in New York said in ordering production of the evidence.

  • December 04, 2025

    Google Accuses AI Copyright Plaintiffs Of ‘Litigation-By-Ambush’

    SAN JOSE, Calif. — Google LLC opposed a motion to certify a class action and asked a federal judge in California to strike the allegations with prejudice as a sanction for artificial intelligence copyright plaintiffs’ “midnight switch” of proposed classes and subclasses.

  • December 03, 2025

    Preliminary Injunction Left Intact In IP Row Over Game Emulation Software

    SAN DIEGO — A California federal judge denied video game emulation software developers’ motion to reconsider a decision to grant a video game publisher’s request for a preliminary injunction in a dispute over trademarks and copyrights related to the video game EverQuest, finding that the defendants “essentially argue the Court was wrong in its decision” without further evidence.

  • December 02, 2025

    High Court Hears Arguments On ISP’s Liability For Users’ Infringement

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Dec. 1 from an internet service provider (ISP) that contends that it can be found liable for customers’ copyright infringement through piracy only if it committed a culpable act, while a group of record labels and music publishers told the justices that the ISP’s continuous providing of service to internet protocol (IP) addresses of known infringers constitutes liability under the material contribution standard (Cox Communications, Inc., et al. v. Sony Music Entertainment, et al., No. 24-171, U.S. Sup.).

  • December 02, 2025

    Federal Circuit Rejects Challenge To Reexamination Of Expired Patent

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel once again ruled against a technology company on Dec. 1, affirming a finding of the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that certain claims of the company’s patent describing a handheld device using a camera to receive gesture-based inputs are invalid as anticipated; the panel also dismissed the company’s appeal in part related to other patent claims that the appellate court had already held to be invalid.

  • December 01, 2025

    Stay Of Injunction In Battle Over Copyright Register Post Deferred By High Court

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court issued an order on Nov. 26 deferring until two other cases are decided an application by President Donald J. Trump and others to stay an interlocutory injunction in a case over the president’s ability to remove Shira Perlmutter from her position as the register of copyrights and director of the U.S. Copyright Office.

  • December 01, 2025

    Judge: N.J. Hotel Must Pay Nearly $1.4 Million For Econo Lodge Infringement

    CAMDEN, N.J. — A New Jersey federal judge granted summary judgment to the hotel company behind Econo Lodge, finding that the undisputed record showed that holdover franchisees continued to use trademarks related to the brand years after the termination of a franchise agreement, ordering the defendant entities to pay just short of $1.4 million in monetary damages, disgorgement and costs.

  • November 26, 2025

    Supreme Court Seeks Response In ‘Paradise’ AI Art Copyright Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — One day after distributing a case for conference, the U.S. Supreme Court on Nov. 26 asked for a response from the federal government in a case in which a man claims that lower courts erred by finding that his artificial intelligence-generated artwork was not entitled to copyright protections.  The man previously asked the court to stay the case while courts decide whether Shira Perlmutter can continue to serve as head of the U.S. Copyright Office.

  • November 26, 2025

    Federal Circuit Says ‘Best’ Claim Limitation Invalid As Indefinite

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Nov. 25 affirmed a California federal judge’s finding that some claims in patents describing systems for routing streamed content over the internet were invalid as indefinite and likewise affirmed findings that the technology company’s products did not meet a claim limitation required by the patents at issue.

  • November 26, 2025

    Federal Circuit Affirms Fees, Sanctions In ‘Frivolous’ Patent Infringement Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Nov. 25 affirmed a California federal judge’s decision to order more than $250,000 in attorney fees and additional sanctions against a company that sued Google LLC for allegedly infringing a patent on a system that allows musical artists to remotely update an album already on a user’s device.

  • November 26, 2025

    Dismissal Recommended After Patent Plaintiff Fails To Appear For Bench Trial

    NEW YORK — A federal magistrate judge in New York recommended that a patent plaintiff’s complaint against Google LLC be dismissed with prejudice after the man failed to appear at an October evidentiary bench trial on infringement claims he brought against the technology company; the plaintiff has “repeatedly claimed” that the magistrate judge “had no authority to conduct a bench trial without his consent,” the magistrate judge wrote.

  • November 25, 2025

    No New Trial For Coal Company Found To Infringe Emissions Patent

    WILMINGTON, Del. — A federal magistrate judge in Delaware denied a motion for a new trial from affiliated coal companies that a jury held willfully infringed another energy company’s patents on the use of chemical additives to capture mercury emissions at coal-fired power plants, leaving in place the jury’s award of more than $57 million to the plaintiff company; the magistrate judge said the defendant entities “rehash[ed]” arguments already rejected in an earlier denial of judgment as a matter of law.