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Mealey's Intellectual Property

  • March 13, 2026

    2nd Circuit Affirms Injunction Denial In Film Fest Trademark Fight

    NEW YORK — A Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel saw no abuse of discretion in a New York federal judge’s finding that the owner of a South Asian film festival in New York was unlikely to succeed on trademark claims against the owner of a South Asian film festival in both Texas and New York, affirming the judge’s decision to deny a preliminary injunction.

  • March 13, 2026

    Amicus IP Group To High Court: No Bright-Line Rules For ‘Skinny Label’ Cases

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In an amicus curiae brief filed in support of neither party, the Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO) told the U.S. Supreme Court that the standard for inducement of infringement should be applied universally in patent cases, including in “skinny label” cases involving an allegedly noninfringing use; IPO tells the high court that the petitioner bioequivalent pharmaceutical maker appears to be advocating for multiple “bright-line” rules that should not be applied.

  • March 13, 2026

    9th Circuit Affirms Denial Of Attorney Fees For Web Mark Row Removal

    SAN FRANCISCO — An Arizona federal judge was not wrong to deny a plaintiff web development entity’s request for attorney fees from its domain registrar, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held, finding that it was not unreasonable for the domain registrar to seek federal question jurisdiction on claims that it improperly blocked its use of a domain name in the United States as a result of an order from a judge in India regarding specific trademarks.

  • March 13, 2026

    Federal Circuit Vacates Abstractness, Reverses Sanctions Against IP Law Firm

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a pair of opinions, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel vacated a judgment of infringement against the makers of the Norton antivirus software, holding that a Virginia federal judge wrongly held that the patents at issue are not directed at an abstract idea; the panel also reversed the judge’s entry of sanctions against the software company’s counsel at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP for failing to comply with an order compelling it to disclose allegedly privileged information it received from a former employee of the software company the firm also represented.

  • March 13, 2026

    Partly Split Federal Circuit Affirms Rejection Of Apple-Initiated IPR

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A partly split Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel agreed with the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that Apple Inc. had failed to prove a motivation to combine certain prior art references or that another combination had a reasonable likelihood of being successful in the latest appeal involving another technology company.

  • March 12, 2026

    Federal Circuit: Lack Of Algorithm Didn’t Make Patent Claim Indefinite

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on March 11 reversed an Iowa federal judge’s finding that claims of a patent describing a type of crop harvesting tool were invalid as indefinite; the panel held that the patent specification’s reference to a commercially available controller with logic circuitry constituted sufficient corresponding structure without the disclosure of an algorithm.

  • March 12, 2026

    Judge Will Consider MosaicML Dismissal Motion On The Briefs

    SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in California vacated a scheduled hearing on a motion to dismiss direct copyright infringement claims against MosaicML Inc. and Databricks Inc. and will decide the motion on the briefs in litigation over the alleged use of copyrighted works to train artificial intelligence models (In re Mosaic LLM Litigation, No. 24-1451, N.D. Calif.).

  • March 12, 2026

    7th Circuit: Judge Erred By Finding Jurisdiction In Counterfeiting Row

    CHICAGO — A Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found that an Illinois federal judge “clearly erred” by determining that defendants in a counterfeiting case sold products in Illinois based on screenshots showing an uncompleted purchase to a Chicago shipping address.

  • March 11, 2026

    Texas Federal Judge Wrongly Excluded Damages Expert, Federal Circuit Says

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel reversed a Texas federal judge’s decision to exclude a plaintiff technology company’s expert on damages and vacated the judge’s grant of summary judgment for absence of remedy in Microsoft Corp.’s favor on infringement claims involving patents describing a method for communication between virtual networks.

  • March 11, 2026

    Federal Circuit: PTAB Right To Uphold Examiner’s Obviousness Finding

    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 a pending claim in an application for a patent on a type of cleated shoe was invalid as obvious per a combination of prior art references.

  • March 10, 2026

    Appellant Forfeited New Antedating Argument Before PTAB, Federal Circuit Says

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on March 9 affirmed final written decisions by the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), holding that the board did not abuse its discretion when it held that a technology company forfeited a new antedating argument during inter partes review (IPR) proceedings.

  • March 09, 2026

    Supreme Court Won’t Consider Co-Ownership Of ‘Zioness’ Trademark

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court denied a pro-Zionist advocacy group’s petition for a writ of certiorari in a March 9 order list, declining to hear the advocacy group’s contention that the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals violated the core principles of trademark law when a panel determined that the group and another with similar aims are co-owners of the trademark “Zioness.”

  • March 09, 2026

    High Court Won’t Hear Claim That Federal Circuit Expanded Scope Of IPR

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 9 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari in which a technology company argued that the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals expanded the scope of inter partes review (IPR) to include consideration of an “abandoned patent application” when affirming findings by the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB).

  • March 09, 2026

    Drilling Company Didn’t Show Trademark Claims Are Time-Barred, Judge Rules

    OKLAHOMA CITY — An Oklahoma federal judge rejected a defendant oil and natural gas company’s contention that a trademark suit against it was premised on time-barred claims; the judge held that further factual development was required to determine whether the doctrine of laches applied.

  • March 06, 2026

    Plaintiffs Seek Discovery Of Microsoft AI Revenue, 88M More AI Conversations

    NEW YORK — Revenue and profits Microsoft Corp. acquired as a result of artificial intelligence offerings are relevant and discoverable in a suit over the alleged use of copyrighted works to train the technology, a proposed class told a federal judge in New York.  Meanwhile, the plaintiffs and OpenAI entities filed letter briefs over the availability and relevance of 88 million ChatGPT conversations.

  • March 06, 2026

    Jury Orders $75M In Damages For Removal Of University’s CMI

    HARTFORD, Conn. — A federal jury in Connecticut found that the owner of an online platform that allows users to share educational resources with each other owes more than $75 million to a private university in the state after the jury agreed with claims that the web platform violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) thousands of times in its distribution of university contents.

  • March 06, 2026

    5th Circuit Amends Trademark Opinion, Now Finding Attorney Immune

    NEW ORLEANS — A Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel released a slightly amended version of an October 2025 opinion that affirmed a Texas federal judge’s grant of summary judgment to a law firm on its trademark claims against a man and two attorneys who made a fake website using the law firm’s name as part of a landlord-tenant dispute; the panel held that it previously improperly affirmed the judge’s finding that one of the two attorneys was not protected by attorney immunity.

  • March 05, 2026

    Judge: Polo Association Established Jurisdiction, But Marks Not Famous Enough

    NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York dismissed a claim of trademark dilution from a complaint the United States Polo Association Inc. (USPA) brought against an apparel company that the polo association accused of fraudulently obtaining a registered trademark; the judge held March 4 that USPA failed to establish the requisite fame of its marks.

  • March 05, 2026

    Attorney Says Faulty Quotes Not AI’s Fault In Valve Patent Troll Trial

    SEATTLE — An attorney for a man accused by Valve Corp. of being a “patent troll” responded to a Washington federal judge’s order to show cause, arguing that fake quotations were caused by the error of a contract attorney; on the same day, the judge entered $11,500 in attorney fees against the defense for fees incurred during a discovery dispute before a recently completed trial.

  • March 04, 2026

    Federal Circuit Partly Reverses PTAB Ruling On 3D Imaging Patent

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel delivered a mixed opinion on March 3 in a dispute over a patent that concerns the use of 3D modeling of patient data on augmented reality (AR) headsets, affirming the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB) decision to reject the appellant’s anticipation arguments but reversing the rejection of obviousness arguments.

  • March 03, 2026

    Supreme Court Won’t Hear Copyright Arguments Over Lil Nas X Photos

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 2 rejected an artist’s petition for a writ of certiorari, declining to hear the artist’s argument that the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals wrongly held that copyrightability is a pure question of law when it upheld a California federal judge’s dismissal of infringement claims brought against singer and rapper Lil Nas X.

  • March 03, 2026

    Federal Circuit: Factual Questions Remain In Patent Monopolization Dispute

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held that genuine questions of material fact persist in a dispute over whether a plaintiff cross-appellant’s claims that another entity was attempting to monopolize the market for a type of steel tubing through fraudulently obtained patents, leading to the vacating of both a Texas federal judge’s grant of summary judgment in the defendant entities’ favor and a finding in the plaintiff’s favor that the defendants had acted inequitably.

  • March 03, 2026

    Supreme Court Denies Petition In AI Art Copyright Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — An artist’s attempt to copyright an artificial intelligence-generated piece of art appears doomed after the U.S. Supreme Court on March 2 denied his petition for a writ of certiorari in which he argued that the Copyright Act does not impose a human authorship requirement.

  • March 02, 2026

    William And Mary Fails To Show Jurisdiction For Trademark Row, Judge Finds

    NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — A federal judge in Virginia dismissed a complaint brought by the College of William and Mary in Virginia against a scientific education nonprofit organization, finding that the college failed to show that the court had personal jurisdiction over the defendant entity to consider its claims that its more than 300-year-old mark had been infringed.

  • March 02, 2026

    Nvidia Says YouTube Copying For AI Training Didn’t Evade Technical Measures

    SAN JOSE, Calif. — Nvidia Corp. told a federal judge in California in a motion to dismiss that its copying of YouTube content for use in training its artificial intelligence didn’t evade technical measures designed to prevent access as required for a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) claim.