Mealey's Intellectual Property
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March 20, 2025
Federal Circuit: TTAB Rightly Canceled Pawn Shop Marks Due To Earlier Use
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on March 19 held that a financial group could not use the zone of natural expansion doctrine in support of its claims of priority of use of the mark “Money Mart” in connection with pawn shops and pawn brokerage, affirming a partial grant of another company’s petition for trademark cancelation.
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March 20, 2025
Federal Circuit: No Review Of ITC’s Sanction Denial In Dropped Patent Row
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said in a brief precedential opinion that it could not review a decision by the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) refusing to enter a show cause order sua sponte on sanctions in a lawsuit over the importing of allegedly infringing semiconductor parts that was eventually dropped by the plaintiff company.
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March 19, 2025
Copyright Act Contemplates Human Authors, Not AI, D.C. Circuit Affirms
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Copyright protections require a human author and the U.S. Copyright Office properly denied an application listing an artificial intelligence as the author, the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said March 18 in affirming a district court ruling.
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March 19, 2025
4th Circuit: Judge Wrong To Focus On Location In Retirement Home Trademark Row
RICHMOND, Va. — A Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on March 18 vacated a Virginia federal judge’s finding that there was no risk of confusion between the trademarks associated with retirement communities based on opposite coasts of the United States; the panel said the judge was wrong to rely purely on the geographical distance between the respective companies when analyzing the risk of confusion.
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March 19, 2025
Magistrate Denies Motion To Compel Production Of Source Code In Patent Dispute
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A California federal magistrate judge denied in part a motion to compel discovery in a digital rights patent infringement suit, denying the motion to compel production of ground server source code and finding that the patent holder’s “one-sentence argument” “as to relevance does not satisfy its burden.”
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March 19, 2025
Federal Circuit Agrees Location Data Patent Obvious Due To Prior Art
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 an appellant company’s patent on location-based services for mobile devices was unpatentable as obvious; Apple Inc. sought inter partes review (IPR) of the company’s patent.
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March 19, 2025
PTAB’s Rejection Of Alternate Claims In Fracking Patent Row Affirmed
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed findings of the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that proposed alternate claims in two patents related to fracking were unpatentable as indefinite.
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March 18, 2025
Federal Circuit Agrees Location Data Patent Obvious Due To Prior Art
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 an appellant company’s patent on location-based services for mobile devices was unpatentable as obvious; Apple Inc. sought inter partes review (IPR) of the company’s patent.
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March 18, 2025
AI Search Engine Sufficiently Targets New York, Dow Jones Says
NEW YORK — Artificial intelligence company Perplexity AI markets its highly interactive website nationwide and is registered to do business in New York and transacts business in the state, providing a sufficient anchor to the jurisdiction, Dow Jones & Co. Inc. and a related affiliate tell a federal judge in opposing dismissal or transfer.
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March 17, 2025
ISP To High Court: 5th Circuit Wrong To Find Liability In Piracy Fight
WASHINGTON, D.C. — An internet service provider (ISP) tells the U.S. Supreme Court that the question of whether ISPs can be held to be vicariously liable for copyright infringement based on the behavior of internet customers is a “major question” that could have far-reaching impact on ISP companies; according to the ISP, the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals was wrong to find in favor of plaintiff-appellee music labels that it was liable for failure to prevent instances of infringement.
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March 14, 2025
Federal Circuit Affirms Judge’s Acceptance Of Patent Reissuance For Medication
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on March 13 held that a biopharmaceutical patent holder was entitled to a patent term extension (PTE) for a reissued patent, disagreeing with arguments from generic drug manufacturers about how the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) calculated the date for patent reissuance.
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March 14, 2025
2nd Circuit Affirms Fair Use Finding, Fee Rejection In Professors’ Copyright Fight
NEW YORK — A Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a New York federal judge’s finding that a faculty member at a City University of New York (CUNY) community college did not infringe on the work of another CUNY faculty member during a presentation, agreeing with the judge that the defendant faculty member’s use of the copyrighted material constituted fair use.
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March 13, 2025
AI Plaintiffs Say Meta’s Torrenting Is Clear Copyright Violation
SAN FRANCISCO — Meta Platforms Inc.’s torrenting of protected works to secure material to train its artificial intelligence constitutes a copyright violation and is not protected by fair use, plaintiffs tell a federal judge in California.
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March 13, 2025
Federal Judge Tosses Trademark Claims Between Activists, Rejects Recusal
DALLAS — A federal judge in Texas dismissed with prejudice trademark claims and counterclaims in a dispute between two similarly named entities focused on the advancement of African Americans in the technology profession and denied a former litigant’s request for sanctions against one of the parties’ attorneys and recusal of the judge; the former litigant filed an immediate notice of appeal to the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
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March 13, 2025
Federal Circuit Rejects Rehearing Bid In E-Cig Patent Dispute
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals rejected requests for rehearing from electronic cigarette entity R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co. (RJR), leaving in place a partially split panel’s affirmation of a jury’s award of more than $95 million against the company for infringing on another company’s pod-based tobacco vapor technology.
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March 13, 2025
Federal Circuit: PTAB Didn’t Consider All Evidence In Metal Flake Patent Dispute
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held that the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) failed to consider the full evidence on the record during postgrant review proceedings in a dispute related to a type of metal flakes used in manufacturing; the panel vacated the board’s finding that the appellant failed to show that any of the challenged patent claims were unpatentable.
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March 13, 2025
Federal Circuit: No Error In TTAB’s Fireball Mark Genericness Analysis
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a dispute over the trademarks related to fiery brands of whiskey, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on March 12 affirmed findings from the U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) that Sazerac Brands LLC’s “Fireball” trademarks are not generic and that there was no likelihood of confusion between the mark and those for which another liquor maker applied.
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March 12, 2025
Federal Circuit Affirms Invalidity Of Wearable Tech Patents, Moots ITC Proceedings
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel rejected a wearable technology patent holder’s argument that the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) violated its discovery obligations before holding that all challenged claims in the company’s patents were invalid during inter partes review (IPR) proceedings brought by Apple Inc., affirming the invalidity finding.
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March 11, 2025
10th Circuit Agrees: No Immunity For School Head Who Threatened Trademark Suits
DENVER — A superintendent of a New Mexico school district “violated clearly established law” when attempting to use a trademark associated with the name of the district as a basis for cease-and-desist letters sent to the people behind a parent-run Facebook page, a 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held March 10, affirming a New Mexico federal judge’s denial of the superintendent’s motion for summary judgment.
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March 11, 2025
Judge Allows Case Alleging Violations Of Diet Drugs’ Trademarks To Move Forward
SEATTLE — A Washington federal judge agreed that state law claims filed against medical centers and two physicians who prescribe patients compounded versions of tirzepatide, an FDA-approved drug for diabetes and weight loss, are preempted by federal law but otherwise denied a motion to dismiss.
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March 11, 2025
Supreme Court Rejects Another Copyright Attorney Fee Petition Involving Photos
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 10 rejected a real estate company’s request to consider whether the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals wrongly upheld a rejection of its request for attorney fees in a copyright infringement case brought against it, and then voluntarily dismissed, by a plaintiff photography company; it’s one of multiple recent denials of certiorari petitions in copyright cases involving the photography company.
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March 11, 2025
Supreme Court: No Rehearing In Copyright Attorney Fee Fight
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 10 denied a copyright defendant’s petition for rehearing, again leaving in place a finding from the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that he was not the “prevailing party” under federal copyright law in the face of the copyright owner’s voluntary dismissal of the case.
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March 10, 2025
Supreme Court Won’t Consider If Copyrights Affected By Contract Ruling
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 10 decided that it would not hear a software company’s argument that the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ reversal of a $1.6 billion award in a contract dispute with International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) would lead to ripple effects regarding the use of copyrighted software.
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March 07, 2025
Federal Circuit OKs Rejection Of ImmunoGen’s Cancer Patent Application
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on March 6 affirmed a Virginia federal judge’s finding that a pharmaceutical company’s patent application for a treatment for ovarian and other cancers contains “‘fatally indefinite and obvious’” claims, nearly three years after the Federal Circuit vacated the judge’s grant of summary judgment against the company.
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March 07, 2025
Federal Circuit: Patent Applicant’s Constitutional Argument Comes Too Late
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 6 affirmed a Virginia federal judge’s grant of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) motion to dismiss a tech company’s complaint seeking review of the rejection of its patent application, holding that the company forfeited its arguments based on the appointments clause of the U.S. Constitution.