Mealey's Intellectual Property
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January 30, 2025
Judge Finds Campbell, Supermarkets Infringed Soup Can Display Patents
CHICAGO — A retail display manufacturer provided “substantial evidence” that Campbell Soup Co. (now known as The Campbell’s Co.) and two supermarket chains directly infringed three soup can display racks, an Illinois federal judge ruled, granting summary judgment of direct infringement in the long-running case.
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January 29, 2025
Atari, State Farm Settle Infringement Claim Over Arcade Cabinet In Insurance Ads
DALLAS — Atari Interactive Inc. and State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. and advertising companies that worked with it stipulated to the dismissal of all claims stemming from allegations that State Farm used an Atari arcade cabinet in an ad campaign without the company’s permission.
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January 29, 2025
Petitioners To High Court: Trademark Settlement ‘Fraud’ Must Be Fixed
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court must grant a writ of certiorari in a trademark infringement case because the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals wrongly allowed to stand a New York federal judge’s denial of a request to vacate a 2011 settlement in the face of an allegedly fraudulent document submitted as evidence in the case, four companies tell the high court in a recently docketed petition.
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January 29, 2025
In 4 Opinions, Federal Circuit Affirms Obviousness Of Tech Company’s Patents
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In four opinions, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held that all challenged claims in a tech company’s patents related to making gestures in front of a camera are unpatentable as obvious, affirming most findings from the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) issued during inter partes review (IPR) and reversing one and affirming two decisions from PTAB issued during related ex parte examinations.
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January 29, 2025
Rejection Of Tire Sealant Patent As Indefinite Affirmed By Federal Circuit
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A pro se inventor whose patent application for a tire sealant apparatus was rejected by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) as being indefinite was unsuccessful in his appeal to the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, where a panel found that the appellant failed to rebut an examiner’s finding that the proposed patent’s terms were indefinite.
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January 29, 2025
Federal Circuit Upholds IPR Decision In Samsung’s Favor On LED Patent
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found no error by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) in its conclusion, after conducting inter partes review (IPR), that a patent related to light-emitting diodes (LEDs) was invalid as obvious in light of prior art.
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January 28, 2025
No Error In PTAB Construction Of ‘Hardware Buffer,’ Federal Circuit Says
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a case appearing before the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals for the second time, a panel said the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) on remand did not err in its construction of the phrase “hardware buffer” in a computer processor patent dispute between Qualcomm Inc. and Intel Corp.; the panel affirmed the PTAB’s holding that all claims in Qualcomm’s patent are unpatentable as obvious.
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January 28, 2025
Federal Circuit: No Error In PTAB’s ‘Cache Memory’ Construction
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) did not employ an unreasonable construction of the term “cache memory,” a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held Jan. 27, affirming the board’s finding that a company’s patent was invalid as obvious in inter partes review (IPR) proceedings brought against it by streaming giant Netflix Inc.
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January 28, 2025
Judge Tosses Designer’s Copyright Claims For Use Of Character On Album Art
LOS ANGELES — A designer who accused a hip-hop producer of copyright infringement for using a character he designed on multiple album covers since 1999 failed to show that the implied license granted to the producer had any kind of expiration date, a federal judge in California held, granting a motion from the producer and related entities for judgment on the pleadings.
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January 27, 2025
6th Circuit Agrees: No Royalties To Inventor After Patent’s Expiration
CINCINATTI — A federal judge in Michigan was right to find that a health care company owed no further royalties to the inventor of eye-test machines after the expiration of his patent, the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held Jan. 24, saying that the parties agreed to a royalty rate based on use of the patent itself.
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January 27, 2025
Federal Circuit Reverses Most Noninfringement JMOLs In Packaging Patent Row
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in Delaware provided no rationale to support a decision to conditionally grant a new trial on damages in a patent dispute between two makers of food packaging materials, a panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held Jan. 24, vacating the new trial order.
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January 27, 2025
DISH To High Court: Federal Circuit Got Patent Act Fees Scope Wrong
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a petition for a writ of certiorari before the U.S. Supreme Court, DISH Network L.L.C. maintains its argument that a Delaware federal judge was wrong to find that it cannot recoup the attorney fees it incurred during a proceeding before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that was “voluntary” and “parallel” to the district court proceedings.
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January 24, 2025
Judge Says First Sale Doctrine Doesn’t Apply To Software Keys
SEATTLE — The first sale doctrine does not apply to software product keys, a federal judge in Washington held Jan. 23, because those keys are not themselves copyrightable works, granting partial summary judgment as to a single affirmative defense in favor of the Microsoft Corp. against a Canadian entity and several individuals Microsoft called “prolific distributors of black market access devices to Microsoft software that they unlawfully advertise to consumers as genuine software.”
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January 24, 2025
Federal Circuit: PTAB Right To Find Lithium Battery Claims Obvious
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Jan. 23 said that the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) did not err in holding that multiple claims in a company’s patents relating to lithium-ion batteries were unpatentable as obvious.
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January 23, 2025
11th Circuit: Judge Wrong To Toss Architect’s Copyright, Contract Claims
ATLANTA — A federal judge in Florida was wrong to dismiss copyright infringement and breach of contract claims brought by an architect and firms he controls against multiple entities in a relationship that soured over a condominium construction project, an 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held Jan. 22, vacating the judge’s order.
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January 23, 2025
Federal Circuit Again Affirms PTAB Finding That DNA Testing Patent Not Obvious
WASHINGTON, D.C. — For the second time in recent weeks, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Jan. 22 affirmed a finding by the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Boar (PTAB) that a biopharmaceutical company’s in utero DNA testing product was not shown to be unpatentable in an inter partes review (IPR) proceeding.
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January 23, 2025
Parties Resolve AI Dynamic Batching Patent Fight
WILMINGTON, Del. — Two artificial intelligence companies have reached a confidential settlement resolving a dispute in a Delaware federal court over a patent protecting dynamic batching used to decrease latency in AI transformers.
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January 23, 2025
9th Circuit: No Rehearing For Playwright In Copyright Row With Studio
SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Jan. 22 denied a playwright’s motion for en banc rehearing, standing by its affirmation of a federal judge’s grant of summary judgment in favor of a film studio and related entities the writer accused of copying elements from a stage production she wrote.
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January 22, 2025
Solar-Cell Module Patent Claims Invalid, Federal Circuit Agrees
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) was right to find that the claims of a solar energy company’s patent on a type of solar-cell module were unpatentable as obvious, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held Jan. 21.
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January 22, 2025
Supreme Court Won’t Consider PTAB Use Of APJs In Patent Proceedings
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 21 rejected a processor patent holder’s request for certiorari based on the argument that the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) is barred by the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) from both instituting and deciding on inter partes review (IPR) proceedings, leaving in place a judgment by the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirming PTAB’s finding of unpatentability.
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January 22, 2025
OpenAI Isn’t Entitled To Discovery Of All AI Usage, New York Times Says
NEW YORK — OpenAI Inc.’s contention that its fair use defense requires The New York Times Co. (NYT) to produce any and all evidence related to its use of artificial intelligence of any kind and in any manner seeks to “distract from its own massive copyright infringement” and was properly rejected by a magistrate judge, the company says in responding to an objection to a ruling denying a motion to compel.
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January 21, 2025
Magistrate Judge Rejects Meta’s ‘False Dichotomy,’ Faults Some AI Discovery
SAN FRANCISCO — Meta Platforms Inc.’s “false dichotomy” about the possible answers regarding its use of copyrighted material in an artificial intelligence case is based on minor quibbles about the extent of the copying and does not “justify the hopelessly vague” answers it offered about what its search of the training data revealed, a federal magistrate judge in California said Jan. 17 in partially granting motions to compel.
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January 21, 2025
Supreme Court Rejects Jurisdictional Appeal In Counterfeit Doll Case
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court left in place an opinion by the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversing a New York federal judge’s finding that the court lacked personal jurisdiction in a case brought by dollmaker American Girl LLC against a Chinese company for allegedly selling counterfeited goods; the high court denied the Chinese company’s petition for a writ of certiorari on Jan. 21.
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January 21, 2025
Supreme Court Won’t Consider If Canadian Codes Are Uncopyrightable ‘Law’
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Rejecting the petition for a writ of certiorari from a developer of Canadian legal codes on Jan. 21, the U.S. Supreme Court left in place a holding from the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that a publishing company did not infringe on the developer’s copyrights because the codes are effectively uncopyrightable “law” in the country.
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January 21, 2025
Medical Services Provider Accused Of Unlawfully ‘Annexing’ Sports Clinic
LOS ANGELES — Two entities involved in operating a provider of sports medicine and orthopedic surgery and two affiliated doctors filed a complaint in California state court accusing a nonprofit medical services provider and its executives of unlawfully seeking to “absorb . . . and unlawfully control” the sports medicine providers in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL), trademark dilution laws and other state laws prohibiting employment-related retaliation.