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

Mealey's Intellectual Property

October 16, 2024
Federal Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of Patent Holder’s Suit Against Amazon

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in Maryland was correct to dismiss a patent holder’s suit against Amazon.com Inc. and the home security technology company it owns, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held Oct. 15, affirming both the judge’s finding that the patent holder brought his claims in an incorrect venue and that he failed to substantiate his claim of direct infringement.
October 16, 2024
10th Circuit: Judge Wrongly Tested If Amazon Is ‘Found’ In Utah In Copyright Case

DENVER — A federal judge in Utah applied the wrong test in a copyright case to determine whether Amazon’s website “may be found” within the state of Utah when determining whether to enter default judgment against two Chinese companies accused of selling counterfeited baby doll products through Amazon, the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held Oct. 15.
October 16, 2024
Pa. Federal Judge Agrees To Trim Counterclaims Filed Against CPAP Equipment Maker

PITTSBURGH — A federal judge in Pennsylvania partially adopted a magistrate judge’s recommendation to deny a motion filed by SoClean Inc., a manufacturer of equipment that uses ozone to clean and disinfect continuous positive air pressure (CPAP) sleep apnea devices and respirators, to dismiss counterclaims filed by Koninklijke Philips N.V., Philips North America LLC and Philips RS North America LLC (collectively, Philips) but agreed to dismiss the Lanham Act trademark dilution counterclaim and found another claim time-barred.
October 15, 2024
Parties In Neck Fan Patent Dispute Request Stay While Settlement Is Finalized

CHICAGO — The holder of patents related to a fan device that hangs around a wearer’s neck and an electronics company it accused of infringing its patents filed a joint motion to stay the infringement case in Illinois federal court, indicating in their Oct. 14 motion that they had reached a settlement agreement.
October 15, 2024
5th Circuit: AI Real Estate Firm Forfeited Arguments On Appeal Of Trademark Suit

NEW ORLEANS — A panel of judges in the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Oct. 14 dismissed a defendant artificial intelligence-based real estate website’s appeal of a Texas federal judge’s grant of a plaintiff real estate company’s motion to dismiss its trademark claims in the wake of the defendant website’s shuttering; the panel held that the defendant website “forfeited any argument that this court has jurisdiction to hear its appeal.”
October 15, 2024
Federal Judge Dismisses Most Trademark, Patent Claims For Lack Of Jurisdiction

LOS ANGELES — A federal judge in California dismissed most of the claims brought by a pro se plaintiff who accused a blind manufacturing company of infringing on marks he held, finding that the plaintiff failed to establish personal jurisdiction or that the court was the appropriate venue.
October 15, 2024
Researcher’s Contract Claims Over Penn’s Patent Policy Mostly Survive Dismissal

PHILADELPHIA — A former University of Pennsylvania (Penn) employee’s claims over royalties to which she is purportedly entitled under the university’s patent policy because of her work on a gene therapy patent were largely deemed adequately alleged by a Pennsylvania federal judge, who found that additional information and discovery were necessary to further consider the university's statute of limitations and sufficiency of pleadings arguments.
October 14, 2024
Magistrate: Dental Product Maker Can’t Add Copyright Claim To Trademark Suit

GREENSBORO, N.C. — A plaintiff dental hygiene company cannot amend its trademark infringement complaint to add an allegation that defendant companies that make similar products also infringed on the plaintiff company’s copyright, along with other allegations, a federal magistrate judge in North Carolina held Oct. 11, saying that granting the motion would be prejudicial to the defendant companies.
October 14, 2024
Judge Tosses Much Of Trademark Row Between Queens Ambulance Companies

NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York allowed trademark infringement claims to survive a motion to dismiss in a dispute between a defendant ambulance company serving neighborhoods in the borough of Queens and a plaintiff company that formerly provided similar services, but dismissed false advertising and a series of other claims brought by the plaintiff ambulance company, holding that the company failed to adequately substantiate the claims.
October 14, 2024
U.S. Government Wants To Participate In High Court Argument In Trademark Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. government on Oct. 11 asked the U.S. Supreme Court to allow it to participate as an amicus curiae in oral arguments when the high court considers whether courts under the Lanham Act “can include an order for the defendant to disgorge the distinct profits of legally separate non-party corporate affiliates” and whether the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals improperly upheld a $43 million disgorgement award against the defendant.
October 11, 2024
Federal Circuit Vacates Claim Construction, Summary Judgment, Fees In Patent Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in Nevada erred in construing the claim “automatically detecting” in a patent dispute between two technology companies, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals said Oct. 10; the panel reversed the entry of summary judgment of noninfringement in the defendant company’s favor and vacated the award of nearly $6.9 million in attorney fees.
October 11, 2024
7th Circuit: New Issues On Appeal Doom Claims For Intellectual Property Royalties

CHICAGO — The Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed an Indiana federal judge’s dismissal of a breach of contract suit brought by a plaintiff manufacturer who claimed that a defendant manufacturer allegedly failed to pay royalties for a lung-expansion therapy device required by a licensing agreement; the panel noted that the plaintiff company predicated its arguments on appeal on a new theory not raised before the district court.
October 10, 2024
‘AI’ Isn’t License To Copy Creative Human Works, Thomson Reuters Says

WILMINGTON, Del. — After prevailing on California unfair competition law (UCL) antitrust counterclaims in a federal court in Delaware, a news company argues in a pair of briefs in support of summary judgment that the evidence is clear that a company knowingly copied large quantities of unique and creative copyrighted data to train its artificial intelligence and cannot claim the conduct falls under fair use or innocent infringer protections.
October 10, 2024
5th Circuit Affirms ISP’s Copyright Infringement But Reverses Damages Award

NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Oct. 9 affirmed a Texas federal jury’s finding that an internet service provider (ISP) was vicariously liable for copyright infringement by failing to prevent the piracy of plaintiff music labels’ copyrighted works, but the panel reversed a finding that the ISP was separately liable for the infringement of each of 1,403 songs.
October 10, 2024
Judge Sets Date For Settlement Stipulation For Photo Infringement Suit

NEW YORK — A New York federal judge set a date for parties in a copyright infringement dispute between a plaintiff photography licensing company and a defendant spa to file a stipulation of settlement after the parties filed a notice of settlement in the wake of an order denying the spa’s motion to dismiss the complaint.
October 09, 2024
2nd Circuit: Keyword Search Ads Based On Trademarks Not Infringing

NEW YORK — Affirming a New York federal judge’s entry of judgment on the pleadings in a trademark dispute between competing eyewear brands, the Second Circuit U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Oct. 8 said that “the mere act of purchasing a search engine keyword that is a competitor’s trademark does not alone, in the context of keyword search advertising, constitute trademark infringement.”
October 09, 2024
Parties Stipulate To Dismissal Of Trademark Suit Involving ‘FLORIDA MAN’ Mark

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — In a paperless order, a Florida federal judge granted a plaintiff online media company and a defendant event company’s stipulation to dismiss their dispute stemming from the allegedly infringing use of the word mark FLORIDA MAN, after the judge in June held that the mark is not sufficiently famous for the media company’s complaint to survive in full.
October 09, 2024
AI Entities Want Consolidation, Tout Dramatic Overlap, ‘Complex Discovery’

NEW YORK — Saying that pleadings will “overlap dramatically” with two previously consolidated media artificial intelligence copyright actions and that a unified process promises an efficient path forward, OpenAI entities and Microsoft Corp. urged a federal judge in New York to add a third case to the grouping.
October 09, 2024
7th Circuit: No Fees In Trademark Dispute Over Pipes For Smoking

CHICAGO — A federal judge in Illinois was right to deny a smoking pipe manufacturer’s motion for attorney fees after a plaintiff trademark owner voluntarily dismissed with prejudice his infringement claim against the company, a panel of the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held, finding that the defendant company failed to show how the case is “exceptional” as required for attorney fees under the Lanham Act.
October 08, 2024
High Court Won’t Consider Manuals’ Exclusion From Prior Art Analysis

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 7 denied a patent owner’s petition for a writ of certiorari, declining to hear arguments that the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals erred when it held that the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board wrongly found that manuals related to a meat and cheese slicer were not publicly available and that other prior art failed to disclose two limitations.
October 08, 2024
Supreme Court Denies ‘Hypermedia’ Method Patent Owner’s Certiorari Petition

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 7 denied a patent owner’s petition for a writ of certiorari, leaving in place a February decision from the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that upheld a California federal judge’s finding of ineligibility for the company’s patent related to a content distribution system.
October 08, 2024
High Court Rejects Mud Flap Patent Owner’s Bid For Certiorari

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 7 rejected a patent owner’s bid for a writ of certiorari, declining to hear the man’s argument that the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals was wrong to uphold a Michigan federal judge’s finding that the man was not entitled to injunctive relief in a patent dispute over mud flaps for vehicles.
October 08, 2024
High Court Rejects Law Firm’s Challenge To USPTO Domicile Address Rule

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 7 denied a law firm’s petition for a writ of certiorari, leaving in place a finding from the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that a rule that bars reliance on a P.O. Box address in the broader U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) requirement that trademark applicants list domestic counsel was not arbitrarily enforced against the firm.
October 07, 2024
U.S. Supreme Court Denies Certiorari In FCA Public Disclosure Bar Dispute

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 7 denied a petition for certiorari filed by pharmaceutical companies seeking review of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ ruling that the public disclosure bar was not triggered in a case where it reversed a district court’s dismissal of a suit accusing the companies of violating the False Claims Act (FCA) by artificially inflating drug prices.
October 07, 2024
Supreme Court Won’t Consider Effects Of Patent Term Adjustment On Viability

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 7 denied a tech firm’s petition asking the high court to determine that a patent that has had its expiration extended under patent term adjustment (PTA) due to application delays by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) should not then be susceptible to findings of obviousness and invalidity.