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Mealey's Intellectual Property

  • April 23, 2026

    9th Circuit: Judge Should Have Considered Merits Of New Copyright Trial Motion

    SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled April 22 that a California federal judge too rigidly applied local rules when denying a new trial motion from defendant entities found liable for willful copyright infringement through their distribution of DVDs of a Christian film; the panel’s opinion resolves three consolidated appeals from the case.

  • April 23, 2026

    Judge: Mosaic, Databricks Will Face Direct Copyright Claims In AI Case

    SAN FRANCISCO — Direct copyright infringement claims in an artificial intelligence case will proceed after a federal judge in California concluded that plaintiffs adequately tied the copying of their protected works to MosaicML Inc.’s and Databricks Inc.’s training of large language models (LLMs).

  • April 23, 2026

    Federal Circuit: $100 Patent Licensing Option Moots Tech Company’s Validity Appeal

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — An option in a settlement agreement to license a patent for only $100 is not enough for a plaintiff-appellant technology company to establish a live case or controversy, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held, dismissing as moot the company’s challenge to a Massachusetts federal judge’s finding that the patent was invalid as abstract.

  • April 22, 2026

    Federal Circuit: Alleged Implant Trade Secrets Disclosed By Prior Art Patents

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In two opinions, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found that the evidence did not support a California federal jury’s determination that defendant medical entities in a sprawling dispute over a cosmetic penile implant device had misappropriated trade secrets; the panel found that all alleged trade secrets had been publicly disclosed in prior art patents.

  • April 21, 2026

    High Court Rejects Challenge To 9th Circuit Lamp Photo Infringement Reversal

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on April 20 rejected an artist’s petition for a writ of certiorari, leaving in place a partly split Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals opinion that reversed a California federal jury’s finding that Walmart Inc. had infringed copyrighted photos of the artist’s jellyfish-shaped lamps; the high court refused to hear arguments suggesting that the Ninth Circuit improperly considered the sufficiency of trial evidence while weighing a pretrial motion.

  • April 21, 2026

    11th Circuit: Jurisdiction Established In IP Dispute Over Frida Kahlo Exhibit

    ATLANTA — Reversing a Florida federal judge’s dismissal, an 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held that an entity associated with the late Mexican surrealist artist Frida Kahlo established personal jurisdiction for Lanham Act and other claims against the artist’s grandniece because she is alleged to have sent cease-and-desist letters with false claims of trademark ownership into Florida on her own behalf.

  • April 21, 2026

    Perplexity Says ‘Answers Engine’ Doesn’t Trample Trademark, Copyrights

    NEW YORK — A quartet of news providers has not shown that automated outputs of an “answers engine” powered by artificial intelligence and retrieval-augmented generation constitute copyright violations or that using tags identifying the source material violates trademark rights, Perplexity AI Inc. tells a federal judge in New York.

  • April 20, 2026

    Supreme Court Won’t Consider Collector’s Challenge To Proposed Doll Mark

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a doll collector’s petition for a writ of certiorari on April 20, leaving in place a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals opinion that affirmed a U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) finding that the collector lacked standing to challenge a company’s application for a registered trademark on the name “Rapunzel” for use with dolls.

  • April 17, 2026

    3rd Circuit: Janssen Didn’t Show Irreparable Harm From Patent Settlement Breach

    PHILADELPHIA — A Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a New Jersey federal judge’s denial of a preliminary injunction requested by appellants Johnson & Johnson and Janssen Biotech Inc., agreeing that the appellants had failed to show irreparable harm caused through Samsung Bioepis Co. Ltd. by an alleged breach of the settlement in an earlier patent dispute.

  • April 17, 2026

    Judge Wrongly Granted JMOL In Antibody Patent Row After Verdict, Panel Finds

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on April 16 reversed a Massachusetts federal judge’s grant of judgment as a matter of law (JMOL) of invalidity on patents held by Teva Pharmaceuticals International GmbH and its American affiliate for lack of written description and enablement; the panel found that a reasonable jury could have found that the invention involved a well-known class of antibodies, rather than a novel genus.

  • April 16, 2026

    Federal Circuit Says Tech Company Established Patent Claims’ Territoriality

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel reversed a California federal judge’s grant of summary judgment of noninfringement in favor of Intel Corp., holding that a stipulation between Intel and the patent holder establishes a U.S. nexus, contrary to the judge’s finding of extraterritoriality.

  • April 16, 2026

    Source Code In Patent Case Not Hearsay, Federal Circuit Panel Agrees

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a Utah federal judge’s finding that certain claims of a patent describing a system of programming vehicle controllers were invalid in view of a prior art reference that was on sale before the claimed device’s “critical date”; the panel rejected the appellant’s argument that the judge relied on inadmissible evidence in reaching the decision.

  • April 16, 2026

    Federal Circuit Finds Company Lacked Standing To Appeal Amendment Of Patent

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — An appellant technology company failed to demonstrate a sufficient risk of injury in fact based on the risk of future litigation stemming from substitute patent claims, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held, dismissing the company’s appeal that challenged a U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) decision to allow amendment of the patent.

  • April 15, 2026

    Petitioner Cites Cox In Reply Brief In High Court ‘Skinny Label’ Patent Row

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A petitioner bioequivalent pharmaceutical maker that is arguing to the U.S. Supreme Court that a patent holder’s complaint failed to state a claim for induced infringement because the “skinny label” generic version of the patent carved out the patented cardiovascular use of the drug is pointing to a recent high court ruling that cleared an internet service provider of vicarious liability for copyright infringement on the part of its customers.

  • April 14, 2026

    PTAB’s Invalidation Of Voice Command Patent Affirmed By Federal Circuit

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a win for Roku Inc. in inter partes review (IPR) proceedings the company sought, rejecting an appellant technology company’s argument that the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) adopted a theory introduced by Roku for the first time in a reply brief.

  • April 13, 2026

    Judge Chastises Proud Boys’ Head’s Lawyer After Default In Trademark Row

    NEW YORK — A New York federal judge had harsh words for the head of a New York area chapter of the Proud Boys extremist group who filed a response to a trademark infringement complaint filed against the group by a historic Black church in Washington, D.C., while a default judgment hearing was occurring before the court; the judge said the “Court balks at the suggestion that this level of disregard stemmed from an ‘inadvertent[]’ ‘calendaring error.’”

  • April 10, 2026

    Federal Circuit Agrees With PTAB: Manual Is Anticipating Prior Art Reference

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) did not improperly conclude that a user guide for a web security system is a publicly accessible prior art reference, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held; the panel also affirmed PTAB’s finding that the user guide thus anticipates all claims of a patent describing a decryption system.

  • April 10, 2026

    3rd Circuit: Copying Of Building Codes Likely Fair Use

    PHILADELPHIA — A Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel agreed with a Pennsylvania federal judge that an online research platform was likely to succeed on its fair use defense against claims accusing it of infringing copyrighted building codes that have been incorporated into the International Building Code; the panel pointed to a 2023 opinion by the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appealsinvolving the same plaintiff-appellant that similarly found fair use.

  • April 10, 2026

    TTAB Rejection Of Cigar Maker’s Mark Challenge Affirmed By Federal Circuit

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) had substantial evidence to support its rejection of a Dominican Republic tobacco company’s challenge to a CBD vape manufacturer’s application for a trademark on a stick-figure logo with limbs splayed out in the shape of the letter X, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed.

  • April 10, 2026

    Judge Finds Mobile Game Patent Claims Invalid As Abstract, Tosses Suit

    WILMINGTON, Del. — A federal judge in Delaware granted a motion for a judgment on the pleadings from the maker of massively successful mobile phone video games like Pokémon GO, agreeing with the company that a patent asserted against the game studio was invalid for being directed at the abstract concept of determining a player’s location.

  • April 09, 2026

    Judge Finds Trademark Default ‘Exceptional’ For Purpose Of Attorney Fees

    WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware federal judge held that a defaulting defendant engineering entity owes more than $30,000 in attorney fees because a plaintiff information technology (IT) company that brought trademark infringement claims had managed to illustrate the “exceptional” nature of the case.

  • April 08, 2026

    Federal Circuit: ITC’s Claim Construction Rightly Led To Anticipation Finding

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held that U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) correctly denied relief to an air conditioning patent holder that claimed that certain products imported into the United States infringed its patents; the panel affirmed findings that certain claims of the patent were invalid as anticipated, while the remaining claims required elements that the accused products lacked.

  • April 07, 2026

    Nvidia, Authors Debate Contributory Infringement After Supreme Court Ruling

    OAKLAND, Calif. — Nvidia Corp. and authors squared off in supplemental briefing over the impact a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision has on contributory infringement claims involving the training of artificial intelligence.

  • April 07, 2026

    9th Circuit Agrees: ‘Foxy Lady’ Marks Not Sufficiently Similar For Infringement

    LAS VEGAS — A federal judge in Washington did not clearly err when finding that an exotic dance bar could not show that a “bikini barista” coffee shop’s use of marks containing the phrase “Foxy Lady” was sufficiently similar to the bar’s own marks containing the phrase, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held, affirming the judge’s denial of the bar’s request for default judgment and the subsequent dismissal.

  • April 07, 2026

    Patent Invalid For Failing To Name Unreachable Inventor, Appeals Court Agrees

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In what it described as a matter of first impression, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed an Indiana federal judge’s findings that a fencing manufacturer could not correct a patent to add the name of an undisputed co-inventor who could not be contacted because the co-inventor was a “party concerned” for correction proceedings; the panel also agreed that the patents were invalid for omitting the co-inventor.