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Mealey's Intellectual Property

  • November 25, 2025

    Card Company Appeals Copyright Dispute That Ended In $39,000 Offer Of Judgment

    SEATTLE — A trading card company said it will appeal multiple rulings in a copyright dispute involving a former employee who left to develop a trading card game for a competitor after a Washington federal judge, who previously dismissed most of the claims against the former employee and competitor and ruled to exclude testimony from an expert on damages, awarded the company $39,000 in accordance with an accepted offer of judgment.

  • November 24, 2025

    Supreme Court Denies Bid To Hear Patent Owner’s Negative Limitation Arguments

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court denied a pro se patent owner’s petition for a writ of certiorari in an order list on Nov. 24, leaving in place a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals opinion that affirmed a finding that multiple claims of the petitioner’s patent were invalid in inter partes review (IPR) proceedings initiated by Apple Inc.

  • November 24, 2025

    High Court Won’t Hear Glovemaker’s Color Mark Genericness Arguments

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A medical product company will not have the opportunity to argue that its proposed trademark on the color of its medical gloves is not generic, as the U.S. Supreme Court rejected its petition for a writ of certiorari in a Nov. 24 order list; the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s (PTO) finding that the proposed mark was not distinctive.

  • November 24, 2025

    Split Federal Circuit: PTAB Rightly Found Samsung Raised New IPR Arguments

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A split Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB) decision to uphold the validity of a technology company’s patents on stylus-based inputs for mobile devices; the majority agreed with PTAB that Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and an affiliate improperly introduced a new obviousness theory in a reply during inter partes review (IPR).

  • November 21, 2025

    Federal Circuit: Wrong Construction Of Bot Detection Claim Leads To PTAB Reversal

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Nov. 20 held that the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) wrongly construed the claim term “acquiring interest data” when considering the patentability of a claim phrase in a patent describing a system to determine if a computer is being used by a human or a “bot”; under the correct construction, the panel held that the claim is anticipated by a prior art reference.

  • November 21, 2025

    No Attorney Fees To Sports Medicine Company Cleared Of Infringement

    TAMPA, Fla. — A federal judge in Florida denied a plaintiff sports medicine company’s motion for attorney fees, holding that its trademark dispute with another sports medicine company was not “exceptional” as defined in the Lanham Act despite the judge’s earlier grant of summary judgment in the plaintiff’s favor that led to an order canceling the defendant entity’s federally registered trademark.

  • November 20, 2025

    Federal Circuit: Claim Construction Correct In Railcar Patent Row

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — An Oregon federal magistrate judge properly granted summary judgment of noninfringement in favor of defendant railcar manufacturers in a dispute over patents related to railroad gondola cars because the accused cars lacked a required “floor panel extension” as defined by the patents, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held Nov. 19.

  • November 20, 2025

    Judge: Designer Not Barred From Seeking Statutory Damages, Fees In IP Case

    PHILADELPHIA — A Pennsylvania federal judge held that a plaintiff designer is not barred from seeking damages and fees against a clothing company that contracted with another designer to use a pattern that allegedly infringed the plaintiff’s copyrighted design, finding that a four-year gap between the defendant designer’s alleged infringement and the clothing company’s use of the pattern on pajamas constituted separate acts of alleged infringement after a substantial cessation.

  • November 20, 2025

    Judge Relates Suits Alleging Salesforce Pirated AI Training Material

    SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in California granted a joint stipulation relating two actions accusing Salesforce Inc. of pirating copyrighted books to train its artificial intelligence.

  • November 20, 2025

    IT Company: Fracking Proppant Supplier Misappropriated Trade Secrets And Software

    FORT WORTH, Texas — An IT services company has sued an energy company in Texas federal court alleging that it misappropriated trade secrets when it misused login credentials related to proprietary software code that the IT company created and managed for the energy company’s operations as a provider of proppants to the hydraulic fracturing industry.

  • November 20, 2025

    Campbell’s, Candidate For Congress Settle Suit Over Can Marks Use

    ANN ARBOR, Mich. — A candidate for Congress seeking to represent parts of Detroit and The Campbell’s Soup Co. settled their trademark dispute in a Michigan federal court, with the candidate agreeing to remove from her social media images that referenced the company’s soup can; the candidate had argued that her use of the can design was a parodic reference to her own last name.

  • November 18, 2025

    Federal Circuit Points To Weakness Of Claims In Affirming Patent Row Fees

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a Tennessee federal judge’s decision to grant more than $100,000 in attorney fees to a small grocery chain, finding no abuse of discretion in the judge’s finding that a plaintiff security technology company had a pattern of bringing frivolous patent infringement claims.

  • November 18, 2025

    Judge Used Wrong Standard To Exclude Patent Evidence, Federal Circuit Says

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held that a new trial is needed on damages in a dispute over a patent describing a type of self-balancing unicycle, agreeing with the defendant-appellant companies that a Washington federal judge wrongly excluded evidence of noninfringing substitutes.

  • November 18, 2025

    4th Circuit Affirms Va. Federal Judge’s Dismissal Of Car Photo Copyright Action

    RICHMOND, Va. — While a Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel agreed that a Virginia federal court, and not one in California, was the proper venue to consider copyright claims involving stock images of vehicles due to a forum selection clause in a contract, the panel also affirmed a Virginia federal judge’s decision to decline to exercise jurisdiction over a declaratory judgment action brought by a software company named as a defendant in an infringement suit filed in the California federal court.

  • November 17, 2025

    Canadian AI Company Must Face Copyright Claims, Federal Judge Says

    NEW YORK — Canadian artificial intelligence company Cohere Inc. must face news publishers’ allegations that its Command product outputs copyrighted works and misattributes trademarks, a federal judge in New York said in denying a motion for partial dismissal.

  • November 17, 2025

    Supreme Court Rejects Cases Asking If PTAB Can Review Expired Patents

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Nov. 17 rejected a patent-holding company’s petitions for writs of certiorari in disputes with Apple Inc., Google LLC, LG Electronics Inc. and an affiliate over multiple technology patents, declining to take up the company’s arguments regarding the constitutionality of inter partes review (IPR) proceedings before the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB).

  • November 17, 2025

    DISH Wins Nearly $42M In Default Judgment Against Pirate Server Host

    SEATTLE — A federal judge in Washington granted DISH Network LLC’s motion for default judgment against a Ukrainian company it accused of vicariously contributing to piracy, entering nearly $42 million in statutory damages against the company and its chief executive officer, along with a permanent injunction for willful infringement.

  • November 14, 2025

    Federal Circuit Undoes Infringement Findings For School Bus Sign Patents

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in Michigan wrongly construed the term “transparency” in an infringement dispute concerning patents related to a school bus sign, and it was unreasonable for a jury to find infringement under the doctrine of equivalents, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held Nov. 13; the panel reversed an infringement judgment as to one of the patents and vacated the infringement finding as to the other.

  • November 14, 2025

    11th Circuit: Edible Arrangements’ Prior Claims Don’t Bar New IP Suit

    ATLANTA — An 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel reversed a Georgia federal judge’s grant of summary judgment in favor of 1-800-Flowers.com Inc. in a trademark dispute brought by competitor Edible Arrangements LLC, finding that the appellant company’s most recent trademark infringement claims were not released by a 2016 settlement between the companies.

  • November 14, 2025

    OpenAI Must Produce 20 Million Chat Logs, Magistrate Judge Says

    SAN FRANCISCO — OpenAI entities must produce 20 million ChatGPT chat logs after a federal magistrate judge in New York said the company never explained why existing protective orders and its own de-identification efforts would not sufficiently protect user privacy.

  • November 14, 2025

    Candidate Named Campbell Seeks Dismissal Of Soup Company’s IP Suit

    ANN ARBOR, Mich. — A candidate for Congress seeking to represent parts of Detroit is asking a federal judge in Michigan to dismiss a trademark infringement complaint filed against her by The Campbell’s Co. and a related entity, contending that her use of the company’s soup can design on social media is a parodic reference to her own last name; she also seeks the rejection of the company’s motion for a preliminary injunction.

  • November 13, 2025

    Clerical Error Justifies Judicial Correction Of Patent, Federal Circuit Holds

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Texas federal judge erred in finding that claims in an oil technology company’s patent describing a tool used in oil wells were invalid as indefinite, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held Nov. 12; the panel found that the judge was wrong to reject the patent holder’s argument that the representative claim contained a “‘clear clerical’” error that the company argued was obviously corrected elsewhere in the patent in a way that would have been understood by a person of skill in the relevant art.

  • November 13, 2025

    Company To Meta: Thousands Of Pornographic Movies Weren’t For Personal Use

    SAN FRANCISCO — Thousands of pornographic movies downloaded to 47 internet addresses associated with Meta Platforms Inc. suggest an attempt to conceal the theft of copyrighted material used to train its artificial intelligence rather than personal use, two pornography companies tell a federal judge in California in opposing dismissal of their action.

  • November 13, 2025

    Judge Trims Trade Dress Claim From Insurance Platform Copying Suit

    NEW YORK — A New York federal judge granted a defendant insurance company’s motion to partially dismiss a plaintiff technology company’s claim of trade dress infringement, agreeing with the insurer that the elements of the claimed trade dress were not adequately described in the technology company’s complaint that alleges “unauthorized cloning” of its online insurance platform.

  • November 13, 2025

    Federal Judge: No Preliminary Injunction In Row Over ‘Wild’ Trademarks

    NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York denied a preliminary injunction motion from a baby-goods maker that uses the trademark “Wildbird,” finding that the company failed to show it was likely that another baby-goods maker’s use of the marks related to the name “Wildride” would cause confusion among customers.