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Mealey's Intellectual Property

  • January 06, 2026

    Judge Grants Summary Judgment To HDMI Licenser In IP Row With Component Maker

    SAN JOSE, Calif. — A California federal judge granted HDMI Licensing Administrator Inc.’s (HDMI LA) motion for summary judgment on a breach of contract claim it brought against a technology company it said failed to pay royalties related to HDMI technology; the judge also held that the defendant entity failed to show that HDMI LA’s licensing agreement violated antitrust, patent or trademark law.

  • January 06, 2026

    6th Circuit Affirms Fees To Morissette In Frivolous IP Claim Suit

    CINCINNATI — A Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a Michigan federal judge’s order that a pro se plaintiff-appellant must pay singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette and a related entity more than $3,000 in attorney fees and costs, finding that the appellant abandoned his challenge to attorney fees and failed to show that he should be allowed to amend his complaint accusing Morissette of stealing the songs on her record “Jagged Little Pill” from him.

  • January 06, 2026

    OpenAI Can’t Escape Production Of 20M Chat Logs, Judge Affirms

    NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York affirmed two rulings by a magistrate judge requiring OpenAI entities to produce 20 million ChatGPT logs after finding that she didn’t ignore privacy concerns or potentially less burdensome production options.

  • January 06, 2026

    Von D Wins On Davis Tattoo Infringement Appeal, Despite 9th Circuit Reticence

    SAN FRANCISCO — In a lengthy per curiam opinion, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ultimately held that a California federal jury’s finding that celebrity tattoo artist Katherine Von Drachenberg did not infringe a photo of jazz musician Miles Davis in a tattoo under the circuit’s intrinsic test of substantial similarity, while two panel judges authored concurring opinions that criticized the intrinsic test standard.

  • January 05, 2026

    9th Circuit: Paramount Didn’t Copy Original ‘Top Gun’ Article For 2022 Sequel

    SAN FRANCISCO — Makers of the 2022 sequel film “Top Gun: Maverick” did not breach a 1983 agreement by not crediting the sequel to the author of an article on which the original 1986 film was based, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel agreed with a California federal judge in a Jan. 2 opinion.

  • January 05, 2026

    Judge: Clothing Maker Can’t Show It Owns Copyrights To Photos Of Products

    CHICAGO — An Illinois federal judge denied a clothing maker’s request to reconsider the judge’s decision to grant summary judgment of noninfringement to defendant clothing makers, holding that the plaintiff’s arguments about newly discovered evidence directly contradicted arguments it made in opposition to summary judgment.

  • January 05, 2026

    9th Circuit Grants Appellate Attorney Fees In Supplement Counterfeiting Row

    SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals granted a motion from a supplement maker and its founder for appellate attorney fees against defendant-appellant entities that were accused of counterfeiting the appellees’ registered trademark; in October, the panel affirmed a California federal judge’s entry of $4 million judgment and award of nearly $5.3 million in attorney fees after the judge entered default judgment against the defendant-appellants.

  • January 05, 2026

    Federal Circuit: No Error In Invalidation Of Internet Phone Patent Claims

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel saw no legal or factual errors in the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB) affirmation of a patent examiner’s finding that all challenged claims in an internet telephone patent were unpatentable as obvious, seeing no error in how PTAB construed “telephone” or other elements.

  • January 05, 2026

    ‘Spout’ Construction Rightly Led To No Infringement Finding, Federal Circuit Says

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed an Illinois federal judge’s decision to grant summary judgment of noninfringement in favor of SC Johnson & Son Inc. (SCJ), agreeing with the judge that SCJ’s accused Ziploc reusable silicone container products lacked a “spout” required by the plaintiff-appellant’s patent claims.

  • January 02, 2026

    Judge Says Part Of Defamation Allegations Stemming From Lilly’s Complaint Survive

    INDIANAPOLIS — An Indiana federal judge on Dec. 31 ruled that part of a counterclaim filed by a weight loss clinic alleging that Eli Lilly and Co., which manufactures diet drugs Mounjaro and Zepbound, defamed the company in its complaint for trademark infringement can move forward.

  • January 02, 2026

    Judge: FUTSA, Not Copyright Act, Preempts Delivery App Company’s Conversion Claim

    TAMPA, Fla. — In a dispute over trade secrets and source code associated with a food delivery smartphone application, a Florida federal judge held Dec. 31 that while the plaintiff entity’s claim of conversion was not preempted by the Copyright Act, it was displaced by the Florida Uniform Trade Secrets Act (FUTSA).

  • January 02, 2026

    5th Circuit: No New Fees In Fight Over Band’s Music Uploaded To YouTube

    NEW ORLEANS — A Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed in full a Texas federal judge’s decision in a dispute over copyrights associated with a band from Mexico, seeing no abuse of discretion in the judge’s decision to deny posttrial attorney fees beyond a jury’s $50,000 award for a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

  • December 30, 2025

    Federal Circuit Says It Can’t Consider PTAB Decision To Reinstitute IPRs

    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 all challenged claims in a series of inter partes review (IPR) proceedings concerning a fuel system aiming to reduce engine knocking were unpatentable as obvious.

  • December 30, 2025

    Federal Circuit Affirms PTAB’s Reading Of ‘Decode’ In Flash Memory Patent

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB) decision to uphold some challenged claims in inter partes review (IPR) proceedings for a patent describing a system of error correction in flash memory; the panel held that PTAB correctly construed disputed claim phrases “decode” and “decoder.”

  • December 23, 2025

    Authors Sue Top 6 AI Companies For Copyright Infringement

    SAN FRANCISCO — Six authors deviated from the more traditional class action route and instead collectively sued the six major artificial intelligence companies alleging that they willfully and knowingly stole high quality copyrighted works from shadow libraries required to train AI products.  The authors filed their complaint on Dec. 22 in California federal court.

  • December 19, 2025

    Judge Says Amazon Policy Expert Admitted To Testify In Trademark Dispute

    MIAMI — A retained expert can testify on Amazon policies, a Florida federal judge has ruled, rejecting pleas from a company that alleges that unauthorized products were sold online and that argued that the testimony was inadmissible under Federal Rule of Evidence 702.

  • December 19, 2025

    2nd Circuit: Hague Convention Bars Email Service To Accused ‘Baby Shark’ Copiers

    NEW YORK — A New York federal judge rightly dismissed China-based defendants from an intellectual property suit brought by the company behind the children’s viral song “Baby Shark,” a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled Dec. 18; the panel agreed with the judge on a matter of first impression for the appeals court that email service to entities in China is not permissible under the Hague Service Convention.

  • December 19, 2025

    Federal Circuit Says It Lacks Jurisdiction To Consider Idaho Bad Faith Patent Bond

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Dec. 18 dismissed for lack of jurisdiction a challenge to an Idaho federal judge’s decisions denying semiconductor manufacturing appellant entities’ motions to dismiss and imposing an $8 million bond under a state law targeting bad faith patent infringement, finding that the decisions were not appealable interlocutory orders.

  • December 18, 2025

    Split Federal Circuit Orders New Car Seat Patent Willful Infringement Trial

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A partly split Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Dec. 17 reversed a Delaware federal judge’s ruling that a defendant-appellant car seat manufacturer infringed a patent describing a convertible car seat product and ordered a new trial on willful infringement because the judge abused discretion in excluding an email chain that allegedly contained evidence of willful infringement.

  • December 18, 2025

    Judge Trims Trademark Claims From Dispute Over Cookware Design Ownership

    NEW YORK — In a dispute over trademarks associated with Scandinavian kitchenware brand Dansk, a New York federal judge dismissed trademark infringement and false advertising claims, holding that the plaintiff entity failed to show that it had used or intended to use the marks at issue after being assigned them.

  • December 17, 2025

    TTAB Denial Of ‘Basin Beverage Co.’ Mark Affirmed By Federal Circuit

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed the U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board’s (TTAB) decision to deny a man’s multiple-class application for the mark “Basin Beverage Co.,” holding that substantial evidence supported the TTAB’s finding that the proposed mark could be confused with multiple trademarks already in use.

  • December 17, 2025

    Country Musician, AI Music Company Debate Copyright Claims

    NEW YORK — An independent country musician and artificial intelligence music company Uncharted Labs Inc. have briefed a motion to dismiss in a case challenging whether the company’s Udio.com music generation site violates copyright and Tennessee law.

  • December 17, 2025

    Parts Of News Publisher’s Copyright Suit May Proceed, MDL Judge Says

    WILMINGTON, Del. — The federal judge in New York overseeing multidistrict litigation involving OpenAI Inc. and related entities dismissed a news publisher’s technological circumvention claims based on a robots.txt file and unjust enrichment claims but said some of the publisher’s copyright action can proceed.

  • December 17, 2025

    Supreme Court Won’t Consider Plaintiffs’ Sanctions In Tape Patent Dispute

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court denied an inventor and his company’s petition for a writ of certiorari and will not consider whether the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals erred in affirming an Ohio federal judge’s entry of sanctions against the petitioners.

  • December 17, 2025

    Federal Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of P2P Patent Complaint In 2nd Appeal

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Dec. 16 affirmed a California federal judge’s dismissal of a technology company’s patent infringement suit against a competitor, agreeing that the plaintiff-appellant failed to show that the accused peer-to-peer (P2P) video streaming product met a required claim limitation.