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

Mealey's Intellectual Property

April 06, 2026
Supreme Court Grants ISP’s Cert Request, Vacates 5th Circuit Ruling In Wake Of Cox

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on April 6 granted an internet service provider’s (ISP) petition for a writ of certiorari and then immediately vacated a ruling by the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that held that the ISP was vicariously liable for copyright infringement through its internet customers’ behavior. The high court pointed to its recent opinion that reversed a similar ruling by the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals against a different ISP.
April 06, 2026
8th Circuit Affirms Fees Against Plaintiff Firm In Floor Plan Fair Use Case

ST. LOUIS — An Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a Missouri federal judge’s holding that a design company owed two real estate agents and affiliated entities a combined total of more than $230,000 in attorney fees, noting the lack of evidentiary support for many of the design company’s claims that the realtors had infringed copyrighted floor plans in resale listings.
April 03, 2026
Federal Circuit: PTAB Partly Erred In Consideration Of Tesla-Led IPR

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) wrongly construed some claims but correctly construed others during inter partes review (IPR) proceedings initiated by Tesla Inc. regarding a patent describing electric vehicle charging systems, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, leading the panel to affirm some of PTAB’s findings but vacate and reverse others.
April 03, 2026
Partly Split 4th Circuit Agrees Earlier Settlement Bars Trademark Claims

RICHMOND, Va. — A partly split Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a South Carolina federal magistrate judge’s finding that a plaintiff technology company’s federal trademark claims, filed only weeks after the settlement of state breach of contract claims, were barred by res judicata due to the “wide scope of the settlement agreement” in a dispute over marks containing the word “touch.”
April 02, 2026
Patent Applicant Explicitly Disclaimed Prior Art Reference, Federal Circuit Agrees

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Texas federal judge rightly granted summary judgment of noninfringement in favor of defendant-appellee entities accused of infringing a patent describing air purifying technology because the patent applicant explicitly narrowed the scope of patent claims during prosecution history to exclude the type of reflective surfaces present in the accused devices, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled April 1.
April 02, 2026
Judge Denies NCAA TRO Request For Trademark Claims Against DraftKings

INDIANAPOLIS — A federal judge in Indiana denied the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO) enjoining DraftKings Inc. from using a series of marks related to the annual “March Madness” basketball tournament, holding that while the NCAA had established likelihood of confusion regarding DraftKings’ use of the marks, it had failed to show the likelihood of irreparable reputational harm.
April 01, 2026
Appellee, Amicus: Rehearing Needed To Pin Down Patent Witness Rules

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An amicus curiae public interest law firm argues in its March 31 brief that the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals should grant a petition for rehearing en banc by DePuy Synthes Sales Inc. and related DePuy entities, echoing DePuy’s claims that a split panel’s decision to reverse a Pennsylvania federal court’s exclusion of two expert witnesses’ testimony on induced infringement constitutes a departure from recent Federal Circuit en banc precedent.
April 01, 2026
Personalized Ads Patent Claim Invalid As Abstract, Appeals Court Agrees

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on March 31 held that a California federal judge correctly ruled that the asserted claim of a technology company that accused TikTok Inc. and related entities of infringement was invalid as abstract for lack of details on how to implement the claim; the panel agreed that the asserted claim does no more than describe the abstract concept of personalizing content based on a user’s profile.
April 01, 2026
Judge: No Personal & Advertising Injury Coverage Owed For Trademark Infringement Suit

CHICAGO — A federal judge in Illinois granted a commercial general liability insurer’s motion for summary judgment in an insured’s lawsuit seeking personal and advertising injury coverage for an underlying action alleging that the insured unlawfully used another company’s trademark in its online advertising, holding that the underlying claims fail to establish an offense that falls under policy coverage and that an intellectual property exclusion further bars coverage.
April 01, 2026
Lack Of Valid Copyright Sinks Claims Against Government, Federal Circuit Agrees

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An electronic health records company failed to show that it held valid copyright registrations related to software it accused the U.S. government and another entity of infringing, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held, affirming the U.S. Court of Federal Claims’ grant of summary judgment in the government’s favor on the plaintiff-appellant’s copyright infringement claim.
March 31, 2026
High Court Rejects Certiorari In Counterfeiting Row With $9.3M Ruling

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 30 rejected a petition for a writ of certiorari from supplement makers accused of counterfeiting who argued that the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals was wrong to affirm a California federal judge’s entry of a $4 million judgment and award of nearly $5.3 million in attorney fees after the judge entered default judgment against the petitioners; the justices will not consider arguments that the Ninth Circuit wrongly held that mere registration can satisfy the trademark infringement standard.
March 31, 2026
Amici Medical Companies To High Court: Affirm ‘Skinny Label’ Infringement Finding

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Biopharmaceutical company Sanofi was one of multiple entities to file amicus curiae briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court in support of respondent biopharmaceutical entities in a dispute over the standard for the inducement of infringement to be applied in medical patent cases, including “skinny label cases” involving allegedly noninfringing use. Sanofi tells the court that a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals finding that the patent holders plausibly stated an infringement claim should be affirmed.
March 30, 2026
Judge Blocks Enforcement Of Copyright Deposit Copy Requirement In Lawsuit

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the District of Columbia held that a publisher of rare and out-of-print books is entitled only to limited relief based on a 2023 ruling by the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that the U.S. Copyright Office’s demand that the publisher deposit physical copies was an unconstitutional uncompensated taking of property; while the publisher is entitled to see the demand letter be declared null and void, it is not entitled to injunctive relief as to hypothetical future demands, the judge determined.
March 30, 2026
Supreme Court Rejects Cert Bid For CRISPR Patent Validity Ruling

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 30 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari from a biotechnology company that told the high court that the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals wrongly shifted the burden of proof to the patentee; the Supreme Court thus left in place the Federal Circuit’s affirmaance of a U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) decision that rendered claims of the company’s patents describing gene-editing technologies invalid as anticipated.
March 30, 2026
PTAB Right To Find Email Filter Patent Obvious, Federal Circuit Holds

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a final written decision by the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that multiple claims of an inventor’s patent describing a system for filtering electronic messages are unpatentable as obvious, finding substantial evidence to support a finding that a prior art system teaches relevant claim limitations.
March 27, 2026
Federal Circuit: Patent Plaintiff Can’t Refile Suit To Avoid ITC Deadline

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held on March 26 that a biopharmaceutical company cannot circumvent missing a 30-day deadline to seek a mandatory stay of a declaratory judgment patent suit it brought under statutes governing the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) by dismissing and then refiling its complaint.
March 27, 2026
Panel Affirms Trademark Dispute Award, Will Consider Fees For ‘Frivolous’ Filing

PHOENIX — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on March 26 affirmed the confirmation of an International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) award issued in favor of an Italian wine company involved in a dispute over trademark rights with its American distributor and ordered the distributor and its counsel to show cause why an award of attorney fees should not be imposed against them for bringing a “self-indulgent appeal” based on procedural defects and translation issues.
March 27, 2026
Judge: Copyright Act Preempts Certain Arguments In Ancestry Photo-Use Suit

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge held that plaintiffs in a putative class complaint plausibly allege misappropriation-based injuries because of Ancestry.com Operations Inc. and related entities using their yearbook photos without their permission, but the judge held that certain theories of misappropriation are preempted by federal copyright law.
March 26, 2026
Judge Again Finds Patent Claims Against Sirius XM Estopped

WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware federal judge ruled after a bench trial that Sirius XM Radio Inc. (SXM) reasonably relied on silence from a German research entity to believe it would not bring claims regarding its patents covering satellite radio technology; a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel determined last year that the silence was misleading.
March 26, 2026
Company To High Court: Federal Circuit Used Wrong Standard For Sanctions

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A patent-holding company is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to consider a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling affirming more than $250,000 in attorney fees and other sanctions for filing a patent infringement suit against Google LLC that a California federal judge dismissed as frivolous; the technology company argues that the Federal Circuit affirmed the sanctions under the incorrect standard.
March 26, 2026
Biotech Company To Federal Circuit: Rehearing Needed For DNA Eligibility

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The maker of a gene therapy product is seeking en banc rehearing of a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals finding that a Delaware federal judge wrongly concluded that a patent’s claims involving genetically engineered cultured host cells containing a recombinant nucleic acid molecule were directed to a natural phenomenon; the petitioner tells the Federal Circuit that its opinion creates a sweeping rule regarding the patentability of creation that stems from natural DNA.
March 25, 2026
Federal Circuit Rejects Bid To Rethink Claims Nintendo Infringed Handheld Patent

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals rejected a gaming company’s petition for rehearing en banc or panel rehearing, leaving in place a panel’s January opinion that held that Nintendo Co. Ltd. does not infringe the plaintiff-appellant’s patent.
March 25, 2026
Supreme Court Reverses Finding That ISP Is Liable For Users’ Infringement

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 25 held that an internet service provider (ISP) could not be found contributorily liable for users’ piracy of material from a group of record labels and music publishers without a showing of intent through inducement of infringement or providing of a service designed for infringement, reversing a finding by the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that drew warnings from the U.S. government of potential negative impacts to widely available internet access.
March 25, 2026
Supreme Court Won’t Consider Revival Of Antitrust Claims To Copyright Row

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a real estate entity’s petition for a writ of certiorari, declining to hear arguments that the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals wrongly revived antitrust counterclaims filed against the entity in response to copyright claims it brought against another real estate entity; the petitioner had also argued that the Ninth Circuit wrongly created a novel theory of exclusive dealing based on customer misunderstanding.
March 24, 2026
High Court Won’t Consider Federal Circuit-Affirmed Sanctions In IP Dispute

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 23 rejected a patent-holding company’s request that it consider the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ affirmance of a Florida federal judge’s entry of sanctions against it in a false advertising and unfair competition dispute.