Mealey's Intellectual Property
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March 11, 2025
10th Circuit Agrees: No Immunity For School Head Who Threatened Trademark Suits
DENVER — A superintendent of a New Mexico school district “violated clearly established law” when attempting to use a trademark associated with the name of the district as a basis for cease-and-desist letters sent to the people behind a parent-run Facebook page, a 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held March 10, affirming a New Mexico federal judge’s denial of the superintendent’s motion for summary judgment.
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March 11, 2025
Judge Allows Case Alleging Violations Of Diet Drugs’ Trademarks To Move Forward
SEATTLE — A Washington federal judge agreed that state law claims filed against medical centers and two physicians who prescribe patients compounded versions of tirzepatide, an FDA-approved drug for diabetes and weight loss, are preempted by federal law but otherwise denied a motion to dismiss.
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March 11, 2025
Supreme Court Rejects Another Copyright Attorney Fee Petition Involving Photos
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 10 rejected a real estate company’s request to consider whether the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals wrongly upheld a rejection of its request for attorney fees in a copyright infringement case brought against it, and then voluntarily dismissed, by a plaintiff photography company; it’s one of multiple recent denials of certiorari petitions in copyright cases involving the photography company.
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March 11, 2025
Supreme Court: No Rehearing In Copyright Attorney Fee Fight
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 10 denied a copyright defendant’s petition for rehearing, again leaving in place a finding from the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that he was not the “prevailing party” under federal copyright law in the face of the copyright owner’s voluntary dismissal of the case.
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March 10, 2025
Supreme Court Won’t Consider If Copyrights Affected By Contract Ruling
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 10 decided that it would not hear a software company’s argument that the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ reversal of a $1.6 billion award in a contract dispute with International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) would lead to ripple effects regarding the use of copyrighted software.
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March 07, 2025
Federal Circuit OKs Rejection Of ImmunoGen’s Cancer Patent Application
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on March 6 affirmed a Virginia federal judge’s finding that a pharmaceutical company’s patent application for a treatment for ovarian and other cancers contains “‘fatally indefinite and obvious’” claims, nearly three years after the Federal Circuit vacated the judge’s grant of summary judgment against the company.
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March 07, 2025
Federal Circuit: Patent Applicant’s Constitutional Argument Comes Too Late
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 6 affirmed a Virginia federal judge’s grant of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) motion to dismiss a tech company’s complaint seeking review of the rejection of its patent application, holding that the company forfeited its arguments based on the appointments clause of the U.S. Constitution.
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March 07, 2025
Photo Uploading Patent Holder Tells High Court Recusal Necessary
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel was wrong to uphold a federal judge’s denial of a patent owner’s recusal motion in an infringement dispute with Fitbit LLC and multiple other entities, the patent owner tells the U.S. Supreme Court in a petition for certiorari; the patent owner argues that the judge and her spouse’s alleged economic connections to Google LLC, a party to the suit, make recusal necessary.
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March 07, 2025
Federal Circuit Rules Again On IPR Proceedings Between USAA, PNC
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Once again, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed findings from the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that all claims of a patent owned by the United Services Automobile Association (USAA) related to remote depositing of checks were unpatentable as obvious.
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March 06, 2025
Federal Circuit Vacates Part Of ITC Ruling On False Lash Infringement
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on March 5 agreed with a beauty company that the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) incorrectly applied a test from the Tariff Act when considering whether artificial eyelash products imported into the country infringed on the company’s patents; the panel vacated the ITC’s denial of the company’s requested relief.
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March 06, 2025
Federal Circuit Affirms Another Injunction In Biosimilar Patent Fight
WASHINGTON, D.C. — For the third time this year, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 5 affirmed a West Virginia federal judge’s decision to grant a preliminary injunction against a biosimilar manufacturer that barred it from marketing products that were biosimilars to an eye medication patented by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc.
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March 06, 2025
Dismissal Granted In Patent Infringement Case Absent Web-Based Jurisdiction
CHICAGO — An Illinois federal judge on March 5 granted a defendant’s dismissal motion in a patent infringement case regarding a patent for a retractable water bottle, finding that the patent holder failed to establish personal jurisdiction over the defendant because the defendant’s maintaining an online marketplace that Illinois consumers can access does not suffice to establish jurisdiction.
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March 05, 2025
Federal Circuit Affirms Mixed IPR Findings On Gesture-Related Tech Patent
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In two opinions, a panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on March 4 affirmed findings from the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), which held that most challenged claims in a company’s patent related to gesture-related inputs from users are invalid as obvious.
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March 05, 2025
Federal Circuit: No Rehearing After Inhaler Patent Delisting Affirmation
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals rejected a rehearing petition from Teva Branded Pharmaceutical Products R&D Inc. and related entities, leaving in place a panel’s December opinion affirming a New Jersey federal judge’s order granting delisting counterclaims in a patent dispute stemming from a new drug application (NDA) for ProAir HFA (albuterol sulfate) Inhalation Aerosol.
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March 05, 2025
Stem Cell Company Failed To Show Patent Invalid, Federal Circuit Agrees
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on March 4 affirmed a decision from the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), agreeing that an appellant stem cell research company failed to show that a respondent competitor’s patent was invalid as obvious or anticipated by prior art references; the panel held that the PTAB did not err in its construction of multiple claim phrases.
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March 04, 2025
High Court Won’t Hear Arguments From Google Accuser On Patent Infringement
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 3 rejected a petition for a writ of certiorari from a tech company that a partly split panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals erred in affirming a federal judge’s summary judgments against the company and in favor of Google LLC, which it accused of infringing on seven of its patents.
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March 04, 2025
9th Circuit Affirms Copyright Judgment In Software Ownership Dispute
SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed all of a California federal judge’s findings on copyright infringement in a dispute between a software company and a logistics company over the ownership rights to a software product, including the judge’s refusal to impose contempt sanctions on the defendant entity.
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March 04, 2025
Google, Alphabet Say AI Copyright Claims Lacking, Seek To Strike Class
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Whether plaintiffs satisfactorily registered copyrights, sufficiently detail their claims and could possibly justify injunctive relief in their consolidated action against Google LLC and Alphabet Inc. sits with a federal judge in California after briefing on motions to dismiss and strike class claims wrapped up in the artificial intelligence case.
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March 03, 2025
Federal Circuit: Judge Must Recalculate Prejudgment Interest In Patent Dispute
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 28 said a Nevada federal judge did not err in denying a plaintiff company its request for enhanced damages or a new trial on damages in a long-running patent infringement case now before the Federal Circuit for the fifth time.
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March 03, 2025
Microsoft Identifies Individuals Allegedly Involved In Unlawful AI Conduct
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Microsoft Corp. filed an amended complaint identifying four individuals previously listed as anonymous defendants who allegedly used the company’s artificial intelligence systems for unlawful purposes, including creating images of misogyny and deepfake intimate images of celebrities.
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March 03, 2025
Judge: Photo Company Can’t Show Infringement By Real Estate Firm
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A photography company fails to point to any evidence that a real estate company intentionally participated in the infringement of two copyrighted photos that were posted on the social media accounts of an individual affiliated with the real estate firm, a federal judge in Florida ruled after considering dueling motions for summary judgment from the parties.
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March 03, 2025
Supreme Court Won’t Hear Trademark Settlement ‘Fraud’ Arguments
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 3 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by four companies that argued the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals wrongly allowed to stand a New York federal judge’s denial of a request to vacate a 2011 settlement in a trademark case due to an allegedly fraudulent document submitted as evidence.
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February 28, 2025
Judge Won’t Let AI Copyright Plaintiffs Set Search Terms
SAN FRANCISCO — Plaintiffs’ efforts at relitigating issues they lost undermines rulings designed to prevent delays, and the parties appear to be “taking turns to simply conjure up something about which to fight,” a judge overseeing consolidated federal copyright litigation in California involving artificial intelligence said Feb. 27 in denying requested discovery.
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February 28, 2025
Federal Circuit Affirms IPR Finding In Netflix’s Favor On Streaming Patent
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Feb. 27 rejected an appellant’s argument that the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) was wrong to rule in favor of Netflix Inc; according to the panel, there was no error in the board’s analysis of the claims in the appellant’s patent that led it to find that all challenged claims in the patent are invalid as obvious.
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February 28, 2025
Record Labels Seek Rehearing In Copyright Row With Vimeo Before 2nd Circuit
NEW YORK — A group of record labels asked the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to reconsider its finding that the labels failed to show that video sharing website Vimeo Inc. had “red flag” knowledge that user-uploaded videos contained copyrighted musical recordings, arguing in a petition for panel rehearing that the decision was in part undergirded by an erroneous reading of the labels’ argument.