Other Barks & Bites for Wednesday, February 22nd, 2017

In this week’s edition of Other Barks & Bites— An appellate court hands down a ruling in favor of Internet radio provider Sirius XM against a rock band trying to assert its copyright on pre-1972 music recordings. Networking technologies are at the center of a patent infringement suits involving two major international telecommunications firms. One U.S. Senator takes action on drafting legislation that might cap H-1B visas. Also, the highest federal court refuses to hear an appeal of a patent case from Maryland state court in which the judge refused to interpret a patent’s meaning.

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• This Week on Capitol Hill – This week, the U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs looks to be the busiest committee on Capitol Hill, holding a total of three hearings this week. The only other committee hearing scheduled in the U.S. Senate this week was convened at 10 AM Tuesday by the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations; that hearing focused on the future of Iraq after the current Mosul offensive. As of early evening on Tuesday, there were no hearings of legislative committees scheduled in the U.S. House of Representatives.

• Marathon Patent Group Expects Revenues to Rise Through 2017 – On Tuesday, February 21st, intellectual property commercialization company Marathon Patent Group (NASDAQ:MARA) issued a letter to shareholders ahead of its 2016 full fiscal year earnings report in which the company states that “we remain well positioned for 2017 and expect continued revenue growth.” The company also noted year-over-year growth of IP assets from 330 assets last year up to more than 12,000 assets this year with significant portfolios in automotive safety, wireless tech, oil & gas equipment, battery nanostructures and enterprise metadata. (Link to Marathon Patent Group letter to shareholders)

• BlackBerry Files Patent Suit Against Nokia Over Mobile Networking Tech – On Tuesday, February 14th, Canadian smartphone developer BlackBerry Ltd. (NASDAQ:BBRY) filed a patent infringement suit against Finnish communications company Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware (D. Del.). BlackBerry is asserting 11 of its patents seeking a judgment of infringement by Nokia and compensatory damages for profits made by Nokia through marketing its Flexi line of network base station products. (Link to official complaint filed in BlackBerry Limited v. Nokia Corporation et. al.)

• University of Minnesota Football Coach Licenses Slogan from Previous Coaching Job – On Wednesday, February 15th, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported that University of Minnesota Twin Cities football coach P.J. Fleck reached an agreement with Western Michigan University (WMU) to use a slogan trademarked by the school while Fleck was coaching there. Fleck said he was “happy” to pay $50,000, $10,000 each year for the next five years, to use the phrase “Row The Boat,” a mantra arising from the passing of Fleck’s son which grew to become a rallying cry for the WMU football program. Money paid by Fleck for the slogan will be used to support a scholarship program for walk-on players at WMU. (Link to U.S. Trademark Registration No. 4813321 for standard character mark “ROW THE BOAT”)

• Sazerac Files Lawsuit to Protect Trademarks for Fireball Whisky – On Tuesday, February 14th, Louisiana-based distilling firm Sazerac Company filed a lawsuit alleging infringement of trademarks and trade dress against Florida-based alcohol producer Caribbean Distillers, LLC. The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky (W.D. Ky.), targets Caribbean Distiller’s marketing of its Mad Hen cinnamon whisky which Sazerac claims copies significant aspects of the trade dress for Fireball, including its cinnamon flavor, golden-brown color, an orange-yellow, red and black label featuring edges with a burnt char effect as well as similar lettering. (Link to World Intellectual Property Review article with link to Sazerac trademark suit)

• Orrin Hatch to Introduce Bill on Immigrant Work Visa Reform, Including H-1B Visas – On Friday, February 16th, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) announced that he was working on introducing legislation which would seek to reform the country’s H-1B visa system, which Hatch said was “outdated and doesn’t respond properly to market demands.” Coverage of Hatch’s announcement provided by The Hill notes that the legislation, essentially an update of Hatch’s Immigration Innovation Act of 2015, would likely seek a cap on H-1B visas as well as institute a finite period of time during which an H-1B visa must be used before returning to the pool of available visas. (Link to official press release on announcement by Sen. Orrin Hatch)

• Megaupload Founder Kim Dotcom Faces Extradition to U.S. in Copyright Case – On Monday, February 20th, the New Zealand Herald reported that the High Court of New Zealand decided that, while Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom wasn’t guilty of copyright infringement under New Zealand law, he and three co-defendants were eligible for extradition to the United States to face copyright, racketeering and money laundering charges here. The international legal action is centered on Dotcom’s previous ownership of Megaupload, a very popular subscription-based file sharing website.

• Refinery29 Faces Copyright Infringement Suit Over “Children Cutlets” Photo – On Thursday, February 16th, New York City-based professional photographer Dennis Clark filed a copyright infringement suit against women’s fashion publication Refinery29. Clark alleges that Refinery29 republished a picture of chicken cutlets wrongly advertised as “children cutlets” in an article from last October after removing Clark’s photographer’s credit. Clark, the owner of the photo, licensed the rights to publish that photo last October to The New York Post. The case is filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (S.D.N.Y.). (Link to PacerMonitor docket for Clark v. Refinery 29 Inc.)

• SCOTUS Denies Writ in Case Involving Boston Scientific Patent Licensing Deal – On Tuesday, February 21st, the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it would not take up an appeal of a case between Massachusetts-based medical device developer Boston Scientific (NYSE:BSX) and Mirowski Family Ventures LLC in which a Maryland state court ordered Boston Scientific in September 2014 to pay $308 million to Mirowski after the court found Boston Scientific guilty of breaching a licensing agreement involving implantable defibrillator devices. According to Reuters, Boston Scientific argued that the Maryland judge violated federal precedents in refusing to interpret the meaning of one of the patents-in-suit.

• C.D. Cal. Judge Denies Motion to Dismiss Copyright Suit Targeting NBC’s Timeless – On Wednesday, February 15th, a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (C.D. Cal.) denied a motion to dismiss a lawsuit which alleges that NBC’s new drama Timeless is a ripoff of a Spanish language television show. The suit has been brought by Onza Partners, producers of a series titled El Ministerio del Tiempo which also features a trio of two men and one woman, the woman having an academic background crucial to the storyline, to travel through time in order to stop a criminal who appears to be a double agent. (Link to PacerMonitor docket for Onza Partners SL et. al. v. Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. et. al.)

• 2nd Cir. Sides With Sirius XM in Case Involving Pre-1972 Recording Copyrights – On Thursday, February 16th, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (2nd Cir.) reversed an earlier decision requiring Internet radio company Sirius XM Holdings (NASDAQ:SIRI) to pay for rights on music recorded prior to 1972 under New York State common law. Sirius XM appealed an earlier decision in S.D.N.Y. which involved a class action settlement with members of the American rock band The Turtles, although other appeals have yet to be decided in two other circuit courts of appeals. (Link to PacerMonitor docket for Flo & Eddie Inc. v. Sirius XM Radio Inc. et. al.)

• This Week on Wall Street – This week’s earnings reports from major patenting firms started Tuesday when Irish medical technology and services firm Medtronic PLC reported a beat on 2016 third quarter earnings estimates with a $1.12 earnings per share (EPS), one cent better than analysts forecasted. In 2015, Medtronic was 19th overall among firms earning U.S. patents that year with 1,582 U.S. patents that year according to the Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO). Medtronic didn’t place among the top 50 patent earners in 2016 according to IFI CLAIMS, however. Today will see an earnings report for 2016’s fourth quarter from German pharmaceutical firm Bayer AG (ETR:BAYN), a company whose intellectual property subsidiary placed 148th-overall in 2015 by earning 228 U.S. patents that year. Today will also see 2017 first quarter earnings from HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ), the successor to the Hewlett-Packard Company which placed 23rd in 2015 with 1,452 U.S. patents earned that year. Friday will close out the week with 2016 fourth quarter earnings from German chemical firm BASF SE (ETR:BAS), which ranked 75th in 2015 with 536 U.S. patents.

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