Other Barks & Bites for Friday, March 1

Kick off March with this week’s Other Barks & Bites, which include: Senate Judiciary Committee plans to go after drug patents to promote access to generic medications; Apple faces another patent suit in the Eastern District of Texas in the midst of attempts to remove its business presence from the district; China enacts a code of conduct for patent agents; Samsung and Huawei enter into an agreement to terminate their multi-year legal battle in the Android sector; the makers of Fortnite face yet another copyright suit over dance moves; Warner Bros. strikes down a Kickstarter campaign intending to distribute edited versions of The Departed; and a Delaware jury upholds cholesterol treatment patents owned by Amgen.

Bites

Senate Judiciary Committee to Investigate Drug Patent Schemes – On Tuesday, February 26, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) said that Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) had committed to investigating patent strategies said to be employed by pharmaceutical firms to delay the entry of generic medications into the U.S. market.

China Enacts New Regulations on Patent Agents – On Thursday, February 28, Chinese state-owned media outlet Xinhua reported that amended regulations for patent agents would go into effect on March 1 that will require patent agents to pass a national qualification examination. The regulation also specifies a code of conduct that patent agents must follow.

Apple LTE Devices at Center of Eastern Texas Patent Suit – On Monday, February 25, a patent infringement suit was filed by Optis Wireless Technology in the Eastern District of Texas against consumer giant Apple asserting a series of seven U.S. patents covering Long-Term Evolution (LTE) wireless networking technologies allegedly used by Apple’s iPhone, iPad and Watch products.

Trademark Suit Against Samsung Seeks $100M Damages Over Smart Watch Marks – On Friday, February 22, Swatch Group Companies plaintiffs filed a trademark infringement suit in the Southern District of New York against South Korean tech firm Samsung alleging that the tech firm has infringed upon trademarks for downloadable smart watch faces used on brands including Swatch, Longines, Omega and Tissot.

BlackBerry Sues Twitter Over Push Notification, Mobile Advertising Patents – On Wednesday, February 27, BlackBerry filed a patent suit in the Central District of California against social media firm Twitter asserting six patents covering technologies for mobile messaging and notifications.

Genomics Testing, Medical Imaging Among Fastest Growing Technologies – On Wednesday, February 27, patent analytics firm IFI CLAIMS announced the 10 fastest growing sectors for technology based on percentage increase in patent application filing levels from 2017 to 2018. The top sectors included genomics testing (249% increase), medical imaging (186%) and machine learning (116%).

Samsung, Huawei Settle Two-Year Patent Dispute – On Tuesday, February 26, Samsung and Chinese tech firm Huawei entered a joint motion for stay at the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit a day after the two companies entered into a settlement agreement which is expected to halt all ongoing breach of contract and patent infringement claims between them.

Apple Reportedly Closing Stores to Avoid Eastern Texas – On Friday, February 22, MacRumors reported that insider Apple sources had confirmed that the tech giant will close Texas stores located in Plano and Frisco this April in a bid to remove any established place of business from the Eastern District of Texas and avoid patent suits in that district.

Barks

Warner Bros. Issues DMCA Takedown of Kickstarter Campaign to Edit The Departed – On Monday, February 25, Warner Bros. issued a DMCA takedown notice which resulted in Kickstarter removing a campaign from its crowdfunding platform which intended to digitally remove the rat from the final scene of Martin Scorsese’s 2006 film The Departed.

Delaware Jury Upholds Upholds Validity of Pair of Amgen Patents – On Monday, February 25, a jury verdict entered in the District of Delaware upheld the validity of two Amgen patents covering its Repatha cholesterol treatment. Sanofi and Regeneron had reportedly stipulated to infringement of those two patents if they were found to be valid.

Nicki Minaj Answers Tracy Chapman’s Copyright Complaint in Federal Court – On Friday, February 22, American rapper Nicki Minaj filed an answer to a complaint filed by American singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman asserting a fair use defense against Chapman’s allegations of copyright infringement over Minaj’s unauthorized use of material from 1988’s “Baby Can I Hold You” in a 2018 track by Minaj titled “Sorry.”

Minnesota Judge Nixes Copyright Suit Filed by Prince Estate – On Friday, February 22, U.S. District Judge Wilhelmina Wright of the District of Minnesota issued a ruling in a copyright case brought by an entity representing the estate of American pop icon Prince which found that the court didn’t have jurisdiction over a law firm that the Prince estate alleged had wrongly allowed a former sound engineer for Prince to distribute recordings in violation of a confidentiality agreement.

Former College Basketball Players File Latest Copyright Suit Over Fortnite Dances – On Monday, February 25, former University of Maryland basketball players Jared Nickens and Jaylen Brantley became the latest individuals to accuse Epic Games of copyright infringement for the inclusion of a dance, in this case the “Running Man” dance, used in the Fortnite video game.

ABC Copyright Claim Takes Down Live Streaming Commentary of Oscars – On Sunday, February 24, American television broadcasting company ABC took down a livestream of Academy Award commentary on YouTube after making a copyright complaint despite arguments from Steven Crowder, the commentary’s host, that the livestream constituted a transformative fair use.

This Week on Wall Street

U.S. GDP Grew Nearly 3% in 2018 – On Thursday, February 28, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis released gross domestic product (GDP) figures which showed that U.S. GDP grew by 2.6%  during 2018’s fourth quarter, beating an expected GDP growth for the quarter of 1.8% to 2%. While GDP growth slowed from the 3.4% growth rate seen in 2018’s third quarter, the 2.9% GDP growth for the entire year came in just below the Trump Administration’s goal of 3% growth.

U.S., China Move Closer to Trade Deal With Potential Mid-March Summit – On Thursday, February 28, Bloomberg reported that sources close to the matter indicated that a trade deal between the U.S. and China was being finalized and that President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping could meet for a trade summit as early as the middle of March.

Quarterly Earnings – The following firms identified among the IPO’s Top 300 Patent Recipients for 2017 are announcing quarterly earnings next week (2017 rank in parentheses):

• Monday:com, Inc. (t-159th)
• Tuesday: Ciena Corp. (t-280th); Evonik Industries Ag (t-247th)
• Wednesday: Schaeffler Ag (t-133rd)
• Thursday: Continental Ag (t-182nd); Marvell Technology Group (149th); Merck Kgaa (t-161st)
• Friday: None

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