Other Barks & Bites – Friday, May 31: Copyright Infringement for Embedded Images, Poland Complaint on New Copyright Rules, and Senate IP Panels Announced

Bites (noun): more meaty news to sink your teeth into.

Barks (noun): peripheral noise worth your attention.

https://depositphotos.com/182060190/stock-photo-dog-reading-newspaper-on-a.htmlThis week in Other Barks & Bites: the Senate IP Subcommittee announces its roster of panels for its first two of three hearings on patent eligibility in America; the U.S. International Trade Commission institutes a Section 337 investigation of lithium ion batteries over trade secret claims; reports indicate that Amazon could buy Boost Mobile; Poland files a formal complaint over the European Union’s new copyright rules; Time settlement leaves open question of copyright infringement for photos embedded on social media posts; Finjan Holdings loses patent infringement claims against Juniper; VoIP-Pal.com announces positive results at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board and U.S. district court; Japan’s IP court hands win to Nintendo in Mario Kart trademark case; and the Federal Circuit vacates district court over failure to consider joining relevant patentee.

Bites

Senate IP Subcommittee Publishes Rosters for Patent Eligibility Hearings – Earlier this week, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Intellectual Property published the rosters of panel witnesses for its first two hearings on the state of patent eligibility in the U.S., which will take place on June 4 and 5. A third hearing will take place on June 11 and a total of 45 witnesses will testify in front of the Senate IP Subcommittee.

Federal Circuit Vacates District Court Over Failure to Consider Joining Patentee to Case – On Thursday, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a precedential decision in Lone Star Silicon Innovations LLC v. Nanya Technology Corporation. While the CAFC agreed with the Northern District of California that Lone Star didn’t own the patents it asserted, it found the district court erred in dismissing the case without considering whether the relevant patent owner should have been joined. 

https://depositphotos.com/8650807/stock-photo-dog-holding-a-newspaper.htmlUSITC Institutes Section 337 Investigation Over Trade Secret Misappropriation – On Wednesday, the U.S. International Trade Commission announced that it was instituting a Section 337 investigation of lithium ion batteries, battery cells and related products imported by SK Innovation of South Korea and an Atlanta-based subsidiary to look into trade secret misappropriation claims filed by LG Chemical. 

Time Settlement Leaves Open Question of Copyright Infringement Over Embedded Images – A Southern District of New York copyright case filed by Justin Goldman, the individual who captured a photo of Tom Brady and Boston Celtics GM Danny Ainge, was voluntarily dismissed on Tuesday, following a settlement from Time Inc. and other media defendants. The dismissal leaves open questions the case raised regarding whether embedded images shared on social media can constitute an act of copyright infringement. 

VoIP-Pal.com Announces Successes at PTAB and District Court – Voice-over-Internet Protocol patent owner VoIP-Pal.com announced in a press release on Tuesday that the PTAB had denied Apple’s request for rehearing in two inter partes review (IPR) proceedings and that a U.S. district judge had denied motions by Amazon and Apple to invalidate patent claims on Section 101 grounds. These decisions follow an op-ed penned by VoIP-Pal.com CEO Emil Malak published recently on IPWatchdog.com. 

Poland Files Complaint Over European Copyright Directive – On Friday, May 24, the nation of Poland filed a complaint with the Court of Justice of the European Union regarding recently adopted changes to EU copyright law. Poland argues that the new copyright law may result in preventative censorship, which is forbidden by Poland’s constitution and EU treaties. 

Copyright Registrations Heat Up Over Bitcoin White Paper – On Friday, May 24, an application for copyright registration was filed with the U.S. Copyright Office by a Wei Liu who claims to be the person behind the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, author of the Bitcoin white paper. A previous copyright registration for the Nakamoto white paper by Australian computer scientist Craig Wright helped contribute to a $1 billion rise in the market cap of Wright’s own cryptocurrency. 

Federal Circuit Upholds PTAB Invalidation Based on Issue Preclusion – On Thursday, May 23, the Federal Circuit issued a decision in Pabst Licensing v. Samsung Electronics, upholding the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB’s) invalidity finding. Pabst voluntarily dismissed appeals of related PTAB decisions invalidating other patents that were from the same patent family and shared a specification with the patent in this case.

English Court Hands Out Prison Sentence for Failure to Comply With Infringement Order – On Tuesday, May 21, the Chancery Division of the England and Wales High Court issued a judgment which sentenced Gary Wilson, a former director of Quickjuul, to a two-month prison sentence after a judge determined that he had failed to comply with an order in a trademark infringement case to transfer a domain name to vaporizer firm Juul Manufacturers.

Barks

Japan IP Court Decides Trademark Case Against Mario-Themed Go-Kart Company – On Thursday, video game firm Nintendo announced that Japan’s Intellectual Property High Court had held that go-kart rental services offered by MariCar, including costumes for go-kart riders resembling characters from Nintendo’s Super Mario gaming series, constituted trademark infringement and unfair competition.

https://depositphotos.com/30633387/stock-illustration-postman-followed-by-a-dog.htmlMicrosoft Avoids Infringement Charges Over Internet Translation Patents – A judgment by the District of Delaware on Wednesday found that tech giant Microsoft didn’t infringe upon a pair of patents covering services for translating Internet searches and advertisements, although Microsoft failed to have the court invalidate the challenged claims.

Apple Granted Patent on Foldable Screen Display – on Tuesday, Apple was issued U.S. patent No. 10,303,21 for a “foldable cover and display for an electronic device.”

Juniper Networks Avoids Patent Infringement Charges in Finjan Case – On Wednesday, the Northern District of California handed out a judgment which found that routers and virus scanners marketed by cybersecurity firm Juniper Networks didn’t infringe upon software patent claims asserted by tech firm Finjan Holdings.

Iron Maiden Files Trademark Suit Over Video Game – On Tuesday, May 28, British heavy metal band Iron Maiden filed a trademark infringement suit in the Central District of California against the Danish video game developer behind the first-person shooter game Ion Maiden.

Magistrate Judge Recommends Patent Settlement Lien to Recover Legal Fees – On Tuesday, May 28, U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Preston Deavers of the Southern District of Ohio recommended granting a $640,000 lien on patent settlement funds in a dispute between prosthetic firms for the recovery of unpaid legal fees to Shumaker Loop & Kendrick, who represented ALPS South LLC in the case.

Most Claims in Narcos Copyright Suit Dismissed – On Friday, May 24, the Southern District of Florida dismissed most of the copyright claims brought by a journalist who alleged that the producers of the Netflix drama Narcos duplicated experiences that she reported regarding her affair with drug kingpin Pablo Escobar.

Stylist Files Counterclaim in Kentucky Derby Pin Copyright Case – On Thursday, May 23, Andre Wilson, the designer of the 2018 Kentucky Derby Festival jacket, filed a counterclaim in a copyright case brought by the Kentucky Derby organizers to the Western District of Kentucky. Wilson’s counterclaim seeks damages for copyright infringement caused by the sale of the 2019 Derby Festival Pegasus Pin which resembles the jacket designed by Wilson.

Heirs of Andy Griffith Show Theme Songwriters Sue CBS – On Thursday, May 23, the heirs of Earle Hagen and Herbert Spencer, the songwriters behind the theme song for the 1950’s sitcom The Andy Griffith Show, sued CBS Television Distribution in the Central District of California over sales of DVDs of the sitcom which use the theme song without a license.

This Week on Wall Street

"Money Fold Macro" by Chris Potter. Licensed under CC BY 2.0.Amazon Could Buy Boost Mobile From T-Mobile and Sprint – On Thursday, May 30, Reuters reported that e-commerce giant Amazon.com has expressed its interest in purchasing both Boost Mobile and wireless spectrum from both T-Mobile and Sprint, two major American telecoms that are currently in the process of finalizing a merger.

Dell Beats on Quarterly Earnings But Falls Short on Revenue – On Thursday, May 30, information technology firm Dell Technologies announced its most recent quarterly earnings in which it beat analyst predictions of earnings per share by 29 cents but fell short of expected revenues by $600 million. Shares of Dell had dropped by nearly 5 percent after-hours on Thursday. 

Uber Loses $1 billion in First Quarter as a Publicly-Traded Company – On Thursday, May 30, ride hailing firm Uber released its first quarterly earnings report as a publicly-traded company and informed investors that the company lost $1.01 billion during the quarter thanks in part to weak growth in its core ride-sharing business.

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: None
  • Tuesday: com, Inc. (t-159th); Koninklijke DSM N.V. (t-295th); LG Display Co., Ltd. (65th)
  • Wednesday: Tokyo Electron Ltd. (94th)
  • Thursday: Ciena Corp. (t-280th)
  • Friday: None

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One comment so far.

  • [Avatar for jack]
    jack
    June 1, 2019 10:32 am

    “Another controversial provision, passed by the EU as part of the directive, is article 17 (previously article 13). This provision will hold online platforms directly responsible for copyright infringement that occurs on their platforms, and may force them to police the content on their sites through content filters.”
    …………………………………………………………………………………………………….
    This actually fascinating stuff. Amazon.com is going be forced to stop some of the fakes sold through their site. Standard behavior of infringers is to copy advertising from the original manufacturer.