Posts in IPWatchdog Articles

APPLE JAZZ Mark Owner Says Apple Can’t Attempt to Reverse CAFC via TTAB

On August 18, the owner of the APPLE JAZZ trademark filed an opposition to Apple’s motion to amend its trademark application for the mark APPLE MUSIC with the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB). In its motion, the tech giant asked the TTAB to allow the company to remove “live performance services, as well as related services,” from the application. In July, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) denied Apple’s request to rehear a decision that effectively canceled the tech company’s application to register the APPLE MUSIC mark.

Recent Caltech Settlements Point to Strength of Cases Against Other Big Tech Firms

Following years of infringement litigation over its patented wireless chip technologies, the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has recently enjoyed a pair of settlement outcomes pointing to the strength of the research university’s patent holdings. The accused technologies in those cases overlap with other Caltech patent suits currently pending, which could presage further settlements recognizing the value of the university’s R&D activities.

The Importance of Auditing Components to Avoid ITC Jurisdiction

Your company (or your client’s company) is an American company. All your offices and employees are here in the United States, likely in the same location. You assemble your products or devices here. You purchase all the parts and components that you don’t make yourself from other American companies, probably by calling or emailing their American salespeople that you have a longtime relationship with. And you sell your products to other American companies. Surely your company thus cannot be sued for patent infringement in the International Trade Commission (ITC), whose mission is to “investigate and make determinations in proceedings involving imports claimed to injure a domestic industry or violate U.S. intellectual property rights.” Not so fast.

The Patent Venue Statute: A Dinosaur that Requires Extinction

Why does the patent venue statute shield accused infringers from patent litigations in states where they have registered to do business as foreign corporations?  Isn’t that part of the quid pro-quo of doing business in the district?  The general venue statute does not provide such a shield; so why provide it in patent cases?  Maybe the time has come to kill the patent venue statute entirely because without it, patent cases would fall under the general venue statute and be treated like other corporate litigations.

USPTO Boardside Chat Discusses New PTAB Review Panels and Sua Sponte Authority

Last week, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) hosted a webinar to discuss recent revisions to the interim process for Director review of America Invents Act (AIA) trial decisions by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). While the revised procedures include the delegation of the Director’s review authority to a pair of newly created panels, officials from the USPTO indicated that the Director’s discretion to review and opine upon issues in delegated cases meet the constitutional mandate laid out by the U.S. Supreme Court in U.S. v. Arthrex (2021).

This Week in Washington IP: How European Tech Regulations Impact U.S. Businesses, The 5G Patent Race, and IP in Latin America

This week in Washington IP news, with Congress still on summer recess we look abroad to Brazil, which will be hosting the largest international intellectual property event in Latin America. Elsewhere, the Cato Institute discusses how EU regulations on tech companies are impacting U.S. businesses, and IPWatchdog hosts a panel on the 5G patent race.