Posts Tagged: "IP News"

This week in Other Barks & Bites: the bipartisan Better Cybercrime Metrics Act was signed into law; the Department of Justice announced $105 million in civil penalties in the first action taken under the Federal Trade Commission’s “Made in USA” branding rules; Senator Josh Hawley tweeted his plans to introduce a bill limiting Disney’s ability to extend copyright covering Mickey Mouse and other entertainment properties; the Second Circuit affirmed a district court’s dismissal of a copyright termination action filed by the heirs of one of the co-writers of the Elvis Presley hit “Can’t Help Falling In Love”; CNBC reported that Elon Musk plans to serve as a temporary CEO of Twitter after his takeover is complete; Senators Roger Wicker and Cynthia Lummis introduced a bill to create federal R&D strategies for distributed ledger technologies; the EPO published a guide to obtaining a Unitary Patent after the corresponding EU patent has been granted by the EPO; and ACUS issued a request for public comments regarding its study for a small claims patent court.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: Google’s General Counsel authors a blog post calling for reforms to the U.S. patent system; Smartflash files a lawsuit against the USPTO to compel the agency’s compliance with FOIA; the CJEU turns down a challenge from the government of Poland to Article 17 of the EU Copyright Directive; Apple issues its quarterly earnings report showing that the consumer tech giant earned a record $97.3 billion in revenues; the U.S. Supreme Court denies a petition for writ asking the nation’s highest court to solve a circuit split on the substantial similarity test under copyright law; China’s IP administration announces that the first round of lawsuits under China’s drug patent linkage law have concluded; and more.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: the USPTO updates its website to improve transparency surrounding the process for requests of Director review of PTAB decisions under Arthrex; former Federal Circuit Judge Kathleen O’Malley joins Irell & Manella as of counsel with a practice focusing on litigation consulting; the Ninth Circuit affirms the dismissal of trademark and right of publicity claims filed by Chuck Yeager against sales and promotional material developed by Airbus; the Ninth Circuit also affirmed an injunction preventing LinkedIn from using technical measures to prevent a people analytics firm from scraping publicly available data; Netflix stock drops by 35% this week after it reported its first net subscriber loss in more than a decade; statements from the Biden Administration to HuffPost indicate efforts to get the WTO to release its draft text of the proposed TRIPS waiver; and the U.S. Supreme Court invites the U.S. Solicitor General to file a brief on the Section 112 enablement issues involved in Amgen v. Sanofi.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: Senators Thom Tillis and Patrick Leahy announce a forthcoming bill to limit petitioner challenges at the PTAB, preventing abuse; the U.S. Chamber of Commerce publishes an open letter to Congress in support of bills limiting the Executive Branch’s ability to authorize a waiver of IP obligations under TRIPS; the Federal Court of Australia overturns a previous decision that had found DABUS AI as a legitimate inventor on patent applications filed in Australia; the Copyright Office announced that the Brattle Group’s Brent Lutes will serve the agency as its first Chief Economist; Elon Musk makes an unsolicited bid to buy Twitter that values the company at nearly $42 billion; the Department of Justice announces that the RaidForums marketplace for hacked databases has been seized; and Judge Albright issues a ruling invalidating reissued patent claims for failing the original patent requirement codified in Section 251(a) of U.S. patent law.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: the National Academy of Public Administration tells Senator Tillis that the agency will conduct a study into the possibility of a stand-alone U.S. IP office; the Fifth Circuit finds that two sales of allegedly infringing products may create minimum contacts with Texas but doesn’t support specific personal jurisdiction over trademark claims; Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and other Democrat Senators send a letter to the FTC regarding concerns over the Microsoft-Activision merger and how it may obfuscate investigations into wrongdoing at Activision; President Joe Biden is expected to invoke the Defense Production Act to support the domestic EV battery production industry; the Supreme Court grants a petition for writ to review the Second Circuit’s fair use ruling on Andy Warhol’s Prince Series; and more.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: the EU and the U.S. agree to draft language of a waiver of reciprocal obligations under the TRIPS Agreement for patented COVID-19 vaccines; the USPTO’s latest report on IP intensive industries show increased contributions to GDP and U.S. employment; NSF Director Panchanathan announces a new Technology, Innovation and Partnerships Directorate to facilitate commercialization of lab research; Judge Leonard Stark is sworn in at the Federal Circuit; Senators Tillis and Leahy introduce new copyright legislation to protect content online the same week that both Senators are recognized by the MPA for their contributions to the film, TV and streaming industry; and more.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: the Russian government issues a decree telling domestic entities that they will be immune from monetary damages if they infringe patents filed by entities from “unfriendly” countries; the Defending American Courts Act is introduced into the Senate to prevent anti-suit injunctions in other countries from affecting U.S. court proceedings; WIPO report shows that the United States and China are the leading countries of origin for COVID-19 vaccine and treatment patent applications; the USPTO terminates relations with patent offices in Russia and Belarus while China’s IP agency extends its relationship with the Eurasian Patent Organization; antitrust regulators in the UK and the EU open an investigation into the 2018 “Jedi Blue” online ad deal between Google and Facebook; the Ninth Circuit finds that certain ostinatos used in Katy Perry’s “Dark Horse” do not rise to the level of copyrightable expression; and an EUIPO report finds that nearly 6% of goods entering the EU in 2019 were pirated or counterfeit.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: the Senate Judiciary advances the controversial nomination of Gigi Sohn to serve on the FCC; the Fifth Circuit nixes “license-to-all” arguments in an antitrust case brought against an SEP owner refusing to license a components supplier; the Fifth Circuit also modified a district court judgment on trade secret misappropriation to avoid double recovery; the Federal Circuit issues a decision putting the appellate bar on notice that violations of its revised in-person argument protocols will lead to sanctions; Judge Michel and Intertrust both urge the Supreme Court to take up an appeal that would help the Court rein in the Federal Circuit’s expansive application of Alice/Mayo; Sony and Honda sign a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on electric vehicle development; an a copyright case brought by photographers against Instagram for its embedded photo tools is being appealed to the Ninth Circuit.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: the Fifth Circuit affirmed Texas A&M’s sovereign immunity win over “12th Man” copyright claims; the EUIPO reported that 2021 ended with more than 200,000 EU trademark applications filed at the agency; DoorDash reported that it received a record number of consumer delivery orders during the fourth quarter of 2021; the Eleventh Circuit reversed a district court’s dismissal of trade secret claims after finding that it improperly applied Alabama state law instead of Missouri trade secret law; the Georgia Supreme Court affirmed a ruling dismissing personal property theft claims by Edible Arrangements after finding that the trademark owner failed to allege consumer confusion; and Judge Gilstrap scheduled a jury trial in the 5G mobile network patent infringement suit between Ericsson and Apple for June 2023.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: the The Federal Circuit denies rehearing in Teva’s case with GlaxoSmithKline’s regarding Teva’s induced infringement of a GSK patent directed to a method of treating Congestive Heart Failure; the Eleventh Circuit affirms that press release statements regarding patent licensing and other business activities by Revolutionary Concepts included false statements violating federal securities law; the World Intellectual Property Organization reports that nearly 55% of international patent application filings during 2021 were submitted by Asian entities; Judge Newman authors a dissent arguing flaws in a Federal Circuit panel majority’s decision to affirm the invalidity of patents covering the opioid overdose treatment NARCAN; Disney’s quarterly earnings show strong results in both streaming subscribers as well as theme park attendance; White House OSTP Director Eric Lander resigns following an investigation into bullying allegations; and a federal indictment surrounding the theft of walkie talkie trade secrets from Motorola Solutions was unsealed in Northern Illinois federal district court.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) sent a letter yesterday to the Administrative Conference of the United States requesting it perform a study on the benefits of creating a unified, independent Intellectual Property Office; the Federal Circuit reversed an indefiniteness ruling invalidating computer-implemented method claims over a dissent from Judge Dyk; news reports indicate that Associate Justice Stephen Breyer will step down from the U.S. Supreme Court once the Court’s current term finishes; and more.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: Nominees Kathi Vidal and Judge Leonard Stark clear the Senate Judiciary Committee; PTAB Precedential Opinion Panel says Fedwire confirmation constitutes payment for purpose of inter partes review (IPR) filing date; IFI CLAIMS reports show that IBM leads U.S. patent grants and Samsung leads global patent ownership; the Fifth Circuit affirms a bankruptcy court’s approval of the sale of a cargo vessel incorporating patented technology; the Supreme Court denies certiorari to Warsaw Orthopedic’s appeal of a ruling that it breached an agreement to pay patent royalties; Alan Davidson is confirmed as head of the NTIA to direct $48.2 billion broadband infrastructure investment; a coalition of 28 property rights groups oppose the recent draft policy statement on negotiation FRAND licensing terms for SEPs; and more.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: the Eleventh Circuit upholds a jury verdict finding misappropriation of trade secrets to alcohol sales invoicing software; the European Patent Office rules that an AI system cannot be a legal person who satisfies inventorship requirements; a U.S. magistrate judge recommends $83 million in statutory damages against Russian operators of a YouTube stream-ripping service;…

This week in Other Barks & Bites: a recent GAO report makes several recommendations designed to improve the Department of Defense’s lack of expertise in IP valuation and licensing; The U.S. Copyright Office is studying and requesting comment on a proposal to defer registration examination; a bipartisan group of Senators introduce a new bill that would require social media companies to provide data to NSF-vetted independent researchers; Toyota Motor announces that it will shutdown production at two Japanese facilities due to labor and supply chain issues; the Warhol Foundation files a petition for cert to appeal the Second Circuit’s ruling that Andy Warhol’s Prince series was not a transformative fair use of the original photograph; the Supreme Court denies a petition for cert asking the Court to answer whether the foreign doctrine of equivalents applies to terms that are generic in other English-speaking countries; the Federal Circuit reverses an infringement verdict in favor of AstraZeneca over Judge Taranto’s dissent that the majority improperly construed a claimed percentage of excipient used in an asthma treatment; and China’s IP administration announces that it has received 815,000 irregular patent applications during 2021, the vast majority of which have been struck upon review.

This week in Washington IP news, committee hearings in the House of Representatives will focus on ways to ensure that America retains global leadership in microelectronics, proposed legislative amendments to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act to rein in legal immunities for major online platform providers, and recommendations from the recent decadal survey for astronomy and astrophysics, including recommendations for building a next-generation large telescope. Over in the Senate, the Judiciary Committee will discuss several judicial nominations, including a pair of nominees to sit on the Ninth Circuit. Elsewhere, the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation will host the annual Global Trade and Innovation Policy Alliance summit, while the American Enterprise Institute explores ways that Congress can make minor changes to current antitrust law to increase regulation against anticompetitive Big Tech practices while limiting negative impacts on consumers.