Posts Tagged: "IP News"

This week in Other Barks & Bites: news reports indicate that the United States has warned American tech companies about disclosure rules in the EU’s Digital Markets Act threatening trade secrets; the Federal Circuit dismisses Apple’s latest appeal of Qualcomm IPRs over Judge Newman’s arguments that the licensing agreement between those companies creates standing; Johnson & Johnson and General Electric both announce corporate restructuring plans that will split those companies into multiple businesses; the EU’s General Court affirms a €2.42 billion fine by the EU Commission over Google’s anticompetitive online shopping practices; oral arguments at the Supreme Court indicate that a majority of Justices will side with Unicolors in its copyright case against H&M; NIH Director Collins tells reporters that his agency intends to file suit to challenge Moderna’s ownership of COVID-19 vaccine patents; and Rep. Massie introduces the Restoring America’s Leadership in Innovation Act to repeal much of the America Invents Act and clarify Section 101 subject matter eligibility.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: the Federal Circuit clarifies the “reasonable expectation of success” standard while reversing the PTAB’s obviousness determination regarding patent claims covering a method of photoinactivation of Gram-positive bacteria; Senator Tillis raises concerns about Judge Alan Albright with the USPTO and Chief Justice John Roberts; a CSET study shows that Chinese entities received nearly one-third of global patent grants for robotics technologies between 2005 and 2019; Google News announces that it will return to Spain early next year after that country’s government implemented the EU Copyright Directive; Redbubble’s print-on-demand service survives trademark and counterfeit infringement claims filed by Atari; Google enters a 10-year, $1 billion partnership with futures exchange company CME Group; and NXP Semiconductors files a Section 337 complaint against Amazon and other tech firms for infringing patent claims covering integrated circuits and chipsets.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: the Federal Circuit issues a partial remand asking the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) to analyze the distinctiveness of the “BROOKLYN BREW SHOP” trademark; the Copyright Royalty Board finalizes its ratemaking determination for statutory licenses on digital performances of sound recordings; China’s IP administration issues draft regulations that would allow foreign patent agencies to open representative offices in China; a joint communiqué between ministers from the EU and Africa committed to increasing COVID-19 vaccine production without mention of a waiver of IP obligations under TRIPS; the U.S. government is found liable for more than $100 million in damages for infringing an airport security checkpoint tray system patent; the Ninth Circuit finds that an Arizona state law protecting consumer personal data collected by car dealerships did not conflict with the Copyright Act; the EUIPO extends Bayer’s EU patent rights for Xarelto until 2026; and Microsoft becomes the world’s most valuable company after Apple’s disappointing earnings report lowers its market cap.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: Facebook comes to a preliminary agreement on copyright royalties with French news publishers; Senator Thom Tillis announces his support of a bill increasing cyber-attack reporting requirements for critical infrastructure owners; the Federal Trade Commission issues a report on “troubling” ISP practices surrounding consumer personal data; a Moscow court enters a ruling banning dozens of Samsung smartphone models from Russia after finding infringement of mobile payment system patents; Snap’s earnings show that Apple’s app privacy changes are having a sizable impact on advertiser revenues; the EPO releases a study showing that the U.S. and the EU account for 60 percent of clean plastics patent filing activity; the House of Representatives passes a series of four bills that would secure supply chains for telecommunications infrastructure and improve competition in telecom networks; and the Copyright Royalty Board reopens a public comment period on Section 115 statutory licenses after major copyright owners and record companies reach a partial settlement.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: the U.S. Copyright Office announces that it will study the current state of copyright protections for news content; the Ninth Circuit affirms the dismissal of copyright claims against The Weeknd over the 2016 release of “A Lonely Night”; the Sixth Circuit finds that laches are not available to Honeywell as an equitable defense against claims that its online sales of MAX-branded earplugs violates a 1995 consent decree; news reports indicate that negotiations between the EU and South Africa on the proposed TRIPS IP waiver for COVID-19 vaccines have been increasing in recent days; the USPTO issues a final rule on high-capacity physical media submissions for determining patentability of amino acid sequences and computer program information; the U.S. Supreme Court approves the Solicitor General’s request to participate in oral arguments for Unicolors v. H&M; and a Federal Circuit panel majority nixes due process arguments raised by Mobility Workx regarding bias in IPR proceedings at the PTAB.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: the Second Circuit affirms an attorneys’ fee award to Spanish Broadcasting System after finding that key plaintiff witness was “basically making up his testimony”; Circuit Judge Reyna calls out the Federal Circuit’s Section 101 analysis under Alice; Senator Tillis renews call to end U.S. support of TRIPS waiver after calls to extend waiver to copyright; Circuit Judge Newman dissents from a Federal Circuit panel majority’s decision that a forum selection clause in a non-disclosure agreement did not prevent Samsung from challenging patent validity in inter partes review (IPR) proceedings; Moderna announces its plans to invest $500 million in building a vaccine manufacturing facility in Africa; the Copyright Office starts a crowdsourcing campaign to digitally transcribe 95,000 title pages from works registered during the Office’s first century of existence; and the U.S. Supreme Court invites the Solicitor General to file a brief on PersonalWeb’s petition for writ challenging the Federal Circuit’s application of Kessler v. Eldred to create patent-specific preclusion doctrine.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: CAFC grants mandamus to Apple regarding Western District of Texas transfer from Austin to Waco; the Department of Justice’s Jeffrey Wilder remarks at an SEP conference that antitrust is “not the right tool” for licensees dissatisfied with SEP royalty rates; the Ninth Circuit reverses a class certification in a class antitrust action against Qualcomm’s SEP licensing practices because of an improper choice of law analysis; the Second Circuit affirms that Victor Miller was an independent contractor when writing the screenplay for Friday the 13th; the Federal Circuit clarifies its willfulness standard in reinstating a damages award against Cisco, and orders the USPTO to dismiss a petition for ex parte reexamination filed by a serial petitioner of IPRs at the PTAB; Judge Albright dismisses Google and YouTube’s arguments that VideoShare patent claims should be invalidated due to a terminal disclaimer linking the patent-in-suit to two previously invalidated patents; the Unified Patent Court is set to begin hearing EU patent cases by mid-2022 after Germany ratifies jurisdictional protocols; and Merck enters into a $11.5 billion agreement to buy Acceleron Pharma in a bid to stave off the 2028 patent cliff for Keytruda.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: the Federal Circuit grants mandamus in another motion to transfer case from the Western District of Texas; the U.S. Department of Justice unseals an indictment charging three individuals with conducting a TV piracy scheme worth $30 million; the Third Circuit holds that right of publicity claims fall under the IP claim carveout to Section 230’s limited liability provisions; the leadership of the Senate IP Subcommittee starts to take action on a set of patent bills that are receiving mixed reactions within the IP community; DABUS AI loses another inventorship case in the UK; Nike revises its 2022 sales forecast downward due to supply chain issues; the United States maintains its third-place ranking in WIPO’s Global Innovation Index; Senator Tillis issues questions to Google and Facebook executives regarding ad-supported copyright piracy abetted by online platforms following a contentious Senate Antitrust hearing on Big Data; and the USPTO publishes an interim rule increasing the annual limit of Track One prioritized examination requests to 15,000. 

This week in Other Barks & Bites: IPWatchdog LIVE brought together thought leaders from the IP industry and major keynote speakers, including Judge Albright, Qualcomm’s Mark Snyder and Former Assistant AG for Antitrust Makan Delrahim; a report from the Federal Trade Commission finds dozens of Big Tech acquisitions during the 2010s were not reported under the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act; the Second Circuit confirms that plaintiffs hold the burden of persuasion to prove likelihood of confusion in trademark cases involving refurbished goods; Judge Hughes dissents from the Federal Circuit’s remand of a jury’s damages award to Omega Patents, finding sufficient evidence to support a $5 per device product rate; Walmart will partner with Ford and Argo AI to rollout autonomous delivery in three U.S. cities; Monica Bhattacharya of the International Trade Commission’s Office of Unfair Import Investigations is appointed to serve as an administrative law judge at the agency; and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office extends its pilot program for motions to amend during Patent Trial and Appeal Board proceedings.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: Senators Thom Tillis and Patrick Leahy ask the USPTO’s Drew Hirshfeld what the agency will do to enforce patent disclosure requirements at other federal agencies on patent applicants; the Fifth Circuit affirms sovereign immunity for Texas A&M’s athletic department but nixes a qualified immunity defense for a media relations director involved in unauthorized online republication of a copyrighted book excerpt; Judge Lucy Koh is nominated by President Biden to serve on the Ninth Circuit; the European Court of Justice rules that the protected designation of origin covering French champagne may be enforced against a Spanish tapas bar operator using champagne in its name and logo if the use causes consumer confusion; the Ninth Circuit reiterates that de minimis copying is not a defense to copyright infringement; increased scrutiny by Chinese regulators over restrictions to child online gaming sends shares of Tencent and NetEase down; and HHS Secretary Becerra outlines a proposal to reduce drug prices that includes plans to have the FDA and USPTO collaborate on efforts to eliminate drug companies’ ability to artificially extend market exclusivity after patent expiry.

This week on Other Barks & Bites: the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirms a district court’s ruling that Ericsson did not breach its FRAND obligations in its mobile SEP licensing practices; the EU’s highest court rules that “zero tariff” programs by telecom providers violate EU regulations on open Internet standards; the Federal Circuit affirms an inequitable conduct ruling against Belcher Pharmceuticals’ patent prosecution practices, and rejected an Appointments Clause challenge to the process of appointing administrative trademark judges to the TTAB; GM announces that most of its North American production plants will close due to the global chip shortage; the USPTO extends the deadline for public comments on the agency’s patent eligibility jurisprudence study; the USPTO and the Copyright Office issue their reports to Congress on state sovereign immunity in the context of copyright infringement; and WhatsApp is fined nearly $270 million USD by Irish regulators over its data sharing practices.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: a series of Big Tech CEOs meet with White House officials to coordinate efforts on U.S. cybersecurity initiatives and training programs; the Federal Circuit issues decisions affirming Section 101 invalidations of secure mobile transaction claims asserted against Apple, and overturning a $1.2 billion jury verdict for Juno Therapeutics after ruling that asserted patent claims failed the Section 112 written description requirement; the Tenth Circuit decides an issue of first impression and sides with the First Circuit in interpreting the extraterritorial reach of infringement claims under the Lanham Act; Judge Koeltl orders additional briefing on impact of Warhol Foundation’s fair use ruling in copyright case against former President Donald Trump; the Ninth Circuit rules that California law does not grant music copyright owners a right of public performance that would require digital and satellite radio providers to pay royalties for pre-1972 sound recordings; and Judge Koh rejects VoIP-Pal’s motion to dismiss a declaratory judgment action filed by AT&T despite a covenant not to sue on the patent AT&T seeks to invalidate.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: the Federal Circuit issues decisions reversing the PTAB’s nonobviousness ruling on soup dispenser design patent claims challenged by Campbell Soup and finding that the USPTO cannot recoup expert witness fees from patent applicants filing Section 145 lawsuits; USPTO General Counsel David Berdan to step in for Coke Stewart in performing duties of Deputy Director; Chinese tech firm Tencent says its online subscriptions won’t be harmed by a recent copyright edict against its exclusive music license agreements; the Eighth Circuit rules that Section 120(a) does not provide a defense against copyright claims stemming from floorplans depicting a work protected by an architectural copyright; 1-800 Contacts files a trademark suit over Warby Parker’s infringing use of Google Ads; an administrative law judge at the International Trade Commission rules that Google infringed on a series of patents owned by Sonos; the Federal Trade Commisison (FTC) files a new antitrust lawsuit against Facebook; and news reports indicate that Amazon.com is planning to introduce department store locations in Ohio and California.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: members of the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee, including Chair Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), introduce the Open App Markets Act into Congress; the Federal Circuit vacates an erroneous claim construction ruling by the PTAB and invalidates PersonalWeb patent claims asserted against Google under Section 101; the Seventh Circuit finds that trade secrets involving spinal implant systems were not disclosed in patents obtained by Life Spine; the Biden Administration nominates Chris Wilson to serve as Chief Innovation and IP Negotiator; Foxconn announces that it will construct electric vehicle factories in Thailand and the U.S. by 2022; B.E. Tech and inventor Martin David Hoyle file a Bivens action suit alleging due process violations committed by former USPTO officials, including former USPTO Director Michelle Lee; and a U.S. magistrate judge recommends that copyright claims filed against Canadian rock band Nickelback should proceed toward trial.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: the Federal Circuit issues several precedential decisions, including one reinstating a jury verdict’s finding that Teva induced infringement of a reissue patent by its labeling on a Coreg generic; Senators introduce the Better Cybercrime Metrics Act; the Fourth Circuit reverses a class certification in antitrust litigation over an allegedly unlawful reverse payment delaying the entry of generic Zetia; the USPTO denies the first two requests for Director rehearing filed through the interim process for handling such reviews under the Supreme Court’s Arthrex decision; Huawei earnings for the first half of 2021 show that Trump-era sanctions continue to harm the company’s revenues; a bipartisan coalition from the House of Representatives send a letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey asking about the company’s plans to address rampant copyright infringement; and the U.S. Department of Commerce files trademark applications to protect USPTO branding and enforce against third parties sending malicious solicitations to registered trademark owners.