Other Barks & Bites for Friday, July 10: China Patent Filings Increase Despite COVID-19, CJEU Says Government Committees Subject to GDPR and CAFC Revives Part of Uniloc Motion to Seal in Apple Patent Case

This week in Other Barks & Bites: the Federal Circuit extends Arthrex to ex parte appeals and vacates part of a denial of a motion to seal filed by Uniloc related to third-party licensee information; the CJEU says that copyright owners can only request postal addresses of people posting infringing content online, and that government committees are subject to personal data access provisions of the EU General Data Protection Regulation; the CNIPA releases statistics showing that, despite a slowdown during COVID-19, Chinese patent application filings during 2020’s first half have increased by about 5% relative to the same period last year; the USPTO extends its pilot program for faster processing of patent applications related to cancer immunotherapies; Intel fails to axe Qualcomm patent claims in a trio of IPRs decided by the PTAB this week; and Gartner reports that global PC shipments are up by about 2.8% thanks to increased mobile demand.

Bites

China Patent Filings Increase During First Half of 2019 Despite COVID-19 Slowdown – On Thursday, July 9, officials from the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) released patent filing data at a press conference which shows that, despite a slowdown in patent application filings due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the CNIPA had received about 683,000 invention patent application filings during 2020’s first half, an increase of around 5 percent from the 649,000 invention patent applications filed with the CNIPA during the first half of 2019.

CAFC Vacates Part of Denial of Motion to Seal in Uniloc Patent Case – On Thursday, July 9, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a precedential decision in Uniloc 2017 LLC v. Apple, Inc. in which the appellate court vacated the Northern District of California’s denial of a motion to seal filed by Uniloc to maintain the confidentiality of information involving Uniloc’s third-party licensees. The CAFC, however, affirmed the portion of the district court’s decision denying a motion to seal various other documents despite Uniloc’s motion for leave to file a reconsideration to amend the motion to seal, finding that Uniloc should have submitted a more narrowly tailored motion to seal in the first instance.

CJEU Says Copyright Holders Can Only Obtain Postal Addresses of Online Infringers – On Thursday, July 9, the Court of Justice for the European Union (CJEU) issued a decision in Constantin Film Verleih in which the EU’s highest court held that, under an EU directive on the enforcement of IP rights, copyright owners can only require that online platform operators provide postal addresses of individuals uploading infringing videos to those platforms, not email addresses, IP addresses or telephone numbers.

CJEU Rules That Government Committees Within Member States Are Subject to GDPR – On Thursday, July 9, the CJEU also issued a decision in VQ v. Land Hessen which found that, under the personal data access rules set up under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), an individual petitioning a parliamentary committee of a federated state within an EU member state can request access to personal data about that individual collected by the committee because that committee is a “controller” within the meaning of the GDPR.

CAFC Vacates PTAB Ruling Upholding Fitbit Patent Claims Added to IPR Under SAS Institute – On Wednesday, July 8, the Federal Circuit issued a precedential decision in Fitbit v. Valencell in which the appellate court vacated part of a Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) ruling in an inter partes review (IPR) proceeding involving claims added to the IPR post-institution under the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2018 ruling in SAS Institute v. Iancu. The CAFC ruled that the PTAB erred in its legal analysis leading it to uphold the validity of those claims added under SAS Institute.

Rouse IP Issues Report on Software Copyright Litigation in China – On Wednesday, July 8, IP firm Rouse and its Chinese partner Lusheng published a report on software copyright litigation in China which shows that a small number of foreign companies are litigating such cases in China and that Chinese courts typically award higher damages compared to other types of IP cases.

CAFC Extends Arthrex Ruling to Ex Parte Appeals – On Tuesday, July 7, the Federal Circuit issued a precedential decision on motion in In re: Boloro Global Limited, ruling that its 2019 decision in Arthrex v. Smith & Nephew, which found that administrative patent judges (APJs) deciding IPR proceedings at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) were unconstitutionally appointed, also applied to ex parte appeals affirming patent examiner rejections of patent claims.

Copyright Office Announces Extension to Web V Rate Setting Initial Determination – On Monday, July 6, the U.S. Copyright Office announced that it had extended the Copyright Royalty Board’s deadline for issuing its initial determination on rates and terms for Web V webcaster rate setting proceeding by 120 days until April 15, 2021, under the agency’s authority granted by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

Barks 

USPTO Extends Cancer Immunotherapy Pilot Program – On Friday, July 10, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published a notice in the Federal Register announcing that the agency would be extending its Cancer Immunotherapy Pilot Program, which advances certain patent applications related to cancer immunotherapies out of turn for earlier examination review, until June 30, 2022.

Arvin Patel Picked as COO of Intellectual Ventures’ Invention Fund – On Thursday, July 9, global invention and investment business Intellectual Ventures announced that it had selected Arvin Patel, previously the Executive Vice President and Chief Intellectual Property Officer at TiVo, to serve as the Chief Operating Officer of the firm’s Invention Investment Fund, leading commercialization strategy and business development across the company’s patent portfolio.

Open Application Period Begins for Ringer Fellowships at Copyright Office – On Thursday, July 9, the Copyright Office announced that it had begun to accept applications for the Barbara A. Ringer Copyright Honors Program, an 18- to 24-month program for early career attorneys with an interest in copyright law. The Office will accept applications through January 31, 2021.

Intel Fails to Cancel Qualcomm Patent Claims in Trio of IPR Decisions – On Wednesday, July 8, the PTAB issued final written decisions in three IPR proceedings finding that petitioner Intel had failed to prove that claims of a Qualcomm patent covering low noise amplifiers for carrier aggregation were unpatentable over the prior art.

Eastern Louisiana Denies 12(b)(6) Motion to Dismiss for Not Focusing on Allegations – On Wednesday, July 8, U.S. District Judge Martin L.C. Feldman of the Eastern District of Louisiana issued a ruling denying a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss filed by defendant Take Fo’ records. The district court found that Take Fo’s motion to dismiss the copyright claims filed against it, while based on a statute of limitations defense, fails despite the plaintiff’s omission of when infringement was discovered for purposes of claim accrual because the motion has a singular focus on the defendant’s own factual narrative, not the plaintiff’s allegations. 

Copyright Office Announces Virtual Event for 150th Anniversary – On Wednesday, July 8, the Copyright Office announced that the agency is planning to host a virtual event on August 5 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the establishment of the Copyright Office featuring presentations on the agency’s role across history in helping to develop copyright law and provide services to copyright owners.

Publishers, Authors File Copyright Suit Against Pirated Ebook Site Kiss Library – On Tuesday, July 7, Amazon Content Services, Penguin Random House and a collection of 11 authors including John Grisham and R.L. Stine filed a lawsuit in the Western District of Washington alleging copyright infringement claims against a group of defendants operating the Kiss Library website which provides cheap access to pirated ebooks.

EPO Publishes Informational Page on COVID-19 Innovation – On Monday, July 6, the European Patent Office (EPO) published an informational page on its website providing search tools designed to help scientific researchers identify relevant documents in various technical fields related to technologies aiding the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

This Week on Wall Street

Global PC Shipments Grow 2.8 in Q2 2020 on Increased Mobile PC Demand – On Thursday, July 9, market research firm Gartner issued data indicating that worldwide shipments of personal computers grew by 2.8 percent during the second quarter of 2020 due in large part to supply chains that have been restored since being threatened during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as increased consumer demand for mobile PCs.

Twitter Hiring Spree Points to Subscription-Based Social Media Platform – On Wednesday, July 8, shares of Twitter stock were up by about 7 percent in afternoon trading after the social media company posted a job listing for web engineers to work on a team which will work on developing a subscription-based platform for the social media site.

Quarterly Earnings – The following firms identified among the IPO’s Top 300 Patent Recipients for 2019 are announcing quarterly earnings next week (2019 rank in parentheses):

• Monday: None
• Tuesday: None
• Wednesday: ASML Holding NV (152nd)
• Thursday: Abbott Laboratories (99th); Bank of America Corp. (114th); Colgate-Palmolive (t-261st); Danaher Corp. (198th); Honeywell International (35th); Johnson & Johnson (26th); Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (18th)
• Friday: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (22nd)