Other Barks & Bites for Friday, July 7: Twitter Accuses Meta of Trade Secrets Theft; WIPO Begins International Meeting; and Apple Loses Infringement Appeal

This week in Other Barks & Bites: The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) begins a week-long meeting with 1,200 delegates from its 193 member states; the UK Court of Appeal rules Apple infringed on two SEPs from Optis; and Twitter accuses Meta of trade secrets theft over the launch of Threads.

Bites

WIPO Begins Largest Ever Assemblies of the Member States

On Thursday, July 6, WIPO kicked off the 64^th Assemblies of the Member States of WIPO with a record 1,200 delegates from its 193 member states. In a welcoming address, WIPO Director General Darren Tang stated that new challenges are being presented to the IP community, but “there seems to be a deterioration in the multilateral environment in which we collectively operate, and which is so crucial to the resolution of these challenges.” Nonetheless, Tang struck a more hopeful note and defended the necessity of increased multilateralism. The meeting will last until July 14 and include an awards presentation and a celebration of the 10-year anniversary of the Marrakesh Treaty.

Authors Sue OpenAI for Copying Their Book and Using it to Train ChatGPT

On Wednesday, July 5, a lawsuit was publicly released involving two authors accusing OpenAI of infringing on their copyright. The lawsuit was filed by Mona Awad and Paul Tremblay on June 28 in a Texas district court. Awad and Tremblay allege that OpenAI’s ChatGPT unlawfully “copied and ingested” the text of their books in order to train the AI generative language model. It is an opening salvo of litigation against the AI company and the first copyright legislation that OpenAI has faced.

Twitter Accuses Meta of Stealing Trade Secrets and IP After Threads Launch

On Wednesday, July 5, lawyers representing Twitter wrote a letter to Meta accusing the social media company of engaging in “systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and intellectual property. The harsh words came in response to Meta officially launching Threads, a Twitter competitor. Twitter has suffered heavy criticism after it limited users’ ability to view tweets. In the letter, the lawyers continued that Meta has hired dozens of former Twitter employees who had access to its trade secrets.

Apple Loses UK Infringement Appeal

On Tuesday, July 4, the U.K Court of Appeal ruled that Apple infringed on two patents from Optis Cellular Technology. Optis, a Texas-based company, filed the lawsuit in 2019 alleging that Apple was infringing on the patents in order to implement 4G. Apple appealed a lower court ruling that favored Optis, but the Court of Appeal ruled Apple’s arguments failed to prove that Optis’s patents should be thrown out.

European Inventor Awards Announced

On Tuesday, July 4, the European Patent Office announced the 2023 European Inventor Award winners, which included inventors from China, Finland, France, Ireland and Spain. The recipients were chosen from over 600 candidates proposed from around the world. In the Industry category, the winners were the Finnish team of Pia Bergström, Annika Malm, Jukka Myllyoja, Jukka-Pekka Pasanen and Blanka Toukoniitty for turning waste into renewable fuel; in the category of Non-EPO countries, Chinese inventor Kai Wu and team won for lowering the risk of car explosions caused by lithium-ion batteries; the French team of Patricia de Rango, Daniel Fruchart, Albin Chaise, Michel Jehan and Nataliya Skryabina won in the Research category for finding a safe and efficient way to store hydrogen; and in the SMEs category, Irish physicists Rhona Togher and Eimear O’Carroll won for their invention of a new material for preventing ear damage caused by noise. A Lifetime Achievement Award went to Spanish chemist, Avelino Corma Canós, for work in the field of catalysts and three Young Inventors prizes as well as a Popular Prize were presented. Watch the award ceremony here.

Barks

EFF Argues Proposed USPTO Rule Would Benefit Patent Trolls

On Thursday, July 6, the Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF) once again asked the USPTO to reconsider a set of proposed rules that the EFF argues would benefit patent trolls. The USPTO received more than 14,000 comments on the proposed rules, and the EFF asked its supporters to submit comments with similar language to its submission. According to the EFF, over 600 people and organizations did so. “This is an unprecedented amount of public input for a proposed federal rule change to the patent system,” wrote Joe Mullin, policy analyst at the EFF.

USPTO Extends Request for Comments on Patent Pro Bono Programs

On Wednesday, July 5, the USPTO extended the period for members of the public to comment on the Office’s patent pro bono programs until August 11, 2023. The extension was made after stakeholders requested an extension in order to give potential commenters more time. The patent pro bono programs are designed to increase the number of people who access the innovation ecosystem.

EUIPO and Ukraine Sign New Partnership

On Wednesday, July 5, the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) announced a new partnership with Ukraine’s IP office. The new partnership is designed to “strengthen Ukraine’s intellectual property system and bolster its institutional capacity to the benefit of businesses and citizens in Ukraine and the EU.” Ukraine can now take advantage of harmonization tools for trademark and design registration including other benefits. At the same time, Ukrainian small and medium-sized enterprises will also be allowed to apply for funding through the EUIPO’s 2023 Ideas Powered for Business SME Fund.

USCO Extends Exemption Petition Deadline for New Exemptions

On Wednesday, July 5, the United States Copyright Office (USCO) extended its deadline to submit petitions for new exemptions under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The new due date for submissions is August 25, 2023. A submission must be made using a fillable PDF form available here.

This Week on Wall Street

Fed Reserve Meeting Minutes Reveal Disagreement over Pausing Rate Hikes

On Wednesday, July 5, the Federal Reserve released the minutes from meetings that took place on June 13-14 when committee members discussed the decision to pause interest rate hikes. While the majority believed a pause on increasing interest rates was acceptable, some expressed that they would be comfortable increasing the interest rate another quarter percentage point. The release of the minutes provided another signal that the Fed intends to continue increasing interest rates before the year comes to a close.

Twitter Restricts Users in Fight Against Spam

On Tuesday, July 4, Twitter updated users on its controversial rate limits, which owner Elon Musk revealed Saturday would cap unverified users at viewing 600 tweets a day. Twitter clarified Tuesday that the limits were temporary and part of the company’s strategy to eliminate spam, bots, and data scraping. Despite the pushback from its user base, Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino said, “you need to make big moves to keep strengthening the platform.”

Quarterly Earnings – The following firms identified among the IPO’s Top 300 Patent Recipients for 2022 are announcing quarterly earnings next week (2022 rank in parentheses):

• Monday: None
• Tuesday: None
• Wednesday: None
• Thursday: None
• Friday: Ericsson (22), Wells Fargo (109), JP Morgan Chase (183)

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