Other Barks & Bites for Friday, July 14: Huawei Announces $560 Million in 2022 Licensing Revenues, FTC Investigates Consumer Safety Concerns at ChatGPT, and USPTO Formalizes Diversion Pilot Program

This week in Other Barks & Bites: the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issues a final rule formalizing its Diversion Pilot Program and making other changes to agency practice; the Third Circuit affirms a default judgment for several litigation delays in a trademark case; Huawei announces that it earned $560 million in patent licensing revenues last year; the FTC announces an investigation into ChatGPT as FTC Chair Lina Khan faces tough questions at a House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing; and a settlement is reached in a trademark case filed over a musical adaptation of Anne of Green Gables.

Bites 

Huawei Announces $560 Million in Patent Licensing Revenue for 2022 – On Thursday, July 13, Chinese telecommunication giant Huawei announced royalty revenue data during the company’s annual innovation and IP event in Shenzhen, indicating that the company earned $560 million during 2022 through either bilateral or patent pool licensing agreements.

FTC Launches ChatGPT Investigation as Agency Grilled Over Leadership Concerns – On Thursday, July 13, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it was launching an investigation into OpenAI’s generative AI platform ChatGPT over data privacy and consumer safety concerns. That same day, the House Judiciary Committee held an FTC oversight hearing at which Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) called alleged harassment stemming from recent FTC investigations into major tech firms “the kind of behavior that occurs in banana republics.”

USPTO Publishes Update to Report on Orange Book Patents – On Wednesday, July 12, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published an updated report indicating that America Invents Act (AIA) challenges to Orange Book-listed patents have fallen since 2016. According to the report, 4% of all AIA petitions challenge Orange Book-listed patents; 2% of all AIA petitions challenge biologic patents; the institution rate for biologic patents (59%) is lower than for Orange Book-listed patents (62%); and Orange Book-listed patents have had a greater percentage of claims upheld in a final written decision.

CAFC Nixes Reissue Claims Beyond Scope of Original Floating Grill Invention – On Wednesday, July 12, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a precedential ruling in In re: Float’N’Grill LLC in which the appellate court affirmed a patent examiner’s rejection of reissue claims covering a floating grill apparatus. Although the original patent’s specification did not expressly identify a plurality of magnets as critical to the original invention, the Federal Circuit agreed that the magnet embodiment was the only fastening mechanism that could even be considered under the original patent claims and specification.

Chief Judge Moore, Judge Newman to Enter Mediation Over Competency Investigation – On Tuesday, July 11, U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia entered an order directing Federal Circuit Chief Judge Kimberly Moore and Circuit Judge Pauline Newman to enter informal mediation. The order also stayed the district court proceedings brought by Judge Newman seeking injunctive relief against the Federal Circuit Special Committee controversial investigation into questions raised over Judge Newman’s competency to serve on the federal appellate bench.

Third Circuit Affirms Default Judgment for Trademark Litigation Delay Despite Meritorious Defense – On Tuesday, July 11, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued a ruling in Emerson Radio Corp. v. Emerson Quiet Kool Co. Ltd. in which the appellate court affirmed a district court’s entry of default judgment against EQK after finding that several litigation delays, which were caused by EQK’s need to find substitute counsels on multiple occasions for failing to heed attorney advice and pay legal fees, prejudiced trademark infringement and false advertising claims brought by Emerson Radio. The Third Circuit affirmed the default judgment despite EQK’s ability to survive summary judgment on Emerson Radio’s trademark infringement claims.

Barks

USPTO Formalizes Diversion Pilot, Makes Other Practitioner Rule Changes – On Friday, July 14, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a final rule in the Federal Register formalizing the agency’s Diversion Pilot Program for addressing instances of minor misconduct caused by practitioner health issues or law practice management issues. The final rule also requires foreign agents with reciprocal recognition to practice in trademark matters before the USPTO to update their contact and licensure information, changes the USPTO’s Rules of Professional Conduct to defer to state attorney licensing authorities on legal fee sharing agreements between practitioners and non-practitioners, and eliminates the fee charged when changing status from patent agent to patent attorney.

AG Capeta Says Priority Period Under EU Law Defined by Subsequent, Not Initial, Application – On Thursday, July 13, Advocate General Tamara Capeta issued an opinion in EUIPO v. The KaiKai Company Jaeger Wichmann clarifying that international agreements like the Paris Convention do not have interpretative effect if they do not have direct effect on a court’s application of law. Finding that the Paris Convention’s period for claiming priority to a previous application did have direct effect, AG Capeta found that the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) erred in affording a 12-month priority period to prior filed patent claims covering KaiKai’s community design application, finding that KaiKai was instead entitled to the Paris Convention’s six-month priority period for industrial design applications.

Seven Companies Named Winners of 2023 WIPO Global Awards for SMEs – On Tuesday, July 11, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) held an award ceremony during the WIPO Assemblies honoring seven small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as winners of the 2023 WIPO Global Awards for SMEs including Aerosol Magee Scientific of Slovenia; Centro de Retina Medica y Quirúrgica (CRQM) of Mexico; Flexxon of Singapore; Lactips of France; Shanghai Westwell Technology Co. Ltd. and Xi’an KissFuture Network Technology Co., Ltd., both of China; and YAKWETU Online Limited of Kenya.

Anne of Green Gables Heirs, Musical Adaptation Producers Reach Trademark Settlement – On Friday, July 7, a joint stipulation of voluntary dismissal with prejudice was entered in the Southern District of New York, bringing a final resolution to trademark infringement claims brought by a licensing company co-owned by Prince Edward Island and heirs of Canadian author L.M. Montgomery against the producers of a musical adaptation being developed for a Broadway production.

Sarah Silverman, Other Authors File Class Action Copyright Suits Against OpenAI, Meta – On Friday, July 7, a series of book authors including comedian Sarah Silverman filed a pair of class action lawsuits in the Northern District of California alleging claims of copyright infringement and Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) violations committed by ChatGPT developer OpenAI and Meta Platforms, developers of the generative AI platform LLaMA, for the alleged use of the plaintiffs’ copyrighted works in the training data for these AI platforms.

This Week on Wall Street

Disney’s Iger Indicates Traditional TV Media Assets Could Be Sold Off – On Thursday, July 13, Disney CEO Bob Iger appeared on CNBC where he indicated that the entertainment giant was considering the sale of its television holdings, including networks ABC and ESPN, as the company deals with subscriber issues for its Disney+ streaming service.

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: Bank of America Corp. (75th)
• Wednesday: ASML Holding N.V. (186th); Dow Inc. (126th); Halliburton Co. (t-44th); Hyundai Motor Co. (19th); Seagate Technology Holdings plc (t-184th); AB SKF (t-274th); AB Volvo (t-173rd)
• Thursday: ABB Ltd. (t-168th); Abbott Laboratories (147th); Disco Corp. (t-298th); Johnson & Johnson (23rd); Nidec Corp. (t-142nd); Nokia Corp. (60th); SAP SE (65th); Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (6th)
• Friday: None

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Author: damedeeso