Other Barks & Bites for Friday, July 28: Senators Propose Bill to Tackle Foreign IP Theft; Starbucks Wins Trade Secrets Lawsuit; and UN Officials Criticize Restrictive EU IP Protections

This week in Other Barks & Bites: Two U.S. senators propose a bill to protect U.S. businesses from foreign IP theft; a jury orders Google to pay a developer $338 million in damages for patent infringement; and UN officials question the impact of the EU’s proposed trade agreements with countries that produce generic medications.

Bites

Senators Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Protect U.S. Businesses from Foreign IP Theft

On Thursday, July 27, U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and John Cornyn (R-TX) introduced a bill that aims to further empower U.S. law enforcement in responding to foreign IP theft. The bill is called the American IP Defense and Enforcement Advancement (IDEA) Act and promises to decrease the $600 billion in annual damages caused by foreign IP theft. “I am proud to work with my Republican colleague to give Wisconsin’s small businesses the tools they need to protect themselves and their ideas, and empower law enforcement to go after the bad actors that are profiting off American innovation,” said Senator Baldwin. The IDEA Act’s main goals are to provide legal resources to businesses, support law enforcement to reduce transnational IP theft, authorize a GAO study on how to reduce IP theft and create a comprehensive anti-IP theft strategy.

Copyright Claims Board Publishes Final Rule on Agreement-Based Counterclaims

Following a a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) published in May, the U.S. Copyright Office on Thursday, July 27, issued a final rule regarding the Copyright Claims Board’s (CCB’s) procedures governing “agreement-based counterclaims.” The CCB is the alternative venue for adjudicating small claims for copyright infringement valued at less than $30,000, established by the Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement (CASE) Act. The final rule sets forth requirements for asserting or responding to counterclaims based on contractual agreements that pertain to the subject of an infringement claim as well as standard interrogatories and standard requests for the production of documents. More information is available here.

Library of Congress Announces Summer 2023 Copyright Public Modernization Committee Meeting

On Wednesday, July 26, the Library of Congress announced in a press release that it will host the summer 2023 meeting of the Copyright Public Modernization Committee virtually on Wednesday, Aug. 16 at 1 p.m. ET. Staff from the USCO and Library of Congress will discuss the latest developments in the Enterprise Copyright System. The event will also include a moderated conversation that attendees can participate in as well as a question-and-answer session.

Copyright Office Webinar Explores Global AI Implications

On Wednesday, July 26, the U.S. Copyright Office hosted a webinar featuring two separate panels of international copyright experts who discussed the global implications of generative artificial intelligence (GAI) for copyright protection and enforcement. Panelists generally agreed that international treaties will have a role to play, but the length of negotiations for such treaties and the widely varying approaches of nations to the issue of copyright protection for GAI-generated, or partially-generated, works will present complications. The recording will be available in three weeks.

Starbucks Defeats Lip Gloss Trade Secrets Lawsuit

On Wednesday, July 26, a Washington district court ruled dismissed a trade secrets lawsuit against Starbucks related to their line of coffee-flavored lip glosses. Balmuccino, LLC developed a coffee lip balm in 2016 and met with Starbucks the following year to discuss a potential partnership. A deal failed to materialize and Balmuccino launched the trade secrets lawsuit in 2019 after Starbucks released a line of S’mores Frappuccino lipsticks and lip glosses. However, the district judge agreed with Starbucks that the complaint is time-barred and thus dismissed the case.

Jury Rules Google Violated Developer’s Patent Rights and Must Pay $338.7 Million in Damages

On Friday, July 21, a Texas jury found that Google infringed on three different patents from software developer Touchstream, and the jury awarded $338.7 million to the software company. According to the jury, several Google devices including the Chromecast infringed on Touchstream’s patents related to streaming videos. The complaint dates back a decade when Google brought out the Chromecast product after rejecting Touchstream’s request to work with the technology giant.

Barks

Former U.N. Secretary-General Says EU IP Protections Threaten Global Health

On Friday, July 28, former United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon and the executive director of UNAIDS Winnie Byanyima penned an opinion column for Politico in which they draw attention to the potential negative externalities of the European Union’s proposed free trade agreements with countries in the Global South that include stronger IP protections. According to the pair, “It was the influx of affordable generics from India that helped drive down the price of treatment from over $10,000 to under $100 per year, saving countless lives.” However, the EU has been proposing so-called TRIPs-plus restrictions on IP waivers to countries that manufacture generic medicines including India and Indonesia. Ban and Byanyima wrote, “we already know from previous experience that such proposals — known as TRIPS-plus — can have devastating consequences for access to medicines.”

USPTO Solves Issue with Documents Received via WIPO

On Wednesday, July 26, the USPTO announced that it corrected an issue with some IP documents retrieved by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) through the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Digital Access Service. The USPTO was alerted to the problem and collaborated with the EUIPO to fix all affected U.S. design applications and patents.

Universal Alloy Wins Trade Secrets Case

On Wednesday, July 26, a district court jury found that aerospace company Universal Alloy did not steal trade secrets from two competitors to make airplane wing parts. Arconic Corp and Howmet Aerospace accused Universal Alloy of stealing trade secrets that resulted in $264 million in damages. However, the jury remained unconvinced and determined that the alleged trade secrets were too generally known.

Oracle Wins Copyright Infringement Case Against Software Company

On Tuesday, July 25, a Nevada district court ruled that software company Rimini Street infringed on Oracle’s copyrights. The court entered a permanent injunction against Rimini Street barring the company from using certain support programs. Rimini continued the illegal copyright after a previous injunction and multiple copyright infringement rulings. In a statement, Stuart Levey, Oracle’s Executive Vice President, said “we are pleased that Oracle’s intellectual property rights have been vindicated yet again and that the Court has taken additional steps to prevent further infringement and false statements to our customers by Rimini.”

This Week on Wall Street

Fed Hikes Interest Rates to Highest Since 2001

On Wednesday, July 26, the Federal Reserve announced an interest rate increase to a range of 5.25% to 5.5%, the highest interest rate level since March 2001. In June, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell announced a temporary halt on interest rate hikes after 11 hikes since March 2022, but he clarified that the rate was likely to increase before 2023 ended. In the announcement, Powell also restated the Fed’s goals with the interest rate increases, “the Committee seeks to achieve maximum employment and inflation at the rate of 2 percent over the longer run.”

Twitter Rebrands as X, Ditches Bird Logo

On Monday, July 24, Twitter owner Elon Musk announced in a tweet that the company was rebranding to X. As part of the rebrand, the long-standing blue bird associated with the social media platform was changed to an ‘X”. Over his career, Musk has tried to build the X brand through his various ventures including SpaceX and X.com, now known as PayPal.

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: ON Semiconductor Corporation (196)
• Tuesday: Caterpillar (90), Advanced Micro Devices (98), Illinois Tool Works (157), Eaton Corporation (165), Uber Technologies (214), Rockwell Automation (239), Ecolab (298)
• Wednesday: PayPal (137), Novo Nordisk (277)
• Thursday: Toyota (4), Apple (14), Amazon (16), Stryker Corporation (97), Alibaba (103)
• Friday: Sony (11), Berkshire Hathaway (239)