Other Barks & Bites for Friday, May 15: PTAB Decisions on Inconsistent Claim Arguments Marked Informative; Bill Moving Copyright Office to Executive Branch Moves to House Floor; CJEU Upholds Right of Fair Compensation for Publishers

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This week in Other Barks & Bites: the Legislative Branch Agencies Clarification Act moves one step closer toward enactment; the Federal Circuit reverses attorney’s fees award and attorney sanctions in a patent case over e-banking technology; the Court of Justice for the European Union finds that a publisher’s right to fair compensation established by EU member states is permissible if qualifying as consideration for the right to republish; Nokia earns a stay of UK court rulings in its RAND licensing battle over video codec patents with Acer and Asus; the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office places informative designations on a trio of Patent Trial and Appeal Board decisions applying agency precedent on inconsistent claim construction positions; Cisco announces 4,000 layoffs on the same day that it reported a 12% year-over-year jump in quarterly revenues; top Congressional Democrats publicly opposed President Trump’s ouster of the National Science Board membership; and the European General Court tells the European Union Intellectual Property Office that it did not sufficiently analyze links between an ammunition trademark and a famous French comic serial.

Bites

CAFC Reverses Fee Award, Attorney Sanctions in e-Banking Patent Case – On Friday, May 15, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a precedential decision in mCom IP, LLC v. City National Bank of Florida affirmed the Southern District of Florida’s dismissal for failure to state a claim of a patent infringement complaint over e-banking technology filed by mCom IP after the district court found mCom’s patent claims to be invalid on the same obviousness grounds raised in inter partes review (IPR) proceedings at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) invalidating other claims on the same patent. However, the Federal Circuit reversed Southern Florida’s grant of attorney’s fees to City National Bank of Florida and attorney sanctions against mCom’s counsel, with the appellate court finding no basis in the trial record for ruling the lawsuit exceptional under 35 U.S.C. § 285 or that mCom’s attorney should have known that the suit was baseless and thus liable for sanctions under 28 U.S.C. § 1927.

House Bill Moving Copyright Office to Executive Branch Advances to Floor Vote – On Thursday, May 14, the U.S. Committee on House Administration voted unanimously to advance H.R. 6208, the Legislative Branch Agencies Clarification Act, towards a vote on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. If enacted, the bill would change oversight of the U.S. Copyright Office such that the U.S. President and not the Librarian of Congress would choose the individual serving the United States as Register of Copyrights. Copyright advocacy coalition Re:Create Executive Director Brandon Butler opposed the vote, publicly remarking that “[l]ike the restructuring of a multi-billion dollar corporation, the stakes in potentially pulling apart these massive, interdependent agencies are immense, except that here, the currency is not just capital, but the preservation of our nation’s culture, innovation, and history.”

USPTO Designates Informative Decisions Vacating Petitions for Inconsistent Construction – On Wednesday, May 13, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced that it was designating a series of three Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) decisions as informative: Ford Motor v. AutoConnect Holdings; Terumo BCT v. Haemonetics Corp.; and TikTok v. Shopsee. Each of these cases involves applications of PTAB precedential decisions in Revvo Technologies v. Cerebrum Sensor Technologies and Tesla v. Intellectual Ventures II, which establish that PTAB petitioners may not advance conflicting claim construction than they’ve pursued in parallel proceedings in U.S. district court, with the three decisions newly designated as informative applying Revvo Technologies and Tesla in the context of PTAB petitioners pursuing indefiniteness arguments that are inconsistent with claim construction positions pursued at the PTAB.

CAFC’s Rule 36 Judgment Nixes Patents Underlying $12M Judgment Against Google – On Wednesday, May 13, the Federal Circuit issued a Rule 36 summary affirmance upholding final written decisions in a series of five IPR proceedings filed by Internet services giant Google that resulted in the invalidation of patent claims owned by California-based Flypsi, which operates the online reseller cross-listing service Flyp. Those patents, which protected methods for managing multiple phone numbers on a single device and for calling a single phone number across multiple devices, were asserted by Flypsi against Google in the Western District of Texas, leading to a jury award of $12 million in February 2024 for Google’s infringement of Flypsi’s patents through its Google Voice app.

EGC Nullifies EUIPO Upholding “OBELIX” Mark Over Insufficient Analysis of Astérix Link – On Wednesday, May 13, the European General Court (EGC) issued a ruling nullifying the European Union Intellectual Property Office’s (EUIPO) decision to reject an application to invalidate the registered EU trademark “OBELIX” covering firearm and ammunition goods that was filed by the publisher of the famous French comic Astérix & Obélix who claimed that the registered mark tarnished its reputation. The EGC found that the EUIPO did not properly assess the link between the two marks at issue that would lead the public to associate the two, including evidence that the “OBELIX” mark had been used in association with Astérix signs.

CJEU Upholds Publisher Right to Fair Compensation From Online Platforms – On Tuesday, May 13, the Court of Justice for the European Union (CJEU) issued a ruling finding that a right to fair compensation established by the Italian legislature was compatible with the freedom to conduct business under EU law after the provision was challenged by Meta Platforms Ireland. The CJEU held that the Italian legislature complied with EU law in establishing that right pursuant to the Directive on copyright in the Digital Single Market, provided that the right to fair compensation constitutes consideration for the authorization to reproduce publications or otherwise make them available to the public by online service providers.

Barks 

Top Congressional Democrats Attack Trump’s Firing of NSF’s National Science Board – On Wednesday, May 13, a letter signed by Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Ed Markey (D-MA) along with House Democratic Leader Representative Chuck Schumer (D-NY) was sent to the White House excoriating President Donald Trump for firing the entirety of the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) National Science Board, which the Congressional lawmakers called “yet another attack in this administration’s relentless war on science.” 

Nokia Wins Reversal of RAND Licensing Ruling at UK Court of Appeal – On Tuesday, May 12, the UK Court of Appeal issued a decision blocking lower rulings that would have imposed interim licensing terms on Finnish telecommunications developer Nokia for video coding patents practiced by Taiwanese electronic manufacturers Acer and Asus after finding that Nokia’s licensing offer to those companies was on reasonable and non-discriminatory (RAND) terms.

Toyota Mobility Sued for Misappropriating EV Tech From Zimbabwe Social Enterprise – On Tuesday, May 12, Zimbabwean social enterprise company Mobility for Africa filed a lawsuit in the Central District of California alleging breach of contract and trade secret misappropriation committed by the Toyota Mobility Foundation, which allegedly induced Mobility for Africa to share intellectual property under promise of forming a joint venture that never materialized.

EPO Announces Twelve Finalists for 2026 European Inventor Award – On Tuesday, May 12, the European Patent Office (EPO) announced the twelve finalists for the 2026 European Inventor Award, including three finalists in each of four different categories for Industry, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), Research, and Non-EPO Countries, with voting for the Popular Prize open until the livestream ceremony announcing the winner in Berlin, Germany, on July 2.

MonolithIC 3D Files Section 337 Complaint Against SK hynix, KIOXIA Chips – On Monday, May 11, California-based memory developer MonolithIC 3D filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) alleging violations of Section 337 committed by South Korean chipmaker SK hynix and Japanese chipmaker KIOXIA through the import into the U.S. for sale of IP-infringing NAND and DRAM memory chips and products containing the same.

Save the Inventor Launches “Power of Patents” Campaign to Reach D.C. Lawmakers – On Monday, May 11, inventor and patent system stakeholder group Save the Inventor announced that it was launching a campaign entitled “The Power of Patents: 250 Years of American Economic Success” targeting the Washington, D.C.-area to highlight the role that patents have played in commercializing some of the United States’ most successful and profitable inventions in history. 

This Week on Wall Street

Cisco Announces 4,000 Layoffs Despite $15.8B in Q2 Revenue – On Wednesday, May 13, American tech conglomerate Cisco Systems announced earnings for the second quarter of its 2026 fiscal year, reporting revenue of $15.8 billion representing a 12% increase over the same quarterly period in 2025, while the company also announced that corporate shifts toward supporting its AI infrastructure would result in the elimination of 4,000, a workforce reduction of 5%.

Quarterly Earnings – The following firms identified among the IPO’s Top 300 Patent Recipients for 2024 are announcing quarterly earnings next week (2023 rank in parentheses):

• Monday: Baidu, Inc. (131st)
• Tuesday: None
• Wednesday: Analog Devices, Inc. (204th); Nvidia Corp. (77th)
• Thursday: Deere & Co. (100th); Walmart Inc. (158th); Zoom Video Communications Inc. (t-211th)
• Friday: None