Other Barks & Bites for Friday, June 19: Senate Finance Committee to Consider ITC Nominees; U.S. Bills on Likeness Rights Head to Senate Floor; and Director Squires Declines Discretionary Denial Over U.S. Manufacturing Considerations

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This week in Other Barks & Bites: Circuit Judge Leonard Stark authors a concurrence explaining the Federal Circuit’s changes to the skilled searcher test in Ironburg Inventions v. Valve; Senate committees separately advance bills aimed at clarifying the framework for likeness rights in collegiate sports and creating a federal right to a person’s likeness; the Senate Finance Committee announces a hearing to vet several of President Trump’s nominees, including Peter-Anthony Pappas; USPTO Director John Squires issues a decision declining discretionary denial and designated informative in part for its analysis of U.S. manufacturing considerations; EU officials announce the seizure of 66,000 counterfeit World Cup football kits as part of Operation CLEANTRADE; and the Senate HELP Committee advances a pair of bills that would favor generic and biosimilar drugmakers over pharmaceutical patent owners.

Bites 

CAFC Reverses Estoppel Rulings Against Valve in Ironburg Patent Case – On Thursday, June 18, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) issued a precedential ruling in Ironburg Inventions Ltd. v. Valve Corp. reversing the Western District of Washington’s ruling that Valve was estopped from challenging the validity of Ironburg’s patents on grounds that were not raised in inter partes review (IPR) proceedings because the district court both relied on insufficient evidence to find one validity ground estopped and improperly accounted for hindsight bias in estopping the other ground. Circuit Judge Leonard Stark authored a concurrence noting several major contributions that the majority’s opinion made to the skilled searcher test, which gives patentees the burden of showing both that the prior art references were findable by a skilled searcher, and that the skilled searcher would have reasonably been expected to discover the invalidity ground the challenger seeks to assert in court.

Senate Finance Committee to Hold Nomination Hearing on Pappas’ USITC Appointment – On Thursday, June 18, U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-ID) announced that the full committee will convene for a hearing next Thursday morning at 10 AM to discuss five President Donald Trump nominees to make up the full membership of the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC), which currently only has three sitting commissioners of the six commissioners that are provided for by statute. One of the nominees to be questioned next Thursday is Peter-Anthony Pappas, currently Director of Intellectual Property Policy under Senate IP Subcommittee Chairman Thom Tillis (R-NC) who has earned support from Council for Innovation Promotion (C4IP) Executive Director Frank Cullen both for his efforts to improve subject matter eligibility analyses, including contributions to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s 2019 Revised Subject Matter Eligibility Guidelines, and his efforts in debunking false claims about patent thickets and evergreening. 

Athletic Industry Support Helps Send Protect College Sports Act to Senate Floor – On Thursday, June 18, the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation voted 19-9 on a bipartisan basis to advance the Protect College Sports Act to the floor of the U.S. Senate with several amendments to the bill advanced by Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Eric Schmitt (R-MO), Ted Budd (R-NC) and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL). This Tuesday, new support was raised for the bill, which aims to create a framework to stabilize name, image and likeness (NIL) rights in collegiate sports, by the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, Team USA Athletes’ Commission and players’ associations for both the National Football League and National Basketball Association, adding to the 20 collegiate conferences and other collegiate organizations.

Senate HELP Committee Advances Pair of Bills Targeting Pharma Patent Owners – On Wednesday, June 17, the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) Committee held a markup hearing for a series of bills that ultimately target pharmaceutical companies protecting their drugs through patent rights in favor of generic and biosimilar drugmakers who market cheap versions of patented drugs. While the HELP Committee did not vote on the Ensuring Timely Access to Generics Act, which received a series of nine amendments from Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT), the committee did advance two bills toward a full vote on the Senate floor: the Biosimilar Red Tape Elimination Act, which would make it easier for biosimilar makers to prove interchangeability with the biologic equivalent, and the Medication Affordability and Patent Integrity Act, which would require applications for U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval to certify that information it has submitted for FDA approval is consistent with patent filings at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

Fourth Circuit Affirms “HAVANA CLUB” Trademark Renewal Granted 10 Years After Deadline – On Tuesday, June 16, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit issued a ruling in Bacardi & Company Ltd. v. Squires affirming the Eastern District of Virginia’s summary judgment ruling finding that trademark owner Cubaexport finding that a 2016 order by the Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control properly validated Cubaexport’s renewal payment that was due in 2005. The Fourth Circuit found that, while the USPTO Director acted within his statutory authority to deny trademark registration when it determined that Cubaexport lacked required licenses for the wire transfer of funds to pay for its 2005 trademark renewal, Cubaexport’s ability to secure an OFAC license for the transfer in 2016 properly authorized the 2005 transaction.

PTAB Ruling Declining Discretionary Denial for U.S. Manufacturing is Designated Informative – On Monday, June 15, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced its ruling in Tesla, Inc. v. Bulletproof Property Management, LLC which denied patent owner Bulletproof’s request for discretionary denial for a series of inter partes review (IPR) proceedings petitioned by Tesla. The decision, issued by Director John Squires and immediately designated as an informative decision for the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), declined discretionary denial for several reasons including a broad stipulation on co-pending district court litigation, petitioner demonstration of an apparent USPTO error, Tesla filed its petitions within two years of issuance of each challenged patent, and Tesla provided evidence that it manufactures the products accused of infringing Bulletproof’s patents within the United States.

Barks

Unanimous Senate Judiciary Advances NO FAKES Act to Create Federal Voice, Likeness Rights – On Thursday, June 18, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee voted unanimously to advance the Nurture Originals, Foster Art, and Keep Entertainment Safe (NO FAKES) Act of 2026, which if enacted as drafted would create a federal right to an individual’s voice and likeness terminating no later than 70 years after death to prevent AI companies from making unauthorized uses of a person’s voice and likeness.

Operation CLEANTRADE Leads to Seizure of 66,000 Fake Football Jerseys Ahead of 2026 World Cup – On Thursday, June 18, the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) announced that Operation CLEANTRADE, a joint anti-counterfeiting initiative led by the Spanish National Police with support from several EU agencies, had seized more than 66,000 counterfeit football jerseys and kits imitating the crests of national football teams playing in the 2026 World Cup.

Nokia, Lenovo Renew Multi-Technology Patent Cross-License on Confidential Terms – On Thursday, June 18, Finnish telecommunications company Nokia and Chinese multinational technology firm Lenovo announced that they had signed a confidential agreement on a multi-year, multi-technology patent cross-license agreement, renewing the cross-license agreement between those parties last entered into in 2021.

EPO Launches Data Desk Showing Granular Patenting Trends in Critical Tech Sectors – On Thursday, June 18, the European Patent Office (EPO) announced that it had launched a new Data Desk feature through the agency’s online portal that gives users access to granular data on patent trends in rapidly evolving tech sectors, with energy storage, hydrogen, power grids, quantum and solar photovoltaics currently available through the first version of Data Desk.

USPTO Promotes Deborah Stephens to Serve as Agency’s Permanent CIO – On Tuesday, June 16, the USPTO announced that it had appointed Deborah Stephens, who has served multiple roles at the agency for 25 years including leading information technology (IT) modernization while serving as Assistant Commissioner for the Office of Patent Information Management, to serve as Chief Information Officer (CIO), promoting Stephens from her current role as Acting CIO.

EUIPO Strengthens Ties With German IP Community During First Edition of “National Days” – On Monday, June 15, the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) held its first stakeholder event as part of the agency’s new “National Days at the EUIPO” initiative, inviting representatives from the court systems, agencies and industry organizations in Germany to discuss strategic updates on that nation’s IP landscape.

This Week on Wall Street

U.S./Iran Conflict Leads to $400M Quarterly Loss in Middle Eastern Business for Accenture – On Thursday, June 18, Irish technology consulting company Accenture announced earnings for the third quarter of 2026 showing a $400 million revenue loss for Accenture’s Middle Eastern business, with more revenue headwinds expected by the company in its fourth quarter earnings report as the economic impacts of the U.S./Iran conflict begin to take hold.

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: None
• Tuesday: None
• Wednesday: Micron Technology Inc. (23rd)
• Thursday: None
• Friday: None