Other Barks & Bites for Friday, September 11: Federal Research Agencies Asked About Biotech Safeguards; CISA Reports Industrial-Scale AI Distillation by China; and CJEU Says Right to Expression Isn’t Due Cause to Use Mark

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This week in Other Barks & Bites: the Federal Circuit affirms the dismissal of a pro se inventor’s PTA lawsuit due to district court restrictions against electronic filings; the United States’ top federal cybersecurity agency warns that the Chinese government may be aiding domestic AI companies in industrial-scale distillation efforts; the annual Global Innovation Index shows that China is outpacing the U.S. in terms of top innovation clusters; committee leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives send letters to the heads of three federal research agencies imploring them to safeguard the nation’s biotechnology research; Oracle reports 30% revenue growth compared to last year’s first quarter based on strong execution in its cloud business; the EU’s highest court says that the mere claim of right to freedom of expression does not create due cause to use a trademark with reputation in connection with a political party; and the Second Circuit reverses a district court’s dismissal of copyright claims to diamond price listings after finding an improper application of the merger doctrine.

Bites

CAFC Affirms Dismissal of Pro Se Inventor Complaint Seeking PTA for Improper Email Filing – On Thursday, September 10, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a ruling in Guymon v. Squires affirming the Eastern District of Virginia’s dismissal of a pro se inventor complaint seeking an additional 802 days in patent term adjustment (PTA) for patent claims directed to methods of creating secure electronic documents enabling the protected exchange of information. The Federal Circuit agreed with the district court that Guyman had no excusable neglect in waiting until the final day of the 180 days to challenge a PTA determination by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), as provided by 35 U.S.C. § 145(b)(4)(A), and that Guymon’s unfamiliarity with Eastern Virginia’s restrictions against submitting electronic filings by email amounted to a garden variety claim of excusable neglect, not extraordinary circumstances.

House Science Leadership Question Federal Research Agencies on Biotech Safeguards – On Wednesday, September 9, Reps. Brian Babin (R-TX), Chairman of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, and Rich McCormick (R-GA), Chairman of the House Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, sent letters to the leadership of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) and National Science Foundation (NSF) highlighting the lack of a coordinated national strategy to pursue global dominance in biotechnology. The letters include a series of questions asking the agency about various safety and security risks that could threaten American dominance in the biotechnology sector, including the use of artificial intelligence technologies as well as efforts to protect the theft of American research and related intellectual property.

China Home to More Top Innovation Clusters Than U.S. in WIPO Global Innovation Index – On Tuesday, September 8, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) released the 2026 edition of its Global Innovation Index (GII) detailing the metropolitan clusters displaying the most innovation capacity in terms of patent filings, scientific publications and venture capital funding, showing that the Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou cluster in China’s Greater Bay Area was the top innovation cluster for the second year in a row. This year’s report underscored the growing tech dominance of China, which was home to 25 of the top 100 innovation clusters in this year’s GII, ranking first ahead of the United States which was home to 20 of the top 100 innovation clusters including San Jose-San Francisco, which ranked third overall but first for innovation density based on population size.

CISA Says Chinese AI Companies Conducting Industrial-Scale Distillation of U.S. Systems – On Tuesday, September 8, the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued an alert announcing that Chinese-based artificial intelligence (AI) companies including DeepSeek, Moonshot AI and Alibaba have been engaging in aggressive, industrial-scale distillation campaigns that are copying core functionality from AI systems developed within the United States. While acknowledging that distillation can be used as a legitimate research technique, CISA states that these companies, likely with the Chinese government’s help and encouragement, have been routing billions of tokens across U.S. frontier AI models since at least late 2024 in efforts to achieve significantly shorter AI development timelines with reduced expenditures.

CJEU Says Freedom of Expression Doesn’t Establish Due Cause for Political Use of Trademark – On Tuesday, September 8, the Court of Justice for the European Union (CJEU) issued a ruling that, while acknowledging that EU legislation does not provide clarity on the type of due cause required to claim the right to use trademarks with reputation under freedom of expression, mere reliance on the right to expression does not establish that due cause and courts are required to balance the right to expression with a proprietor’s right in their trademark and reputation. The CJEU further held that in the present case where that question arose, involving a Belgian political party using IKEA trademarks to advance immigration and asylum policy reforms, the use of those IKEA marks in that context could significant detriments to the repute of those marks and to the interests of their proprietor.

Second Circuit Reverses Merger Doctrine Ruling Nixing Diamond Price List Copyright Case – On Friday, September 4, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued a ruling in Rapaport USA, Inc. v. Nivoda USA LLC vacating the Southern District of New York’s dismissal of diamond trading platform Rapaport’s copyright claims against Nivoda’s unauthorized use of Rapaport’s price list for the diamond market to highlight sales on its own diamond platform. The Second Circuit found that the district court erred in applying the merger doctrine to extinguish Rapaport’s copyright claims, noting that the company’s pricing list is determined based on Rapaport’s subjective belief of the value of diamonds across different carat weights, as well as merger doctrine principles recognizing that the doctrine’s concerns are less prevalent when the idea at issue involves matters of personal taste.

Barks

CNIPA Policy Review Chief Says Trademark, Chip Design IP Rule Revisions Coming Soon – On Friday, September 11, Chinese state-owned English language media outlet China Daily reported that Xia Tao, who leads the policy review office within China’s National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), announced during a two-day IP conference in Beijing this week that China’s IP agency will be issuing supplementary documents and specific rules for the implementation of new protections for computer chip layout designs and newly permitted dynamic trademarks.

UMG is First Major Label to Partner With ElevenLabs AI Music Platform – On Thursday, September 10, major record label Universal Music Group (UMG) announced that it had entered into a multi-year licensing agreement and strategic collaboration partnership with artificial intelligence company ElevenLabs that will allow listeners to remix and generate new music built upon work by participating artists.

USITC Extends Target Date in Motorized Self-Balancing Vehicle Investigation – On Thursday, September 10, the U.S. International Trade Commission issued a notice announcing that the agency was extending the target date for completion of a Section 337 investigation into certain motorized self-balancing vehicles imported into the U.S. for sale by Gotrax and Tao Motor to January 18, 2027, remanding the investigation for further proceedings as to whether patent owner Razor USA has satisfied its burden under the economic prong of the domestic industry requirement.

Boston University, Baylor University File Notice of Partial Trademark Settlement – On Wednesday, September 9, Texas-based Baylor University filed a notice of settlement in the Western District of Texas announcing at least a partial settlement of its trademark infringement claims over Boston University’s allegedly unauthorized use of the interlocking “BU” logo used by both universities.

John Duffy to Become USPTO’s Next General Counsel – On Saturday, September 5, patent law blog Patently-O reported that patent scholar John Duffy, currently a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, will serve the USPTO as the agency’s next General Counsel and overseeing legal operations across the agency.

Judge Williams Upholds Validity of Spravato Patents in Hatch-Waxman Case – On Monday, August 31, U.S. District Judge Karen Williams of the District of New Jersey issued an order under seal and final judgment in favor of plaintiff Janssen Pharmaceuticals upholding the validity of several patent claims and determining that they were infringed by Sandoz subsidiary Alkem Laboratories’ abbreviated new drug application (ANDA) for a generic version of the oral antidepressant spray Spravato.

This Week on Wall Street 

Oracle Announces 30% YoY Increase in Quarterly Revenues Driven by Cloud Infrastructure – On Thursday, September 10, American software company Oracle announced earnings for the first quarter of its fiscal year showing the company’s revenues increased 30% year-over-year (YoY) compared to the same period one year ago, with revenue increases mainly being driven by higher demand for Oracle’s cloud infrastructure products.

OpenAI Releases Enterprise AI Model for Financial Services – On Thursday, September 10, artificial intelligence developer OpenAI announced that it was releasing a new version of its ChatGPT Work enterprise model called ChatGPT for Financial Services designed to augment the work of financial analysts in researching financial data and developing effective predictions from that data formatted into pitchbooks or other publications used within the industry.