Other Barks & Bites for Friday, October 23: EUIPO Announces Record Number of Counterfeits Seized in 2025; EPO Study Shows Growing Importance of Tech Transfer Offices; and Taction Seeks to Add Damages to $5.7 Billion Apple Infringement Verdict

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This week in Other Barks & Bites: SpaceX reportedly seeks to build nationwide wireless carrier through purchase of 80,000 cellular sites; a joint study to which the European Patent Office contributed recommends strengthening tech transfer offices across the EU; the Unified Patent Court’s Court of Appeal finds that printed Gucci leather products don’t infringe patent claims to methods of decorating leather; Taction Technology files a motion for supplementary damages and ongoing royalty following its landmark $5.7 billion judgment against Apple; Acting Commissioner of Patents Barry Schindler confirms the use of Compass agentic artificial intelligence by patent examiners at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office; the European Union Intellectual Property Office announces a record number of counterfeit seizures in the EU during 2025; and the highest state court in Massachusetts cites eBay v. MercExchange in denying injunctive relief based on a presumption of irreparable harm in a trade secret case.

Bites

EUIPO Reports CDs/DVDs Account for Nearly One-Third of Record Counterfeit Seizures – On Thursday, October 22, the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) published a report produced jointly with the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union, indicating that EU customs officials had seized more than 196 million counterfeit items during 2025, the highest recorded number of counterfeit seizures reported by EU authorities, surpassing the previous record set in 2023 by 29%. The most frequently detained items were recorded CDs and DVDs, which accounted for 30% of all counterfeit seizures in the EU last year, followed by counterfeit toys, accounting for one-fifth of all seizures last year by customs officials.

Joint EPO Study Shows Growing Strategic Importance of University Tech Transfer – On Thursday, October 22, the European Patent Office (EPO) Observatory published a study conducted jointly with knowledge transfer association ASTP and Fraunhofer ISI on the impact of tech transfer offices (TTOs) at European universities and other research institutions showing that, although 90% of TTOs surveyed were small or mid-scale, such offices are no less likely to move an invention toward a patent than large TTOs enjoying on average six times more staff, seven times the research workforce and about 23 times more research expenditures. The study concludes that strengthening TTO capacity through better local research networks and financing is key to current European competitiveness given that EU research institutions account for high shares of EU patent applications filed in 2025 covering biotechnology (34%), quantum technology (29%) and pharmaceuticals (26%).

UPC Court of Appeal Says Gucci Decorative Leather Projects Don’t Infringe Patent – On Wednesday, October 21, the Unified Patent Court’s (UPC) Court of Appeal issued a ruling revoking a series of patent claims directed to methods of decorating natural leather owned by German industrial inkjet company Agfa and also ruled that leather products with printed designs created by Italian luxury brand Gucci did not infringe the asserted claims remaining in the case. Analyzing the patent claims remaining in the case, the UPC Court of Appeal found that Agfa presented no conclusive evidence that claimed polyfunctional monomers or oligomers were present in the inks used in the accused Gucci products or demonstrated that those products display the level of flexibility realized by the claimed invention, namely by showing no cracks visible by microscope.

SCOTUS Denies Cert to Google’s Settled Expectations Challenge, Blackbeard Copyright Case – On Monday, October 19, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an order list indicating that the nation’s highest court had denied petitions for writs of certiorari to a series of appeals featuring intellectual property matters. In denying Google v. VirtaMove, the Supreme Court heeded the U.S. Solicitor General’s call to dismiss Google’s challenge to settled expectations considerations in discretionary denials at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), which was targeted in amici filings by the computer and automotive industries supporting Google. The Court also denied Allen v. Stein, featuring copyright claims filed over the unauthorized use of documentary footage of the salvage of the Blackbeard ship Queen Anne’s Revenge by North Carolina state agencies, although the Court did summarily affirm the lower ruling in BMG Rights Management v. Vetter, leaving in place a ruling granting worldwide copyright protection to singer/songwriter Cyril Vetter for the 1966 single “Double Shot (Of My Baby’s Love).”

Taction Seeks Additional Damages Following $5.7B Verdict Against Apple – On Friday, October 16, haptic tech developer Taction Technology filed a motion in the Southern District of California for supplemental damages, ongoing royalty, and prejudgment and postjudgment interest following a jury verdict in late September awarding more than $5.7 billion in damages to Taction after finding that consumer device giant Apple infringed claims of Taction patents directed to technologies for providing haptic device feedback in response to user touch. According to the motion, Taction seeks supplemental damages on infringing device sales between March 2026 and September 2026, ongoing royalties on new infringing products introduced this September including the iPhone 18 Pro, as well as prejudgment interest at the California statutory rate of 7%, which reportedly would add hundreds of millions of dollars to the verdict by itself.

SCOTUS’ eBay Ruling Looms in Massachusetts Supreme Court Trade Secret Decision – On Wednesday, October 14, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court issued a ruling affirming the denial of injunctive relief to heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) provider Daikin Applied Americas in a trade secret case brought against a pair of former employees who formed a competitor company using customer and pricing data alleged as trade secrets by Daikin. In so ruling, the highest state court in Massachusetts found it notable that the U.S. Supreme Court previously decided that presumptions of irreparable harm are inappropriate when considering injunctive relief for patent infringement in eBay v. MercExchange (2004), a case applied by at least the Seventh and Tenth Circuits to the trade secret context.

Barks

Ninth Circuit Affirms Jury Verdict Finding No Copyright Infringement by Apple’s “The Servant” – On Thursday, October 22, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued an unpublished opinion in Gregorini v. Apple Inc. affirming a jury verdict entered in the Central District of California finding that Italian-American director and screenwriter Francesca Gregorini did not prove that Apple’s television show The Servant was substantially similar to Gregorini’s indie film The Truth About Emanuel.

EUIPO Hosts First Cooperation Board Working Sessions for Ongoing IP Cooperation – On Wednesday, October 21, the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) announced that the first Cooperation Board Working Sessions meeting, established under the EUIPO’s Strategic Plan 2030, had concluded, taking a closer look at ongoing IP cooperation between Executive Plenary meetings of the Cooperation Board including collaboration on public resources for monitoring trademark and design registration information as well as exchanges on the potential of craft and industrial geographical indications (CIGIs).

Acting Commissioner for Patents Schindler Confirms Examiner Use of AI Agents at Google Summit – On Tuesday, October 20, Barry Schindler, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Acting Commissioner for Patents, made comments at that day’s Google Public Sector Summit acknowledging that patent examiners across the agency, especially those working in pharmaceuticals or other complex tech centers, have been incorporating the use of agentic artificial intelligence (AI) tools, especially Compass, which performs formality checks on patent application submissions.

Deutsche Bank Files Voluntary Dismissal of DJ Action Against Intellectual Ventures – On Tuesday, October 20, the American subsidiary of major German financial institution Deutsche Bank filed a notice of voluntary dismissal in the District of Delaware bringing an end to its declaratory judgment action against patent owner Intellectual Ventures following another court filing earlier this month indicating that the two sides were working toward a settlement of patent infringement claims.

7-Eleven Dismisses Trademark Suit Against Nike Air Max 95 Sneakers – On Monday, October 19, American convenience store chain 7-Eleven filed a voluntary dismissal with prejudice in the Northern District of Texas ending its trademark litigation against American athletic footwear company Nike over its plans to market Air Max 95 sneakers that utilize a color scheme similar to those used in the branding of 7-Eleven stores.

EPO Announces Record Number of EQE Candidates at CSP Kick-Off Meeting – On Friday, October 16, the EPO hosted a hybrid meeting to kick-off the new cycle of the agency’s Candidate Support Programme, during which the EPO announced that a record number of 76 candidates for the European qualifying examination (EQE), nominated by 33 member states, would be taking part in this year’s CSP cycle providing tutoring and structured training for qualified applicants seeking to enter the patent profession in the EU. 

This Week on Wall Street

SpaceX Reportedly Seeking to Build Fourth Nationwide Wireless Carrier – On Friday, October 23, news reports indicated that American aerospace firm SpaceX is conducting negotiations with at least one major cellular network provider with the goal of acquiring 80,000 cellular sites across the United States to create a fourth nationwide wireless service provider to compete with Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile.

Quarterly Earnings – The following firms identified among the IPO’s Top 300 Patent Recipients for 2025 are announcing quarterly earnings next week (2025 rank in parentheses):

• Monday: Rambus Inc. (t-286th); Verizon Communications Inc. (115th)
• Tuesday: ASM International N.V. (t-270th); Baker Hughes Co. (t-185th); The Boeing Co. (t-51st); Corning Inc. (114th); Johnson Controls International plc (134th); NXP Semiconductors N.V. (111th); PayPal Holdings, Inc. (t-231st); Visa Inc. (176th)
• Wednesday: Alphabet Inc. (12th); Boston Scientific Corp. (72nd); Ford Motor Co. (42nd); Microsoft Corp. (18th); T-Mobile US, Inc. (t-90th); TE Connectivity Ltd. (169th); United Microelectronics Corp. (t-136th)
• Thursday: Altria Group, Inc. (t-211th); Amazon.com, Inc. (20th); Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (t-300th); Caterpillar Inc. (100th); Illumina, Inc. (t-300th); Intel Corp. (15th); InterDigital Inc. (73rd); Mastercard Inc. (t-239th); STMicroelectronics N.V. (67th); Stryker Corp. (68th)
• Friday: Magna International Inc. (166th); Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (t-257th)