Steve Brachmann

This week in Other Barks & Bites: the Ninth Circuit finds that a series of Doe plaintiffs did not succeed on the theory that GitHub’s AI-powered coding platform violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) under an output theory; U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Director John Squires says that U.S. trademark filings have increased 11% compared to the first nine months of 2025; the Protect College Sports Act moves toward a vote on the U.S. Senate floor that will likely happen next week; and more.

On Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a ruling in AlterWAN, Inc. v. Amazon.com, Inc. affirming a stipulated final judgment of noninfringement entered by the District of Delaware and dismissing AlterWAN’s challenges to the district court’s construction of claims directed to wide area network (WAN) implementation. Dissenting to the majority opinion was U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian, sitting by designation from the Southern District of New York, who took issue with the majority’s judgment resting on non-claim terms inferred as limitations from vague specification language and irrelevant prosecution history.

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; and more.

Yesterday, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) released its 2026 Global Innovation Index (GII) identifying metropolitan clusters around the world seeing the highest levels of innovation activity as judged by publications and R&D investments. This year’s Index underscores the growing tech dominance of China, which accounted for one-quarter of the top 100 innovation clusters in this year’s survey of top tech and innovation hubs around the world.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: a House IP Subcommittee hearing on restoring the USPTO’s fee-setting authority turns heated over the original intention behind the America Invents Act; the Eleventh Circuit affirms a permanent injunction and trademark cancellation in an infringement case brought by the maker of “Wolf”-brand electric scooters; the United States scores high marks across 33 economic indicators in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s recently released Statistical Annex to the International IP Index; the European General Court finds that Microsoft’s Edge browser is not an important gateway subject to regulations under the Digital Markets Act; the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals affirms the Library of Congress’ recent triennial rulemaking allowing circumventions to technological protection measures for medical devices; and Microsoft breaks out financial figures for its Azure cloud division for the first time in its most recent quarterly earnings report.