In a Progress Statement published Monday, the UK Government said that its ongoing consultation on copyright and AI has drawn over 11,500 responses, 10,112 of which were submitted via an online survey service, and that 88% of those who responded online supported requiring licenses to use copyrighted works for AI training in all cases.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) on Tuesday affirmed a district court’s dismissal of a patent infringement suit brought by Cooperative Entertainment, Inc. against Kollective Technology, Inc., over a patent for peer-to-peer (P2P) content distribution, holding that Cooperative had waived its new infringement theory and was judicially estopped from contradicting its previous arguments.

This week on IPWatchdog Unleashed, I have a conversation about patent eligibility with patent attorneys and IPWatchdog Advisory Committee members John Rogitz and Clint Mehall.  There can be little doubt that the U.S. patent system is at an inflection point. The growth of artificial intelligence (AI) is accelerating, and there is a growing understanding that dominating AI technologies is a matter of national and economic security. But as important as everyone seems to recognize AI innovation to be, there is widely diverging handling of AI innovations within government, with almost astonishingly different views between the Executive Branch and the Judicial Branch, with the Legislative Branch simply missing in action.

On Friday, December 12, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced an update to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) Trial Practice Guide implementing a requirement for parties to participate in a pre-hearing conference 15 days prior to America Invents Act (AIA) oral hearings in cases instituted by the USPTO Director. According to a USPTO press release, the purpose of the pre-trial hearing conference will be for the Board to guide the parties as to which issues they should address, as well as to give parties a chance to explain the issues they would like to focus on at the oral hearing.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied certiorari to MSN Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp., a case that asked the Justices to clarify U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) precedent around using “after-arising technology” to hold a patent invalid in the context of patent-infringement suits. The case arises from a  January 2025 precedential CAFC decision reversing a district court’s determination that certain claims of a patent for Novartis’ heart failure drug Entresto were invalid for lack of written description, and affirming a finding that the claims were not shown to be invalid for obviousness, lack of enablement, or indefiniteness.

The “Legislative Branch Agencies Clarification Act” (H.R. 6028), which was introduced in November and would require the Librarian of Congress to be appointed by a bipartisan commission of congress, as well as remove the Librarian’s authority over the Copyright Office, is reportedly on a path to be fast-tracked. Re:Create, an organization with the stated mission of fighting for “a balanced copyright system that is pro-innovation, pro-creator, and pro-consumer,” along with seven other copyright and consumer advocacy groups, sent a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson and the House Administration Committee on December 11 urging Committee Members to slow their consideration of the bill, citing reports that “the House is considering swift passage…possibly on the suspension calendar or through other expedient means.”

This Week in Other Barks & Bites: the EU’s General Court reduces a fine levied against Intel for anticompetitive behavior in the microprocessor market by €140 million; Disney signs a landmark character licensing deal with OpenAI while also warning Google to stop infringing uses of its copyrights via Google’s AI platforms. and more.

Companies face substantial liability for trade secret misappropriation. Jury awards this year have reached staggering amounts…. On November 21, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Computer Sciences Corp. v. Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., __ 5th Cir. __, 2025 WL 3249148 (5th Cir. 2025), affirmed $56 million in compensatory damages, $112 million in punitive damages, a permanent injunction, and a 10-year monitorship against TCS… The Computer Sciences decision provides critical guidance on trade secret handling under the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA), clarifies what constitutes “willful and malicious” misappropriation, and establishes that exemplary damages may be awarded even where the plaintiff suffers no harm beyond lost profits.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Tuesday dismissed an appeal from Zuru Inc. in its ongoing copyright and trademark dispute with the Lego group, finding that the court lacked appellate jurisdiction. Lego A/S, Lego Systems, Inc., and Lego Juris A/S first brought claims against Zuru Inc. in 2019, alleging that Zuru’s “First-Generation” toy figurines infringed on the copyright and trademark rights of Lego’s Minifigure. The U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut granted Lego’s motion for a preliminary injunction, which enjoined Zuru from manufacturing or selling the infringing First-Generation figurines and “any figurine or image that is substantially similar to the Minifigure Copyrights or likely to be confused with the Minifigure Trademarks.”

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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) on Wednesday issued a precedential decision affirming the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board’s (TTAB’s) cancellation of the registration for the mark I AM MORE THAN AN ATHLETE. GP GAME PLAN. The CAFC also dismissed Game Plan, Inc.’s opposition to Uninterrupted IP, LLC’s (UNIP’s) six intent-to-use applications for marks containing I AM MORE THAN AN ATHLETE and MORE THAN AN ATHLETE. The opinion was authored by Judge Reyna.

The Senate Subcommittee on Intellectual Property held a hearing on Tuesday that included testimony from the band Kiss’s co-founder, Gene Simmons, to discuss issues surrounding a proposed bill to compensate performers when their songs are broadcast on terrestrial radio stations. “America remains the only democratic nation and one of the few countries globally that does not compensate performers or copyright holders when their songs are played on AM/FM radio,” said IP Subcommittee Chair Thom Tillis (R-NC).

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) on Tuesday issued a precedential decision in International Business Machines Corporation v. Zillow Group, Inc., affirming a Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) ruling that certain claims of an IBM patent on single sign-on (SSO) technology were unpatentable, while others were not. The CAFC found no fault with the PTAB’s claim construction or its analysis of the prior art and rejected IBM’s argument that the Board relied on a theory not raised in the initial petition for inter partes review (IPR).

As AI adoption accelerates, it is crucial that companies act proactively to develop risk, compliance, and ethical frameworks to ensure sustainable innovation and responsible IP use. On the current episode of Understanding IP Matters, Allison Gaul, a registered patent attorney who evaluates digital products with an eye toward intellectual property strategy, value creation, and legal risk, discusses the aggressive landscape of data acquisition by various AI entities.

Verisign’s Law Department is seeking an attorney to support a variety of intellectual property-related functions, with a focus on patent development and prosecution, open source licensing, IP, technology, and AI counseling to our business and other attorneys. This position is based in our Reston, VA office and offers a hybrid work schedule.