Posts Tagged: "IP News"

This week in Other Barks & Bites: news reports indicate that the White House is currently reviewing amendments proposed by the USPTO to amend the rules of practice at the PTAB; USPTO Director Iancu issues binding guidance to the PTAB stating that applicant-admitted prior art cannot be the basis of IPR institutions; the Federal Circuit affirms the dismissal of APA claims against the PTAB for jurisdictional issues; both Lizzo and Rick Ross receive favorable rulings in copyright cases filed over their music recordings; the Second Circuit says that Costco is able under the Lanham Act to use Tiffany branding to describe a style of ring; Nvidia’s most recent earnings show that its data center business has eclipsed its gaming business for the first time ever; and China’s national legislature issues its second deliberative draft including major amendments to China’s Copyright Law.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: Arthrex files a reply in its Supreme Court case regarding the constitutionality of PTAB appointments, while another SCOTUS petition was filed to appeal the Ninth Circuit’s ruling in the “Stairway to Heaven” copyright case; the Federal Circuit affirms an examiner’s obviousness rejection of monotype printing patent claims and also upholds sanctions against a pair of doctors for procedural issues stemming from more than 300 patent complaints filed in district court; the D.C. Circuit remands part of a royalty rate setting proceeding on streaming music distribution to the Copyright Royalty Board; a jury verdict in Eastern Texas awards $506 million to PanOptis for Apple’s willful infringement of patent claims; the TTAB sustains an opposition against “gruyere” for genericness; and the Federal Reserve announces that it has undertaken several initiatives related to central bank digital currencies.

This week in Washington IP, both houses of Congress are quiet during August recess but patent and IP policy issues are front and center at the Hudson Institute, which is hosting events to explore how light regulatory frameworks can increase innovation, as well as the importance of injunctions for standard-essential patent owners. Elsewhere, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine look at how federal R&D and commercialization funding programs for small businesses have been implemented by the National Science Foundation, and both the Urban Institute and the American Association for the Advancement of Science look at how data collection practices and technological platforms intersect with issues of racial equity.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: the Federal Circuit denies petitions for en banc rehearing in a pair of patent cases regarding Section 101 eligibility and holds that the essentiality of patent claims to a standard is a question of fact for the jury; a letter signed by 34 state attorneys general asks U.S. federal health agencies to exercise march-in rights under Bayh-Dole on Gilead’s remdesivir; the USPTO issues final rules for agency fee adjustments, including a $3,500 increase to IPR petitions; the release of Reels on Instagram helps Mark Zuckerberg become the world’s third-richest person; the Western Washington district court denies an interlocutory appeal on a theory of copyright infringement for Amazon “making available” copyrighted sound recordings; former Google engineer Anthony Levandowski is sentenced to 18 months in prison for trade secret theft; and a Chinese patent owner files a patent suit against Apple’s Siri voice assistant feature seeking $1.43 billion USD in damages.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: the USPTO proposes rule changes to the agency’s professional conduct rules to align with model rules from the ABA; the Federal Circuit issues rulings affirming an obviousness determination by the PTAB over an APA challenge and vacating a Southern Texas ruling that dismissed a case for failure to join a necessary party; a Chinese court hands out prison sentences of up to six years to defendants in a case involving infringement of Dyson trademarks; the House Antitrust Subcommittee grills Google, Apple and other tech giants on antitrust issues, including copying of competitor content and IP; Clarivate and CPA Global announce a merger to create a new innovation/IP lifecycle management solution; Qualcomm stock peaks after announcing a patent licensing deal with Huawei; and the CNIPA says that China will reduce trademark application processing times to less than four months by the end of 2020.

This week in Washington IP news, technology and innovation hearings are in full swing on Tuesday and get started with a Senate IP Subcommittee hearing on the DMCA’s effects on the fair use regime under U.S. law, one of a series of hearings on DMCA modernization being held by that subcommittee this year. That same day, the Senate Energy Committee explores R&D in large-scale carbon management technologies and the Senate Communications Subcommittee discusses potential impacts to limited liability provisions for online service providers if the PACT Act passes into law. The House Regulatory Affairs Subcommittee will hold a hearing to review telework policies in the private sector during the COVID-19 pandemic. The week ends early on Wednesday with a pair of events hosted by the Brookings Institution which focus on national security policymaking in the AI era as well as ways that financial technology can improve payment systems for wage earners, especially low-income individuals who need those payments quickly.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: Congress passes the 2021 NDAA, including provisions of a sustainable chemistry research bill; the Federal Circuit says that the PTAB can consider Section 101 patent-eligibility issues when patent owners submit motions to amend in IPRs; Senator Thom Tillis and colleagues take steps to protect U.S. COVID-19 IP; the USPTO issues updated study figures showing slight increases for U.S. women inventors; Under Armour wins nearly $300K in a trademark case decided by China’s highest court; the Ninth Circuit vacates a substantial similarity analysis, reviving copyright claims filed against Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl; a major tech antitrust hearing at the House of Representatives will likely be postponed due to the memorial service for Representative John Lewis; and patent owner Cheetah Omni files a petition for writ of certiorari asking the Supreme Court to overturn the Federal Circuit’s ruling on an implied license stemming from a grandparent patent.

This week in Washington IP news, the House of Representatives kicks off a series of tech-related hearings with a look at how the current pandemic has exposed issues in legacy IT systems in federal agencies. Later in the week, the House Oversight Subcommittee explores efforts to develop a COVID-19 vaccine and the House Small Business Committee dissects issues with COVID-19 relief program processing at the Small Business Administration. The week ends with a Senate Communications Subcommittee hearing on the government’s spectrum policies for supporting 5G network deployment. Elsewhere, the Center for Strategic & International Studies looks at the highlights of a clean energy innovation report from the International Energy Agency while the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation discusses a recent strategy document from the European Commission on developing a data policy among member nations of the EU. 

This week in Other Barks & Bites: the Federal Circuit holds that obviousness and anticipation invalidity contentions are not “changed conditions” for rescinding an exclusion order entered by the International Trade Commission; Google becomes the latest American tech company to make a major investment in India’s Jio Platforms; the European General Court rescinds tax rulings against Apple for Irish state aid related to IP licensing practices; the USPTO issues an update to PTAB motion to amend statistics showing that 83% of pilot program-eligible motions have sought Board guidance; the Copyright Office issues a proposed rule on royalty reporting obligations for digital music providers during the Music Modernization Act’s transition period; the D.C. Circuit vacates the denial of a Rule 26(d)(1) motion to subpoena info because of erroneous analysis regarding the salacious nature of the plaintiff’s copyrighted adult films; and Drew Hirshfeld is appointed to serve a second five-year term as the USPTO’s Commissioner of Patents.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: the Federal Circuit extends Arthrex to ex parte appeals and vacates part of a denial of a motion to seal filed by Uniloc related to third-party licensee information; the CJEU says that copyright owners can only request postal addresses of people posting infringing content online, and that government committees are subject to personal data access provisions of the EU General Data Protection Regulation; the CNIPA releases statistics showing that, despite a slowdown during COVID-19, Chinese patent application filings during 2020’s first half have increased by about 5% relative to the same period last year; the USPTO extends its pilot program for faster processing of patent applications related to cancer immunotherapies; Intel fails to axe Qualcomm patent claims in a trio of IPRs decided by the PTAB this week; and Gartner reports that global PC shipments are up by about 2.8% thanks to increased mobile demand.This week in Other Barks & Bites: the Federal Circuit extends Arthrex to ex parte appeals and vacates part of a denial of a motion to seal filed by Uniloc related to third-party licensee information; the CJEU says that copyright owners can only request postal addresses of people posting infringing content online, and that government committees are subject to personal data access provisions of the EU General Data Protection Regulation; the CNIPA releases statistics showing that, despite a slowdown during COVID-19, Chinese patent application filings during 2020’s first half have increased by about 5% relative to the same period last year; the USPTO extends its pilot program for faster processing of patent applications related to cancer immunotherapies; Intel fails to axe Qualcomm patent claims in a trio of IPRs decided by the PTAB this week; and Gartner reports that global PC shipments are up by about 2.8% thanks to increased mobile demand.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: the Federal Circuit affirms the invalidation of patent claims covering the rheumatoid arthritis treatment Enbrel using a novel argument on obviousness-type double patenting, and vacates a denial of attorney’s fees in a Southern Florida case which invalidated an asserted patent claim under Alice; the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office again extends relief on patent filing deadlines to small and micro entities under the CARES Act, launches a fast-track program to expedite ex parte appeals, and makes several other announcements; the U.S. Supreme Court denies cert to Chrimar v. ALE USA and issues a ruling finding that “generic.com” terms are not generic per se if consumers perceive them as a brand; an appeal to the Federal Circuit is alleging that PTAB judges are financially incentivized to grant validity reviews; and BIC wins a general exclusion order from the ITC preventing the importation of knock-off pocket lighters.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: the House of Representatives approves a bill by voice vote which would enable the sale of acceleration certificates for patent applications in the Patents for Humanity Program; the Supreme Court denies cert to a trio of petitions challenging the Patent Trial and Appeal Board as unconstitutional under the Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause; the Copyright Office begins accepting petitions for temporary exemptions to Section 1201 of the DMCA; the CAFC issues three new precedential decisions; the Ninth Circuit reverses the dismissal of copyright claims over The Shape of Water and also reverses a lower court for an erroneous jury instruction modeled after the Ninth Circuit’s own model instructions on functionality in trademark law; Gilead’s remdesivir is endorsed as the first antiviral treatment for use against COVID-19 in Europe; and the USPTO requests comments from past participants in its GIPA Training Programs.

This week in Other Barks and Bites: the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office proposes adjustments to trademark fees, issues a final rule on patent term adjustments under Supernus, launches a priority examination program for COVID-19-related trademarks and service marks, and seeks nominations for members of the Patent Public Advisory Committee (PPAC) and Trademark Public Advisory Committee (TPAC); the Federal Circuit strikes down patent suits filed by PersonalWeb Technologies under the Kessler doctrine; the Copyright Office announces virtual forums on agency modernization efforts and upcoming Section 1201 rulemaking; Mylan successfully invalidates Biogen’s Tecfidera patent claims in district court; the WTO issues a panel opinion finding that the Saudi Arabian government wrongfully prevented the enforcement of IP rights; and the Seventh Circuit affirms the denial of an attorney’s fee award in a case involving frivolous copyright claims.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: USPTO announces relief under the CARES Act for restoring priority/ benefit rights; the CJEU has ruled that “functional shapes” are eligible for copyright protection if they are original works; China’s IP agency releases its annual budget including details on reducing patent pendency times to nearly seven months shorter than the USPTO; the Second Circuit finds a commercial activity exception to the Welsh government’s sovereign immunity defense against copyright infringement; Google creates takedown form for search results leading to counterfeits; the USPTO and Facebook tell the Federal Circuit that the Supreme Court’s Thryv decision requires vacatur of Windy City Innovations; Johnson & Johnson seeks a 70 percent success rate in COVID-19 vaccine trials; Sen. Thom Tillis voices increased concerns about copyright infringement by the Internet Archive; USPTO Director Iancu asks Congress for additional fee spending authority to maintain continuity during the pandemic; and Sony is successful in its Section 101 invalidation of patent claims covering an in-game reward system for slot machine games. 

This week in Other Barks & Bites: a study from Bertelsmann Stiftung shows that China has made great strides in obtaining patents for important tech sectors; the Federal Circuit rules that attorney’s fees awards under Section 285 are not available for PTAB trials; the Senate IP Subcommittee holds a two-part DMCA modernization hearing exploring issues in current online copyright law; AI firm ZoomInfo is successful in the first tech IPO since the COVID-19 pandemic began; Amazon partners with Slack to develop enterprise collaboration solutions to compete with Microsoft Teams; the Copyright Office announces a study into the degree to which state entities covered by sovereign immunity have infringed copyright; and the FDA solicits public input on the types of patent information that should be listed in the Orange Book.