Posts Tagged: "IP News"

This week in Washington IP events, Congressional consideration of technology and innovation topics are limited to the House of Representatives, which will hold hearings in the middle of the week on topics such as the Trump Administration’s research and development budget for fiscal year 2021, the delayed rollout of Veterans Affairs’ electronic health record system, as well as innovative products in the lumber industry. Elsewhere in D.C., The Brookings Institution hosts an event exploring modernization efforts at the U.S. Navy and the Center for Strategic and International Studies focuses on ways to improve Internet infrastructure to aid lower-income economies in developing nations across the world.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: The CAFC issued a precedential decision in Arctic Cat Inc. v. Bombardier Recreational Products Inc., affirming a ruling that Arctic Cat cannot recover pre-complaint infringement damages because its licensee failed to mark products covered by Arctic Cat’s patent claims; the USPTO relaxes a proposed rule requiring email addresses on trademark applications; the Copyright Royalty Board announces royalty rates for sound recordings transmitted by subscription services; the Department of Justice and other amici file briefs supporting Oracle at the Supreme Court in its copyright case against Google; India’s cabinet approves an IP plan with the U.S. ahead of a visit by President Trump; Sprint and T-Mobile revise their merger deal to hand a larger stake to Deutsche Telekom; a California state court jury hears closing arguments in a $1 billion trade secret case against Uber; Motorola Solutions announces a massive win on trade secret and copyright damages; and licensing talks between Nokia and Daimler on connected car technologies reportedly fail.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: The Federal Circuit issues precedential decisions in patent cases involving data centers as “regular and established place of business,” the Section 315 time-bar for PTAB proceedings and a settlement agreement rendering a summary judgment ruling moot; former Chief Judge Michel asks the Federal Circuit for an en banc rehearing of a panel decision raising the standards for patent owners proving that patent claims are non-obviousness because of secondary considerations; the Department of Justice indicts Huawei on trade secret theft and RICO charges; the USPTO hosts job fairs for new patent examiners while the agency also takes flak for new email requirements for trademark applications; “Choose Your Own Adventure” trademark suit against Netflix moves forward; VirnetX stock sees positive response after the Federal Circuit denies Apple’s petition for rehearing; and Oracle files a respondent’s brief in its copyright case against Google in the U.S. Supreme Court.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: the Federal Circuit finds implied license for AT&T beats infringement claims; Verizon is targeted in patent suit filed by Chinese telecom firm Huawei; Gilead stock drops after adverse patent decisions; the ITC institutes a patent infringement investigation against Google; Cox Communications seeks remittitur, new trial in $1 billion copyright case; David Gooder is appointed to serve as the next Commissioner of Trademarks at the USPTO; the Ninth Circuit hears oral arguments on whether “Comic Con” trademark was generic; and Biogen sees stock prices shoot up after beating Mylan patent challenge at the PTAB.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: a California jury awards Caltech $1.1 billion in patent damages against Apple and Broadcom; the Federal Circuit affirms a PTAB obviousness finding based on combination of prior art and general knowledge; Democratic candidate Bloomberg supports limitations to patent protections for brand-name drugs; climate activist Greta Thunberg seeks trademark protection; the EU Court of Justice determines that computer software trademarks aren’t contrary to public policy; the UKIPO discusses agency operations during post-Brexit transition period; IBM announces Arvind Krishna as replacement for outgoing CEO Ginni Rometty; USPTO announces partnership to fast-track Mexican patent applications for U.S. patent owners; and the UK decides to shelve EU Copyright Directive on eve of Brexit.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: The new China-U.S Trade Deal offers stronger patent dispute mechanism for drug companies; IBM joins LOT Network and tops the list of top U.S. patent recipients for a 27th straight year; the U.S. Supreme Court hears a pair of appeals in trademark cases and seems eager to overturn lower court rulings in both; Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman dissents on a pair of precedential decisions issued by the CAFC; tech giant Alphabet is the fourth U.S. tech company to hit a $1 trillion market capitalization; China announces that it received 1.401 million invention patent applications during 2019; Ed Sheeran loses a motion to compel and must disclose concert revenue information in “Thinking Out Loud” copyright case; USAA wins a second nine-figure judgment in a patent infringement case against Wells Fargo; and CompuMark reports that 85% of global brands were infringed during 2019.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: the U.S. Supreme Court will meet today for a conference during which it will consider several petitions regarding patent-eligibility under Section 101; next week, the Supreme Court will also hear oral arguments in a pair of trademark cases regarding defense preclusion and profits awards; the Fifth Circuit decides a novel issue and denies statutory copyright damages for post-registration infringement; China announces that its domestic invention patent grants surpass goals set by the national government; Sonos sues Google for patent infringement a few years after the two companies collaborate on speaker technology; the BBC wins a trademark case in China over the BBC logo; the PTAB rules that Google isn’t an interested party in a validity trial petitioned by RPX; and China rules that an AI-produced news article has copyright protections.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: the Federal Circuit affirms a district court’s obviousness finding invalidating Persion Pharmaceutical’s liver pain treatment patent; Deputy Trademark Commissioner Meryl Hershkowitz is promoted to Acting Commissioner for Trademarks at the USPTO; Jay Hoffman will begin his new role as  Chief Financial Officer at the USPTO on January 6; the Copyright Royalty Board publishes a notice of inquiry on royalties for statutory licenses; the Ninth Circuit finds that TTAB cancellation proceedings don’t preclude claims of trademark infringement in district court; the creators of the children’s cartoon Peppa Pig score a copyright victory in Chinese courts; a New Jersey District Court finds that the SCOTUS decision in Impression Products doesn’t prevent trademark claims against resellers; Singapore announces a new chief for its international IP commercialization agency; and Tesla beats Wall Street expectations on fourth quarter car deliveries.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) gets active on copyright matters, signing a trio of letters related to piracy and Copyright Office matters; Karyn Temple leaves her post as Register of Copyrights at the Copyright Office; the Supreme Court decides Peters v. NantKwest, finding that the USPTO can’t recover legal personnel fees in district court proceedings; Facebook shares drop due to a potential Federal Trade Commission injunction against messaging services integration; the Federal Circuit denies a rehearing petition on Capital One’s antitrust claims against Intellectual Ventures; House Democrats allow the USCMA free trade agreement to move towards ratification; news reports indicate that the U.S. and China have a limited trade deal in place; and the EU rules that marijuana-related trademarks are contrary to public policy. 

Olshan Frome Wolosky LLP recently announced that Lee S. Sporn has joined the firm as Of Counsel in its Intellectual Property Law practice, where he will focus on clients in the luxury goods, fashion and retail industries. Sporn is an internationally renowned intellectual property and corporate lawyer and a leader in the fashion and retail law industry.

This week’s news headlines include nomination hearings for the potential incoming U.S. Commerce Secretary, the Supreme Court’s granting certiorari for an important case in biologics, a patent infringement suit targeting the NFL, the expiration of copyright protecting the works of a very influential science fiction author from the early 20th century, and another sports figure — this time UFC Lightweight Champion Conor McGregor — filing trademark applications.

Between August 2012 and February 2013, digital publishing apps saw an average growth in their readership of 200 percent according to a state of mobile tech report released by computer software company Adobe Systems. Online statistics portal Statista report statistics showing that 88 percent of North American newspapers were distributing content on mobile devices by 2010. It’s not just readers that are heading to the digital realm, but advertising dollars are also helping to buoy the nascent digital magazine sector. Forecasts reported by professional services network PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) indicate that digital advertising expenditures should rise from $2.4 billion in 2012 up to $3.8 billion in 2017, when they will account for one-quarter of all advertising spending.

American business interests could be adrift at sea after the European Court of Justice invalidated the U.S.-EU Safe Harbor agreement, which governs the transfer of data from European citizens to data centers outside of Europe. Meanwhile, the high tech world of Silicon Valley is getting a new, well-heeled neighbor when Japanese automaker Toyota Motors Corp. (NYSE:TM) realizes its plans of establishing a new five-year corporate venture focused on developing artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. Google is also undertaking the push to develop its own processing chips in an effort to stem fragmentation of Android device development.

Employers often assume that they have the same weapons in their arsenal to prevent theft of virtual trade secrets as they have against other types of loss. As the prosecution of Sergey Aleynikov in Federal and New York courts showed, however, that simply isn’t true. Even though juries in both courts found him guilty of downloading confidential computer code from his employer, judges ultimately found that the laws under which he was prosecuted did not cover the acts he committed. A careful employer should therefore make sure it puts precautions in place that prevent theft of computer code, rather than relying on the threat of criminal prosecution.

Aleynikov was a computer programmer employed by Goldman Sachs to write high-frequency trading code. In 2009, he accepted a job offer to join a potential competitor, where he would create a new high-frequency trading platform from the ground up. Before he left Goldman, however, he sent portions of Goldman’s high frequency trading code to a German server for his own future use. After Goldman found out, it went to the FBI; Aleynikov was then arrested on a flight home from a visit to Chicago. With that arrest began his circuitous journey through the U.S. legal system, governed by two different sovereigns and under two different legal regimes.

In a recent article Toxic Asset, we explained in detail how much recent court decisions and new rules at the USPTO had negatively impacted the value of US patents. This is not to say that all patents are worthless, far from it. Actually, based on the fact that we have recently received strong offers on several of the portfolio we…