Posts Tagged: "IP News"

This week in Other Barks & Bites: Judge Goldberg of the District of Delaware denies Moderna’s motion to dismiss patent claims against its COVID-19 vaccine over arguments that those claims should be filed against the U.S. government; The USPTO and FDA publish a Federal Register Notice seeking public input on collaboration efforts; IBM and the USPTO announce a partnership on AI-driven IP demonstration tool; the USPTO issues the only extension to the public comment period on the agency’s RFC regarding initiatives to improve robust and reliable patent rights; the Federal Circuit rules that Uniloc has standing to pursue its patent infringement claims against Google, while finding that collateral estoppel from a previous case against Apple prevented Uniloc from pursuing claims against Motorola and Blackboard; the governments of Mexico and Switzerland question the need for extending the TRIPS waiver to COVID-19 therapeutics and diagnostics; and Spotify’s Will Page issues his annual report on the state of global music copyright, finding that the global market was valued at $39.6 billion during 2021.

This week in Washington IP news, both house of Congress remain quiet during regularly scheduled work periods. Elsewhere, the Hudson Institute explores the growing right-to-repair movement and potential conflicts with federal policy on intellectual property protections. The Center for Strategic & International Studies explores the first three-year strategic plan for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and how it should be implemented. Finally, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office closes the week with a webinar discussing the agency’s recent request for comments (RFC) on initiatives to support robust and reliable patent rights being issued by the agency. 

This week in Other Barks & Bites: the Supreme Court of Japan rules that students taking lessons at music schools are not subject to copyright fees for in-lesson performances for instructors; the England and Wales Court of Appeal denies Apple’s request to set aside an injunction in its SEP/FRAND case with Optis Cellular; Retired Chief Judge Paul Michel urges the Federal Circuit to issue more en banc decisions to clarify patent law; the Federal Circuit reverses a district court’s preliminary injunction for applying the improper legal standard in determining the plaintiff’s likelihood of success in a design patent suit against Gyroor hoverboards; Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter begins by firing executives linked to misreported bot accounts; Senators Thom Tillis and Chris Coons ask the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the U.S. Copyright Office to collaborate on a national commission on AI; and more.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: Congress members urge the Biden Administration to protect vaccine IP; the CAFC once again denies an inventor’s push to list an artificial intelligence (AI) machine as a sole inventor on a patent; Microsoft receives a favorable ruling in patent infringement battle; a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) report finds the number of women patent applicants is growing across the country; and legislation passes Congress to stimulate young people’s participation in art and coding.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: Marybeth Peters, formerly the Register of Copyrights from 1994 to 2010, passes away at the age of 83; Director Vidal allows OpenSky to remain a “silent understudy” in VLSI IPRs; the USPTO requests comments on agency initiatives designed to ensure robust and reliable patent rights; the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy publishes a Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights; the U.S. Supreme Court denies cert to several patent cases but asks the U.S. Solicitor General to brief the Court on the “skinny label” issues in Teva v. GlaxoSmithKline; Micron announces plans to invest up to $100 billion over the next 20 years in constructing a computer chip manufacturing campus in a suburb of Syracuse, NY; Amgen files a supplemental brief with the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that the U.S. government’s own brief calling enablement a mixed question of law and fact supports review of Amgen’s appeal; and Arizona’s State AG reaches an agreement with Google to settle a lawsuit over deceptive practices in user device tracking.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: the Federal Circuit rules that Eagle Pharmaceutical’s ANDA defines a product that does not infringe upon Par Pharmaceutical’s patents covering Vasostrict; an inventor amicus brief in the OpenSky IPR asks USPTO Director Vidal to mandate sanctions for abuse of PTAB process; the Seventh Circuit affirms a default judgment against a Chinese counterfeiter of sports merchandise after finding personal jurisdiction over the defendant; the Fifth Circuit accepts the Federal Circuit’s transfer of Walker Process claims over the fraudulent obtaining of patent claims despite a jurisdictional disagreement; the Eleventh Circuit finds that Day To Day Imports could not appeal the district court’s application of the willful blindness standard to its alleged violation of Section 512; and members of the House Science Committee call upon the Biden Administration to make a robust investment into the DoE’s Office of Science.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: Senators Thom Tillis and Patrick Leahy introduce a bill to improve patent examination and quality, while Tillis’ office also releases a draft bill on Section 101 patent eligibility; the Ninth Circuit reverses a district court’s summary judgment ruling that the unauthorized use of photos of a lake in Death Valley was a fair use; Amazon will acquire robotics firm iRobot for $1.7 billion; the Seventh Circuit nixes antitrust claims against AbbVie after finding nothing improper with the company’s large number of patents covering Humira; the Eleventh Circuit affirms a lower court’s decision to strike an actual damages claim in a trademark case against Monster Energy as a discovery sanction; the bipartisan PLAN for Broadband Act is introduced to develop a cohesive national strategy for broadband infrastructure; and the USITC begins a formal enforcement proceeding against The Chamberlain Group after finding violations of Section 337 for patent infringement.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: the Ninth Circuit holds that public policy arguments cannot overturn claims to monetary damages stemming from a French copyright proceeding; the Ninth Circuit also affirmed that the discovery rule still applies to copyright claims despite the application of laches to the Copyright Act’s statute of limitations in Petrella v. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer; Judge Newman dissents from the Federal Circuit’s ruling that an error in asserted prior art is merely typographical and would have been overlooked by a person of ordinary skill in the art; WIPO Director Tam calls on attendees of the WIPO Assemblies to use IP as a “powerful catalyst for jobs”; TSMC posts record quarterly net income as the company provides optimistic guidance on supply chain issues in the chip market; and the CJEU rules that “Feta”-branded cheese sold by Danish cheese makers violates EU law on protected designations of origin even when that cheese is sold outside of the EU.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: the European General Court reverses part of a ruling by the European Union Intellectual Property Office, restoring some trademark rights for the “BALLON D’OR” mark; Senator Chuck Grassley urges the U.S. Department of Justice to enforce against counterfeit drug sellers; the European Patent Office publishes its decision rejecting patent applications filed for an artificial intelligence inventor; the Eleventh Circuit rules that a successful defense against infringement claims does not lead to costs recovery under Rule 54; SawStop files a petition for writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court to challenge the judicially-created doctrine of obviousness-type double patenting; Volkswagen breaks ground on its first of six planned factory construction projects in Europe that will produce electric vehicle batteries; and China’s National Intellectual Property Administration publishes the results of an administrative ruling to serve as guidance on the nation’s trademark exhaustion doctrine.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: the Eleventh Circuit overturns a summary judgment ruling against Wreal while clarifying the application of the likelihood of confusion factors in reverse infringement cases; the Supreme Court denies the petition for writ of certiorari in American Axle v. Neapco; the European Union creates its first regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies and digital assets; Senators Thom Tillis and Steve Daines ask Google CEO Sundar Pichai about the potential that spam filters are censoring political emails; the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will begin mandating identity verification for parties filing certain kinds of electronic trademark forms with the agency with the goal of stopping Trademark Terminal and other well-known trademark scams; INTA asks the Second Circuit to clarify the definition of “expressive works” for applications of the Rogers test; the Third Circuit overturns a preliminary injunction after finding no valid copyright ownership over a fireworks communications protocol; and the FCC approves SpaceX’s application to offer commercial Internet services to boats, airplanes and automobiles through its Starlink satellite Internet system.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: the Federal Circuit vacates Eastern Virginia’s denial of a motion for recusal, nixing a $2.75 billion verdict for Centripetal Networks; interim USPTO Director Drew Hirshfeld joins Schwegman Lundberg & Woessner as Principal following end of nearly three-decade career at USPTO; the Senate and House of Representatives both host hearings focused on the negative impacts of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board on small businesses as well as potential reforms; Senator Tillis blasts the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for failing to engage with requests for a drug patent study; the U.S. Department of Justice announces a settlement with Facebook owner Meta Platforms over allegations of biased advertising algorithms; U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director Kathi Vidal issues a memo clarifying that Fintiv denials are limited to petitions with parallel U.S. district court proceedings; and French authorities approve a payment framework proposed by Internet giant Google for responding to notices from news publishers regarding violations of the EU’s Copyright Directive.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: USPTO Director Kathi Vidal issues guidance clarifying the use of applicant admitted prior art in IPR proceedings at the PTAB; the EUIPO issues an IP Youth Scorecard showing that young people in the EU have significantly increased their intentional purchase of counterfeit products; the Seventh Circuit affirms a denial of a motion to compel arbitration in a copyright and trade secret case involving insurance software; the Ninth Circuit dismisses an appeal asking the appellate court to overturn or modify the Rogers test; Senators Patrick Leahy and Thom Tillis ask the USPTO and the Copyright Office to conduct a joint study on the impact of NFTs on IP rights; Disney’s senior TV content chief is fired due to a poor fit with Disney’s culture, according to sources; the USPTO, DoJ and NIST withdraw from all joint  policy statements on SEPs; and the EU General Court dismisses appeals filed by Apple challenging the EUIPO’s cancellation of its “THINK DIFFERENT” trademark.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit rejects Arthrex, Inc.’s arguments that denial of Director Review by the Commissioner for Patents violates the Appointments Clause of the U.S. Constitution; the USPTO updates the interim Director Review process and issues interim processes for PTAB decision circulation and internal review; Judge Alsup denies a request by Sonos seeking more information on a law clerk who used to work for Google; Broadcom agrees to buy enterprise software firm VMware for $61 billion; Twitter agrees to pay a $150 million civil penalty to settle allegations that it violated an FTC order on consumer data privacy; the U.S. Solicitor General tells SCOTUS that American Axle’s Section 101 invalidation was improper, but that Apple’s appeal of Article III standing issues against Qualcomm should be denied; and more.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: Senator Josh Hawley introduces a bill that would retroactively limit copyright terms to a single 28-year term with the possibility of one 28-year extension; the Federal Circuit reverses a Northern California summary judgment ruling of noninfringement after finding that the district court improperly defined the claim term “buffer”; SoftBank’s Vision Fund posts a $20 billion loss for the 2021 fiscal year; Senators Thom Tillis and Patrick Leahy introduce a bill to create music-related cultural exchange programs to improve international relations; USPTO Director Kathi Vidal announces developments on a patent examiner training program and plans to issue a request for comments for the Director review process under Arthrex;

This week in Other Barks & Bites: the bipartisan Better Cybercrime Metrics Act was signed into law; the Department of Justice announced $105 million in civil penalties in the first action taken under the Federal Trade Commission’s “Made in USA” branding rules; Senator Josh Hawley tweeted his plans to introduce a bill limiting Disney’s ability to extend copyright covering Mickey Mouse and other entertainment properties; the Second Circuit affirmed a district court’s dismissal of a copyright termination action filed by the heirs of one of the co-writers of the Elvis Presley hit “Can’t Help Falling In Love”; CNBC reported that Elon Musk plans to serve as a temporary CEO of Twitter after his takeover is complete; Senators Roger Wicker and Cynthia Lummis introduced a bill to create federal R&D strategies for distributed ledger technologies; the EPO published a guide to obtaining a Unitary Patent after the corresponding EU patent has been granted by the EPO; and ACUS issued a request for public comments regarding its study for a small claims patent court.