Posts Tagged: "IP News"

This week in Other Barks & Bites: the Federal Circuit issues several precedential decisions, including one reinstating a jury verdict’s finding that Teva induced infringement of a reissue patent by its labeling on a Coreg generic; Senators introduce the Better Cybercrime Metrics Act; the Fourth Circuit reverses a class certification in antitrust litigation over an allegedly unlawful reverse payment delaying the entry of generic Zetia; the USPTO denies the first two requests for Director rehearing filed through the interim process for handling such reviews under the Supreme Court’s Arthrex decision; Huawei earnings for the first half of 2021 show that Trump-era sanctions continue to harm the company’s revenues; a bipartisan coalition from the House of Representatives send a letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey asking about the company’s plans to address rampant copyright infringement; and the U.S. Department of Commerce files trademark applications to protect USPTO branding and enforce against third parties sending malicious solicitations to registered trademark owners.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: a German high court rules that Lindt’s gold foil-wrapped chocolate bunnies have trademark protections; Federal Circuit Judge Kathleen O’Malley announces her retirement; the Federal Circuit rules that the PTAB gave no meaningful opportunity to respond to a sua sponte claim construction order; InterDigital obtains a favorable infringement ruling in the UK against Lenovo ahead of proceedings to determine FRAND royalties; the Second Circuit affirms another sanctions order against infamous copyright lawyer Richard Liebowitz; the EU commission sends letters to national governments seeking compliance with copyright rules for the Digital Single Market; the Senate Judiciary Committee favorably reports a series of bills increasing scope of enforcement against pharmaceutical patent owners; and inventor Gilbert Hyatt receives another setback in his legal action against the USPTO over unreasonably heightened examination procedures.

This week in Washington IP news, the Senate Judiciary Committee will consider a series of bills that could limit pharmaceutical patent owners’ ability to enforce their patents against generic drug makers. Over in the House of Representatives, the House Science Committee will mark up a series of bills to support research and development as well as technology transfer and commercialization, while the House Europe Subcommittee will explore international case studies in offshore wind renewable energy innovation. Elsewhere, the American Enterprise Institute focuses on developments in the private commercial space sector, while the USPTO celebrates 75 years of the Lanham Act’s codification of U.S. trademark law this Tuesday. 

This week in Other Barks & Bites: the Federal Circuit clarifies “teaching away,” “commercial success” and “blocking patents” doctrine in PTAB reversal; a trio of Republican Senators introduce the FAIR Contributions Act to study the feasibility of collecting Big Tech revenues to fund the Universal Service Fund; the Cleveland MLB team announces new name; the EPO issues a study showing a three-fold increase in space tech patent filing between 2007 and 2017; the FTC votes unanimously to increase antitrust enforcement against companies who use copyright protections and other methods to restrict user repairs; USPTO updates its guidance for implementing the Supreme Court’s mandate for Director reviews of PTAB decisions from Arthrex; Honeywell’s earnings report shows a strong second quarter based on growth in the company’s commercial space division; India’s High Court clears the way for diabetes generics after dismissing an AstraZeneca appeal; and Ericsson and TCL Communications settle their ongoing patent litigation in Texas and California. 

This week in Other Barks & Bites: The U.S. Senate holds a cloture vote on Tiffany Cunningham, who is expected to be confirmed to the bench of the Federal Circuit next week; the Federal Circuit clarifies the particularity with which patent infringement claims must be plausibly alleged to survive a motion to dismiss; the European Patent Office Enlarged Board of Appeal says videoconference may be used for oral proceedings even without the parties’ consent during “a general emergency”; an Advocate General at the CJEU finds that copyright monitoring obligations within the Digital Single Market do not infringe rights to freedom of expression and information; Senators Tom Cotton and Thom Tillis renew a call for the U.S. Department of Commerce to answer questions regarding President Biden’s support of the TRIPS patent waiver for COVID-19 vaccines; Huawei and Verizon reach a settlement of mobile communications patent litigation; Google is served with a $593 million fine from French regulators after violating the terms of a copyright agreement with news publishers; and the Canadian government issued a set of national security guidelines designed to protect university research and intellectual property from foreign theft.

This week in Washington IP news, committees in the House of Representatives will host several hearings related to appropriations for various agencies under the jurisdiction of the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies, as well as the use of facial recognition technologies by federal law enforcement and programs at the U.S. Small Business Administration funding commercialization of emerging new technologies. In the Senate, the Antitrust Subcommittee will host a hearing on Tuesday to explore anticompetitive practices in the pharmaceutical industry, including pay-for-delay agreements that prevent the market entry of generics. Elsewhere, The Brookings Institution looks at recent legislation to support regional tech hubs across America, and the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation discusses a new report on ways the U.S. federal government can support quantum computing research and development.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: a Fact Sheet announcing a Biden Administration Executive Order on competition policy includes measures aimed at cracking down on perceived anti-competitive practices across a number of IP industries; the attorneys general of 36 states and the District of Columbia file an antitrust suit against Google over its practices surrounding the Google Play Store; the EU’s highest court rules that sound marks must cause consumers to recall the commercial origin of a product to be registered as a trademark; the Ninth Circuit issues a divided opinion on whether trademark claims between family members within an Indian incense enterprise must be settled through arbitration; the USPTO launches a patent eligibility study after a request from several U.S. Senators; Softbank pays $1.6 billion USD for the perpetual rights to Yahoo’s branding and technology in Japan; and the Federal Circuit grants another writ of mandamus transferring another Ikorongo patent suit out of Western Texas and into Northern California.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: Michael Kroll, an often-sanctioned patent attorney, is barred from practice before the USPTO; the Federal Circuit orders Judge Albright to grant motions to transfer patent suits filed by Ikorongo to Northern California; the NCAA issues a new policy allowing student-athletes to license name, image and likeness rights; the Supreme Court limits but doesn’t abandon the doctrine of assignor estoppel; the Copyright Office announces that certain on-site services will be open to the public by appointment only beginning next week; the USPTO issues an interim rule for processing requests for Director rehearing under Arthrex; the EUIPO has received a record number of trademark applications through the first six months of 2021; Amazon files a petition with the FTC seeking the recusal of Chair Khan from investigations into the e-commerce giant; and Apple files a declaratory judgment action to invalidate a pair of voice-over-Internet protocol patents recently asserted by VoIP-Pal.com. 

This week in Washington IP news, the Senate Intellectual Property Subcommittee hosts a hearing on Tuesday afternoon regarding efforts to improve “patent quality”, a buzzword that has closely followed the patent reform debate for more than a decade, while the Senate Aviation Subcommittee on Wednesday explores changes to the country’s aviation infrastructure to accommodate air travel innovations of the 21st century. Over in the House of Representatives, the House Judiciary Committee hosts a markup session Wednesday morning to consider several bills being advanced to increase antitrust regulation on Big Tech, and the House Rural Development Subcommittee debates ways to improve access to the SBIR and STTR research and development funding programs for rural and underserved businesses. Elsewhere, the Center for Strategic & International Studies takes a look at areas for cooperation between the U.S. and South Korea for securing critical tech supply chains, and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Wednesday afternoon will look at myths involving patents and econm

This week in Washington IP news, the Senate Antitrust Committee looks at anti-competition issues in the smart home electronics industry, while the full Senate Judiciary Committee meets later in the week to discuss the nomination of Tiffany Cunningham to join the Federal Circuit bench. In the House of Representatives, committee hearings will focus on incorporating central bank digital currencies into the nation’s financial system, ways to improve small business prospects through improved broadband infrastructure and the future role of the Federal Aviation Administration in the commercial spaceflight sector. Elsewhere, Hudson Institute hosts an event on patents and innovation policy moderated by former USPTO Director Andrei Iancu, and the USPTO celebrates the 75th anniversary of the Lanham Act’s passage, which codified trademark law into federal statute. 

This week in Other Barks & Bites: the Innovation and Competition Act passes Senate by a vote of 68-32; the Federal Circuit rules that it lacks jurisdiction to decide Walker Process antitrust claims that are now transferred to the proper regional circuit; the European Parliament adopts a resolution proposing a waiver of international patent rights days after the European Commission presented an alternative proposal to improve COVID-19 vaccine access without a patent waiver; Germany’s national legislature approves a statute requiring courts to balance undue hardships before ruling on injunctions in patent cases; the American Law Institute votes to adopt sections of a restatement on federal copyright law over prominent backlash; Apple hires a former BMW executive to help develop its electric car project; China’s national IP administration began implementing a pilot project allowing foreign lawyers to sit for the nation’s patent bar exam; and the Tenth Circuit rules that the exceptional case standard in the Lanham Act and the Patent Act are parallel.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: Officials in the European Union are developing an alternative proposal to the waiver of international patent rights under TRIPS for COVID-19 vaccines; GM revises second quarter profit guidance upward after shifting production to truck models; the Federal Circuit holds that the defense of prosecution laches is available to the USPTO in Section 145 civil suits over patent claims; a Lex Machina IP litigation report shows that copyright and trademark lawsuit filings have been down throughout the COVID-19 pandemic; antitrust regulators in the EU and the UK announce separate investigations into Facebook’s cross-promotion of its Marketplace e-commerce platform; Chinese IP officials call for domestic patent firms to stop filing irregular patent applications; and the EUIPO reports that 21 percent fewer fake goods were detained within the EU’s internal market, although the value of counterfeit goods seized did not fall from 2018 to 2019.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: the House Oversight Committee takes action against AbbVie’s patent practices regarding its blockbuster drug Humira; TSMC increases microcontroller output by 60% to address the global chip shortage; the Ninth Circuit affirms that USPTO communications with patent applicants are not information collections under the Paperwork Reduction Act; the U.S. Supreme Court denies cert to a Sandoz appeal on issues of double patenting involving the autoimmune disorder treatment Enbrel; Germany’s federal parliament passed a bill implementing the EU Copyright Directive including a controversial “minor use” provision; China joins the EUIPO’s TMview database; the USPTO issues proposed rules to implement the Trademark Modernization Act; and the USITC institutes a Section 337 patent infringement investigation against Apple’s wearable ECG devices.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai testifies before the Senate Finance Committee, where lawmakers express their concerns about waiving IP rights under the TRIPS Agreement; Federal Circuit remands New Vision Gaming for proceedings consistent with Arthrex, avoiding difficult questions on potential due process violations at the PTAB; a Sonos SEC filing reveals a preliminary injunction win against Google’s Cast technology in Germany; Australia’s 2021-22 federal budget includes a patent box that will reduce taxable income related to medical and biotech patents; Alvotech files a lawsuit accusing AbbVie of maintaining an unlawful monopoly over its blockbuster drug Humira; the UK High Court nixes alternative service to Huawei subsidiaries which could delay a 3G patent case by two to three years; consulting firm AlixPartners expects the automotive industry to lose $110 billion in revenues due to the chip shortage; and China announces nearly 20% growth in 2020 patent grants to Chinese entities from countries participating in China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

This week in Other Barks & Bites: the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announces a hiring initiative to fill hundreds of patent examiner positions at its Alexandria headquarters; Samsung and Ericsson enter a global cross-license agreement ending all patent litigation between the two companies; the FTC issues a report to Congress finding scant evidence to support justifications for copyright protecting measures on software and other repair restrictions; IBM announces the creation of a new 2-nm semiconductor that will have widespread industry applications; the Federal Circuit affirms a Rule 60(b)(3) ruling setting aside an injunction for patent infringement after the patent owner’s expert witness misrepresented knowledge of invalidating prior art; the Supreme Court asks the U.S. Solicitor General to file a brief on the Section 101 issues involved in American Axle; and Register Perlmutter tells the House Judiciary Committee that she believes Section 512 of the DMCA needs fine-tuning for better balance between online platforms and rightsholders.