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Mealey's Intellectual Property

  • December 05, 2025

    Judge Rebukes AI Use By Plaintiff In Counterfeiting Suit Against New Balance

    LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — An “experienced” pro se litigant’s response to New Balance Athletics Inc.’s motion to dismiss his trademark infringement suit was riddled with factual errors, thanks to his use of a generative artificial intelligence (AI) program in drafting the response, an Arkansas federal judge held; the judge struck the response to the motion but also denied the motion itself.

  • December 05, 2025

    9th Circuit Affirms TRO Enjoining OpenAI From Use Of ‘IO’ Mark

    SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a California federal judge’s decision to grant a temporary restraining order (TRO) that bars a company recently purchased by ChatGPT-maker OpenAI LLC from using marks that could potentially cause confusion with another technology company with a similarly pronounced name.

  • December 05, 2025

    John R. Cash Trust Sues Coca-Cola Over ‘Infringing Ad’ In NCAA Marketing Campaign

    NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The John R. Cash Revocable Trust sued The Coca-Cola Co. in a Tennessee federal court, alleging violation of state laws and the Lanham Act over Coca-Cola’s “Infringing Ad” allegedly using a singing voice that is “identifiable and attributable to Johnny Cash” without permission in a 2025 NCAA college football advertising campaign on television networks and across social media platforms.

  • December 04, 2025

    Magistrate Judge Affirms OpenAI Must Produce 20 Million ChatGPT Chat Logs

    SAN FRANCISCO — OpenAI Inc. defendants must produce 20 million ChatGPT outputs in a consolidated copyright action against it, a magistrate judge in New York affirmed in denying a motion for reconsideration after finding the evidence relevant and proportionate.

  • December 04, 2025

    9th Circuit: Judge Right To Toss ‘Diva Lawyer’ Mark Suit For Lack Of Jurisdiction

    SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Dec. 3 affirmed a California federal judge’s decision to dismiss a California-based club’s trademark infringement suit against a Kentucky-based attorney over the use of the name “Diva Attorney,” agreeing with the judge that the club failed to show that the attorney had sufficient contacts with California to establish specific personal jurisdiction.

  • December 04, 2025

    Federal Circuit: Cancer Treatment Patent Not Properly Enabled Or Disclosed

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A biopharmaceutical company’s patent on a cancer therapy called antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) is invalid for lack of written description and lack of enablement, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held in two opinions that reversed a Texas federal judge’s refusal to grant judgment as a matter of law (JMOL) to defendant biopharmaceutical entities and dismissed as moot a related appeal of a U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) ruling.

  • December 04, 2025

    Bloomberg Must Face Book Copyright Owners’ Suit, Judge Says

    NEW YORK — Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and others successfully allege copyright ownership and that two Bloomberg companies used their protected works as training material for their artificial intelligence, a federal judge in New York said in denying a motion to dismiss.

  • December 04, 2025

    Magistrate Judge Orders OpenAI To Produce Dataset-Deletion Communications

    NEW YORK — OpenAI Inc. entities waived any attorney-client privilege protecting communications by offering shifting positions that resulted in the disclosure of some of the purportedly privileged reasons for the deletions and by putting their state of mind at issue, a federal magistrate judge in New York said in ordering production of the evidence.

  • December 04, 2025

    Google Accuses AI Copyright Plaintiffs Of ‘Litigation-By-Ambush’

    SAN JOSE, Calif. — Google LLC opposed a motion to certify a class action and asked a federal judge in California to strike the allegations with prejudice as a sanction for artificial intelligence copyright plaintiffs’ “midnight switch” of proposed classes and subclasses.

  • December 03, 2025

    Preliminary Injunction Left Intact In IP Row Over Game Emulation Software

    SAN DIEGO — A California federal judge denied video game emulation software developers’ motion to reconsider a decision to grant a video game publisher’s request for a preliminary injunction in a dispute over trademarks and copyrights related to the video game EverQuest, finding that the defendants “essentially argue the Court was wrong in its decision” without further evidence.

  • December 02, 2025

    High Court Hears Arguments On ISP’s Liability For Users’ Infringement

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Dec. 1 from an internet service provider (ISP) that contends that it can be found liable for customers’ copyright infringement through piracy only if it committed a culpable act, while a group of record labels and music publishers told the justices that the ISP’s continuous providing of service to internet protocol (IP) addresses of known infringers constitutes liability under the material contribution standard (Cox Communications, Inc., et al. v. Sony Music Entertainment, et al., No. 24-171, U.S. Sup.).

  • December 02, 2025

    Federal Circuit Rejects Challenge To Reexamination Of Expired Patent

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel once again ruled against a technology company on Dec. 1, affirming a finding of the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that certain claims of the company’s patent describing a handheld device using a camera to receive gesture-based inputs are invalid as anticipated; the panel also dismissed the company’s appeal in part related to other patent claims that the appellate court had already held to be invalid.

  • December 01, 2025

    Stay Of Injunction In Battle Over Copyright Register Post Deferred By High Court

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court issued an order on Nov. 26 deferring until two other cases are decided an application by President Donald J. Trump and others to stay an interlocutory injunction in a case over the president’s ability to remove Shira Perlmutter from her position as the register of copyrights and director of the U.S. Copyright Office.

  • December 01, 2025

    Judge: N.J. Hotel Must Pay Nearly $1.4 Million For Econo Lodge Infringement

    CAMDEN, N.J. — A New Jersey federal judge granted summary judgment to the hotel company behind Econo Lodge, finding that the undisputed record showed that holdover franchisees continued to use trademarks related to the brand years after the termination of a franchise agreement, ordering the defendant entities to pay just short of $1.4 million in monetary damages, disgorgement and costs.

  • November 26, 2025

    Supreme Court Seeks Response In ‘Paradise’ AI Art Copyright Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — One day after distributing a case for conference, the U.S. Supreme Court on Nov. 26 asked for a response from the federal government in a case in which a man claims that lower courts erred by finding that his artificial intelligence-generated artwork was not entitled to copyright protections.  The man previously asked the court to stay the case while courts decide whether Shira Perlmutter can continue to serve as head of the U.S. Copyright Office.

  • November 26, 2025

    Federal Circuit Says ‘Best’ Claim Limitation Invalid As Indefinite

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Nov. 25 affirmed a California federal judge’s finding that some claims in patents describing systems for routing streamed content over the internet were invalid as indefinite and likewise affirmed findings that the technology company’s products did not meet a claim limitation required by the patents at issue.

  • November 26, 2025

    Federal Circuit Affirms Fees, Sanctions In ‘Frivolous’ Patent Infringement Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Nov. 25 affirmed a California federal judge’s decision to order more than $250,000 in attorney fees and additional sanctions against a company that sued Google LLC for allegedly infringing a patent on a system that allows musical artists to remotely update an album already on a user’s device.

  • November 26, 2025

    Dismissal Recommended After Patent Plaintiff Fails To Appear For Bench Trial

    NEW YORK — A federal magistrate judge in New York recommended that a patent plaintiff’s complaint against Google LLC be dismissed with prejudice after the man failed to appear at an October evidentiary bench trial on infringement claims he brought against the technology company; the plaintiff has “repeatedly claimed” that the magistrate judge “had no authority to conduct a bench trial without his consent,” the magistrate judge wrote.

  • November 25, 2025

    No New Trial For Coal Company Found To Infringe Emissions Patent

    WILMINGTON, Del. — A federal magistrate judge in Delaware denied a motion for a new trial from affiliated coal companies that a jury held willfully infringed another energy company’s patents on the use of chemical additives to capture mercury emissions at coal-fired power plants, leaving in place the jury’s award of more than $57 million to the plaintiff company; the magistrate judge said the defendant entities “rehash[ed]” arguments already rejected in an earlier denial of judgment as a matter of law.

  • November 25, 2025

    Federal Circuit Affirms Tossing Of Man’s 3rd ‘Frivolous’ Suit Against PTO

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Nov. 24 affirmed a Virginia federal judge’s dismissal of claims that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) engaged in fraud to deny a pro se appellant’s patent applications, noting that it is the third time the appeals court has considered “frivolous” claims from the appellant.

  • November 25, 2025

    Card Company Appeals Copyright Dispute That Ended In $39,000 Offer Of Judgment

    SEATTLE — A trading card company said it will appeal multiple rulings in a copyright dispute involving a former employee who left to develop a trading card game for a competitor after a Washington federal judge, who previously dismissed most of the claims against the former employee and competitor and ruled to exclude testimony from an expert on damages, awarded the company $39,000 in accordance with an accepted offer of judgment.

  • November 24, 2025

    Supreme Court Denies Bid To Hear Patent Owner’s Negative Limitation Arguments

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court denied a pro se patent owner’s petition for a writ of certiorari in an order list on Nov. 24, leaving in place a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals opinion that affirmed a finding that multiple claims of the petitioner’s patent were invalid in inter partes review (IPR) proceedings initiated by Apple Inc.

  • November 24, 2025

    High Court Won’t Hear Glovemaker’s Color Mark Genericness Arguments

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A medical product company will not have the opportunity to argue that its proposed trademark on the color of its medical gloves is not generic, as the U.S. Supreme Court rejected its petition for a writ of certiorari in a Nov. 24 order list; the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s (PTO) finding that the proposed mark was not distinctive.

  • November 24, 2025

    Split Federal Circuit: PTAB Rightly Found Samsung Raised New IPR Arguments

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A split Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB) decision to uphold the validity of a technology company’s patents on stylus-based inputs for mobile devices; the majority agreed with PTAB that Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and an affiliate improperly introduced a new obviousness theory in a reply during inter partes review (IPR).

  • November 21, 2025

    Federal Circuit: Wrong Construction Of Bot Detection Claim Leads To PTAB Reversal

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Nov. 20 held that the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) wrongly construed the claim term “acquiring interest data” when considering the patentability of a claim phrase in a patent describing a system to determine if a computer is being used by a human or a “bot”; under the correct construction, the panel held that the claim is anticipated by a prior art reference.