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Mealey's Intellectual Property

  • June 05, 2025

    Federal Circuit: Moderna’s COVID-19 Vaccine Did Not Infringe On Patented Lipid

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Delaware federal judge rightly held that a COVID-19 vaccine from Moderna Inc. and related entities does not infringe on a biopharmaceutical company’s patents related to a type of lipid used in mRNA vaccines, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held June 4, saying the lipid in Moderna’s vaccine does not meet the limitations described in the pharmaceutical company’s patents.

  • June 05, 2025

    Chinese Tech Firm Waives Mandamus Response In High Court Patent Discovery Row

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Chinese-owned flash memory chip company opted against responding to a petition for mandamus in which an American chip maker seeks relief from a discovery order requiring it to turn over sensitive documents to its Chinese rival, filing a notice of waiver with the U.S. Supreme Court on June 4.

  • June 05, 2025

    Judge Enters $18M Judgment Against Fake Urine Maker Plaintiff In Patent Fight

    LAS VEGAS — A federal judge in Nevada entered a judgment totaling more than $18 million against the plaintiff and counter-defendant in a suit involving the alleged infringement of patents on synthetic urine that the company filed, citing the company’s failure to retain new counsel more than a year after its attorneys departed the case for lack of payment.

  • June 04, 2025

    Valve’s Patent Validity Suit Stayed While Defendants’ Counsel Seek Payment

    SEATTLE — A Washington federal judge issued a 45-day stay of video game company Valve Corp.’s complaint against a man the company accuses of being a “patent troll,” entities he controls and others while the defendants seek new counsel and the court mulls the defendants’ current counsel’s motion to withdraw from the case for lack of payment.

  • June 04, 2025

    2nd Circuit Partly Revives Contract Dispute Over Musical Composition Payments

    NEW YORK — In a June 3 summary order, a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel partly revived a music publisher’s complaint against a South Korean musician, holding that a January 2014 licensing agreement did not make changes to the division of copyright ownership interests of musical compositions.

  • June 04, 2025

    Judge Tosses Cybersquatting Claim From Trademark Row Over ‘Perplexity’ Name

    SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge dismissed a cybersquatting claim against Perplexity AI Inc. in a trademark infringement dispute brought against it by a smaller data analytics company, finding that the plaintiff company failed to establish a required showing of bad faith use of the mark on the artificial intelligence company’s part.

  • June 03, 2025

    Tech Firm Seeks Mandamus From High Court In Memory Chip Patent Discovery Row

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A flash memory chip maker filed a petition for mandamus with the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking relief from a trial court’s discovery order requiring it to turn over sensitive documents to a Chinese rival tech firm, which the petitioner says would violate an existing protective order and implicate national security concerns.

  • June 03, 2025

    Judge Orders Pesticide Company To Provide More Answers In IP Discovery Dispute

    COLUMBUS, Ohio — An Ohio federal magistrate judge on June 2 ordered plaintiff pesticide manufacturers identify with specificity the protectible elements of two copyrights they say were infringed by a defendant pesticide manufacturer, granting the defendant company’s motion to compel discovery in which the company accused the plaintiff entities of responding to questions about the copyrights with “evasive” answers.

  • June 03, 2025

    Federal Magistrate Says Conduct Warrants Case-Ending Sanctions In Trademark Fight

    AUSTIN, Texas — A federal magistrate judge in Texas recommended that the chief operating officer of a plastics company be given terminating sanctions for his failure to turn over his cell phone and computer for examination in a trademark infringement suit brought by Yeti Coolers LLC.

  • June 03, 2025

    Supreme Court Denies Certiorari To Tire Company In Trade Dress, Patent Dispute

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on June 2 denied a tire corporation’s petition for a writ of certiorari, turning down the company’s request that it consider what it called the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ expansion of Illinois’ absolute litigation privilege in its ruling on trade dress and patent claims brought by another tire company.

  • June 02, 2025

    Nurse Testing Material Firm Opposes AI Copyright, Trademark Dismissal

    LOS ANGELES — A nursing test preparation company opposing summary judgment tells a federal judge in California that copyright covers its presentation of factual data and that the sale and use of its materials to train artificial intelligence constitutes infringement.

  • June 02, 2025

    Supreme Court Rejects Certiorari For Vascular Graft Patent Royalty Dispute

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court will not consider if the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals misapplied standards for the payment of patent royalties in a dispute over an agreement related to an expired medical device patent; the high court rejected the petition for a writ of certiorari from Atrium Medical Corp. in a June 2 order list.

  • June 02, 2025

    9th Circuit Affirms Injunction Denial In ‘Alien’ Vape Mark Suit

    SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a California federal judge’s denial of a preliminary injunction in a trademark infringement case, finding that the plaintiff failed to show that the defendant vaporizer manufacturers’ alien-themed cannabis marks were likely to be confused with his alien-themed vaporizer marks.

  • May 30, 2025

    9th Circuit: Car Chase Film’s Mustang Not A Copyrightable Character

    PASADENA, Calif. — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel largely affirmed a California federal judge’s rejection of copyright infringement claims brought by the owners of the rights related to the film “Gone in 60 Seconds” regarding a Ford Mustang known as “Eleanor,” holding that the car is not a copyrightable character under a Ninth Circuit test.

  • May 30, 2025

    Federal Circuit OKs Acting PTO Director Review Of Prior Head’s IPR Sanctions

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel granted a motion by the acting director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) for a limited remand of a vaccine company’s appeal of the prior PTO director’s entry of sanctions in the form of the cancellation of all claims in multiple patents, allowing the acting director time to review the decision.

  • May 29, 2025

    8th Circuit Reverses Summary Judgment In Source Code Copyright Row

    ST. LOUIS — An Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on May 28 ruled that a Missouri federal judge wrongly dismissed a plaintiff software company’s copyright infringement complaint for basing its claims on a faulty submission to the U.S. Copyright Office, holding that there is a dispute as to whether the company was aware of the inaccuracy.

  • May 29, 2025

    Judge Details Stay, Interlocutory Appeal In Legal Summary AI Copyright Suit

    WILMINGTON, Del. — Because sufficient questions exist about the originality of Thomson Reuters Enterprise Centre GMBH headnotes and whether a competitor’s use of them to train artificial intelligence constitutes fair use, an interlocutory appeal and stay of the case will advance the litigation and potentially foreclose the need for a costly trial, a federal judge in Delaware said while reiterating that he believes his rulings properly allowed the case to proceed to trial.

  • May 29, 2025

    Partly Split Federal Circuit Says Judge Got Tile Patent Claim Construction Wrong

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A partially split Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on May 28 held that a federal judge in Florida erred in claim construction in a patent dispute involving a type of ceramic tile, leading the panel to vacate a stipulated judgment of noninfringement.

  • May 29, 2025

    Federal Circuit Affirms Claim Construction That Caused Patent Claim Dismissal

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said a Texas federal judge committed no discernible error in claim constructions that led to a judgment of noninfringement in a defendant energy company’s favor on infringement claims related to a series of patents for a system of testing structural integrity of various vessels used for storing or moving oil and gas.

  • May 29, 2025

    Register Of Copyrights Denied TRO In Suit Challenging ‘Purported’ Removal

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO) filed by the register of copyrights and director of the U.S. Copyright Office seeking to enjoin her removal was denied from the bench by a federal judge in the District of Columbia on May 28.

  • May 29, 2025

    OpenAI: No Reason To Reconsider Denying Leave To Amend For News Outlets

    NEW YORK — News outlets’ motion for reconsideration of a ruling denying them leave to amend their artificial intelligence copyright suit is procedurally improper, and because the outlets never demonstrated that ChatGPT produced their copyrighted works, the motion lacks any foundation, OpenAI Inc. entities told a federal judge in New York in an opposition brief.

  • May 28, 2025

    Supreme Court Won’t Hear Law Firm’s Challenge To Ad-Buying Trademark Opinion

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on May 27 decided that it would not hear a law firm’s challenge to the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ affirmation of a judge’s finding that a defendant law firm’s purchasing of a competitor’s trademark in Google keyword ads was not trademark infringement, turning away the plaintiff-petitioner’s contention that the Ninth Circuit’s likelihood-of-confusion analysis conflicts with that used in other circuits.

  • May 28, 2025

    Supreme Court Denies Cert To Packaging Patent Holder’s Enablement Arguments

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on May 27 rejected a patent holder’s petition for a writ of certiorari, declining to consider whether the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals was wrong to summarily affirm the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB) invalidation of the company’s food packaging patents.

  • May 28, 2025

    Federal Circuit: PTAB’s Combination Analysis Wrong In Lighting Patent Row

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) erred in its analysis of the motivation to combine prior art references in post-grant review proceedings for a patent describing a type of lighting structure, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held May 27, finding that PTAB improperly imposed a quantification requirement that was “overly rigid and inconsistent with well-established precedent.”

  • May 27, 2025

    Federal Circuit: PTAB Erred On Some Claims In Mostly Affirmed Insurance Sensor IPR

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel issued a mixed opinion in a patent dispute involving devices for monitoring vehicle movement for insurance purposes, largely affirming findings from the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board; the panel held, though, that a portion of the PTAB’s findings were based on an erroneous conclusion during claim construction.