Apple Hit By $634M Verdict Over Masimo Health Tech Patent

By Craig Clough

A California federal jury on Friday awarded Masimo Corp. more than $634 million from Apple Inc. following an eight-day trial, finding that certain Apple Watches infringed one of Masimo's pulse oximetry patents with a feature that warns users if they have an abnormal heart rate. 

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7th Circ. Questions 'Pizza Puff' Maker's Injunction Win

By Lauraann Wood

A Seventh Circuit panel seemed skeptical Friday that a lower court held Little Caesar's to the correct standard when it blocked the chain from using the term "pizza puff" to describe its muffin-pizza products.

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Fed. Circ. Judges Look To Congress For Patent Eligibility Fix

By Ryan Davis

One current judge and one retired judge from the Federal Circuit said at a conference Friday that they believe legislation is the best path to getting more clarity on which inventions are eligible for patents but that proposals now being considered likely need tweaks and compromises.

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Buchalter Won't Be Sanctioned For 'Hallucinated' AI Citations

By Rose Krebs

An Oregon federal judge has decided not to sanction Buchalter PC and other counsel representing an environmental nonprofit in a trademark infringement dispute for submitting "hallucinated" case citations generated by an artificial intelligence tool, saying he is satisfied with "remedial actions" already done or to be taken.

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Fed. Circ. Clears New Trial On Unicycle Infringement Damages

By Dani Kass

The Federal Circuit on Friday ordered a new trial to determine whether Inventist Inc. should receive lost profits after a jury determined Ninebot Inc. infringed its unicycle patent, saying key information was left out that could have impacted the jury's $800,000 award.

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Brief

USPTO Workers Laid Off During Shutdown Recalled To Work

By Theresa Schliep

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office employees who were laid off at the beginning of the government shutdown are being called back to work following the appropriations deal that rescinded reductions in force across the federal workforce.

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Greenthread Asks Squires To Review Patent Ax Rulings

By Adam Lidgett

Chipmaker Greenthread has asked the head of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to review Patent Trial and Appeal Board decisions invalidating claims in a trio of semiconductor patents, claiming the board has shown "a clear bias for" the challengers.

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ITC To Scrutinize Redesigned Apple Watch In Masimo IP Fight

By Theresa Schliep

The U.S. International Trade Commission said Friday that it would review whether redesigned Apple Watches violate a previous order that briefly blocked imports of the devices deemed to infringe a pair of patents owned by Masimo, which urged the ITC to scrutinize the modified products.

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Sandisk Points To Differences In 'Settled Expectations' Cases

By Adam Lidgett

Sandisk Technologies Inc. has told the Federal Circuit that its own case challenging the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's denial of patent reviews based on an owner's "settled expectations" is different from cases in which the court recently rejected petitions over changing institution practices at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.

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Fed. Circ. Clears Fees For Grocer After It Beat Camera IP Suit

By Elliot Weld

The Federal Circuit on Friday affirmed an order granting attorney fees to a grocery store operator that defeated a camera maker's patent infringement claims, saying the Tennessee federal judge who issued the order had not clearly erred in finding the camera maker had a pattern of frivolous lawsuits.

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Squires Orders Chinese Chip Co. To Prove It's Not A Threat

By Dani Kass

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director John Squires has mandated that Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. Ltd. explain why its challenge to Micron Technology Inc. patents should proceed, given that the Chinese company has been deemed a national security risk.

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Campbell's Settles With Politician Who Used Soup Can In Ad

By Gina Kim

The Campbell's Co. on Friday resolved its trademark fight in federal court with a Michigan congressional candidate for using its iconic can design in her campaign, with the defendant agreeing to stop producing, distributing or using any of Campbell's marks and trade dress in connection with any campaign, fundraising and promotional materials.

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Judge Declines To Trim News Orgs' AI Copyright Suit

By Elliot Weld

A Manhattan federal judge declined to grant artificial intelligence firm Cohere's request to trim a copyright suit brought against it by a group of news organizations who say their content was used to train AI models, ruling that the news organizations had provided sufficient examples of allegedly infringing outputs to proceed.

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Photographer Sues Gilead For Continued Use Of Ad Images

By Elliot Weld

A photographer sued Gilead Sciences Inc., claiming the pharmaceutical giant had used a set of images he'd taken for an advertisement series long after it knew its license for the photos expired.

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Target Faces 2nd Copyright Suit Over Infant Sleepwear Design

By Rachel Konieczny

A Colorado-based baby clothing company told a federal court Friday that Target infringed its registered copyright on several infant sleepwear products, which the company says comes after the retail giant had already been told to pay it $1.2 million in another copyright lawsuit.

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Fed. Circ. Sends Aaron Judge Slogan TM Case To Panel

By Elaine Briseño

The Federal Circuit agreed to have its merit panel review a Trademark Trial and Appeal Board decision that ruled in favor of baseball star Aaron Judge by prohibiting a Long Island man from registering a trademark for several judicial-themed slogans.

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Judge Again Rejects Title IX, Class Rep Objections To NIL Deal

By David Steele

The NCAA's $2.78 billion settlement with college athletes who sought compensation for their name, image and likeness survived objections from seven athletes who lodged various claims of discrimination and inadequate representation for future athletes.

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DOJ Official Among Trump Picks For District Courts

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump announced judicial nominees for federal courts in Tennessee, Indiana and Missouri on Friday, including a current U.S. Department of Justice official.

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Questions To Ask Inventors Before Drafting AI Patents

Practitioners should use interview questions tailored to help inventors articulate the patentable aspects of their artificial intelligence and machine learning innovations, as this can elicit information needed for a patent application to forestall indefiniteness, abstract-idea and enablement challenges, say attorneys at Marshall Gerstein.

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Analysis

UK Firms Drive Transatlantic Appetite For M&A Dealmaking

By Aebra Coe and Chris Villani

The merger announced Monday between British legal giant Ashurst LLP and American law firm Perkins Coie LLP is the latest in a spate of deals driven, in part, by an appetite among global firms to gain a strong presence in the U.S.

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'Astounding' Holland & Knight Conduct Drives Liability Ruling

By Ryan Boysen

Holland & Knight LLP has forfeited a malpractice lawsuit in Alaska by refusing to turn over information to a Native American tribal corporation, with a state judge entering a default judgment as a sanction and calling the firm's conduct "a head scratcher" and "astounding."

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Brief

ABA Decries Lawmaker Calls For Impeachments Of Judges

By Courtney Bublé

The American Bar Association said on Monday it's "alarmed" by lawmakers' interest in impeaching judges just because they don't like their rulings.

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Judge Orders Grand Jury Docs Released In Comey Case

By Brandon Lowrey

A Virginia federal magistrate judge Monday ordered the disclosure of all grand jury materials related to the indictment of former FBI Director James Comey, saying government misconduct may have tainted the grand jury proceedings.

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DOJ Backs White House's Military Lawyer Transfers

By Courtney Bublé

A newly released legal opinion from the U.S. Department of Justice says the Trump administration is allowed to detail military lawyers to serve as immigration judges and special assistant U.S. attorneys in the District of Columbia.

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Senator Slams Trump For 'Blowing Up' Wis. US Atty Process

By Courtney Bublé

Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., accused President Donald Trump on Monday of skirting the process to nominate U.S. attorneys in Wisconsin with his pick of a failed Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate for the office that covers Milwaukee.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court and Delaware Supreme Court last week had a dense slate of fiduciary duty battles, merger-process challenges, post-bankruptcy fights and a series of cases probing the limits of fraud pleading, credible-basis inspections and board-level disclosure duties.

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Law School Admission Council Pushes To Toss Antitrust Suit

By Andrea Keckley

The Law School Admission Council is continuing its push to toss a proposed class action accusing it of fixing application fees with its member schools, saying in a Pennsylvania federal court filing last week that the applicant's opposition to its dismissal motion "entirely fails to engage with the incoherence at the core of his case."

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Holyoak Leaves FTC For Interim US Atty In Utah

By Bryan Koenig

Melissa Holyoak left the Federal Trade Commission on Monday to become Utah's interim U.S. attorney, leaving the FTC down to two commissioners, both Republicans, in the Trump administration's latest use of interim U.S. attorney appointments.

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