NEW YORK - A New York federal judge on May 16 denied a defendant restaurateur's motion to dismiss a complaint that its use of trademarks infringes a pizza franchisor's trademark that predates the restaurateur's mark, finding that the complaint states a claim upon which relief can be granted...
ALEXANDRIA, Va. - In three petitions for covered business method (CBM) review filed May 15 with the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, Yahoo! Inc. asserts that various claims of patents relating to targeted advertising cover ineligible subject matter (Yahoo! Inc. v. AlmondNet Inc., No. CBM2017-00050, PTAB...
WASHINGTON, D.C. - In a May 15 remand brief, the former manager of the website www.jerk.com tells the Federal Trade Commission that a proposed revision to a 2015 order in which he was found liable for deceptive conduct fails to address the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals' finding that a compliance...
WASHINGTON, D.C. - In a divided May 16 ruling, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals found no error in a Delaware federal judge's decision to invalidate two claims of a reissue patent directed to a boron-containing steel sheet (ArcelorMittal, et al. v. AK Steel Corp., et al., No. 16-1357, Fed...
INDIANAPOLIS - An Indiana federal judge on May 16 granted third-party defendants' motion to dismiss franchise fraud claims against them in a trademark infringement case, saying counterclaimants failed to plead their claim with sufficient particularity (Britt Interactive LLC, et al. v. A3 Media LLC...
FORT PIERCE, Fla. - Efforts by myriad defendants to obtain partial summary judgment in connection with allegations they used deceptive sales pitches while selling security services door-to-door were largely rejected May 17 by a Florida federal judge, who agreed only with the defendants' claim that...
CHICAGO - Trademark infringement plaintiff Solo Cup Operating Corp. on May 17 won dismissal of counterclaims that Solo's complaint is preempted by the Patent Act, 35 U.S.C. 1 et seq., when an Illinois federal judge agreed that a product configuration disclosed in an expired utility patent can nonetheless...
ATLANTA - In a May 18 ruling, the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals concluded that copyright registration occurs when the Register of Copyrights registers a work, and not merely when an application for a registration is filed (Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corporation v. Wall-Street.com LLC, No. 16-13726...
LOS ANGELES - A California appeals panel on May 16 found that a junior high student's violent Facebook post was properly deemed a criminal threat under state law because it reasonably communicated a threat of death or bodily injury to identified targets, leading it to affirm a juvenile court's...
ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Claims 1-20 of a proposed patented method for quick content channel discovery, streaming content and switching from one content stream to another with minimal latency were rejected May 18 by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (Ex parte Mika Kuulusa, No. 2016-007047, PTAB).
ALEXANDRIA, Va. - The Patent Trial and Appeal Board on May 17 issued a final written decision declaring seven claims of a data optimization patent unpatentable as obvious (Google Inc. v. Vedanti Systems Ltd., No. 2016-00212, PTAB).
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Final written decisions by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board that rejected assertions by Medtronic Inc. that two patents directed to methods and systems for ameliorating aberrant spinal column deviations are unpatentable should stand, an inventor told the Federal Circuit U.S. Court...
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Changes by Congress to the general venue statute, 28 U.S.C. 1391(c), did not modify the meaning of the patent venue statute, 28 U.S.C. 1400(b), as interpreted in Fourco Glass Co. v. Transmirra Products Corp., 353 U. S. 222, 226 (1957), to mean that a domestic corporation "resides"...
WASHINGTON, D.C. - A divided June 2016 ruling by the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board need not address in a final written decision the patentability of all claims identified in a petition for inter partes review (IPR) will be reviewed, the U.S. Supreme Court...
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Although a Texas federal judge erred in barring the manufacture and sale of an accused generic form of the lymph-node-mapping dye isosulfan blue (ISB) with regard to two patents, relief was proper with regard to a third patent, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled May 19...
TRENTON, N.J. - A dispute over plans by Sandoz Inc. and Momenta Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Sandoz, collectively) to sell generic Copaxone will proceed in Delaware federal court, a New Jersey federal judge ruled May 22 (Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd. v. Sandoz Inc., et al., No. 17-275, D. N.J., 2017...
ALEXANDRIA, Va. - A patent covering three process categories commonly used in the fabrication of semiconductor devices would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art, a petitioner for inter partes review told the Patent Trial and Appeal Board on May 22 (SPTS Technologies Ltd. v. Plasma...
WASHINGTON, D.C. - A Washington federal judge did not err in rejecting allegations that Amazon.com Inc. infringes the intellectual property of others through its online marketplace and "Fulfillment by Amazon" service, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled May 23 (Milo & Gabby...
LOS ANGELES - A dispute between competing car clubs over the "Stylistics" trademark was resolved in favor of a plaintiff on May 23, when a California federal judge awarded summary judgment (Gilbert Lerma Jr. v. Ernie Armijo, et al., No. 15-9953, C.D. Calif., 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 77575).
LOS ANGELES - A trademark and copyright dispute over the phrase "Life is Beautiful" rejected on summary judgment due to a lack of similarity and a plaintiff's unclean hands yielded a $922,309 attorney fee award on May 23 by a California federal judge (Amusement Art LLC v. Life is Beautiful...
FORT WAYNE, Ind. - Citing the existence of "many deficiencies" in a complaint for contributory copyright infringement, an Indiana federal judge on May 22 dismissed the action in a dispute over the "Transitioning Into Responsible Students" (TIRS) educational program (Angela Brooks...
WASHINGTON, D.C. - A California federal jury's finding in May 2016 that Google Inc.'s incorporation of the Java structure, sequence and organization (SSO) in its Android operating system was a fair use was proper and should not be disturbed, Google told the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals...
WASHINGTON, D.C. - A Nevada federal judge's decision to award Halo Electronics Inc. prejudgment interest in a patent dispute is not appealable, because a final judgment has not yet been entered in the case, the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled May 26 (Halo Electronics Inc. v. Pulse Electronics...
WASHINGTON, D.C. - A rejection by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) of a petition for cancellation of the "Alec Bradley Star Insignia" trademark was vacated and remanded by the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on May 24 (Joseph Phelps Vineyards LLC v. Fairmont Holdings LLC, No...
SAN FRANCISCO - Stating that a transgender man was terminated in retaliation for his posting on an employer-rating website that criticized the employer's purported discriminatory practices the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on May 24 filed a complaint on the employee's behalf in...