News

The Federal Circuit on July 29, 2020, held that FanDuel, the US bookmaker and daily fantasy sports provider, failed to show that part of a competitor’s remote gambling patent was invalid as obvious.

The US Patent and Trademark Office on July 30, 2020, issued a proposed rule to update its professional conduct rules to more closely align with American Bar Association guidelines.

The First Circuit on July 22, 2020, held that a San Juan, Puerto Rico-based tax planning and consulting firm can’t hold a former employee liable for misappropriating trade secrets or breaching a nondisclosure agreement.

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on July 27, 2020, held that Australian Therapeutic Supply Pty. Ltd. (ATS), an Australian condom maker, can challenge a trademark registration for the mark “Naked” despite the fact that ATS contracted away its proprietary rights in its unregistered marks.

The University of Texas (UT) can’t be added as an involuntary plaintiff in an infringement suit over two medical treatment patents because of sovereign immunity, the Federal Circuit said on July 24, 2020.

The Commodores, the American soul and funk band, is entitled to damages for both the US and European misuse of its trademarks by former member Thomas McClary, the Eleventh Circuit said on July 23, 2020.

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on July 22, 2020, revived a copyright suit brought by writers Arthur Lee Alfred II and Ezequiel Martinez Jr. and producer Tova Laiter alleging that Walt Disney Co. ripped off a screenplay for the first “Pirates of the Caribbean” film.

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on July 17, 2020, dismissed American fast casual pizza restaurant &pizza’s copyright suit against the operator of the “@pizza” restaurant in Edinburgh, Scotland, because it failed to show that @pizza violated their copyright and that the restaurant would harm their US commerce.

The new report updates the previous findings based on a review of an additional nearly one million issued patents and three years of new data, and it provides further insights into the participation of women in America’s intellectual property systems.

Patent Center is a new tool for electronic filing and management of patent applications in a single, unified interface.

A photograph of legendary guitarist Eddie Van Halen displayed without permission on the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s (Met) “Play It Loud: Instruments of Rock & Roll” online exhibition did not violate copyright law because its use was for historical purposes and was therefore protected by the fair use exception, said the US District Court for the Southern District of New York on July 14, 2020.

A Nobel Prize winner’s fellow researchers must be named on his cancer immunotherapy patents, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held on July 14, 2020.

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) has published the sixth installment of its Motion to Amend Study.

The Copyright Office is further extending the temporary adjustments to certain timing provisions under the Copyright Act for persons affected by the COVID-19 national emergency.

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on July 10, 2020, affirmed the invalidation of Toyota Motor Corp.’s patent on a coating for reducing the appearance of fingerprints on touchscreen displays. Toyota Motor Corp. v. Reactive Surfaces Ltd., Fed. Cir., No. 18-1906, unpublished 7/10/20.

Google’s Youtube cannot be required to hand over the IP addresses, telephone numbers, or email addresses of its users who have uploaded copyright-infringing films to its platform, the Court of Justice of the European Union held on July 9, 2020. C‑264/19, Constantin Film Verleih GmbH v YouTube LLC and Google Inc., 2020 E.C.R.

The Federal Circuit on July 1, 2020, said that a Florida federal court failed to properly consider a patent owner’s history of frivolous litigation when it denied a request for attorneys’ fees from the owner’s latest target. Elec. Commc’n Techs LLC v. ShoppersChoice.com LLC, Fed. Cir., No. 19-2087, 7/1/20.

The Fifth Circuit on June 2, 2020, ruled that Digital Drilling Data Systems can’t pursue copyright claims against a competitor that scraped data from a program built using an open source database, because the program wasn’t effectively secured, and the copied program wasn’t substantially similar. Digital Drilling Data Syst. v. Petrolink Serv. Inc., 5th Cir., No. 19-20116, 7/2/20.

The Precedential Opinion Panel (POP) on July 6, 2020, issued a new decision regarding when the Board can raise new arguments in deciding a motion to amend. Hunting Titan, Inc. v. DynaEnergetics Europe GmbH, IPR2018-00600 (PTAB July 6, 2020) (Paper 67).

The Federal Circuit on July 2, 2020, affirmed Hulu LLC‘s successful challenge to the validity of a database management patent at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). Sound View Innovations LLC v. Hulu LLC, Fed. Cir., No. 19-1865, unpublished 7/2/20.