News

Senator Tillis speaks on his tenure as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary IP Subcommittee, the need for strong intellectual property protection, Section 101 reform, DMCA review, oversight over the USPTO and the Copyright Office, and more.

On June 30, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the addition of “.com” to a generic term can create a protectable trademark, affirming a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. United States Patent and Trademark Office v. Booking.com B.V., U.S., No. 19-46. In doing so, the Court rejected the United States Patent and Trademark Office's (USPTO) "nearly per se rule" that when a generic term is combined with a generic top-level domain the resulting combination is generic.

The Ninth Circuit on June 22, 2020, reversed a district court’s dismissal of a copyright infringement lawsuit against the award-winning movie “The Shape of Water”, finding that David Zindel adequately alleged that Fox Searchlight Pictures Inc. copied aspects of his father’s play. Zindel v. Fox Searchlight Pictures, Inc., 9th Cir., No. 18-56087.

The US Copyright Office on June 23, 2020, released an updated version of Copyright Law of the United States and Related Laws Contained in Title 17 of the United States Code.

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on June 16, 2020, affirmed a Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) win by videogame developers Riot Games Inc. and Valve Corp. in validity challenges to two computer-networking patents.

The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on June 17, 2020, held that a wellness store’s copyright claims against a former employee didn’t require an attorneys’ fees award, finding that several circumstances justified denying the award.

Fees are proposed to be increased for all application filing types, with proposed per-class fee increases ranging from $25 for a TEAS Plus application to $150 for a paper application.

The USPTO is revising the rules of practice pertaining to the patent term adjustment provisions of 35 U.S.C. 154(b) in view of the decision by the Federal Circuit in Supernus Pharm., Inc. v. Iancu, 913 F.3d 1351 (Fed. Cir. 2019). 85 Fed. Reg. 36335.

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on June 10, 2020, held that Twilio Inc. can’t revive parts of its telephony patents that were canceled by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.

Pursuant to Subsection 12004(a) of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act and 37 C.F.R. § 1.183, and in response to the requests from stakeholders, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is extending the time period for petitioning for certain rights of priority or benefit in a patent application and waiving the associated petition fee.

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board designated a decision as precedential and three as informative.

The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on June 5, 2020, affirmed a lower court ruling which held that Quanta Storage Inc., a Taiwanese disk drive maker, must turn over to HP Inc. all of the cash, factories and patents necessary to satisfy a $439 million antitrust judgment from 2019.

The US District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri on June 4, 2020, held that A.I.G. Agency Inc.’s trademark claims against AIG, the multinational finance and insurance company, were time-barred because it knew of AIG’s use of the mark decades before suing.

The First Circuit affirmed a district court judgment that prevented pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk Inc. from enforcing a confidentiality and noncompete agreement that it had entered into with a worker who was briefly laid off and rehired before leaving the company for BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc.

Register to attend the latest in a series of USPTO webinars focused on intellectual property (IP) protection and enforcement in China.

The continued inequitable treatment of African-Americans and other communities of color is intolerable. We must reflect on how our actions demonstrate a commitment to diversity, equality, and inclusion through discussion, education, and implementation. And we must all find ways to come together, and no longer be torn apart.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on June 3, 2020, launched the COVID-19 Response Resource Center to provide stakeholders and other interested parties with improved access to USPTO initiatives, programs, and other helpful intellectual property (IP)-related information regarding the COVID-19 outbreak.

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on May 29, 2020, refused to alter a mixed ruling on the validity of Boston Scientific’s spinal stimulation patent.

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on May 17, 2020, affirmed Jim Beam Brand Co’s (Jim Beam) win against a company that accused it of infringing trademarks because the marks in question were dissimilar and customer confusion wasn’t likely.

The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit on May 20, 2020, vacated and remanded a Florida court ruling that found that a group of website operators who hacked into a competitor’s server and database didn’t infringe its source code copyright or misappropriate its proprietary information.