News

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on January 13, 2020, upheld Comcast Corp.‘s successful challenge to a patent covering an interactive television guide, finding it invalid based on prior art.

The US District Court for the Northern District of Texas on January 17, 2020, invalidated iLife Technologies Inc.'s $10.1 million patent infringement verdict against Nintendo of America over the latter's Wii and Wii U motion control wands known as "Wiimotes". iLife Techs. Inc. v. Nintendo of Am. Inc., N.D. Tex., No. 3:13-cv-04987, 1/17/20.

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on January 28, 2020, held that the Audio Home Recording Act of 1992, which was enacted to curb digital audiotape copying, did not apply to music copied by an automobile dashboard device that copies CDs to a vehicle’s hard drive.

The US Patent and Trademark Office and the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) agreed to launch a new worksharing arrangement that will accelerate the process of obtaining a patent in Mexico for businesses and individuals already in possession of a corresponding US patent.

The US Patent and Trademark Office welcomes two new members to the Patent Public Advisory Committee (PPAC): Jeremiah Chan and Tracy-Gene Durkin. Mr. Chan is the Associate General Counsel and Director, Head of Patents at Facebook. Ms. Durkin is the practice leader of the Mechanical & Design Practice Group at the law firm of Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C.

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on January 10, 2020, affirmed the invalidation of Genentech’s patent directed to methods of purifying antibodies, finding that the process of chilling a composition to below room temperature could be found both obvious and anticipated by a process that purified that composition at room temperature.

The US Patent and Trademark Office will brief users on recent examination practice and procedure guidance related to examination of ranges during its Virtual Instructor Led Training (vILT) course Examination of Ranges on February 11, 12, or 13.

The Federal Circuit on January 10, 2020, held that patent infringement claims against Japanese electric motor manufacturer Nidec Corp. were barred by a covenant not to sue, and found that the covenant was not superseded by a later agreement involving the same patent.

CBS Corp. won’t have to pay a $1.3 million infringement award because a podcasting patent was invalidated by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), the Federal Circuit said on January 10, 2020.

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on January 9, 2020, affirmed the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois’s ruling which held that a claim of Hospira’s Precedex Premix sedative was invalid for obviousness.

The US Patent and Trademark Office on January 15, 2020, released a “New to PTAB” toolkit now available on the PTAB webpage of the USPTO website.

“A low level of protection for trade secrets and IP theft in a number of countries, notably in China and India” have caused “irreparable harm to European businesses” said the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union, in its “Report on the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights in third countries” released on January 8, 2020.

The addition of a generic top-level domain (gTLD) to an otherwise generic term can, under certain circumstances, create a protectable trademark, the American Intellectual Property Law Association said in an amicus brief filed with the Supreme Court on January 13, 2020.

The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on January 9, 2020, held that statutory damage awards are not available when a defendant infringes in one way before the copyright was registered and another way after registration.

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on January 7, 2020, vacated and remanded a lower court ruling which held that Amneal Pharmaceuticals LLC, an integrated specialty pharmaceutical company, didn’t infringe Amgen Inc.’s patent for the kidney disease drug Sensipar.

The US District Court for the District of Massachusetts on January 6, 2020, awarded a summary judgment victory to Prince’s estate on its claims that unauthorized concert recordings posted to YouTube infringed the late musician’s copyrights.

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on January 6, 2019, reversed a Patent Trial and Appeal Board ruling that held claims of a Koninklijke Philips NV keypad patent valid.

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on December 18, 2019, vacated and remanded a Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) decision which invalidated SRAM’s improved bicycle chainring patent for obviousness.

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on December 12, 2019, held that a garage door opener patent didn’t cover openers without a motion detector in a wall unit because the detector’s placement in a wall unit constituted the patent’s invention.

The US District Court for the District of South Dakota on December 11, 2019, canceled trademark registrations for the word “Sturgis” in light of Walmart and others’ success defeating the trademark owner’s related infringement claims.