News

The Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware on January 2, 2019, ruled that FetchIT, a customer management software company, breached its license agreement with Shodogg when it alluded to a sublicense offer in an email to Shodogg’s competitor.

The Copyright Office on January 7, 2019, issued an alert seeking participants to analyze the user experience on copyright.gov.

The Supreme Court on January 7, 2019, refused to hear Olivia de Havilland’s right-of-publicity suit against FX Networks, the creators and producers of the television docudrama miniseries Feud: Bette and Joan.

The Supreme Court on January 4, 2019, agreed to decide whether Section 2(a) of the Lanham Act’s prohibition on the federal registration of “immoral” or “scandalous” marks is facially invalid under the free speech clause of the First Amendment.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on January 4, 2019, announced newly revised 35 U.S.C. § 101 guidance for use by USPTO personnel in evaluating subject matter eligibility. The USPTO also announced guidance on the application of 35 U.S.C. § 112 to computer-implemented inventions.

The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) on December 31, 2018, issued a ruling that prevents light fixture company Tivoli from registering trademarks for its Tivotape and Tivobar electric lighting fixtures.

Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC), and Representative Bill Flores (R-TX), on Tuesday, December 11 2018, introduced H.R. 7251, the “Hatch-Waxman Integrity Act of 2018.”

The Federal Circuit on November 27, 2018, ruled that the International Trade Commission wrongly denied DNB Holding LLC’s request to rescind or modify a $6 million penalty in a patent infringement case.

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on November 26, 2018, affirmed a Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) decision against Phyllis and Bruce Schlafly, thereby allowing the Saint Louis Brewery (SLB) to obtain trademark registration for the word mark “SCHLAFLY”.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office published its 2018-2022 Strategic Plan.

The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on November 20, 2018, remanded a breach of contract case brought by software company AirFacts Inc. against one of its former developers the company said misappropriated trade secrets.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office’s 2018 Patent Public Advisory Committee (PPAC) Annual Report is now available online.

The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on November 19, 2018, affirmed-in-part and vacated and remanded-in-part the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s decisions in a pair of inter partes reviews.

Effective December 1, 2018, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Digital Access Service (DAS) will manage electronic retrievals of priority documents between the USPTO and the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), in accordance with the WIPO DAS agreement established on April 20, 2009.

After affirming a district court judgement against Enplas Display Device Corp., the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on November 19, 2018, vacated the $4 million patent infringement damages award that Seoul Semiconductor Co. Ltd. had won. Enplas Display Device Corp. v. Seoul Semiconductor Co., Fed. Cir., 2016-2599, 11/19/18.

The US Patent and Trademark Office will convene an all-day program titled, "Artificial Intelligence: Intellectual Property Policy Considerations,” on Wednesday, December 5, 2018, in the Madison auditorium of their Alexandria, Virginia headquarters.

The Copyright Royalty Board on November 26, 2018, published final regulations setting rates and terms for digital music streamers like Spotify, Apple, Google, and Amazon.

On November 6, 2018, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that certain elements of three patents owned by Acceleration Bay LLC are invalid.

On November 1, 2018, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reissued a modified opinion holding that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) erred when it held that a certain GoPro catalog is not a prior art printed publication.

Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, on November 8, 2018, announced the appointment of Laura A. Peter as Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Deputy Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).