11 March

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Patent Filings Roundup: Supercell Locked in Dispute with Gree, Vudu Fends off Uniloc, BASF PGRs Ingevity Patents

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Every week, Unified Patents compiles all Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) and district court filings, lists them, and releases them daily to subscribers. Each Wednesday, IP Watchdog will post the list, with a handful of interesting cases highlighted with context. To see the docket, filings, and learn more about the case, click on the links provided below. Litigation financing or patent aggregator parent data is provided where known and confirmable. The results appear in chronological order, below. Given that filings were light this week (perhaps the Coronavirus or the cancellation of the PTAB Bar Association’s annual meeting are to blame),...

11 March

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Senate IP Subcommittee Examines Foreign Approaches to Digital Piracy in Second Hearing on U.S. Copyright Reform

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“We finance our projects by granting companies exclusive distribution rights,” Yunger said. “Why would any financial partner pay for movies that are widely offered for free online knowing full well that they may never recoup their investments?” – Jonathan Yunger, Millennium Films Senate IP Subcommittee Chair, Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC), yesterday led the second in a series of Subcommittee hearings addressing the possibility of updating the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The hearing, titled “Copyright Law in Foreign Jurisdictions: How are other countries handling digital piracy?”, was aimed at examining foreign copyright laws in order to consider what may or may not...

10 March

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IPWatchdog CON2020 Has Been RESCHEDULED for September 13-15, 2020

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We have great news to share with all of our readers and our IPWatchdog CON2020 Speakers, Sponsors, Exhibitors and registrants. We have finally worked out an amicable resolution with the Renaissance Dallas Richardson hotel. Although we will still hold a Virtual Program on Monday, March 16, IPWatchdog CON2020 is no longer canceled. We have rescheduled for Sunday, September 13 through Tuesday, September 15, 2020. The program will be nearly identical to the live program we had scheduled for this month. As we work out the details for the newly scheduled event, we will update the IPWatchdog CON2020 website with any changes that...

10 March

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We Won’t Stop Coronavirus Without IP

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“Any of the IP-robbing proposals on the policy table would weaken our nation’s biopharmaceutical sector, diminish IP exclusivity, deny Americans the innovations patients enjoy the earliest access to, and take away from our patent system, which has already endured repeated assaults by Congress, courts and administrative bodies for two decades.” The recent White House meeting with leaders from American pharmaceutical companies sought their help in solving the coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, China and is currently gripping the globe. The meeting was part of the U.S. government marshaling our nation’s private and public medical research and development (R&D) resources in a...

03 March

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Federal Circuit says THE JOINT is merely descriptive without acquired distinctiveness

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On February 28th, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) affirmed the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board’s (TTAB) decision to refuse registration of two trademark applications belonging to JC Hospitality LLC (JC). Both applications sought to register the mark THE JOINT under different classes of services (Class 41 and Class 43). See In re JC Hospitality. The CAFC agreed with the TTAB that the marks were merely descriptive of JC’s services, and lacked any showing that the marks acquired distinctiveness as source identifiers. The law is not particularly new in this non-precedential decision, although the trademark applicant obviously had a different...

03 March

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This Week in DC: Buying Unsafe Counterfeits, 5G Security, Blockchain Tech for Small Business and Online Sales Taxes

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This week in our nation’s capital, the House of Representatives hosts a number of committee hearings related to technology and innovation. Various hearings will explore online sales tax impacts on small businesses, unsafe counterfeit products bought by American consumers, uses of blockchain technology among small businesses, issues with veteran electronic health record systems, U.S. Cyber Command’s 2021 budget and the role of advanced nuclear reactors in creating a cleaner economy. Over in the Senate, a pair of hearings on Wednesday will discuss issues with securing the 5G supply chain and data surveillance concerns caused by partnerships between major tech firms...

02 March

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The Impact of Overturning eBay v. MercExchange

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At a time when most policymakers rightly argue that China and other countries need to do more to clamp down on intellectual property infringement, overturning the four-factor eBay v. MercExchange test would impose new hurdles and increase the PAE problem that Congress and the Supreme Court fought to address over the last two decades.” As anyone who follows the landscape of patent litigation knows, the Supreme Court’s decision in eBay Inc. v. MercExchange LLC, 547 U.S. 388 (2006) was meant for one primary reason—to combat patent asserted entities (PAEs).[1] It is true that prior to the Supreme Court’s decision in eBay, it was rare for a...

01 March

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The Fragile Nature of Trade Secrets: Clues from the Courts on How to Keep Them

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Trade secrets have become an increasingly valuable asset to many companies, but compared to other types of intellectual property, including patents, copyrights and trademarks, they are extremely “fragile,” and require that an owner undertake as many steps as possible to protect their information and be vigilant about the need to protect such information to the fullest extent possible. The failure to do so may lead to a court’s finding in a misappropriation case that the information in question is not protectable as a trade secret. As described below, it is very easy for trade secrets to lose protection under a...

01 March

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Google Wins Mandamus at Federal Circuit in EDTX Venue Dispute

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The Federal Circuit recently granted a petition for a writ of mandamus to Google LLC (“Google”) finding that venue was improper for a case filed by Super Interconnected Technologies LLC (“SIT”) against Google in the Eastern District of Texas. See In re Google LLC, No. 2019-126, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 4588 (Fed. Cir. Feb. 13, 2020) (Before Dyk, Wallach, and Taranto, Circuit Judges) (Order for the Court, Dyk, Circuit Judge) (Concurring opinion, Wallach, Circuit Judge). SIT brought suit against Google in the Eastern District of Texas arguing that venue was proper under the patent venue statute (28 U.S.C. § 1400(b)). SIT filed its suit after the...

29 February

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CAFC Orders Settlement Agreement Enforced, Tosses Summary Judgment of Non-Infringement

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Even though a settlement agreement may call for future performance, it generally renders the underlying action moot. The Federal Circuit may enforce a settlement agreement that resolves patent infringement claims as long as the proceedings are still ongoing. The Federal Circuit recently issued an opinion vacating the district court’s grant of summary judgment motions of non-infringement and remanding with instructions to enforce a settlement agreement between Serta Simmons Bedding, LLC and Dreamwell, Ltd. (collectively, “Serta Simmons”) and Casper Sleep Inc. (“Casper”). See Serta Simmons Bedding, LLC v. Casper Sleep Inc., No. 19-1098, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 4467 (Fed Cir. Feb. 13, 2020) (Before...