Taco Tuesday is for Everyone! Taco John’s has surrendered its Taco Tuesday trademark. As we reported in May, Taco Bell filed a petition with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to cancel a trademark for Taco Tuesday that rival chain Taco John’s had held since 1989. Along with the petition, Taco Bell launched a nationwide public relations campaign for […] Read Post →
Taco Tuesday Trademark Tiff Gets Spicy Taco Bell recently launched an ad campaign featuring LeBron James and the censored phrase Taco T***day. In a commercial, Lebron repeatedly attempts to say the phrase “Taco Tuesday,” but the “Tuesday” is consistently bleeped out. He then helpfully explains that there’s a trademark on Taco Tuesday and therefore it cannot be used in a commercial, […] Read Post →
Gilead Defeats Federal Government Lawsuit Alleging Patent Infringement for HIV Prevention Drugs On Tuesday, May 9, 2023, a jury found that Gilead did not infringe on three patents held by the federal government, and furthermore, that the patents at issue are invalid. The government was seeking more than $1 billion in damages related to the sale of Truvada and Descovy for an HIV prevention regimen call pre-exposure […] Read Post →
OMG Dolls v. OMG Girlz Ends in Mistrial On January 25, 2023, a trial between rapper T.I. and doll maker MGA Entertainment Inc. ended in a mistrial after the judge determined that improper testimony regarding cultural appropriation was “incurably prejudicial” to the jury. In December 2020, MGA Entertainment sued Clifford T.I. Harris, his wife Temeka “Tiny” Harris, and OMG Girlz seeking a Declaratory […] Read Post →
US Supreme Court Agrees to Review Patent Enablement Case Last Friday, the Supreme Court accepted Amgen’s request to review Section 112 of the Patent Act and consider how much a patent specification must disclose to meet enablement requirements. Specifically, the Court will review whether a patent must disclose enough information for the skilled artisan to “reach the full scope” of the claims, or whether […] Read Post →
Moderna sues Pfizer and BioNTech for Patent Infringement Related to COVID-19 Vaccines On Friday Moderna issued a news release stating that the company is filing complaints in both the United States and Germany alleging that Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine (Comirnaty®) infringes three of Moderna’s patents. The patents at issue are US Patent Nos 10,898574, 10,702,600, and 10,933,127. The patents cover Moderna’s mRNA technology that Moderna say […] Read Post →
Federal Circuit Vacates $2.75 Billion Ruling Against Cisco Because Judge’s Spouse Owned $5,000 of Cisco Stock Today, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed a decision holding that Cisco willfully infringed several patents owned by Centripetal Networks, Inc. The District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia had awarded enhanced damages and royalties exceeding $2.75 billion to Centripetal. The Federal Circuit held that the district court judge was disqualified […] Read Post →
China joins WIPO’s Hague System for the International Registration of Industrial Designs Effective May 5, 2022 Earlier this month, the World Intellectual Property Organization (“WIPO”) announced that China has joined WIPO’s Hague System for the International Registration of Industrial Designs effective May 5, 2022. An industrial design is a form of intellectual property that protects the ornamental or visual features of an article not related to its functionality. In general, to […] Read Post →
Two New ex Parte Trademark Cancellation Proceedings On December 18, 2021, new regulations implementing the Trademark Modernization Act of 2020 (“the TMA”) will officially go into effect allowing individuals, businesses, and the USPTO to clear unused registered trademarks from the federal trademark register. New ex parte expungement and reexamination proceedings are said to provide a faster, more efficient, and less expensive alternative […] Read Post →
US Copyright Office Issues Best Practices to Reduce Unclaimed Royalties As directed by the Music Modernization Act (“MMA”), on Thursday, July 8, 2021, the US Copyright Office (the “Office”) released a public report to recommend best practices for the Mechanical Licensing Collective (“MLC”) to effectively match copyright owners with unclaimed royalties for musical works, and ultimately reduce the incidence of unclaimed royalties. Unclaimed royalties are […] Read Post →
Clearly using “clear” for Non-Transparent Goods is Deceptively Misdescriptive. Dolce Vita Footware, Inc. sought registration of the mark CLEAR for various bags, purses, wallets, and card cases – excluding transparent goods. The Examiner refused registration on the grounds that it is deceptively misdescriptive and on April 29, 2021 the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (the “TTAB”) affirmed. In its original registration, Dolce Vita identified […] Read Post →
Federal Circuit Revives SynQor Patent On February 22, 2021, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s decision that SynQor’s US Patent No. 7,072,190 was unpatentable. SynQor’s ‘190 patent relates to technology that converts DC current from one voltage to another for use in large computer systems and data communication equipment. […] Read Post →
“Naked” at the Federal Circuit On December 4, 2020, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“Federal Circuit”) denied petitions by Naked TM, LLC for a panel rehearing and a rehearing en banc of the decision in Australian Therapeutics Supplies Pty. Ltd. v. Naked TM, LLC, 965 F.3D 1370 (Fed. Cir. 2020). The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board […] Read Post →
Known Method of Administering a Known Treatment Made by a New Process is Not Novel On September 28, 2020, in Biogen Ma Inc. v. EMD Serono, Inc, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“Federal Circuit”) reversed a district court’s grant of judgment as a matter of law of no anticipation, reinstating a jury verdict. The claims at issue in Biogen’s patent cover the multiple sclerosis treatment Avonex […] Read Post →
Federal Circuit Reinstates Patent Claims Previously Found Obvious by Patent Trial and Appeal Board On July 31, 2020, in the precedential opinion Alacritech, Inc. v. Intel Corp., the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (hereinafter the “Federal Circuit”) reinstated three claims of Alacritech’s patent, holding that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (hereinafter the “Board”) did not adequately support its finding that the asserted prior art […] Read Post →
Dropbox’s Patents Invalidated for Patent-Ineligible Subject Matter On June 19, 2020 The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (hereinafter the “Federal Circuit”) affirmed a district court’s ruling that Dropbox’s three patents claim abstract ideas and further provide no inventive concept transforming the abstract idea into patentable subject matter. Dropbox and their wholly owned subsidiary, Orcinus Holdings, (hereinafter referred to […] Read Post →
Fish Hook Claims Can’t Catch a Patent On April 24, 2020, The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“CAFC”) held that claims concerning a method for fishing, specifically that of selecting a fishing hook based on observed water conditions, are directed to an abstract idea. According to 35 U.S.C. § 101, “[w]homever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, […] Read Post →
UK to Back Out of the UPC Last year, this blog brought news of the impending Brexit vote and the supposed impact of Brexit on intellectual property laws in the UK. Brexit was thought to have largely no effect on patent law because European and UK patents are governed by the European Patent Convention (EPC) which is a non-EU agreement. Further, the European Patent […] Read Post →
Federal Circuit Clarifies Standard for Determining Nexus Between Claims and Secondary Considerations On December 18, 2019, in Fox Factory, Inc. v. SRAM, LLC, the Federal Circuit (the “Court”) vacated and remanded the Patent Appeal Board’s (the “Board”) obviousness determination. Fox challenged SRAM’s patent for bicycle chain rings in an inter partes review. The Court found that the Board applied the wrong standard for determining whether or not challenged […] Read Post →
IP Post-Brexit: What Does the “FEUture” hold? On December 12, the United Kingdom (UK) will hold a general election, in which Prime Minister Boris Johnson hopes to secure a clear majority so as not to lose the prospect of Brexit after failing to leave the European Union (EU) by the end of October as previously promised. Currently, Johnson enjoys a healthy lead […] Read Post →