On November 9, 2022, the Federal Circuit (CAFC) affirmed a preliminary injunction in favor of SoClean, Inc. (“SoClean”) against Sunset Healthcare Solutions, Inc. (“Sunset”). SoClean sued Sunset for trademark infringement of its registered mark for replacement filters. Although the district believed that SoClean was likely to prevail on the…
Publications
Irwin IP Publications is the go-to resource for the latest updates and insights in the world of intellectual property. Over 250 articles are published on cases addressing unique issues, all of which can be found using the search tool below. Additionally, there is a collection of articles/papers and presentations that cover a wide range of topics. Whether you’re a legal professional, business owner, or simply someone passionate about IP, our publications page will provide you with all the knowledge needed to navigate this dynamic field.
Following a nine-day jury trial, the district court granted the plaintiff’s request for a new trial on damages. The basis for the grant of a new trial on damages was the Federal Circuit’s (CAFC) decision in Omega Patents, LLC v. CalAmp Corp., 13 F.4th 1361 (Fed. Cir. 2021). The…
In a patent dispute between Allergan and Sandoz, the District Court of Colorado granted Plaintiff’s motion in limine excluding certain evidence the Defendant sought to rely upon to defend against the Plaintiff’s claim of willful infringement because reliance on that evidence would require waiver of attorney-client privilege when the…
On September 30, 2022, Chief Judge DeGuisti of Western District of Oklahoma granted-in-part and denied-in-part defendants Netflix, Inc. and Royal Goode Productions, LLC’s motion for attorney’s fees as prevailing parties in a copyright infringement suit. The court significantly reduced the awarded amount, finding that the amount sought by defendants…
In an unexpected decision, a jury in the Southern District of Illinois found that it was not fair use to reproduce the images of a WWE wrestler’s tattoos in a video game in order to accurately portray the wrestler’s likeness. The outcome of this case directly conflicts with Solid…
On September 29, 2022, a jury in the Central District of California found that that Vital Pharmaceuticals Inc. willfully and deliberately violated the Lanham Act by falsely advertising a “Super Creatine” ingredient of a Bang energy drink and awarded Monster Energy Co. about $292 million in Lanham Act damages,…
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“CAFC”) recently affirmed in part, vacated in part, and remanded a Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”) decision holding that all but two claims of a patent belonging to Provisur Technologies, Inc. (“Provisur”) were unpatentable as obvious. In doing so, the…
This week, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“CAFC”) affirmed the invalidity of Polaris Innovations Ltd.’s (“Polaris”) previously-invalidated patents, despite previously vacating and remanding the invalidity decisions. In February of 2017, NVIDIA Corporation (“NVIDIA”) initiated two inter partes review (“IPR”)…
On September 7, 2022, the Federal Circuit (CAFC) affirmed dismissal of a patent infringement suit under the duplicative litigation doctrine because the asserted patent and accused products were part of an earlier filed case. Arendi S.A.R.L. (“Arendi”) filed suit against LG Electronics Inc. and LG Electronics USA, Inc. (collectively,…
Pointing to domain registration, hosting services, website compliance terms, and U.S. based users of a Hong Kong company’s internet business, the Ninth Circuit reversed dismissal of a Japanese company’s copyright suit for a lack of personal jurisdiction. This precedential decision provides guidance regarding what constitutes sufficient jurisdictional contacts to…
On August 23, 2022, the Federal Circuit (“CAFC”) rejected an attack on the Alice/Mayo patent eligibility framework (“Alice/Mayo”), finding it was sufficiently defined based on judicial precedent to be usable in practice, was not arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”) as the APA does not apply…
On July 13, 2022, the Ninth Circuit held that art editor Alan Wofsy’s use of copyrighted photographs in his series of books documenting Picasso’s artwork titled, The Picasso Project, was not protected by fair use. The copyrighted works at issue were photographs of the works of Pablo Picasso taken…
On July 1, 2022, the Western District of Washington granted a motion for a preliminary injunction sought by Bungie, the owner of the popular video game “Destiny 2,” to stop certain cheat software created for the game from being transferred from the defendant in the case to an international,…
On June 29, 2022, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“CAFC”) reversed the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board’s (“TTAB”) decision to cancel the U.S. registrations owned by beverage company Meenaxi Enterprise, Inc. because Coca-Cola, the challenger, did not have statutory standing. This case involves…
On June 13th, the District Court of Maryland protected publishers’ rights to control the distribution of their literary works when it declared unconstitutional a Maryland statute that requires publishers to license their electronic literary products, such as e-books and audiobooks, to Maryland public libraries. The statute states in part…
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“CAFC”) recently backed a Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB”) decision sustaining Barclays’ opposition to Tiger Lily’s attempted registration of a satirical LEHMAN BROTHERS mark for bar and restaurant services (in particular, for whiskey), and sunk Tiger Lily’s opposition of Barclays’ claim to the original…
On June 3, 2022, the CAFC held that reliance on an “obvious minor clerical error” within a claim is not a defense to willful infringement. CATR Co. sued Kingston Technology Co. (“Kingston”) for infringement of U.S. Patent No. 6,926,544 (“the ’544 Patent”) in the Central District of California (“the…
In this appeal of an inter partes review (“IPR”) by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”), the CAFC upheld the PTAB’s decision that the term “self-similar” in a substitute claim 57[1] of U.S. Patent No. 9,565,493 (the “‘493 Patent”) was not indefinite, among other issues. The ‘493 Patent…
In late 2019, Mitek Systems, Inc. (“Mitek”) filed for a declaratory judgment (DJ) that it did not infringe four USAA check imaging patents. Following a transfer from the N.D. Cal. to the E.D. Tex., the district court dismissed the suit for a lack of subject matter jurisdiction. The district…