Addressing an issue of damages, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit vacated the district court’s grant of punitive damages in favor of the plaintiff, finding “passion and prejudice” mitigated finding of “malice”....more
11/12/2019
/ Ability-to-Repay ,
Breach of Contract ,
Compensatory Damages ,
Copyright ,
Copyright Litigation ,
Evidence ,
Jury Verdicts ,
Prejudice ,
Punitive Damages ,
Slander of Title ,
Summary Judgment ,
Tortious Interference
Addressing an issue of whether a letter exchange qualifies as a work for hire agreement under US copyright laws, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed and remanded the district court grant of summary...more
Addressing patent eligibility under 35 USC § 101, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit vacated and remanded a district court’s decision for failure to address the parties’ claim construction dispute before ruling...more
Addressing the issue of the functional requirements of design patents, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit refused to invalidate design patents on truck parts on the basis of aesthetic functionality. Automotive...more
9/12/2019
/ Appeals ,
Auto Parts ,
Automotive Industry ,
Design Patent ,
Dismissals ,
Ford Motor ,
Functionality ,
Patent Invalidity ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patents ,
Summary Judgment
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed a district court decision invalidating a copyright registration because the registration contained knowingly inaccurate information. Gold Value Int’l Textile v. Sanctuary...more
Addressing the issue of standing in a patent infringement case, combined with the requirements of joinder under Fed. R. Civ. P. 19, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit vacated a dismissal based on lack of standing...more
7/3/2019
/ Appeals ,
Dismissals ,
FRCP 19 ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Joinder ,
License Agreements ,
Patent Infringement ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patents ,
Remand ,
Standing ,
Vacated
Addressing whether the fair use defense applies to the use of stock photographs under the Copyright Act, the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit concluded that a company’s commercial use of an unlicensed photograph...more
Addressing the use of third-party photographs on a real estate listing website, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found no direct copyright infringement, notwithstanding the display of thousands of copyrighted...more
5/6/2019
/ Copyright ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Copyright Litigation ,
Damages ,
Fair Use ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Jury Verdicts ,
Photographs ,
Remand ,
Reversal ,
Summary Judgment ,
Transformative Use ,
Zillow
In a unanimous decision authored by Justice Kavanaugh, the Supreme Court of the United States held that the term “full costs” in 17 USC § 505 of the Copyright Act has no special, expansive meaning, but is limited to the costs...more
4/10/2019
/ Appeals ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Copyright Litigation ,
Expert Fees ,
Judicial Discretion ,
Litigation Fees & Costs ,
Prevailing Party ,
Remand ,
Reversal ,
Rimini Street Inc v Oracle USA Inc ,
SCOTUS ,
The Copyright Act
On March 4, 2019, the US Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision authored by Justice Kavanaugh in Rimini Street, Inc. v. Oracle USA, Inc., finding that the term “full costs” in 17 USC § 505 of the Copyright Act has no...more
3/7/2019
/ Appeals ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Copyright Litigation ,
Expert Fees ,
Judicial Discretion ,
Litigation Fees & Costs ,
Prevailing Party ,
Remand ,
Reversal ,
Rimini Street Inc v Oracle USA Inc ,
SCOTUS
The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed denial of a licensee’s motion for a new trial, finding that there was no error in awarding damages to the plaintiff/licensor for the licensee’s failure to pay royalties...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) decision that the SCHLAFLY mark had acquired secondary meaning and met the requirements for registration. Bruce S. Schlafly...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit denied a petition for a rehearing en banc, refusing to reconsider its decision that digitally remastered pre-1972 sound recordings are not new copyrighted songs. ABS...more
The US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit vacated a district court’s judgment for a second time, finding that the lower court misinterpreted its instructions on remand and failed to give each excerpt of the copyrighted...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in reversing a grant of summary judgment in favor of defendants, found that digitally remastered pre-1972 sound recordings were not entitled to protection under federal law as...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, in reversing (in part) a district court’s rejection of an implied waiver defense, concluded that a patent may be unenforceable where the patent owner failed to disclose a prior...more
In a case involving publication of industry standards, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia reversed a grant of summary judgment in favor of private organizations under the Copyright Act and Lanham Act’s fair...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed a dismissal of the plaintiffs’ state law claim for failure to allege a fiduciary duty, and vacated and remanded a judgment on a motion to dismiss as to the plaintiffs’...more
The Supreme Court of Nevada ruled that the Nevada trade secret law does not preclude a defendant from demonstrating that information is readily ascertainable and therefore not a trade secret even when the defendant acquired...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed grant of judgment as a matter of law in favor of rapper Jay-Z and other defendants on copyright infringement claims brought by the heir to Egyptian composer Baligh...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part a district court’s judgment after a jury trial, ruling that the song “Blurred Lines” infringed Marvin Gaye’s 1970s song “Got To Give It Up.”...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found that the defendant did not violate California and Nevada computer crime laws when it scraped the plaintiff’s website for software updates (which were permissible to access)...more
Addressing the issue of trademark infringement specific to the title of an expressive work, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court’s conclusion that Twentieth Century Fox’s use of the name...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed in part, reversed in part and remanded a district court finding that a defendant was liable for breach of a software license agreement and therefore infringed the...more
12/6/2017
/ Appeals ,
Breach of Contract ,
Copyright ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Fraud ,
Injunctions ,
IP License ,
Irreparable Harm ,
Res Judicata ,
Reversal ,
Reverse Engineering ,
Software ,
Treble Damages ,
UK
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a California district court decision denying a trade secret defendant’s motion to compel arbitration based on a prior employment agreement between the plaintiff and an...more