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Patents

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on 21 April 2021 in the pending assignor estoppel case of Minerva Surgical Inc. v. Hologic Inc.   The basic idea is that an inventor who signs the oath-of-inventorship and assigns rights to a third party is estopped from later challenging the patent’s validity in court. PatentlyO reported on the case.

 

On April 21, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) issued a modified, precedential order reversing the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB’s or Board’s) decision to deny U.S.A. Dawgs and Mojave’s motion to substitute, holding that “the Board erred in not substituting Mojave for U.S.A. Dawgs as the third-party requester during the inter partes reexamination.” IPWatchdog reported on the order.

 

Patent claims typically cover an infinite number of potential infringing embodiments.  This seemingly renders true full-scope enablement an impossible task. The focus in Amgen is a particularly tricky type of claim: genus claim with functional limitations. PatentlyO reported on the case of Amgen Inc. v. Sanofi-Aventis.

 

As the battle over the adequate forum for Ericsson v. Samsung continues, the question arises as to how the court will eventually deal with the valuation of the standard essential patents (SEPs) at stake. IPWatchdog provided a Standard Essential Patent valuation perspective on Ericsson v. Samsung.

 

Trademarks

A quiet conflict that has pitted two pending trademark applications against one another over the past year has resulted in a formal scuffle between Marc Jacobs and The Ohio State University (“OSU”). On the heels of the two parties filing respective trademark applications to register the word “THE” for use on apparel, OSU has initiated an opposition proceeding in an attempt to block the application that Marc Jacobs filed in May 2019 for “THE” for use on handbags and clothing, among other related goods. The Fashion Law reported on the proceedings.

 

Earlier this year, counsel for Kanye West’s Yeezy LLC filed a trademark application for registration for a stylized sun rays graphic. Now, almost four months after Yeezy lodged that application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Walmart has stepped in, arguing that the Yeezy graphic looks a bit too much like one that it has been using on similar goods/services for over a decade. The Fashion Law reported on this matter.

 

Copyright

From the advent of the internet, digital commodities and technologies have ceaselessly presented new hurdles for intellectual property (IP) owners and protectors. The cycle of copyright law trying, and generally failing, to adapt and keep pace with emerging technology has meant copyright stakeholders have been always at a disadvantage because legal enforcement lagged so far behind innovative infringement. But during a year in which vast swaths of life moved online, the internet has forged and driven to prominence a powerful new tool for protecting copyright owners’ unique assets: the non-fungible token (NFT). IPWatchdog reported in the non-fungible tokens which force a copyright reckoning.