The Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that customer Meyer agreed to arbitrate his claims with the ride hailing company Uber by agreeing to the Terms of Service (TOS) linked to the Uber APP on Meyer’s cell phone. Meyer v. Uber Technologies, et al., Case No. 16-2750 … [Read more...]
“FIRST TUESDAY” trademark descriptive of new lottery games
In the case In re: North Carolina lottery, Case No. 2016-2558, Fed. Cir. August 10, 2017 (Available Here), the Federal Circuit affirmed the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board’s (“TTAB”) decision refusing to register the mark FIRST TUESDAY in connection with lottery services and … [Read more...]
Lower Attorneys Fees Proper Against Defaulted Parties When No Willfulness Proven
The Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit upheld the district court’s decision denying plaintiff’s attorneys fees against a defendant in default because (a) the Federal Trademark Act, the Lanham Act, 15 U. S.C. § 1051, et seq, is grounded in equity; (b) plaintiff did not prove … [Read more...]
Message Publishing System Patent Invalid as Having Ineligible Patent Subject Matter
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld the district court’s decision that EasyWeb’s patent claims on a message publishing system defined ineligible patent subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101 and Alice Corp. Pty. Ltd. v. CLS Bank Int'l, 134 S. Ct. 2347, 2355 (2014). … [Read more...]
Removing Photographer Id and Re-Posting Pictures Violates DMCA
The U.S. District Court dismissed a copyright infringement claim because photographer Gattoni had not registered his photos, but permitted Gattoni’s claim under 17 U.S.C. Section 1202(b), the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) based upon Defendant’s removal and/or … [Read more...]
Copyright Registration is a Prerequisite to Filing Infringement Suit
The Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, following the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, held that the owner of a copyright in a work must register the work with the Copyright Office prior to filing suit and a failure to do so results in dismissal of the action. … [Read more...]
Ordinary Language in Patent Claims Properly Understood by Jury Finding Infringement
In this Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit case (the Federal Circuit), the Court affirmed a jury’s decision as to the ordinary meaning of the patent claim language (heat exchanging interfaces claimed to be removably attached or removably coupled to reservoirs) when the … [Read more...]
Determining Patent Subject Matter Eligibility (or Ineligibility), PTO Must Consider All Limitations
The USPTO Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”) overruled a patent examiner’s rejection under 35 U.S.C. sec. 101 that the claimed invention for an energy transaction plan which controls the charging, discharging, and storing operations of an electric vehicle charging station was … [Read more...]
Failure to Identify Internal Controls in Patent Specification Invalidates Patent Claims
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that when a patent specification fails to explain where light channel controls are located (to discretely attenuate one of several light channels or to make their several intensities equal), the patent claim is indefinite under 35 … [Read more...]
Processing An Image by Encoding, Classifying and Decoding Ineligible Patent Subject Matter
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (the “Federal Circuit”) upheld a Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) decision holding that under 35 U.S.C. sec. 101, a claimed method for building a composite facial image using constituent parts by encoding the image at one end, … [Read more...]
