IP Review

The self-proclaimed author of the Bitcoin white paper claims the operation of Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash violate his intellectual property rights. Craig Wright, who claims to be Bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto, will be able to argue his case that the Bitcoin file format should receive copyright protection under UK law after a bench of three UK judges accepted his appeal to a previous court denial

The US Comedian Silverman has filed the suits along with two authors, Christopher Golden and Richard Kadrey, in which they claim the AI models developed by OpenAI and Meta used their work as part of their training data.

The long-running trademark case began seven years ago when Sky brought actions against SkyKick for infringement of its EU and UK trademark registrations for SKY across a range of goods and services, while SkyKick challenged those trademarks’ validity.

Former Survivor contestant Gervase Peterson is suing Ken Goldin, Goldin Auctions, Netflix and other parties for copyright infringement, alleging they stole an idea for a reality show about Goldin and his staff acquiring and selling sports memorabilia.

New Zealand honey producers have lost their latest battle to trademark mānuka honey, the latest blow in a years-long fight to stop Australian beekeepers using the lucrative name. The Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand ruled on Monday that New Zealand mānuka beekeepers’ attempt for a trademark did not meet necessary requirements, and the term mānuka was descriptive.

Taco Bell is fighting to cancel the trademarked phrase 'Taco Tuesday' that a smaller, rival chain has held for 34 years. The fast-food giant claims the phrase 'should be freely available to all who make, sell, eat and celebrate tacos'. Restaurants and companies who want to use it in branding and advertising have to seek permission from Taco John's or face the possibility of legal action. 

Ed Sheeran was in Manhattan federal court Tuesday as a copyright infringement trial got underway involving alleged similarities between his Grammy-winning song "Thinking Out Loud" and the Marvin Gaye classic "Let's Get It On."

The High Court ruled that Tesco's Clubcard logo copied Lidl's logo, which both use a yellow circle on a square blue background. Lidl said Tesco had infringed its copyright, letting Tesco "take unfair advantage" of Lidl's "reputation for great value".

Christian Louboutin has prevailed in the latest round of a lawsuit that centers on its famous red soles in Brazil. In a decision dated March 22, the Appellate Court of Sao Paulo sided with Louboutin and affirmed the preliminary injunction previously put in place by the lower court, which blocks the defendant – a Brazilian footwear company – from continuing to manufacture and offer up lookalike high heel shoes bearing a similar red sole.

the Joan Mitchell Foundation (JMF) sent Louis Vuitton a cease-and-desist letter, alleging that the French luxury brand committed copyright infringement when it featured the late Abstract Expressionist’s paintings in the background of advertisements for the brand’s Capucines handbags.

While gadget patents don’t guarantee anything, they can offer a glimpse into areas a company is exploring. Apple was granted a patent for an Apple Watch strap release mechanism that could potentially be used with a built-in camera. This is the third camera-related Apple Watch patent we’ve seen in recent years. The patent application was originally filed in 2019, so Apple engineers have clearly had wearable cameras on the brain for some time.

Lidl has accused its bigger rival Tesco of “deception” during the latest round of a long-running legal battle between the two supermarket chains over the use of a yellow circle logo. The dispute centres on a yellow circular design with a blue background, which is used by Tesco to promote offers available for members of its Clubcard loyalty scheme, as well as being used by Lidl as its main logo.

Microsoft has filed an interesting patent application that details a very promising handheld foldable device. Instead of the rotating two-screen design of the Surface Duo and its successor, the device sketched in the patent application has a single foldable panel that can go from zero to 360 degrees.

Republican Senator Josh Hawley is proposing to shorten the time that companies can protect their creative work through copyrights, in the latest shot at Walt Disney Co. Hawley introduced a bill that would limit copyright protections to 56 years and make that change retroactive, so Disney could no longer claim exclusive rights to some older characters like Mickey Mouse.

Meatless burger maker Impossible Foods has sued competitor Motif Foodworks, accusing the startup of copying its technology for imitating the taste of real meat. The lawsuit filed in Delaware federal court alleges that Motif, a spinoff of biotech company Ginkgo Bioworks, infringes an Impossible Foods patent by using a protein molecule called heme in its plant-based beef.

The Supreme Court said on Monday that it would review a closely watched copyright infringement lawsuit that pits the Andy Warhol Foundation against the photographer Lynn Goldsmith. The Court’s decision could have major implications for “fair use” of copyrighted materials in art.

Food and drink manufacturers seeking to protect their intellectual property (IP) rights over innovative, attractive and seasonal packaging elements can consider relying on registered design rights as an alternative to the time consuming, and often expensive process which applications for so-called ‘non-traditional’ trademarks can often encounter.

Katy Perry will no longer have to pay $2.8m (£2.1m) to a rapper who said she stole his song on her hit Dark Horse. Marcus Gray sued Perry in 2014, saying she had plagiarised an eight-note riff from his track Joyful Noise. A jury agreed and awarded him the $2.8m payout, but a judge later overturned that verdict, saying the melody was not "particularly unique or rare".

Ed Sheeran has told the High Court he does not "borrow" ideas from unknown songwriters without credit. The singer-songwriter has been accused by two other songwriters of copying parts of his 2017 hit Shape Of You. Sami Chokri and Ross O'Donoghue's barrister suggested Sheeran treated lesser-known songwriters differently from famous ones.

The government has decided not to change copyright exhaustion laws for the time being following a consultation which led to a campaign by the industry.

America's International Trade Commission has said Google infringed five of Sonos’s patents and has banned Google from importing into the US products that rip off Sonos’ home speaker intellectual property.

Coca-Cola is harnessing its history of collectibles with a first NFT as marketers continue experimenting with the intersection of cryptocurrency and culture.

An Australian activewear firm has been fined £2.6m (5m Australian dollars) for claiming its clothing "eliminated" and stopped the spread of Covid. Lorna Jane had advertised that its clothing used "a groundbreaking technology" called LJ Shield to prevent the "transferal of all pathogens".

Amazon has registered a new patent in the US which could revolutionise how they make deliveries - and that could be good news for Cambridge. Under the new patent delivery drones would be released from what the company describes as a "Primary vehicle' to take the packages to their final destination.

In the summer of 2020, the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment shut down illegal pirate streaming network Area 51. The event was allegedly accompanied by a settlement agreement that the operator of Area 51 could not launch any new copyright infringing services. However, in a new lawsuit just filed, Amazon, Netflix, and a group of prominent Hollywood studios allege that the agreement over the shutdown of Area 51 has been breached several times over by a rogue serial copyright infringer named Jason Tusa.

Blockchain is making its way into every facet of technology, and for such a prevalent innovation, it is still widely misunderstood. Many consider the technology to be synonymous with cryptocurrency, but in essence, blockchain is more akin to a secure and transparent digital ledger—providing the basis for patentable inventions.

Apple has prevailed in its latest musical trademark battle thanks to the outcome of a previous much higher profile musical trademark battle. When Apple decided to enter the streaming business in 2015 as Apple Music – rather than using some variation on its existing iTunes brand – the tech giant got about registering the trademark in the name that it had chosen for its new streaming platform.

The BGH ruled that the admissibility of a second patent infringement suit is not automatically precluded by the lis pendens of a first infringement suit or by the legal force of a judgment based on the infringement of the same patent issued in a previous infringement dispute between the parties.

Marks & Spencer has begun legal action against Aldi, arguing the supermarket's Cuthbert the Caterpillar cake infringes its Colin the Caterpillar trademark.

Jack Daniel’s submitted its appeal to the court  (18 September) arguing for the previous verdict to be overturned. Jack Daniel’s, which is owned by Brown-Forman, was first taken to court by the maker of the Bad Spaniels Silly Squeakers dog toy in 2014 after the distiller sent cease and desist letters to the company.

Banksy has lost a battle with a greetings card firm over the trademark of one of his most famous works. North Yorkshire-based Full Colour Black challenged the artist's right to trademark his image of a protester throwing a bunch of flowers. The European Union trademark office has thrown out his trademark and accused him of being "inconsistent with honest practices" when trying to protect it.

The Conan Doyle Estate has filed a lawsuit claiming copyright infringement and trademark violations against Netflix, production company Legendary Pictures, book publishers Penguin Random House and others, including book author Nancy Springer.

Singer Eddy Grant filed a copyright lawsuit against Pres. Donald Trump's campaign in August, over a campaign video that his lawyers say illegally uses the singer's iconic 1983 song "Electric Avenue."

Managing IP rounds up the latest trademark, patent and copyright news, including some stories you may have missed

Warner Music Group (WMG), the record label of Ed Sheeran and Bruno Mars, estimates it is worth up to $13.2bn (£10.7bn), as it prepares to list its shares on the Nasdaq stock exchange.

The Comité Champagne (CIVC) has won its appeal against a Czech company, which filed a trademark application for the term ‘Champagnola’ to be used in the baking industry.

A former Apple engineer who claims the iTitan screwed him out of proper credit for his work has added an additional eight patents to his lawsuit against Cook & Co.

Apple has filed a patent in the US for flexible batteries, revealing possible plans for foldable iPhones and iPads. The patent information reveals that Apple is looking at different ways to fit battery cells in unusual shapes, such as cylinders, by making the batteries capable of bending and flexing

Alibaba and Ant Financial lead the ranking for blockchain patent applications, filing 2344 claims in total over the past two years.

While many high-flying startups falter as the world continues to reckon with the coronavirus pandemic, data storage company VAST Data joins the unicorn ranks. The New York-based company said today that it had closed a $100 million Series C, led by Siemens’ investment arm Next47, at a $1.2 billion valuation. 

Food delivery apps GrubHub, DoorDash, Postmates and Uber Eats were named in a class-action lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court that alleges price gouging during the coronavirus pandemic as well as before.

Amazon has been given the all-clear by the European Court of Justice after a legal battle over the sale of bottles of unlicensed Davidoff perfume. The German arm of beauty company Coty - which owns the Davidoff brand - went to court in a bid to stop Amazon storing and delivering the unlicensed products.

Airbnb is facing down a copyright infringement lawsuit in the US from multinational technology company IBM [The International Business Machines Corporation]. IBM filed the suit in Delaware this month, seeking to bar Airbnb from using technology it had patented, as well as to triple damages for past infringement.

A minicab app bidding to topple Uber in London is facing legal action over claims it underpaid the minimum wage – a move also intended to force it to provide drivers with workers’ rights.

The US chipmaker is alleging that Netflix has infringed eight of its patents that cover video playback and data transmission. In a story first reported in Variety, Broadcom says the infringement by the streamer has lead to an increase in cord cutting and with it a decline in the demand for its product.

TV naturalist Chris Packham has launched a legal challenge to HS2 high-speed rail link.

Liverpool FC have won a legal battle over a multimillion-pound sponsorship deal with the US company New Balance. Liverpool FC were taken to court over their alleged refusal to honor a reported £40m-a-year deal, which expires in May 2020.

Nigeria began opening talks with international oil companies to settle a dispute over revenue. The government, citing a 2018 Supreme Court ruling, declares it’s entitled to $62 billion from the companies after they failed to comply with a 1993 law that hands the state a greater share of income when oil exceeds $20 a barrel. The companies are challenging the claim.

Famous Street artist Banksy hit the headlines again recently after opening a store named Gross Domestic Product in South London. It is a shop window where people can see displayed objects and buy them online. Banksy said he had been pushed into setting up the store selling “offensive and impractical” merchandise because of a trademark dispute with a greetings card company.

Heavy metal rock band Metallica soon will be able to sell T-shirts and other apparel stamped with their famous logo in Chile after winning a trademark battle that’s lasted more than a decade.

Finjan Holdings Inc. filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Fortinet which stresses that the company’s FortiGate, FortiManager, and other technologies infringe some U.S. patents.

Rihanna’s fashion company which sells goods in association with sports retailer Puma is in a trademark lawsuit.

On October 1st, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit heard oral arguments in an appeal of a patent infringement case absolute in favor of Sprint Communications and against Time Warner Cable.

Microsoft are now cross-licensing more than 60,000 of its patents to existing members of the Open Invention Network.

The on-going dispute between Beats and co-founder Steven Lamar seems to be winding to a close. A jury has told Beats celebrities Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine to pay Lamar $25.2 million in royalties for breaching a contract.

The Supreme Court issued a opinion stating that a company could recover patent damages for lost profits overseas. The court’s reasoning could make overseas damages available in many patent cases. 

Forty years ago this week, in the case of Parker v. Flook. The US Supreme Court were close to banning software patents.

Facebook and Snap are pushing to have the patents behind Blackberry's massive infringement suit invalidated and thrown out. The two companies both filed (PDF) motions to dismiss their cases on the grounds the four patents cited by Blackberry in its complaints were invalid to use in court.
 

Chinese phone maker ZTE will have to face a patent infringement lawsuit in the US, despite its handsets being effectively barred from sale in America.

Hasbro, the internationally toy company, has been granted trademark rights to the very particular smell of Play-Doh. The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has granted Hasbro a trademark for the scent of Play-Doh. Meaning this smell, which you would recognise almost immediately if you played with Play-Doh when you were younger, is now officially property of Hasbro.

Irish band the Script are suing James Arthur for copyright infringement. The group claim that the X Factor winner’s 2016 comeback single Say You Won’t Let Go rips off their 2008 single The Man Who Can’t Be Moved. Arthur denies all of the claims.

In a regulatory filing, Hong Kong-listed Coolpad's Yulong unit has initiated a patent infringement case against Xiaomi with the Jiangsu Province Nanjing Intermediate People's Court.

A round Apple Watch could be a possibility. Apple was granted a patent for a round display that is likely intended for the Apple wearable. The design of the Apple Watch has hardly changed since it first launched in 2015, with each new generation keeping the rectangular body and display. The patent includes some images of what the circular display could look like. These images seem to depict a smartwatch, with straps and everything.

KitKat faces the loss of EU trade mark protection for its four-fingered chocolate bar, after a senior adviser to the European Court of Justice said the shape was not recognised by customers in enough countries.
 

A new patent application from Nintendo describes an exciting new idea from the Japanese gaming leader. It proposes a game system with multiple, disconnected touchscreens, wirelessly linked to form a single interface. The idea could open up some innovative and, in true Nintendo fashion, joyfully bizarre video gaming experiences.

Amazon says it does not eavesdrop on customers' conversations to target advertising at them, after it emerged it had patented "voice-sniffing" tech. The patent describes listening to conversations and building a profile of customers' likes and dislikes.

Online retail giant Amazon has patented a new artificial intelligence system that could be used in its smart speakers to track people's conversations. The patent application, which was filed last June, details technology that would allow the e-commerce firm to snoop on the things people are talking about in a bid to tailor advertisement campaigns.

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington DC has revived Oracle's bid to bill Google for billions over its use of copyrighted Java APIs in its Android mobile operating system.

a federal jury in St. Paul delivered its verdict in Solutran v. U.S. Bancorp and Elavon, Inc., a patent-infringement case involving check-processing technology. The jury found all four claims at issue in U.S. Patent No. 8,311,945 to be valid, and awarded $3.27 million in damages to Solutran against the defendants.

There are many different types of legal disputes that you might encounter when you own intellectual property. Trademark law protects consumers from confusion regarding the origin or source of a product or service. Trademarks can end up being a significant asset for your business because over time, your customers will be able to identify with the company. Your branding choices can make or break your business, and your trademarks will help you build that brand.

US-based internet service provider Grande Communications has a serious legal battle looming ahead. A Texas-based broadband communications company, Grande Communications offers internet, TV and phone services for residential and business customers.

EIFL is participating in Fair Use/Fair Dealing Week, an annual celebration designed to highlight the opportunities presented by fair use and fair dealing, celebrate success stories, and explain these doctrines. In 2018, Fair Use/Fair Dealing Week runs from 26 February – 2 March. Over 45 countries around the world have a fair use or fair dealing provision in their copyright law.

Guillermo del Toro and others associated with the Oscar contender "The Shape of Water" are facing a copyright infringement lawsuit brought by the estate of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paul Zindel.

Disney has lost a bid to stop movie rental company Redbox from reselling download codes for its films. Redbox bought Disney movies on DVD to offer for rental in its kiosks. The DVDs were often bundled with a code to download a copy of the film.

A US court has dismissed a lawsuit brought by Playboy Entertainment Group with leave to amend, as the facts produced failed to support the company’s copyright infringement allegation.

Grammy Award winning funk, soul band The Commodores—whose hit singles include Easy and Brick House—recently won a trademark infringement lawsuit against its ex-bandmate and founding member Thomas McClary, who left the band in 1984. The right to use The Commodoresname and trademarks belongs to a company run by founding members William King and Walter Orange, a Florida appellate court has ruled.

A training software provider has gone public with a copyright infringement lawsuit against Top 100 Firm Dixon Hughes Goodman and the Institute of Internal Auditors after a DHG employee published excerpts from some of its training materials on the firm’s website and it was later used by an IIA chapter as well.

Amazon, Google and Apple are all in the running to become the first ever company to be valued at one trillion dollars, with analysts believing we could see history being made as early as this year.
 

A federal copyright board has raised the music streaming royalties for songwriters and music publishers by more than 40 percent to narrow the financial divide separating them from recording labels.

An unsavoury dispute over trademarks has broken out after Marsh laid claim to the word, which was the name chosen by a couple of entrepreneurs for their London startup which is planning to launch its own insurance product.

Microsoft’s extended its “Azure IP Advantage” litigation protection shield to on-premises technology, by applying it to the Azure Stack hybrid-cloud-in-a-box systems.

Patents may sometimes get a bad rap for how they are abused (and misused) by some companies for commercial gain, but they also remain a marker of how a tech company is progressing with its R&D and pushing ahead on innovation.

Spotify has been hit with a lawsuit that accuses the streaming service of infringing the rights of songwriters and publishers. Wixen Music Publishing is seeking damages of at least $1.6bn (£1.2bn) - $150,000 for more than 10,000 songs.

3D tech specialist RealD has filed a patent infringement lawsuit in Germany against companies Volfoni and CinemaNext. The complaint filed to the District Court (Landgericht) in Düsseldorf, RealD allege that Volfoni SAS, Volfoni GmbH and CinemaNext Deutschland Gmbh have infringed three of the company’s European patents by sellling or preparing to sell the Volfoni SmartCrystal Diamond cinema systems in Germany.

During the first week of December, the second largest bank in the U.S., Bank of America (BOA), was awarded a cryptocurrency exchange patent. The BOA cryptocurrency trading platform’s concept summary outlines three types of accounts where users and businesses can swap digital assets instantly.

A new patent application from U.S. electronics giant Apple points to the potential use of blockchain within a prospective system for creating and verifying timestamps.

Energy Intelligence Group, the publisher of 15 newsletters for the oil and gas industry, has sued more than a dozen energy companies and investment houses in Houston for violating federal copyright law by buying a handful of subscriptions of its pricey publications and passing them around the office to non-subscribers.

Chromebooks could eventually sport a lid that automatically opens and closes with the touch of a finger. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published a patent last week filed by Google which it could even detect the position of the users face to automatically adjust the lid/screen for the optimal viewing position. 

A foldable iPhone could be in the works as the US Patent & Trademark Office has published a patent filed by Apple showing designs for a folding display.

Apple has been embroiled in another patent dispute, this time with the software company "Aqua Connect", which claims that it was the original inventor of remote desktop functionality for Macs. The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) has announced that it is investigating the matter.

We’ve known for some time that electronics company LG have been working with Valve on a new VR headset. A recent Trademark application revealed the name of the device as the LG UltraGear VR. Now a patent application has shown what the final design will look like.

The world's most profitable firm has a secretive new structure that would enable it to continue avoiding billions in taxes.

Profits at BT dipped in the second quarter partly due to higher payments for sports rights and a slowdown in its global corporate services division.

The draft intellectual property policy of the Department of Trade and Industry has been subjected to much debate between those seeking to preserve the status quo and those in favour of an overhaul.

The number of trademarks registered by financial services companies hit a record-high of 4,228 in 2016, according to professional services firm RPC. Financial trademarks have risen by 35% over the last five years, figures from the Intellectual Property Office show.

Mixtape sharing app Spinrilla has requested that the copyright infringement lawsuit filed against it by the US record industry be dismissed. The request has been made on the basis that the major record companies failed to hand over crucial data relating to the allegedly infringing tracks at the heart of the case. 

The Supreme Court declined Monday to review a petition asserting that the term "google" has become too generic and therefore unqualified for trademark protection.

A civil war is brewing in the normally convivial craft beer fraternity, as anxiety grows about the threat posed by multinational companies’ insatiable thirst for every last drop of the market.

A Korean band have granted copyright to Coldplay and The Chainsmokers, a DJ production duo, after criticism that the band’s “Don’t Wanna Cry” song is too similar to a track made by the parties.

A new patent from LG suggests the company has developed a new means of alleviating VR's 'screen door effect', which is where the gaps between a display's pixels are visible from within the headset.

Uber will not be issued a new private hire licence. TfL concluded the ride-hailing app firm was not fit and proper to hold a London private hire operator licence. Uber's current licence is due to run until 30 September. It has 21 days to appeal against TfL's decision and can continue to operate while any appeals are ongoing.

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Nokia (NOKIA.HE) will start to book additional revenue from the current quarter after a ruling by an arbitration court on payments from South Korea’s LG Electronics (066570.KS) for using its smartphone patents.

WeWork, which was valued at about $20bn in July after its latest funding round, is seeking to block UrWork from using or registering its company name as a trademark in the US, arguing the name is “deceptively similar” to WeWork’s and will confuse clients into believing the two are affiliated.

In leading your company's marketing efforts, you oversee data collection and assessment that includes information about customers and prospects. You may share intellectual property through email and cloud storage platforms. Although you need to openly transmit and use this data, transmitting and storing it may be a risk.

London law firm RPC has revealed that the number of trademark registrations for beer in the UK has risen by the highest level since 2007, a development the company states is due to the ‘craft beer revolution’.

The US trademark court office denied the US cereal brand’s appeal last week, capping their two-year campaign to claim the color yellow. 

Apple Pencil could one day expand to other devices, including future iterations of the iPhone, according to Patently Apple. The patent, describing a technique for "Noise Correction for a Stylus Touch Device," specifically says both a tablet and smartphone could make use of the tech. 

Costco was ordered to pay at least $19.4 million in damages to Tiffany & Co. August 14 over a diamond ring trademark infringement. 

Nintendo is being sued for copying elements of its Nintendo Switch console, allegedly infringing patents held by Gamevice.
 

Trading Technologies International, Inc, a developer of trading platforms for derivatives professionals in the electronic trading industry, has filed a trademark infringement case against Vela Trading Technologies LLC at the Illinois Northern District Court.

At the heart of making the internet of things a reality for millions of consumers worldwide, including across Europe, is the question of just how companies — both large and small — have access to standard essential patents (SEPs) on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms.

Model and reality star Kim Kardashian is being sued for copyright infringement over a logo she is using for her new cosmetics line, KKW Beauty.

Spotify faces another couple lawsuits. Back in May, the wildly popular music platform settled a $200 million class-action lawsuit from songwriters for $43 million, but the company is far from out of the woods. Two new lawsuits were launched earlier this week in Nashville, Tennessee, and they could certainly put a wrinkle in Spotify’s plans to IPO this year.

Chewing gum company Wrigley has filed a trademark and trade dress complaint against a company that sells liquid for e-cigarettes.

Philip Morris has been ordered to pay the Australian government after losing a lawsuit against it. The order, handed down by the Permanent Court of Arbitration, an intergovernmental organisation, redacted the sum from its decision.

There are lots of patents floating around that don’t represent bona fide inventions. The office that evaluates patent applications is overwhelmed, and doesn’t really have a mechanism to conclusively reject low-quality applications. As a result, clever and persistent lawyers can wrangle patents for long-established technologies like GPS tracking and scanning and emailing documents, without adding innovative ideas.

As legislators mull over updates to the EU Copyright Directive, UK Music Chairman Andy Heath warned Europeans could be in for an era of “cultural barbarism,” surely a buzzphrase which begs to bounce around the industry for the foreseeable future.

The company has filed for a patent for “multi-level fulfillment centers” that would accommodate the landing and takeoff of drones in dense urban settings, the latest example of Amazon’s futuristic vision of reshaping the way people receive packages.

The American Chemical Society’s (ACS) exam board has sued an online study help site for copyright violations, alleging “widescale and systemic infringement”.

The Pirate Bay can be held liable for copyright infringement, which could signal "the end" of the platform, according to a European Court of Justice ruling.

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on 12,06,2017 to decide whether a federal administrative process frequently used by technology companies to ward off patent infringement lawsuits violates the constitutional rights of patent owners.

The fictional drama within the comedy is not unlike many tech industry lawsuits in real life, including a 2014 case from the SEO industry that dragged on for more than three years and is still in limbo.

Spotify pulled out of a legal battle, settling a class action copyright lawsuit that has been hounding the streaming service since December 2015. The $43.4 million settlement comes after a year-and-a-half-long legal battle, which began when musician David Lowery filed a $200 ml class action accusing Spotify of knowingly distributing copyrighted songs without paying for mechanical licenses.

The US International Trade Commission has begun a patent infringement investigation into Nikon digital cameras, software & components. The investigation stems from a countersuit filed by Carl Zeiss and ASML, which the pair filed earlier this year in response to a lawsuit filed against them by Nikon.

Apple is trying to kill off an attempt by Smartflash to reverse a patents panel's ruling and thereby force Cupertino to hand it $533m in a Federal Circuit dispute.

Google doesn’t lose trademark even if it is a generic term for searching the Web. Google defeated a "genericide" lawsuit Tuesday that claimed Google should no longer be trademarked because the word "google" is synonymous to the public with the term "search the Internet."

Imagination Technologies has kicked off a "dispute resolution procedure" with the world's biggest tech company Apple, after the two sides were unable to come to an agreement over licensing. 

The Eagles are suing a hotel in Todos Santos, Mexico that bills itself as the Hotel California for trademark infringement and trying to capitalize off of the band's famous 1976 album and song. The band argues that the hotel has falsely led consumers to believe that it is associated with the Eagles and inspired

As the number of craft breweries in the United States has skyrocketed 5,234, a 16.2 percent increase from the year before, there has been a rise in trademark disputes. Beermakers are increasingly suing in federal courts to protect their brand names and logos.                                                                     

A lawsuit accuses U.S. headphone maker Bose of gathering data about listening habits without permission for the company to sell to other firms that then target users with advertisements.             

Apple went all-out in its patent assault on Samsung beginning in 2012, when Steve Jobs' promised "thermonuclear war" against Android became a reality. The patents used by the Cupertino device maker weren't just challenged in court, though. Various parties have challenged Apple's most important patents at the US Patent and Trademark Office.                                                              

Three of the world’s most established collection societies – ASCAP (US); SACEM (FR) and PRS For Music (UK) – are working together to improve the future of music copyright management.             

The three year-long battle between Huawei, the Chinese phone and telecoms equipment maker, and Unwired Planet, the owner of thousands of former Ericsson patents, has taken another twist in the UK High Court.                                                                                                                                           

The Big Bang Theory has won a major copyright lawsuit that had accused the show of stealing lyrics from Sheldon Cooper’s favourite song 'Soft Kitty'.                                                                                      

Asda has become the first supermarket to use the official Vegan Society trademark on its food, including bottles of vodka. The trademark is designed to give customers extra authenticity and assurance when buying vegan products.                                                                                                        

The US Patent & Trademark Office published a series of three patent applications all titled "Earbuds with Biometric Sensing." In Apple's patent filing they note that at least one of the biometric sensors within the earbud is configured to be pressed up against a portion of the ear known as the tragus that will allow the collection of biometric measurements.                                                                                  

Dentons is set to launch a UK patent prosecution and opposition practice with the hire of a team leaving Olswang ahead of its merger with CMS and Nabarro.                                                                         

Advanced materials science specialist, Oxford Performance Materials (OPM) has announced it has been granted a patent from the European Patent Office (EPO) for its invention on a 'Customised Implant for Bone Replacement'.                                                                                                                      

China has given US President Donald Trump the chance to expand his brand, after approving dozens of applications to register the Trump trademark.                                                                                                   

The Big Ten Conference has filed a lawsuit against the company behind B10xB and its principal shareholder Cesar L. Rodriguez. It claims that the B10xB trademark, used as a domain name and in connection with merchandise, is infringing on The Big Ten Conference's trademarks and diluting The Big Ten Conference's brand.                                                                                                            

Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Worldwide and Disney Online have been sued by three US-based brothers over wristbands. The suit concerns US patent number 6,490,443, called “Communication and proximity authorisation systems”, which Disney is alleged to have infringed through the MagicBand.                                                                                                                                       

Alphabet's autonomous vehicle company, Waymo - formerly Google's self-driving car division - is suing Uber and its subsidiary Otto, for allegedly stealing trade secrets and infringing patents.              

Cox Communications, a cable and internet company in Virginia, has been ordered to pay $8.4 million in legal fees to BMG Rights Management for copyright infringement. The record company sued Cox for copyright infringement because the ISP’s customers were sharing pirated content.                                                                                                                                                     

Adidas has initiated a trademark opposition with automaker Tesla. The German sportswear giant initiated an opposition proceeding with the U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeals Board to block the automaker from federally registering the logo for its Model 3 sedan. 

US-based energy drink manufacturer Monster Energy has filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against two businesses based in the country.                                                                                    

Forever 21 has filed suit, accusing multiple other retailers of copying its designs. The design at argument is a pair of ‘Ikat’ printed harem, which were ‘designed by Forever 21 in-house’ and the pattern for which has been protected by a federal copyright registration since 2013.                                                                 

Former Beatle Paul McCartney has litigated Sony's music publishing arm to regain ownership of many of the songs he wrote with fellow Beatle John Lennon including ‘Love Me Do’ and ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’.                                                                                                                                         

On November 9, 2016, Estate of Marilyn Monroe filed a lawsuit against defendant Fashion Central in the Southern District Court of New York for trademark infringement. The Estate of Marilyn Monroe is a brand development and licensing company that owns various trademark rights relating to the deceased, iconic celebrity, Marilyn Monroe.                                                                                                                                                     

A group of artists and designers have brought a copyright infringement suit against Francesca's, a retailer of women’s clothing and accessories. Eleven artists have joined the suit, in which copyright infringement penalties and damages could total as much as $4 million.

A federal judge has dismissed a $10 million lawsuit accusing Justin Bieber and Usher of illegally copying parts of their song "Somebody to Love" from an identically titled song by two Virginia songwriters.