Intellectual Property Rights - News Letter Issue No:2020--083
May 2020 Issue
1. Chevron Awarded More Than $15.6M In Trademark Dispute
Chevron has gotten a Texas jury's award of $1.1 million boosted to a final judgment of more than $15.6 million against a company that infringed its trademark to dupe other companies into doing business with it.
2. MRSI Files Patent Infringement Lawsuit Against Palomar Technologies
A Massachusetts federal judge on Thursday threw out Palomar Technologies Inc.'s lawsuit accus- ing rival MRSI Systems LLC of infringing its manufacturing patent, concluding there is "dramati- cally less to the claimed invention than meets the eye. More
3. Wuhan Institute of Virology (China) Sought to Patent Gilead’s Remdesivir
Gilead’s experimental drug remdesivir shows possibly the most promise of all experimental COVID-19 vaccine prospects as evidenced by China’s reported possible move, via the Wuhan In- stitute of Virology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, to patent the drug to treat coronavirus. The experimental drug isn’t licensed or approved anywhere yet, but it surely looks promising. Both remdesivir and chloroquine show promise, according to Chinese More
4. British American Tobacco Sues Altria and Philip Morris over IQOS
British American Tobacco is about two years behind Philip Morris Internation- al (NYSE:PM) in getting government approval for its heat-not-burn glo brand of electronic cigarette. But BAT may be able to play catch-up since it sued its rival earlier this month for patent infringement.The tobacco giant says Philip Morris' IQOS holder (which includes a rechargeable and reusable power unit, a disposa- ble tobacco stick, and a charger) violates its patents.Because British American has sued Philip Morris through the International Trade Commission (ITC) as well as in federal court, it may be able to block Philip Morris from importing the IQOS de- vice into the U.S. More
5. IPO & Harrity Analytics Release List of Top 300 Patent Holders for 2019
Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO) and Harrity Analytics announced the release of the 37th annual list of the top 300 organizations receiving U.S. utility patents (see "Top 300 Organiza- tions Granted U.S. Patents in 2019").This year, the report was compiled in collaboration with Har- rity Analytics, based on data obtained from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The IPO and Harrity Analytics noted that patents reported on the 2019 list are utility patents granted during the 2019 calendar year that listed the organization or a subsidiary as the owner on the printed patent document. 354,507 patents were issued in 2019, which was a 15.2% increase from the 307,759 patents that issued in More
6. Amarin's Vascepa Loses Patent Protection in Court Battle
Amarin Corporation plc (NASDAQ:AMRN) today commented on the United States District Court for the District of Nevada’s ruling in favor of the generic companies in the company’s patent litiga- tion against two filers of abbreviated new drug applications, or ANDAs, for Amarin’s VASCEPA® (icosapent ethyl) capsule franchise. Based on Amarin’s review of U.S. Food and Drug Administra- tion’s (FDA’s) website, an ANDA for VASCEPA has not been approved, which would be required for launch of a generic product in the United States. The company thus does not believe there is an impending generic launch by the litigants that would compete with VASCEPA at this time. More
7. AbbVie Says Recent Antitrust Ruling Irrelevant In Humira Case
AbbVie Inc. has told an Illinois federal court that a recent ruling in a case involving speech recog- nition technology is not relevant whatsoever to Humira buyers' allegations that the pharmaceutical giant used a "patent thicket" to illegally delay less-expensive biosimilars for the immunosuppres- sant.
8. US-Based Merck Banned From Using 'Merck' Trademark In UK
A London judge ruled Wednesday that U.S.-based Merck Sharp & Dohme violated the trademark rights of German drugmaker Merck KGaA enshrined in a decades-old co-existence agreement over their shared nomenclature by using the name on its own in British marketing.
9. PTAB Hears Oral Argument on Motions in Interference No. 106,115
Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) heard oral argument (remotely) from Senior Party the Broad Institute (and its partners as Senior Party, Harvard University and MIT) and Junior Party the University of California, Berkeley; the University of Vienna; and Emmanuelle Charpentier (col- lectively, "CVC") on the substantive motions filed in the Motions Phase of Interference No. 106,115.The Broad had four substantive motions to be decided by the Board: Broad's Substan- tive Motion No. 1, requesting the Board to find (as it had in the earlier, 105,048 interference be- tween these parties) that there was no interference-in-fact; Substantive Motion No. 2 to Substitute the Count; Broad's Substantive Motion No. 3 to de-designate claims as not corresponding to Count 1; and Broad's Substantive Motion No. 4 for priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/736,527. More
10. Apple challenges VoIP-Pal's latest patent suit, claims asserted IP is invalid
Apple on Friday countered a renewed legal pursuit from VoIP-Pal, an entity that leverages voice over IP patents against larger technology firms, saying it does not infringe on the patent-in-suit and attests the property's claim are invalid.In a complaint lodged with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Apple seeks to obtain a declaratory judgment stating non-infringement of a call and data routing patent owned by VoIP-Pal.On Tuesday, VoIP-Pal filed suit against Apple in the Western District of Texas, alleging infringement of U.S. Pa- tent No. No. 10,218,606 for "Producing routing messages for voice over IP com- munications." The entity is leveraging the same patent against Google, Facebook and Amazon in separately filed complaints. More
11. Coca-Cola dispenser patent win spiked at Fed Circuit
An appeals court on Monday revived a lawsuit accusing the Coca-Cola Company of infringing a patent on an internet-enabled soft drink dispenser.The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Cir- cuit vacated a lower court ruling that Coca-Cola’s Freestyle touchscreen soda fountain did not in- fringe a patent owned by Rothschild Connected Devices Innovations LLC, a non-practicing entity. More
12. Tesla, Dell Sued Over Wireless Tech by European Patent Licensor
Tesla Inc., Dell Inc., and seven other companies were sued by European patent-licensing company Sisvel International SA in Delaware federal court Friday for allegedly infringing pa- tents related to 3G and 4G wireless technology.Tesla’s Model S, Model 3, and Model X cars allegedly infringe nine Sisvel patents with its in-car wireless internet functionality.According to the complaint, a Dell mobile broadband wireless cellular modem and computers in its latitude and in precision line also infringe patents.
13. Barbaro Technologies, LLC v. Niantic, Inc. (N.D. Cal. 2020)
In the field of computer gaming, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California re- cently granted Defendants' Rule 12 motion alleging that claims 1, 3, and 6 of U.S. Patent No. 8,228,325 (the '325 Patent) are invalid as claiming patent-ineligible subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101. Plaintiff Barbaro Technologies, LLC (hereinafter "Barbaro") had contended that the video games Ingress and Pokémon Go, developed and published by Defendant Niantic, Inc. (hereinafter "Niantic"), infringed these claims. The suit also involves U.S. Patent No. 7,373,377, of which the '325 Patent is a divisional. However, Niantic's motion only addressed the claims of the '325 Patent. More
14. Valeant, Salix Defeat Whistleblower Suit Based on Patent Case
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. and Salix Pharmaceuticals Ltd. convinced a California federal court to dismiss a False Claims Act lawsuit alleging inflated drug pricing revealed in prior pa- tent proceedings.Zachary Silbersher’s suit claimed defendants fraudulently obtained a patent for the ulcerative colitis drug Apriso, wrongly excluded generic competitors, and overbilled Medicare for prescriptions. More
15. US The Plot Thickens: Sigma Aldrich Has Allowed Claims
For several years, Sigma Aldrich has been prosecuting several applications (including USSNs 15/188,911; 15/188,924; and 15/456,204) claiming CRISPR technology that (it alleged) would be deserving of an interference with University of California's U.S. Application Nos. 15/9547,718 and 15/981,809, and reserving the right to supplement its request to include other patents and patent applications owned by the University of California Berkeley et al. (collectively "CVC") as well as those of owned by The Broad Institute and colleagues (see "Sigma-Aldrich Wants Its Piece of CRISPR Pie" and "Sigma-Aldrich Tries Again"). Such an interference, if declared, threatened to upset the CVC/Broad apple cart regarding CRISPR-Cas-9 patent ownership, Sigma–Aldrich alleg- ing an earlier priority date than the Broad's earliest date and 3-7 months after CVC's earliest date. More
16. Biogen sues over 'brazenly' copied aducanumab drug
Biogen has sued Boston-based biotech Creative Biolabs for allegedly selling copycat versions of its unapproved Alzheimer’s disease (AD) hopeful aducanumab.The drug, a monoclonal antibody, works to inhibit amyloid beta clumps in the brain, which researchers believe (but have so far failed miserably to prove) is a cause of AD. More
17.Shoemaker Hit With Broad Injunction After $3M IP Fight
A Delaware federal court added legal fees and a severe injunction Wednesday to a $2.95 million jury award against a defunct shoemaker found to have copied design patents and trade dress belonging to the maker of Tieks
18. Huawei Loses Wireless Patent Fight At Fed. Circ.
A Federal Circuit panel on Thursday affirmed a Patent Trial and Appeal Board decision invalidating claims in a Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. wireless technology patent, finding that substantial evi- dence backed the board's determination that the claims were obvious. The patent, titled “Method and Apparatus for Sending Control Signaling,” describes a means of transmitting certain information needed for successful communication between two radio devices. Multiple claims of the patent had been challenged in 2017 by Samsung Electronics Co Ltd as part of a sprawling patent fight between the rival smartphone giants.
19. Idorsia Pharmaceuticals, Ltd. v. Iancu (Fed. Cir. 2020)
Idorsia Pharmaceuticals, Ltd. v. Iancu, the Federal Circuit affirmed a decision by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia granting summary judgment in favor of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Of- fice, finding that the District Court had correctly concluded that the Office properly calculated the Patent Term Adjustment for U.S. Patent No. 8,518,912. In particular, the District Court had determined that the Examiner's issuance of the first of three restriction requirements during prosecution of the application that issued as the '912 patent satisfied the notice requirement of 35 U.S.C. § 132, and thus ended any further ac- cumulation of "A Delay" for the '912 patent. More
20. Canon Settles Texas Patent Case Against TCL Over Roku TVs
Canon Inc. settled with TCL Electronics Holdings Ltd. in Texas federal court Friday over claims that TCL’s Roku TVs infringed five patents covering smart-TV technology. Canon sued TCL in 2018 for allegedly using Canon technology in its smart TVs’ de- sign, remote control, display, streaming, search, voice command, and cloud storage functions. It fended off an attempt to dismiss the case for a lack of jurisdiction over the China-based TCL in March.
21. Eagle Pharmaceuticals Inc. v. Slayback Pharma LLC (Fed. Cir. 2020)
Infringement under the doctrine of equivalents (as a basis of a successful cause of action hav- ing renewed vigor before the Federal Circuit recently (see, e.g., "Galderma Laboratories, L.P. Amneal Pharmaceuticals LLC") is most frequently rebutted by the doctrine of prosecution histo- ry estoppel ("Pharma Tech Solutions, Inc. v. Lifescan, Inc."). This is not the only defense avail- able to an accused infringer; its sister doctrine, of dedication-disclosure, can be equally effec- tive under circumstances where a patentee has disclaimed aspects or embodiments that could fall within the scope of equivalents but was disclaimed to avoid prior art, for lack of utility, or in- sufficiency of disclosure under 35 U.S.C. § 112. Last Friday, the Federal Circuit applied the dedication-disclosure doctrine to affirm the District Court's dismissal on the pleadings of plaintiff Eagle Pharmaceuticals' infringement allegations under the doctrine of equivalents in Eagle Pharmaceuticals Inc. v. Slayback Pharma LLC. More
22. US ITC to probe Philip Morris, Altria over alleged patent infringement
British The U.S. International Trade Commission said May 12 it will investigate certain tobac heating components in devices developed by Philip Morris International Inc. and ditributed by Altria Group Inc. following a complaint filed by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings Inc.The com- plaint filed by R.J. Reynolds and its vaping and tobacco units alleges that features of Philip Mor- ris and Altria's IQOS tobacco-heating device infringed on the U.S. patents for their heated to- bacco device called Glo. More
23. Who Invented Nobel Winner’s Cancer Patents Divides Fed. Cir.
A three-judge panel of the Federal Circuit appeared split at oral argument on Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s claims that a Nobel Prize winner’s fellow researchers should be named on his cancer immunotherapy patents.Japan-based Ono Pharmaceuticals Co., which owns the six patents, and patent licensee Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. appealed after a lower court ruled that the researchers—Gordon Freeman and Clive R. Wood—should be listed as co- inventors with Tasuku Honjo.U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Judges Alan D. Lourie and Kara F. Stoll had hard questions for the drug companies. “The district court found that all three doctors had a simultaneous focus on this pathway and using it to treat cancer. Doesn’t that defeat your argument?” Stoll asked Ono’s attor- ney.“Honjo in his Nobel lecture seemed to give quite a bit of credit to Drs. Freeman and Wood,” Lourie said. “They clearly worked together on what was claimed, right?” But Judge Pauline Newman seemed to side with Ono, saying Honjo’s statement reflects the “culture” of accepting a Nobel Prize and giving “credit to everybody who had any- thing to do with getting you where you are.” More
24. Hologic, Inc. v. Minerva Surgical, Inc. (Fed. Cir. 2020)
Federal Circuit "grappled," as the opinion put it, with the equitable doctrine of as- signor estoppel in Hologic, Inc. v. Minerva Surgical, Inc. The case arose in an in- fringement suit over U.S. Patent Nos. 6,782,183 and 9,095,348. The patents were directed to "procedures and devices for endometrial ablation." Claim 9 of the '183 patent and claim 1 of the '348 patent were considered by the Court to be representative. More