Dority & Manning and Wisnia PC Secure $3.1M Victory for Client in Copyright Suit

Denver, Colorado (March 14, 2024) – Dority & Manning and Wisnia PC proudly announce a significant victory for their client, The Capture Eleven Group, in a recent copyright lawsuit against Otter Products LLC. Following a trial in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, a federal jury ruled in favor of The Capture …

The Indefiniteness of a Limitation Precludes a Patentability Determination Only When Such Indefiniteness Renders the Patentability Determination Logically Impossible

Summary: In Intel Corp. v. Qualcomm Inc., a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“Federal Circuit”) held that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“Board”) was in error for failing to analyze the patentability of a claim containing indefinite means-plus-function limitations, stating that a patentability analysis is only precluded when …

Federal Circuit Provides Guidance On Prior Art Authentication And Publication Challenges

Summary:  In Valve Corp. v. Ironburg Inventions Ltd., a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“Federal Circuit”) held that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“Board”) improperly rejected the prior art status of a copy of an online article submitted as an exhibit, because the Board failed to compare the …

Federal Circuit Addresses Requirements for Printed Publication in M & K Holdings, Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co., No. 2020-1160 (Fed. Cir. Feb. 1, 2021).

Federal Circuit Addresses Requirements for Printed Publication in M & K Holdings, Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co., No. 2020-1160 (Fed. Cir. Feb. 1, 2021). In a case that involved both a presentation and publication, the Federal Circuit in M & K Holdings reiterated that the key inquiry for whether a reference is a “printed publication” …

USPTO Report Traces the Rapid Diffusion of Artificial Intelligence Technologies across U.S. Patent Filings

In recent years, artificial intelligence (“AI”) has had a transformative effect on a broad variety of industries, including natural language processing, drug discovery, finance, computer vision, and even transportation logistics. To protect these advancements, many companies have substantially increased their AI-related patent filings, or in some cases, have begun to consider AI-related filings for the …

USPTO Reports on Public Views of Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual Property Policy

Artificial intelligence (“AI”) is an emerging technology field that presents unique challenges in Intellectual Property (“IP”) protection and enforcement. Recognizing these challenges, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) issued a Request for Comments on Patenting Artificial Intelligence Inventions on August 27, 2019 and another Request for Comments on Intellectual Property Protection for Artificial …

Multi-Color Product Packaging may be Inherently Distinctive and Registrable as a Trademark

Summary: A recent Federal Circuit decision held that a multi-color mark applied to product packaging can be inherently distinctive as trade dress and, therefore, registrable under the Lanham Act without proof of secondary meaning.  Whether a particular trade dress is inherently distinctive requires an analysis of the Seabrook factors to determine whether, considering the overall …

States are Immune from Copyright Infringement Suits Because Congress did not Validly Abrogate State Sovereign Immunity

SUMMARY:  A recent Supreme Court decision affirmed the Fourth Circuit’s holding that states are immune from copyright infringement lawsuits under sovereign immunity, invalidating an earlier statute that purported to abrogate state sovereign immunity from copyright infringement.  However, the Court left open the possibility that a more tailored statute could be promulgated to address copyright infringement …

A Defendant in a Patent Infringement Suit Dismissed for Mootness Based on IPR Success is a “Prevailing Party” Entitled to Costs Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 54(d)

Summary: In B.E. Technology, L.L.C. vs. Facebook, Inc., No. 2018-2356 (Fed. Cir. October 9, 2019) [hereinafter “B.E. Tech”], the Federal Circuit ruled that a defendant in a patent infringement lawsuit dismissed for mootness due to the claims-at-suit being found unpatentable in a concurrent inter partes review is a “prevailing party” entitled to costs under Federal …

Patent Law Issues Embedded In State Law Claims May Not Create Federal Jurisdiction

SUMMARY: In Inspired Dev. Grp. v. Inspired Prods. Grp., No. 2018-1616, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 27989 (Fed. Cir. Sep. 18, 2019), the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit explained that claims related to patent license agreements are not necessarily viable in federal court.  Although federal courts generally have exclusive jurisdiction over patent …