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By: Sharon Urias, Esq. TiVo Inc., based in Alviso, California, announced last week that it has reached a deal in its patent lawsuit against Cisco, Motorola and Time Warner Cable just in time to avoid a court trial. TiVo sued the three companies over infringement of its pioneering digital video recorder technology. In the agreement reached between TiVo and the three companies, Google Inc. – Google bought Motorola in 2012 – and Cisco Systems Inc., will make a lump-sum payment of $490 millio
As regular readers of this blog know, I advocate using the USPTO’s Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP) as primary authority during prosecution. This is by no means a per se rule, however. There are times when I find judicial authority more effective. One situation where judicial decisions have been particularly helpful has been when prosecuting claims directed to a “simple” (i.e., “elegant”) solution to a problem.
By: Sharon Urias, Esq. Mutual of Omaha, an Omaha-based insurer and bank operator and one of Omaha’s largest companies, has filed a lawsuit against a carpet company for using the Wild Kingdom trademark to promote its flooring. “Wild Kingdom” was a very popular animal show produced by Mutual of Omaha between the years 1963-1988. The half-hour, Emmy award winning show was hosted by zoologist Marlin Perkins and featured footage of wild animals from exotic locations all over the world.
By: Sharon Urias, Esq. A company that successfully sued Microsoft for over $400 million dollars in 2004 for patent infringement, is now suing Apple for patent infringement, as well. Software developer Intertrust Technologies based out of Sunnyvale, California, filed the infringement suit for fifteen patents on “security and distributed trusted computing”, basically the same patents listed in the company’s successful litigation against Microsoft.
Software is complex, which makes threats to the software supply chain more real every day. 64% of organizations have been impacted by a software supply chain attack and 60% of data breaches are due to unpatched software vulnerabilities. In the U.S. alone, cyber losses totaled $10.3 billion in 2022. All of these stats beg the question, “Do you know what’s in your software?
By: Sharon Urias, Esq. On Monday, in a case known as “David vs. Goliath,” the Supreme Court of the United States unanimously ruled that a 75-year-old farmer violated patent rights of Monsanto when he purchased and then planted a mix of seeds that included patented Roundup Ready soybean seeds. Monsanto has a policy to protect its investment in seed development, and this policy bans farmers from saving or reusing the seeds once the crop is grown, which means farmers have to buy new seeds every ye
By: Sharon Urias, Esq. In 2010, Justin Bieber, the wildly popular teen pop star, released a song, “Somebody to Love” with Usher providing back up vocals. The song hit Number 15 on the U.S. Billboard chart. Two individuals in the music industry, Devin Copeland, and Mareio Overton, have filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Usher and Bieber alleging they, not Bieber and Usher, came up with the song “Somebody to Love.
By: Sharon Urias, Esq. International Trade Commission (ITC) Judge David Shaw sided with Microsoft in its battle with Motorola Mobility, Inc., over the Xbox 360 gaming console. The two companies have been battling for several years over whether or not Microsoft violated Motorola’s wireless connectivity patent in the Xbox video game console. Although the ITC ruled last April the Xbox did violate several patents Motorola held for video decoding, Wi-Fi connections, and console-to-accessory connecti
By: Sharon Urias, Esq. International Trade Commission (ITC) Judge David Shaw sided with Microsoft in its battle with Motorola Mobility, Inc., over the Xbox 360 gaming console. The two companies have been battling for several years over whether or not Microsoft violated Motorola’s wireless connectivity patent in the Xbox video game console. Although the ITC ruled last April the Xbox did violate several patents Motorola held for video decoding, Wi-Fi connections, and console-to-accessory connecti
By: Sharon Urias, Esq. Can a company be granted a patent on the genes in the human body? This very controversial subject was heard by the Supreme Court on Monday, and, according to an article online at nbcnews.com , the majority of the justices who heard the arguments are likely to rule that a gene cannot be patented. Myriad Genetics, a company based in Utah, does own patents on two parts of human genes known as BRCA 1 and BRCA 2, named for the first two letters of the words breast and cancer.
By: Sharon Urias, Esq. Candy bars come in all flavors, shapes and sizes: from plain chocolate, nougat, caramel and other flavors: in squares, rectangles, drops and a variety of other shapes; and from snack-size all the way up to king-size, a consumer can satisfy his sweet tooth in a variety of ways. Although one company’s candy bar may have basically the same ingredients and taste quite a bit like another company’s candy bar, after a trademark ruling in January of this year, it cannot have t
By: Sharon Urias, Esq. A decision by India’s Supreme Court last month was hailed by health activists, but looked upon as a deterrent to medical research in India by a major drug company. Novartis AG had attempted to patent an updated version of the cancer drug Glivec as the company argued it needed the patent to protect its investment. However, the India Supreme Court in a landmark decision ruled that a patent could only be given to a new drug, not a drug that was slightly different from the ori
By: Sharon Urias, Esq. A Manhattan jury earlier this month ordered Nintendo to pay $30.2 million in damages to Tomita Technologies for patent infringement. The jury found that Nintendo used Tomita’s 3D technology in the Nintendo 3DS without permission. Sejiro Tomita worked for Nintendo for thirty years until 2002. After leaving the company, he applied for the patent in issue in March of 2003, and the patent was issued in 2008 licensed to Tomita Technologies.
Women and diverse employees have the technical skill and knowledge, yet their contributions are not patented at the same rate as those of their male counterparts.This toolkit can help organizations move the needle on achieving gender parity in innovation.
By: Sharon Urias, Esq. A sigh of relief was heard last week by millions of Americans who sell used items on internet sites such as eBay or Amazon, and also at garage sales, church raffles or flea markets when the United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of Supap Kirtsaeng. Kirtsaeng is a young man from Thailand who is attending college in the United States.
By: Sharon Urias, Esq. The Pirate Bay (TPB), a file-sharing site based in Sweden known for its piracy of movies, video games and music, is threatening to sue an antipiracy site for copyright infringement. Last week, a Finnish antipiracy group, the Copyright Information and Antipiracy Centre (CIAPC), launched the antipiracy site, Piraattilahti – Pirate Bay in Finnish – by using both TPB’s symbols and site code.
By: Sharon Urias, Esq. After twenty years together, the Stone Temple Pilots not only fired their lead singer Scott Weiland, but filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against him, as well. The lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court by three original band members, alleges the former lead singer of the band breached his contract with Stone Temple Pilots by using the Stone Temple Pilots’ name, trademark, copyright, logos and artwork after he was fired from the band.
By: Sharon Urias, Esq. Just two days after the Boston Marathon bombing, two companies applied to trademark the words “Boston Strong.” Two separate Massachusetts-based applicants have filed requests with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to trademark the phrase, which became a rallying cry for Boston, to use for clothing and accessories. Though seen as opportunists trying to make a buck off a tragedy by many, both parties claim their intentions are good.
By: Sharon Urias, Esq. Early last month, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) ruled there is only one true Evil Empire of baseball and it is the New York Yankees. This ruling gives the Yankees all rights to its nickname Evil Empire, and even though the team has never registered the nickname as a trademark, the ruling prevents others from doing so.
By: Sharon Urias, Esq. In a 2-1 ruling last month, the U.S. Court of Appeals upheld the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s decision that allows Disney to retain trademark ownership rights to Winnie-the-Pooh. The battle over who has ownership of Winnie-the-Pooh has been going on for more than twenty years between Disney and the Slesinger family. Stephen Slesinger was granted exclusive merchandising rights to Winnie-the Pooh characters back in the 1930’s by Pooh’s creator, A.A.
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