Fifth Circuit: Beyonce song does not infringe songwriter’s copyright In a decision last week, the Fifth Circuit affirmed a district court's grant of summary judgment of no copyright infringement. A plaintiff brought suit against the singer Beyoncé Knowles and several parties with whom she is associated alleging that Beyoncé's song "Baby Boy" infringed the plaintiff's work. The district court granted summary judgment of noninfringement […] Continue Reading →
Motions for summary judgment filed in lawsuit challenging claim and continuation rules Yesterday the parties filed their motions for summary judgment in the cases brought by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Dr. Tafas challenging the USPTO's new claim and continuation limit rules. Apparently the earlier order setting the deadline for amicus briefs did not apply to the parties' motions, as earlier speculated. The deadline for briefs in opposition is […] Continue Reading →
Eleventh Circuit: No likely confusion between stylized logos for competing welding companies In a decision this week, the Eleventh Circuit affirmed a grant of summary judgment of no service mark infringement. The court held that there were no triable issues of fact as to whether the companies' service marks were confusingly similar, the existence of actual confusion, and the defendant's intent.More details of Welding Servs., Inc. v. […] Continue Reading →
Ninth Circuit: Attorney fees only available for trademark counterfeiting when actual damages sought In a decision Tuesday, the Ninth Circuit reversed a district court's decision awarding $100,000 in attorney's fees for trademark counterfeiting under 15 U.S.C. § 1117(c). The court reached this decision based on the language of § 1117: While § 1117(b), the provision allowing attorney's fees, states that they shall be awarded when damages are assessed […] Continue Reading →
First Circuit: Copyright statute of limitations applies to accounting claims between joint authors In a decision last week, the First Circuit held that a purported assignee of a joint author of a copyrighted work was barred by the Copyright Act's three-year statute of limitations from seeking an accounting of profits, even though the state statute of limitations for seeking such an accounting had not yet run.The plaintiff had […] Continue Reading →
Summary judgment deadline now December 27 in lawsuit challenging new rules; one more amicus joins in The deadline for summary judgment motions in the lawsuit challenging the new claim and continutation rules has apparenlty been extended from December 20 to December 27. While no modified scheduling order has yet appeared on PACER, in the court's order yesterday granting leave for the various amici who sought to file briefs at the summary […] Continue Reading →
Summary judgment motions due December 20 in lawsuit challenging new claim and continuation rules It's been awhile since our last update on the lawsuit challenging the USPTO's new claim and continuation limit rules. Here's a brief rundown of what's happened since the court granted Glaxo's motion for preliminary injunction, temporarily preventing implementation of the rules: Tafas noticed the depositions of Jon Dudas (USPTO director), John Doll (commissioner for patents), […] Continue Reading →
USPTO to be closed December 24 In a press release today, the USPTO announced it will be closed on December 24. December 25 is, of course, a federal holiday, meaning the USPTO will be closed for four consecutive days. From the release: Any action or fee due on those days (or the preceding Saturday (December 22, 2007) or Sunday (December 23, […] Continue Reading →
New IDS rules approved by Office of Management and Budget Yesterday the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approved without change the USPTO's new rules regarding information disclosure statements. The rules had been challenged at the OMB in an effort to prevent their implementation, but that challenge was apparently unsuccessful. The text of the final rules is not yet available, but the abstract and previous […] Continue Reading →
Sixth Circuit: Internet downloads not “manufactured,” so logo placement agreement inapplicable In a recent decision, the Sixth Circuit held that several agreements relating to logo placement on media incorporating songs by Meat Loaf did not encompass internet downloads. The court reached this decision based on a key paragraph in the most recent agreement: Sony Music will continue to place the Cleveland logo (in the design currently […] Continue Reading →