Years after the Christian Louboutin v. Yves Saint Laurent battle over red soled shoes, trademark protection for color continues to be a hot topic. On August 22, 2017, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB”) held that General Mills was not entitled to a trademark registration for its yellow Cheerios’ box shown below:
On August 30, 2017, the PTAB issued a Final Written Decision in M & P Golf, LLC (d/b/a Cool Clubs) v. Max Out Golf, LLC, IPR2016-00784, Paper 43 (P.T.A.B August 30, 2017), entering adverse judgement on the original patent claims because those claims no longer existed in light of patentably distinct claims obtained by the Patent Owner in a concurrent ex parte reexamination.
On August 31, 2017, a jury in the Northern District of Texas returned a verdict of patent infringement in favor iLife and against Nintendo.
On August 23, 2017, a Massachusetts federal district court entered a second amended final judgement in favor of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Inc., and Investors Bio-Tech, L.P., against Perrigo Co., finding the asserted patent that protected Pepcid Complete® had been infringed by Perrigo’s sale of a generic product and the patent had not been proven invalid.
Partners Kerry S. Taylor, Ph.D. and Nathanael Luman, Ph.D. authored “Can I Appeal my Inter Partes Review? The Federal Circuit Clarifies Article III Standing for Petitioners” which was published on the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA) website.
In a creative move to take advantage of recent PTAB decisions regarding Sovereign Immunity, (see e.g., Covidien LP v. University of Florida Research Foundation, IPR2016-01274 and Neochord, Inc. v. University of Maryland, IPR2016-2016-00208; Reactive Surfaces LTD., LLP v. Toyota Motor Corp., IPR2017-00572) Allergan PLC announced that it will transfer six Orange Book (OB) listed patents for RESTASIS® to the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe (US Patent Nos. 8,629,111; 8,633,162; 8,642,556; 8,648,048; 8,685,930; and 9,248,191).
Recently, digital currencies, such as bitcoin, have greatly increased in popularity. Some of this popularity may be attributed to digital currencies’ many purported advantages over traditional currencies, such as that blockchain technology allows for a distributed and cryptographically secure ledger without the use of traditional banking institutions.
Seven years after Mylotarg® (gemtuzumab ozogamicin) was voluntarily withdrawn from the market, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has re-approved Mylotarg® product.
The Federal Circuit recently decided a patent subject-matter eligibility case relating to computer memory in Visual Memory LLC v. Nvidia Corp. In a divided opinion, the Federal Circuit reversed the district court and held Visual’s patent relating to “an enhanced computer memory system” as patent eligible.
On August 22, 2017, Emerging Implant Technologies GmbH (EIT) announced the acquisition of 22 patents and pending applications relating to 3D printed expandable spinal fusion cages based on living hinges from Dr. Morgan Lorio, a spinal surgeon based in Nashville, Tennessee.
