Tenth Circuit, Trademark, Federal

KetoNatural Pet Foods v. Hill’s Pet Nutrition — Tenth Circuit Revives Lanham Act Claims Over Alleged Grain-Free Dog Food Smear Campaign

/

The Tenth Circuit reversed dismissal of Lanham Act false advertising claims, holding that Hill’s Pet Nutrition’s website statements and veterinary education materials could constitute actionable commercial speech when they allegedly disparaged grain-free competitors—and that the “establishment claim doctrine” allows courts to probe whether cited science actually supports the marketing claims made.

Federal Circuit, Utility Patent

Google LLC v. Parus Holdings — Federal Circuit Vacates IPR Decision, Faults PTAB for Analyzing Prior Art in Isolation and for Secret Claim Construction

/

The Federal Circuit vacated a PTAB decision upholding Parus Holdings’ voice-browsing patent against Google’s IPR challenge, holding that the Board improperly analyzed prior art in isolation rather than in combination, secretly construed a claim term without notice to Google, and failed to explain its inconsistency with earlier IPR rulings on related Parus patents.

District Courts, Utility Patent

Valjakka v. Netflix — Judge Awards $3M Attorney Fees After Finnish Inventor Concealed Foreign Court’s Patent Ownership Ruling

/

A Northern District of California judge awarded Netflix $3 million in attorney fees after finding that plaintiff Lauri Valjakka and his counsel committed fraud by asserting ownership of U.S. Patent No. 8,495,167 while concealing a Finnish court’s prior determination that Valjakka did not own the patent — rendering the entire suit objectively baseless from its inception.

Federal Circuit, Utility Patent

Ridge Corp. v. Kirk NationaLease — Federal Circuit Reverses Preliminary Injunction, Finding Substantial Non-Infringement Questions on Three Patent Claim Limitations

/

The Federal Circuit reversed a preliminary injunction in a patent dispute over insulated truck cargo doors, holding that the accused ‘sandwich’ panel door raised substantial questions of non-infringement under three separate claim limitations and that the patentee failed to show irreparable harm.

Fourth Circuit, Trade Secret, Federal, Trademark, Federal

dmarcian, Inc. v. DMARC Advisor BV — Fourth Circuit Upholds Cross-Border IP Injunction Under Abitron’s Conduct Test

/

The Fourth Circuit affirmed a preliminary injunction against a Dutch software company’s use of an American company’s brand and trade secrets, holding that Abitron Austria’s conduct-focused test for the territorial reach of U.S. IP law is satisfied where the defendant directly targeted U.S. customers online.

IP Law, Other International

Illiquidx Ltd v. Altana Wealth — UK Court of Appeal Upholds Trade Secret Protection for Venezuelan Debt Fund Strategy

/

The England and Wales Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal by Altana Wealth and Brevent Advisory, upholding the High Court’s finding that they misused Illiquidx’s confidential information—a strategy for creating a sanctions-compliant Venezuelan debt fund—when they launched a competing fund after their joint venture collapsed.

Other International (India), Right of Publicity

Preity Zinta v. Google LLC — Bombay High Court Orders Takedown of 275 AI Deepfakes and Chatbot Personas

/

India’s Bombay High Court ordered Google, Meta, and X to remove approximately 275 deepfake videos, AI-generated chatbot personas, and morphed images exploiting actress Preity Zinta’s name and likeness — marking one of India’s first significant judicial interventions against AI-generated personality-rights violations.

Eighth Circuit, Trade Secret, Federal

Wilbur-Ellis Company v. Gompert — Eighth Circuit Affirms Dismissal of Trade Secret Claims for Lack of Specificity

/

The Eighth Circuit affirmed summary judgment for four former employees, holding that Wilbur-Ellis Company’s trade secret claims failed because it never specifically identified what trade secrets were taken or how — and that the coordinated mass departure to a competitor did not, without more, breach the employees’ duty of loyalty.

Sixth Circuit, Trademark, Federal

Nelson v. MillerKnoll — Sixth Circuit Rules Authorization Defeats Bubble Lamp Trademark Claims

/

The Sixth Circuit affirmed summary judgment for MillerKnoll, holding that the Nelson family authorized the company’s ownership of the iconic George Nelson Bubble Lamp trademarks through a 2006 royalty agreement — and in a precedential ruling, confirmed that authorization defeats unregistered trademark infringement claims under Lanham Act § 1125(a).

Federal Circuit, Patent Subject Matter Eligibility

Dental Monitoring SAS v. Align Technology — Federal Circuit Holds AI-Powered Dental Imaging Patents Ineligible Under § 101

/

The Federal Circuit affirms invalidation of two Dental Monitoring patents covering deep-learning dental arch image analysis, holding that applying generic machine learning to a new domain — orthodontic imaging — does not supply the “inventive concept” required for patent eligibility under § 101.

Federal Circuit, Patent Subject Matter Eligibility

Etison LLC (ClickFunnels) v. HighLevel — Federal Circuit Affirms Invalidity of Sales Funnel Website Patents Under Alice

/

The Federal Circuit affirmed that ClickFunnels’ sales-funnel website creation patents are invalid under § 101, holding that the abstract idea of “filtering information based on user preferences” cannot be rescued by conventional template-selection and sequential-webpage features, while also clarifying the burden-shifting framework for representative-claim analysis.

IP Law, UK Courts

easyGroup Ltd v. Cubico (Easy Bathrooms) — UK IPEC Rejects “Easy” Family-of-Marks Claim After 13 Years of Coexistence

/

A UK Intellectual Property Enterprise Court judge dismisses all trademark infringement and passing-off claims by easyGroup (the entity behind easyJet, easyHotel, and related brands) against bathroom retailer Easy Bathrooms, ruling that the claimant failed to prove a legally recognisable “family of marks” and that 13 years of market coexistence demonstrated no consumer confusion.

Scroll to Top