The Seventh Circuit ruled that email service on Chinese defendants in Schedule A trademark counterfeiting cases is improper under the Hague Service Convention, but remanded for the district court to determine whether the Convention applies.
Orange County Superior Court sustains demurrer on Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code section 14245 trademark infringement and section 14247 dilution counts for ambiguous mark identification, missing state registration, and conclusory scienter allegations, while allowing a conversion claim premised on a trademark to proceed.
Orange County Superior Court dismisses four federal trademark cancellation counts without leave to amend, holding that newly added Bus. & Prof. Code section 17500 and 17200 claims are merely repackaged ownership disputes that do not qualify as causes of action ‘involving a trademark registration’ under 15 U.S.C. section 1119.
A Massachusetts federal jury found that Abiomed’s Impella heart pump devices do not infringe Maquet Cardiovascular’s intravascular blood pump patents, ending a long-running patent dispute between the Johnson & Johnson and Getinge subsidiaries.
The Federal Circuit vacated the PTAB’s decision upholding an e-learning patent, finding the Board improperly dismissed expert testimony on obviousness as ‘conclusory’ when it addressed a simple design choice of reordering two steps.
The Federal Circuit reversed a $452 million jury verdict, holding that Insulet’s trade secret misappropriation claim under the Defend Trade Secrets Act was time-barred because Insulet knew or should have known of the alleged misappropriation more than three years before filing suit.
The Federal Court of Australia reversed a trademark opposition decision, finding that On Clouds’ and Cyclonic’s footwear marks are deceptively similar based on combined visual, aural, and conceptual similarities relating to the shared idea of a ‘cyclone.’
The Sixth Circuit reversed summary judgment for George Clinton and his company Thang, holding that genuine disputes of material fact exist about whether the late P-Funk keyboardist Bernie Worrell was a co-author and co-owner of the group’s sound recordings under copyright law.
In a certified-for-publication opinion, the California Court of Appeal reversed dismissal of Guild Mortgage’s claims against CrossCountry Mortgage for aiding and abetting employee duty-of-loyalty breaches, holding for the first time that California’s trade secret statute does not preempt civil claims under the state’s computer fraud act.
A federal judge denied PhillyWine LLC’s emergency motion for a preliminary injunction seeking to stop the Wine School of Philadelphia from using the ‘Philly Wine School’ trademark, finding the challenger showed only sporadic prior use of the name.
A Northern District of Illinois judge reduced a $58.9 million jury verdict to $10.4 million in a decade-long trade secret case involving fleet management technology for garbage trucks, finding that while the defendant’s conduct was reprehensible, the damages were excessive.
The Federal Circuit affirmed judgment as a matter of law that DISH Network’s AutoHop commercial-skipping feature does not infringe ClearPlay’s content-filtering patents, finding that AutoHop uses categorical on/off settings rather than directly disabling individual navigation objects.
A D.C. federal judge denied motions to dismiss copyright infringement claims brought by a jury consultant against three defense attorneys who downloaded her copyrighted jury-attitude report from a public court docket and filed it in support of their own clients’ January 6 venue-transfer motions without permission or payment.
The Delhi High Court issued a permanent injunction against Google and awarded damages, holding that Google’s auction of the registered trademark ‘HINDWARE’ as a biddable keyword in its Ads program constitutes trademark infringement and that Google does not qualify for safe harbour protection as an intermediary.
The Delhi High Court Division Bench upheld a temporary injunction restraining Dabur from selling its ‘Cool King Thanda Tael’ cooling hair oil, finding its trade dress deceptively similar to Emami’s Navratna Oil — holding that a distinctive ensemble of red packaging, hibiscus imagery, and cooling motifs acquired secondary meaning over three decades.
A Central District of California judge denied motions to dismiss Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros.’ copyright claims against the makers of Hailuo AI, finding that the video-generation tool’s reproduction of iconic characters like Spider-Man and Darth Vader plausibly constitutes both direct and contributory infringement.
A federal court in the Southern District of California dismissed all claims from five ad-viewability and ad-refresh patents as patent-ineligible under Section 101, finding they recite abstract ideas of determining whether a webpage area is visible and sending content based on that determination.
An Eastern District of Texas jury awarded SK nexilis $3.3 million after finding that Solus Advanced Materials and its Volta Energy subsidiaries willfully infringed five patents covering electrolytic copper foil manufacturing methods used in electric vehicle batteries.
The Federal Circuit affirmed the PTAB’s finding that all 17 claims of Pictometry’s patent on measuring roofs from aerial imagery are unpatentable as obvious over prior art combining roof-measurement and marker-locking references.
The Federal Circuit reversed a district court’s reduction of an $82 million jury verdict for breach of contract to just $3, and held that trade secret plaintiffs have a statutory right to pursue unjust enrichment damages under both the DTSA and Michigan’s trade secrets act.
A federal court in the Eastern District of Missouri denied cross-motions for summary judgment in a trade secret case where departing employees allegedly prepared requests for proposals for a competitor while still employed, sending the case to trial on misappropriation and fiduciary duty claims.
A federal magistrate in Kansas recommended adverse inference sanctions against OPISystems for spoliation of evidence in a trade secret case involving stolen agricultural grain-bin management source code, after finding that a former employee stored proprietary code on personal devices and a competitor failed to preserve it.
A federal court in the Eastern District of California dismissed trademark infringement claims involving the ALIEN mark for nicotine products after the plaintiff failed, even on a second attempt, to adequately plead priority of use over the defendant’s ALIENLABS mark for cannabis products.
The Federal Circuit affirmed that Lupin’s generic tolvaptan manufacturing process does not infringe Otsuka’s patents and that certain synthesis method claims are obvious, clearing the way for a generic version of the kidney disease drug JYNARQUE®.
The Federal Circuit affirmed the PTAB’s finding that all claims of a synchronized-browsing patent were unpatentable as obvious, rejecting the patent holder’s bid to narrowly construe the key claim term “web browsing interaction data.”
A Delaware jury unanimously found that Cummins Inc. misappropriated C3 AI trade secrets and awarded $23.3 million in damages, adding to the growing body of high-value trade secret verdicts involving proprietary AI technology.
In a patent litigation over cancer diagnostics, a federal court adopted sanctions totaling nearly $3 million against Quinn Emanuel and five named attorneys, plus a $100,000 punitive sanction and mandatory ethics training, for deliberately misleading the court about an expert’s access to embargoed clinical trial data.
An Ohio federal court entered a $1 million default judgment against a convicted counterfeiter who placed unauthorized NIJ certification marks on body armor sold to law enforcement, ordering permanent injunction and destruction of infringing goods.
A New Jersey federal court denied a preliminary injunction in a dispute between competing waterfront restaurants, holding that a restaurant logo known only in a regional market is not ‘famous’ enough for federal trademark dilution protection.
The Third Circuit vacated the dismissal of a copyright infringement complaint against 54 foreign e-commerce defendants, holding the district court’s standing order failed to properly analyze personal jurisdiction under the purposeful availment test.
The Sixth Circuit holds that district courts may not require ‘clear and convincing evidence’ for each preliminary injunction factor in trade secret cases, reversing a lower court’s denial of injunctive relief against an engineer who allegedly took proprietary documents to a competitor.
A federal judge enters a $19.5 million default judgment against shadow library Anna’s Archive and orders global registries to disable the site’s remaining domains, marking the second massive judgment against the piracy operation in 2026.
In a closely watched case, Judge Gilstrap denied a permanent injunction against Samsung despite a $445.5 million willful infringement verdict, finding that the non-practicing patent owner failed to show the balance of hardships favored relief — even though the court accepted its irreparable harm argument, supported by an unusual joint DOJ-USPTO Statement of Interest.
In a companion case to ALM Holding v. Zydex, the Federal Circuit held that Medtronic Ireland retained Article III standing to assert patent infringement counterclaims despite licensing exclusive rights to an affiliate, because it kept the right to sue, sublicensing veto, and royalty interests.
The Federal Circuit reversed a dismissal for lack of standing, holding that a patent owner who grants an exclusive license but retains the right to sue, a sublicensing veto, and royalty interests retains a sufficient exclusionary right for Article III standing.
The Delhi High Court Division Bench reversed a single judge’s infringement and damages decree against DVD importers, holding that Philips failed to prove its DVD decoding patent was essential to the standard and that the defendants’ imports from licensed manufacturers triggered patent exhaustion under Section 107A(b) of the Indian Patents Act.
An Oregon federal court partially dismissed adidas’s trademark infringement claims, holding that plaintiffs must identify which specific registered marks are infringed rather than pleading a ‘unitary branding device’ across multiple registrations.
A federal court in Texas entered a $12.97 million judgment and permanent injunction against Talaria for willfully infringing Surron’s design patent covering its popular Light Bee electric off-road motorcycle.
The full Federal Circuit denied en banc rehearing of its February 2026 panel decision affirming a $71.4 million verdict for infringement of Willis Electric’s pre-lit Christmas tree connector patent, rejecting Polygroup’s challenge to the damages expert methodology.
The Supreme Court denied certiorari in Rideshare Displays’ challenge to the Federal Circuit’s invalidation of vehicle identification system patents under Section 101, where the court also declined to follow the USPTO’s own eligibility guidelines.
The Supreme Court denied certiorari in CAO Lighting’s challenge arguing that the Federal Circuit’s one-line Rule 36 affirmances of PTAB decisions violate the statutory mandate for judicial ‘opinions’ under Loper Bright principles.
The Supreme Court denied certiorari in USAA v. PNC Bank, leaving intact the Federal Circuit’s ruling that mobile check deposit patents are unpatentable abstract ideas under Section 101, effectively killing $222.8 million in jury verdicts.
The Supreme Court denied certiorari in USAA’s challenge to the Federal Circuit’s invalidation of mobile check deposit patents under Alice, leaving the abstract-idea framework unchanged despite broad industry support for review.
A Delaware federal judge upheld two patents covering UCB’s Nayzilam seizure medication after a bench trial, finding that Cipla failed to prove the patents invalid as anticipated or obvious—preserving UCB’s market exclusivity just as the drug’s orphan drug protection expired.
The Seventh Circuit affirmed dismissal of right of publicity, doxing, and defamation claims arising from Facebook dating-group posts, holding that Meta’s ad-based revenue model does not create a ‘commercial purpose’ under Illinois law merely because advertisements appear near user-generated content featuring someone’s likeness.
The Federal Circuit affirmed dismissal of a patent infringement case involving a unified electronic banking system, finding surviving claims obvious in light of an IPR outcome, but reversed both the exceptional-case attorney fee award and sanctions against counsel, holding that mere invalidity is insufficient for Section 285 fees.
USPTO Director Squires issued a precedential decision denying IPR institution, articulating six principles limiting AIA proceedings and finding that the petition improperly sought to relitigate issues resolved at a completed jury trial.
A Delaware federal judge overturned the jury’s willfulness finding in Express Mobile’s $170 million patent verdict against GoDaddy over web-design technology, preventing potential treble damages while leaving the base verdict intact.
A federal judge in San Francisco granted GoPro judgment as a matter of law that the sole remaining valid patent claim covering its action camera live-preview technology was invalid, overturning an $8.2 million jury damages award in a case that has been litigated for over a decade.
A federal court in Pennsylvania granted summary judgment to a photographer whose copyrighted image was republished without permission on a commercial dog breeder’s blog, rejecting the defendant’s fair use defense on all four statutory factors.