U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
The Fifth Circuit rejected the Ninth Circuit’s server test but held that framed links did not infringe because Particle did not transmit the publisher’s content, while allowing a fact-specific DMCA claim over URLs to continue.
The Fifth Circuit revived architectural copyright claims after distinguishing building-design rights from plan copyrights, but held that newly created images lacking CMI did not violate DMCA section 1202(b).
The Fifth Circuit held that Section 230 preempts Texas’s mandate requiring social-media platforms to monitor and filter specified third-party content for minors.
The Fifth Circuit affirmed dismissal of a trade secret misappropriation lawsuit filed by a dissolved Louisiana LLC, holding that under FRCP 17(b)(3) the relevant law is the state where suit is filed—Texas—and Texas law does not allow dissolved entities to bring new claims.
The Fifth Circuit revived a trade secret RICO claim, holding that the systematic acquisition of trade secrets—not merely their ongoing use—can satisfy RICO’s ‘pattern of racketeering activity’ requirement, potentially enabling treble damages and attorney fees for trade secret owners whose secrets were stolen in a pattern of competitive IP raids.
The Fifth Circuit affirmed that a golf-cart seller’s “TROJAN-EV” mark infringed Trojan Battery’s famous TROJAN trademark and upheld $4.7 million in disgorgement, but vacated a permanent injunction as overbroad for covering products outside the golf industry.
The Fifth Circuit held that U.S. statutory copyright termination and renewal recapture worldwide rights, not just U.S. territorial rights — breaking with decades of consensus and creating a circuit-level fault line in international copyright law.