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 First Board of Appeal of the European Union Intellectual Property Office dismissed an appeal against refusal to register “MICKEY IS FREE!” as an EU trademark for clothing, finding that despite the applicant’s public-domain commentary intent, average consumers would focus on “MICKEY” and associate it with Disney.
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 precedential opinion, the Federal Circuit reversed a Delaware district court’s dismissal for lack of standing, holding that patent owners who retain the right to sue for infringement, a sublicensing veto, and royalty interests maintain Article III standing even after granting a broad exclusive license.
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’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 federal jury became the first in history to hold a pharmaceutical company liable for an anticompetitive pay-for-delay reverse-payment settlement, awarding $885 million in single damages—automatically trebled to more than $2.6 billion—against Takeda Pharmaceuticals for delaying generic competition for its IBS drug Amitiza, thirteen years after the Supreme Court’s FTC v. Actavis decision opened the door to such claims.
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.
The EU General Court annuls EUIPO’s decision that allowed a Polish entrepreneur to keep the ‘Obelix’ trademark for firearms and ammunition, finding the agency failed to properly assess the famous comic character’s trademark reputation.
A federal judge awarded $74,950 in attorney’s fees and $17,670 in costs against LegalForce after finding the trademark firm alleged facts it knew to be false, including $10 million in promotional spending it could not substantiate with even one dollar.
The EU General Court annulled EUIPO’s decision refusing to invalidate a Polish entrepreneur’s ‘Obelix’ trademark registration for firearms and ammunition, finding the office failed to properly assess the famous comic character mark’s reputation and the risk of reputational damage.
The Federal Circuit affirmed the PTAB’s finding that claims of Universal Electronics’ remote control codeset patent (U.S. Patent No. 9,847,083) are unpatentable as obvious, agreeing with the Board’s broad construction of ‘protocol and formatting information’ as ‘information needed to transmit a signal from one device to another in a way that the receiving device can make sense of and use the signal.’
The Federal Circuit affirmed that Samsung’s 2012 sales agreement with Finelite unambiguously incorporated a full contract of sale that limited Samsung’s indemnification obligations to Hong Kong — where title to LED chips passed — leaving Finelite without indemnity coverage for U.S. patent infringement claims brought by Seoul Semiconductor.
The Federal Circuit affirmed that Actelion’s patent claims requiring a bulk solution with ‘a pH of 13 or higher’ refer to pH measured at standard temperature (25±2°C), not at the solution’s actual operating temperature, finding no literal or equivalent infringement by Mylan’s generic epoprostenol drug.
The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that EU member states may require platforms like Meta to compensate press publishers for use of their news content, validating national regulators’ authority to set fair remuneration criteria and impose penalties.
The USPTO Director vacated institution of three IPRs filed by Ford, finding that Ford’s use of plain-and-ordinary meaning at PTAB while arguing the same claim terms were indefinite in parallel district court litigation constituted an impermissible inconsistency under the Revvo standard.
The Unified Patent Court’s Düsseldorf Local Division denied Align Technology’s application for provisional measures against Chinese competitor Angelalign, ruling that promotional materials alone cannot establish patent infringement without independent technical analysis.
The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled in a Grand Chamber decision that online platforms like Meta must provide fair compensation to press publishers when displaying snippets or previews of news articles, clarifying the scope of the EU Copyright Directive (2019/790).
The Court of Justice of the EU ruled that member states may require online platforms to pay fair compensation to press publishers for use of news snippets, upholding Italian legislation implementing the DSM Copyright Directive.
The UK Court of Appeal permanently stayed FRAND proceedings brought by Acer and Asus against Nokia, holding that Nokia’s offer to resolve standard-essential patent licensing disputes through arbitration constituted compliance with its FRAND obligations.
A federal court in Chicago denied BeiGene’s motion to dismiss AbbVie’s trade secret claims alleging that a former AbbVie scientist carried proprietary BTK degrader cancer drug designs in his memory to BeiGene, which then filed patent applications incorporating those designs within six months.
USPTO Director Squires terminated three AMD inter partes review proceedings against XtreamEdge’s FPGA and cloud computing patents after finding AMD violated its Sotera stipulations by pursuing overlapping invalidity arguments in parallel district court litigation.
In a 2-1 decision, the Sixth Circuit affirmed only $1 in nominal damages for Sanyo’s admitted misuse of Oldnar’s touchscreen know-how under a joint development agreement, holding that the plaintiff’s sole royalty-based damages theory was legally inapplicable.
A Los Angeles federal jury found Ye (Kanye West) and his companies liable for approximately $438,000 in damages for using the copyrighted instrumental track ‘MSD PT2’ without authorization in an early demo of ‘Hurricane’ performed at the 2021 Donda album listening party at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
The Federal Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a pro se challenge to the PTO’s denial of micro-entity status, holding that inventors who admit they are obligated to assign their patent application lack Article III standing to contest the associated fee determination.
The Federal Circuit affirmed the ITC’s finding that Tineco’s redesigned wet-dry vacuum cleaners do not infringe BISSELL’s patents, while also establishing that ITC experts may rely on source code produced in discovery but never formally admitted as a hearing exhibit under FRE 703.
After the Ninth Circuit carved out ‘promise-based claims’ from Section 230 immunity, the district court grants summary judgment for Snap anyway, finding that content moderation statements are too vague to be actionable misrepresentations.
A federal district court dismissed defamation claims against WorldStarHipHop under Section 230, holding that downloading a third-party video and adding a new caption and tags constituted only ‘minor, paratextual modifications’ insufficient to strip platform immunity.