Fourth Circuit Rules against Sysco in Trade Secret Appeal
December 3rd, 2025
The Fourth Circuit has affirmed a ruling from a North Carolina district court dismissing trade secret claims, copyright claims, and other claims brought by the Taiwanese company Sysco against its American distributor. The case is Sysco Machinery Corp…
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Categories: Patents
The High Cost of Canceling: How Prosecution History Estoppel Killed a Heart Valve Infringement Claim
December 2nd, 2025
The Federal Circuit has overturned a $125 million patent judgment against Medtronic’s CoreValve unit for allegedly infringing a Colibri Heart Valve LLC patent. The court found that Colibri’s arguments and amendments barred Colibri’s ass…
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Categories: Patents
"Consisting Essentially Of": Federal Circuit Upholds Atypical Claim Meaning Based on Prosecution History
December 1st, 2025
The Federal Circuit has vacated an obviousness ruling by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB or Board) that invalidated patent claims to methods of treating eye redness. The court found that the Board used an erroneous construction of the phrase…
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Categories: Patents
Hollywood Takes a Stand: The Copyright Showdown with Midjourney
November 20th, 2025
Disney and Universal have filed a complaint with the US District Court for the Central District of California against the AI company Midjourney, calling it a “bottomless pit of plagiarism.” The plaintiffs also include affiliated companies such as…
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Categories: Copyright
BVI IP Holding Company Subject to US Jurisdiction Due to Trademark Enforcement
November 10th, 2025
The 11th Circuit has reversed a decision by a Georgia federal district court dismissing trademark infringement and cancellation claims against an intellectual property (IP) holding company headquartered in the British Virgin Islands (BVI). The circui…
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Categories: Trademarks
Eighth Circuit Avoids Setting Knowledge Standard in Copyright Case
November 10th, 2025
The Eight Circuit has issued an opinion in a copyright case that avoided invitations by both parties to address the “compelling legal question” left open by the U.S. Supreme Court in Unicolors v. H&M Hennes & Mauritz (2022) as to whether…
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Categories: Copyright
Elon Musk’s xAI Company Accuses OpenAI of Stealing Trade Secrets
November 7th, 2025
In a new lawsuit filed in a California federal court, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence (AI) startup xAI has accused Sam Altman’s OpenAI of stealing its trade secrets. xAI makes the generative AI (GenAI) tool called Grok, and OpenAI makes the G…
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Categories: Trade Secrets
Federal Circuit Reverses Patent Board in X-Ray Magnification Case
November 5th, 2025
The Federal Circuit reversed a Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB or Board) determination that Carl Zeiss failed to prove that patent claims to X-ray imaging systems incorporating projection magnification were invalid as anticipated by a scienti…
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Categories: Patents
Federal Circuit: Check Depositing Too Abstract for Patent
October 28th, 2025
The Federal Circuit has reversed a summary judgment ruling from a district court, finding that patent claims directed to the idea of depositing a check using a handheld device are abstract and thus unpatentable. The case is United Services Automobile…
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Categories: Patents
Congress Reintroduces the Patent Eligibility Restoration Act and PREVAIL Act
October 23rd, 2025
On May 1, Senators Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Chris Coons (D-DE), with Representatives Kevin Kiley (R-CA) and Scott Peters (D-CA), officially reintroduced the Patent Eligibility Restoration Act (PERA). PERA would eliminate judicial exceptions to patent e…
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Categories: Patents
