Big changes to Saudi IP hearings
The Saudi justice minister Walid Al-Samaani has announced that, from February, patent and copyright cases will be heard by commercial courts and/or committees established within those courts. Previously, such cases were heard by two committees, constituted to examine...
Phillips bid to block US Fitbit sales
The US International Trade Commission (USITC) has voted to institute an investigation of certain wearable monitoring devices manufactured by, amongst others, Fitbit and Garmin. The investigation follows a complaint filed by Philips North America, alleging violations...
Airbnb using patented tech to identify “psychopaths”
Following a patent application last year, Airbnb is now using advanced AI-powered software gained from its acquisition of tech startup Trooly to run social media background checks on potentially “untrustworthy” bookers. The “trait-analyzing” software uses bespoke...
Masimo alleges Apple Watch infringement
Masimo, the California-based patient-monitoring technology manufacturer, has brought patent infringement proceedings against Apple in the US District Court, claiming that the multinational’s Apple Watch infringes upon ten of its patents. Further, Masimo alleges that...
EPO rejects applications from AI inventor
The European Patent Office (EPO) has, in a landmark decision, rejected two patent applications designating an artificial intelligence, rather than a human being, as the inventor. Both applications named the neural-net AI “DABUS” as the creator of, respectively, an...
Nokia calls ceasefire with Daimler
Earlier this year, a group of companies, including Daimler, Continental, and Valeo, complained to the European Commission over Nokia’s licensing fees for technology patents for smart car navigation and autonomous cars. Nokia, meanwhile, currently finds itself pursuing...
Clarivate acquires Darts-ip
Clarivate Analytics, the US provider of subscription-based analytics services, has announced its acquisition of Darts-ip, a leading supplier of case law data and analytics for IP professionals. The deal will see Darts-ip providing case law data and supporting...
Tesla patents windshield-cleaning lasers
In a step that seems outlandish even by its own standards, Tesla has filed a patent with the USPTO for a system that would clean the glass surfaces on its cars, from the windshield to side windows to camera lenses, with lasers. According to the patent application, the...
More Copyright News
Hong Kong patent reform
The Hong Kong Intellectual Property Department (HKIPD) has announced that a new patent system will be launched in Hong Kong on 19 December 2019. An original grant patent (OGP) system will be introduced to provide applicants with an alternative route of seeking...
Toolkit to tackle inventor gender gap
Following its Annual Meeting at the end of September, the Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO) has launched a 96-page “Gender Diversity in Innovation Toolkit” aimed at closing the gender gap between male and female inventors. Despite over 55% of Ph.D....
California stops pharmaceutical “pay-for-delay”
California has introduced a pioneering new law designed to stop large pharmaceutical companies settling claims of patent infringement by generic drug manufacturers by paying those manufacturers to delay launching their products – the so-called “pay-for-delay”...
Nokia updates 5G patent declaration
A year on from making a similar announcement back in September 2018, Nokia has stated that, as of October 2019, it has declared to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) that it has identified over 2,000 “patent families” as being “essential” for...
EA accused of in-game currency infringement
Videogame developer and publisher EA has been accused of patent infringement by Stone Interactive Ventures (SIV) in proceedings launched by the latter in the US courts. It is understood that SIV is acting, at least in part, for Intellectual Ventures Assets (IVA), a...
UK Labour Party proposes compulsory drug licensing
Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the UK Labour Party, has told his party’s annual conference that a Labour Government would introduce compulsory drug licensing “to secure generic versions of patented medicines”. Under the proposed system, a state-owned pharmaceutical...
Huawei tries to spoil Transsion’s big day
Chinese mobile giant Huawei has launched an apparently deliberately timed patent and copyright infringement broadside against rival Transsion, just as the latter goes public on the Chinese-equivalent of the Nasdaq stock exchange. Transsion is a Chinese manufacturer of...
Bridgestone wins against Chinese tire manufacturers
Japanese auto parts and tires manufacturer Bridgestone Corporation has won patent infringement proceedings against Shengtai Group and Shandong Shengshi Tailai Rubber Technology, two Chinese tire makers. The proceedings concerned Bridgestone’s “Blizzak VRX” tire, which...
Plenty of energy left in SK v LG battery dispute
The ongoing dispute between South Korean firms SK Innovation and LG Chem seems set to continue, with the former bringing fresh actions for patent infringement in the US. SK Innovation’s move follows LG Chem’s filing, in April, of proceedings against SK Innovation in...
InterDigital files UK patent action against Lenovo
US Research and Development firm InterDigital has gone to the High Court in the UK to begin patent infringement proceedings against Chinese technology giant Lenovo. The action concerns a number of 3G and 4G patents. InterDigital, which owns over thirty-thousand mobile...
Last-minute patent agreement between LG and Qualcomm
South Korean smartphone manufacturer LG and American telecoms giant Qualcomm have, at the eleventh hour, reached a settlement whereby LG will retain its license to use a number of Qualcomm’s 5G technology patents. The deal comes after extended legal tussles between...
Apple sees RED over 4K compression patent
Red Digital Cinema, or ‘Red’, manufacturer of the ‘RED’ digital cameras used widely across the film industry, has this week reacted robustly to Apple’s May 2019 lawsuit to have one of Red’s patents invalidated. Apple had argued that Red’s patent for its “REDCODE”...
Number of patent applications by China in “Belt & Road” countries grows
New figures released by the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) show that, in the first half of this year, the number of patents filed by China in those countries that form part of its “Belt & Road Initiative” (BRI) rose 0.4%, to 3,125...
L’Oreal Stole Trade Secrets Rules US Court
French multinational L’Oreal has been ordered to pay damages of over $91 million to Olaplex, a small company that employs less than thirty staff, after a federal court in the US found that L’Oreal had stolen Olaplex’s trade secrets and infringed two of its patents....
Decisive patent victory for Amgen’s rheumatoid arthritis drug
American biopharmaceutical giant Amgen has won the latest round in its battle to protect its rheumatoid arthritis drug Enbrel from market competition by biosimilar medications. Sandoz, a subsidiary of Swiss multinational Novartis, failed in its bid before the New...
HTC stops UK phone sales after patent battle
Taiwanese Technology company HTC has ceased sales of its smartphones in the UK in the latest chapter in its ongoing patent dispute with IPCom, a patent firm. Phone sales via HTC’s own website have already been suspended, with the manufacturer currently working to halt...
Has Apple crossed a ‘red squiggly line’?
A patent-infringement action has been filed against Apple by Sentius International, which previously partnered with Apple on various products. Sentius alleges that Apple’s spell-checking tool, which searches a device’s internal dictionary before highlighting any...
First-ever patent applications filed for inventions generated solely by AI
A team led by Professor Ryan Abbott at the University of Surrey has successfully filed the first-ever patent applications for two inventions created by Artificial Intelligence (AI). The AI inventor, named “DABUS” by its creator Stephen Thaler, relies upon a system of...
New measures proposed to tackle female and minority patent application deficit in US
US senators have proposed measures to address the challenges faced by female and minority patent applicants in the US. According to the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), a mere 12% of patent inventors in the US are female. Under the proposed Inventor Diversity...
Amazon sued for alleged patent infringement in ‘Alexa’ development
VB Assets, owner of pioneering voice-recognition software developed by VoiceBox Technologies, is taking action against Amazon, alleging that a number of patents developed by VoiceBox were infringed when Amazon developed Alexa, its popular voice-activated device....
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