Litigation News

D.C. Circuit affirmed Library of Congress rulemaking allowing circumvention of technological protection measures for medical device repairs under DMCA, rejecting APA challenge by Medical Imaging & Technology Alliance. Eleventh Circuit upheld permanent injunction and trademark cancellation against Voro for "Wolf Warrior" electric scooters infringing Hammer Brand's "Wolf" marks. Seventh Circuit affirmed malpractice dismissal in JoJo Cup design case. Judge Connolly granted partial injunction for X Corp. against Operation Bluebird on Twitter marks. BMW filed declaratory judgment action against Broadcom over connected car patents in Eastern District of Texas.

German chemical giant BASF sued Apple in U.S. federal court for patent infringement, claiming Apple's Face ID technology in iPhones and iPads violates BASF patents covering biometric matching, 3D facial mapping, and anti-spoofing analysis. BASF alleges infringement since Face ID's 2017 launch across TrueDepth cameras and Secure Enclave processing. The lawsuit seeks injunction, monetary damages, and other relief. Apple has not commented but previously defended its biometric systems as independently developed.

Former U.S. District Judge Alan Albright joined A&O Shearman as an intellectual property partner in Austin. Albright, who stepped down in August after serving since 2018, previously presided over nearly 25% of all national patent lawsuits from the Western District of Texas. He drew criticism from tech companies for concentrating patent cases in his district. Before his judicial appointment, Albright practiced IP law for almost two decades.

Many Worlds 2T Innovations LLC sued OpenAI in Eastern District of Texas for infringing five AI patents covering personalized search, vector-based retrieval, recommendation systems, and content generation. The complaint targets ChatGPT and related products, alleging direct and induced infringement. Many Worlds seeks jury trial, monetary damages, enhanced damages for willful infringement, and injunction. The patents address "cold-start problems" in conventional systems through fuzzy networks and vector representations. OpenAI likely will challenge patent eligibility under Section 101.

Former U.S. District Judge Alan Albright left the Western District of Texas bench and joined A&O Shearman as IP litigation partner. Albright's tenure was marked by frequent Federal Circuit reversals on venue transfer rulings via mandamus relief. Senator Tillis and Chief Justice Roberts raised concerns over his perceived patent case solicitation. A 2022 order mandated equitable patent case distribution across all Western Texas judges. Albright previously served as magistrate judge and Bracewell patent attorney before his 2018 Trump nomination.

Federal Circuit affirmed Eastern District of Texas dismissal of AML IP, LLC's patent suit against Bath & Body Works and The Buckle on both improper venue and patent ineligibility grounds. AML sued over U.S. Patent No. 6,876,979 covering e-commerce methods. Court rejected AML's argument that district court should not have reached patent eligibility after finding improper venue, distinguishing venue from subject matter jurisdiction and citing judicial economy considerations favoring dual dismissal analysis.

Major industry groups filed Supreme Court amicus briefs supporting Tesla's certiorari petition challenging USPTO's discretionary IPR denials. Tesla appeals Federal Circuit's dismissal of mandamus petition after PTAB denied IPR challenges to Granite Vehicle Ventures' self-driving patents. Industry amici argue USPTO improperly shortened statutory one-year filing window to four months, causing IPR institution rates to plummet from 67% to 25%. Groups claim extra-statutory bars enable patent trolls and undermine Congressional intent behind America Invents Act.

ParkerVision Inc. sued Qualcomm in 2011 over patent infringement, winning a $173 million jury verdict in 2013. U.S. District Judge Roy Dalton overturned the verdict in June 2014, finding insufficient evidence. ParkerVision now sues the National Archives seeking Obama administration records, alleging suspicious White House website visits during the litigation timeline coinciding with Qualcomm co-founder Irwin Jacobs hosting Obama fundraisers. The Oversight Project represents ParkerVision in the records lawsuit.

USPTO issued its first AI-predicated discipline order, publicly reprimanding California patent attorney Brian Mitchell for submitting a claim construction chart with AI-generated hallucinated citations to intrinsic patent record in Magpul Industries Corp. v. Mission First Tactical Group. Mitchell violated USPTO rules regarding competence, diligence, misrepresentation, and conduct prejudicial to justice. Despite prompt correction and no court sanctions, USPTO's Office of Enrollment and Discipline found violations, establishing precedent for AI citation errors beyond case law to include patent specifications and prosecution histories.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit delivered a mixed ruling in Apple's inter partes review challenges against Smart Mobile Technologies' patents covering mobile wireless devices with multiple transmitter/receiver components. The CAFC affirmed PTAB decisions rejecting Apple's obviousness challenges to most claims across three patents, agreeing with Smart Mobile's narrower construction of "multiplexed signals." However, the court vacated and remanded portions where PTAB failed to address Smart Mobile's "bottlenecking" argument regarding data transmission slowdowns.