Justia Intellectual Property Opinion Summaries

Yellowfin filed suit against Barker Boatworks and Kevin Barker, alleging claims for trade dress infringement and false designation of origin under Section 43(a) of the Lanham Act, common law unfair competition, common law trade dress infringement, and violation of Florida's Uniform Trade Secret Act (FUTSA).The Eleventh Circuit affirmed the district court's grant of summary judgment for defendants. The court, weighing the likelihood of confusion factors holistically, held that the district court did not err in holding that Yellowfin could not, as a matter of law, prove a likelihood of confusion between Barker Boatworks' trade dress and its own. Therefore, the court held that the district court properly rejected the rest of Yellowfin's claims related to trade dress and consumer confusion. The court rejected Yellowfin's claims under FUTSA and held that Yellowfin failed to show that Barker allegedly misappropriated Source Information and Customer Information trade secrets. View "Yellowfin Yachts, Inc. v. Barker Boatworks, LLC" on Justia Law

GKN’s patent describes a drivetrain for a four-wheel drive vehicle, consisting of primary and secondary drivetrains. The drivetrain can be switched between two-wheel drive mode and four-wheel drive mode. The claimed drivetrain operates to reduce the number of rotating components when the secondary drivetrain is disconnected. JTEKT petitioned for inter partes review (IPR). The Patent Trial and Appeal Board instituted IPR on all challenged claims. The IPR focused on whether claims 2 and 3, which specify that two side-shaft couplings connect the secondary axle rather than one side-shaft coupling to provide both transverse and longitudinal power distribution between the left and right wheels and the front and rear wheels, would have been obvious over prior art and whether claims 6 and 7 would have been obvious over prior art. The Board held that claims 6 and 7 would have been obvious but that JTEKT did not show that claims 2 and 3 would have been obvious. The Federal Circuit dismissed an appeal for lack of standing. While the fact that JTEKT has no product on the market does not preclude Article III standing, either in IPRs or in declaratory judgment actions, JTEKT has not established at this stage of the development that its product creates a concrete and substantial risk of infringement or will likely lead to infringement claims. View "JTEKT Corp. v. GKN Automotive Ltd." on Justia Law

Marcel filed suit against Lucky Brand under the Lanham Act for infringing on Marcel's "Get Lucky" trademark through its use of "Lucky" on its merchandise. Marcel also alleged that Lucky Brand did so in violation of an injunction entered in an earlier action between the parties. The district court dismissed the complaint, concluding that Marcel released its claims through a 2003 settlement agreement that resolved an earlier substantially similar litigation between the parties. The Second Circuit vacated the judgment, holding that res judicata precluded Lucky Brand from raising its release defense in this case. The court held that under certain conditions parties may be barred by claim preclusion from litigating defenses that they could have asserted in an earlier action, and that the conditions here warranted application of that defense preclusion principle. Accordingly, the court remanded for further proceedings. View "Marcel Fashions Group, Inc. v. Lucky Brand Dungarees, Inc." on Justia Law

Advantek’s design patent covers a portable animal kennel that Advantek sells with the mark “Pet Gazebo.” Advantek sued its former manufacturer, Shanghai Walk-Long, Advantek’s former vice president, and others for patent infringement, breach of contract, and aiding and abetting breach of fiduciary duty, alleging that Walk-Long copied the Pet Gazebo and infringed the patent with their “Pet Companion.” The district court granted Walk-Long judgment on the pleadings, holding that prosecution history estoppel bars Advantek from enforcing the patent against the Pet Companion. The parties stipulated to the dismissal of the non-patent counts. The Federal Circuit reversed, concluding that prosecution history estoppel does not preclude enforcement of the patent against the accused kennel. Advantek elected to patent the ornamental design for a kennel with a particular skeletal structure. A competitor who sells a kennel embodying Advantek’s patented structural design infringes the patent, regardless of extra features, such as a cover, that the competitor might add to its kennel. Construed in the light most favorable to Advantek, the complaint can be read to accuse the skeletal structure of Walk-Long’s Pet Companion. View "Advantek Marketing, Inc. v. Shanghai Walk-Long Tools Co." on Justia Law

BioDelivery filed petitions for inter partes review (IPR) of Aquestive's Patent. The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) instituted review of fewer than all of the asserted claims based upon fewer than all asserted grounds and issued final written decisions that sustained the patentability of all instituted claims on all instituted grounds and included a discussion of collateral estoppel between inter partes reexamination and IPR. On appeal, PTAB acknowledged error in its assumption that inter partes reexamination could give rise to collateral estoppel in IPR. After oral argument in the Federal Circuit, the Supreme Court issued its 2018 “SAS” decision, explaining that the petitioner, not the Director defines the contours of the IPR; if the Director institutes review, PTAB review must proceed “in accordance with or in conformance to the petition,” including “‘each claim challenged’ and ‘the grounds on which the challenge to each claim is based,’” BioDelivery requested remand to consider the patentability of the non-instituted claims. Aquestive and the Patent Office argued that BioDelivery had waived SAS-based relief by failing to raise any issue of non-instituted claims on appeal. The Federal Circuit granted a remand; waiver does not apply and the motion is not untimely. The PTO’s salutary decision concerning future action does not insulate earlier PTAB actions from remedy. View "BioDelivery Sciences International, Inc.. v. Aquestive Therapeutics, Inc." on Justia Law

The Ninth Circuit reversed the district court's grant of summary judgment for defendants in a trademark infringement action over the "Honey Badger" catchphrases under the Lanham Act. The panel applied the test in Rogers v. Grimaldi, 875 F.2d 994 (2d Cir. 1989), to balance the competing interests at stake when a trademark owner claims that an expressive work infringes on its trademark rights. The panel held that the Rogers test was not an automatic safe harbor for any minimally expressive work that copies someone else's mark. In this case, a jury could determine that defendants did not add any value protected by the First Amendment but merely appropriated the goodwill associated with plaintiff's mark. Defendants have not used another’s mark in the creation of a song, photograph, video game, or television show, but have largely just pasted plaintiff's mark into their greeting cards. Therefore, the panel remanded for further proceedings. View "Gordon v. Drape Creative, Inc." on Justia Law

Contour’s patents describe action sport video cameras or camcorders, configured for remote image acquisition control and viewing. The claimed device uses GPS technology and includes wireless communication capability to allow another device, such as a smartphone, to control camera settings in real time, access stored video, and act as a “viewfinder” to preview what the camera sees. The patents claim priority to a provisional application filed in September 2010; the one-year critical date is September 13, 2009. GoPro sought inter partes review of the patents, alleging unpatentability on obviousness grounds, relying on a 2009 GoPro sales catalog as prior art. That catalog discloses a digital camera linked to a wireless viewfinder/controller. There was testimony that the catalog was distributed at a July 2009 trade show with approximately 150 vendors and more than 1,000 attendees. The Patent Trial and Appeal Board concluded that the catalog is not a prior art printed publication under 35 U.S.C. 102(b). The Federal Circuit vacated. A dealer show focused on extreme sports vehicles is an obvious forum for action sports cameras; while the general public may not have been aware of the trade show, dealers would encompass the relevant audience such that a person ordinarily skilled and interested in action cameras, exercising reasonable diligence, should have been aware of it. The catalog was disseminated with no restrictions and was intended to reach the general public. View "GoPro, INC. v. Contour IP Holding, LLC" on Justia Law

OBC appealed the district court's grant of summary judgment for Excelled in a trademark dispute over use of the brand-name ROGUE on t-shirts. The Second Circuit held that Excelled failed to show entitlement to summary judgment dismissing OBC's trademark infringement counterclaims. In this case, Excelled failed to meet its burden of proving that OBC's delay in bringing suit was unreasonable and caused prejudice to Excelled. Therefore, the court vacated the district court's grant of summary judgment to Excelled, dismissing OBC's counterclaims, alleging trademark infringement, false designation, and unfair competition.The court reversed the district court's grant of summary judgment to Excelled on its infringement claims and the district court's denial of OBC's motion for summary judgment dismissing these claims. The court also reversed the award of injunctive relief and damages and fees against OBC. Finally, the court vacated the district court's grant of summary judgment to Excelled on OBC's trademark cancellation counterclaim because the district court erroneously relied on determinations of disputed facts about the continuity of Excelled's sales that usurped the province of the jury. View "Excelled Sheepskin & Leather Coat Corp. v. Oregon Brewing" on Justia Law

Nash has been in the water recreational device industry for more than 50 years and designs and manufactures water skis, kneeboards, wakeboards, and similar recreational devices. ZUP entered the market in 2012 with its “ZUP Board,” designed to assist riders who have difficulty pulling themselves up out of the water into a standing position while being towed behind a motorboat. ZUP owns the 681 patent, which includes 12 claims that generally cover a water recreational board and a method of riding that board in which a rider simultaneously uses side-by-side handles and side-by-side foot bindings to help maneuver between various riding positions to allow the rider to more readily move from lying prone, to kneeling, to crouching, to standing. The district court invalidated claims 1 and 9 as obvious and, in the alternative, held that Nash does not infringe claim 9. The Federal Circuit affirmed that claims 1 and 9 are invalid as obvious, 35 U.S.C. 103(a), and did not reach the infringement question. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine the various elements from prior art references, “to aid in rider stability, to allow a wide variety of users to enjoy the device, and to aid users in maneuvering between positions”—all motivations that were “a driving force throughout the prior art." View "ZUP, LLC v. Nash Manufacturing, Inc." on Justia Law

Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are semiconductor devices that emit light when an electric current is applied. They provide illumination in products such as printers, phones, and televisions. LEDs typically consist of a substrate, an n-type semiconductor layer, and a p-type semiconductor layer. Gallium nitride (GaN) is a semiconductor that emits blue light in LEDs. Fabricating monocrystalline GaN films is difficult because of the lack of available substrates with a matching lattice structure. BU’s 738 patent relates to the preparation of monocrystalline GaN films via molecular beam epitaxy, which addresses the GaN lattice-mismatch problem with a two-step growth process. A jury found that defendants infringed the patent and failed to prove its invalidity. The district court rejected defendants’ argument that the patent is invalid for not meeting the enablement requirement, 35 U.S.C. 112. The Federal Circuit reversed, finding the asserted claim not enabled as a matter of law. The patent’s specification does not teach one of skill in the art how to make the claimed semiconductor device with a monocrystalline growth layer grown directly on an amorphous buffer layer. Defendants’ expert testified that it is impossible to epitaxially grow a monocrystalline film directly on an amorphous structure; the specification does not enable what the experts agree is physically impossible. View "Trustees of Boston University v. Everlight Electronics Co." on Justia Law