An engineer-inventor may sue defendant Patent and Trademark Office for a declaration that the PTO has unreasonably delayed final agency action on 80 of his 300 pending patent applications, originally filed in the months prior to June 8, 1995; the ...

Tagged with: Intellectual Property Judge T.S. Ellis III U.S. District Court - Eastern District

In this suit alleging the design of a high-rise apartment building in McLean, Va., infringes on plaintiff architectural firm’s copyright for a condominium building in Minneapolis, the 4th Circuit upholds summary judgment for defendant design firm. Plaintiff Humphreys & Partners ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Intellectual Property Judge Allyson K. Duncan

Defendants, a furniture manufacture, a leather industry trade association and its laboratory and lab director, win summary judgment in a false advertising suit filed by a furniture covering designer that alleged defendants’ advertisements and statements referencing a “bonded leather” product ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Intellectual Property Judge Allyson K. Duncan

A Virginia-based R&B singer/songwriter “DeRico” gets another chance to make his copyright infringement case against Usher and Justin Bieber who recorded several versions of plaintiff’s “Somebody to Love” song; the 4th Circuit reverses dismissal of the songwriters’ suit, saying a ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Intellectual Property Judge Pamela A. Harris

The 4th Circuit vacates an injunction to halt a foundation’s use of “NAACP,” the trademark of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, to represent an anti-abortion message about the “National Association for the Abortion of Colored People”; ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Intellectual Property Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III

The 4th Circuit upholds an order requiring a “dissatisfied applicant in an ex parte trademark proceeding” to pay attorney’s fees and expenses of $36,320.49, including salary expenses of PTO attorneys and a paralegal, to the director of the Patent and ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Intellectual Property Judge Paul V. Niemeyer

DuPont accused Kolon, a South Korean company, of stealing trade secrets related to Kevlar. The case proceeded to trial in July 2011, and on Sept. 14, 2011, after a seven-week trial, a U.S. District Court jury in Richmond rendered a ...

Tagged with: Federal Courts Intellectual Property Judge Anthony J. Trenga Million-Dollar Settlements

In this Lanham Act suit involving competing companies’ challenges to various advertising claims relating to both parties’ grass seed and combination grass seed products, a Richmond U.S. District Court reaffirms that defendant Pennington Seed’s “twice the seed” and “2X the ...

Tagged with: Intellectual Property Judge James R. Spencer U.S. District Court - Eastern District

In this “straightforward” dispute involving the registered trademark “Two Men and a Truck,” a Norfolk U.S. District Court awards plaintiff attorney’s fees and costs of $24,804.92; the court cuts fees for block billing and questions lawyers’ hourly rates based on ...

Tagged with: Intellectual Property Judge Raymond A. Jackson U.S. District Court - Eastern District

In Georgia-Pacific’s suit against defendant manufacturer of a cheaper paper towel for “stuffing” into G-P’s trademarked “enMotion” motion-activated paper towel dispenser, the 4th Circuit reverses the damage award for G-P, saying the trial court applied the wrong legal standards for ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Intellectual Property Judge Paul V. Niemeyer