CafePressLogo.jpgIPNews® – The online print-on-demand marketplace CafePress Inc. failed to win summary judgment earlier this month in a trademark infringement suit alleging the company wrongly allows users to upload designs and sell merchandise bearing the trademarked phrase “Born To Rock.”

Reasonable jurors could disagree on CafePress’s fair use affirmative defense to the infringement claims, a Manhattan federal judge ruled. CafePress allows users to upload graphic designs to its website, and in doing so grant CafePress a license to design, produce, market and sell products bearing those designs. To continue reading, click: CafePress Can’t Shut Down “Born To Rock” Trademark Infringement Suit

clouds-desert.jpgIPNews® – Netlist Inc., an Irvine, California based producer of memory modules for cloud computing, said today that it has asked the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for a second look at a recently issued patent its rival SMART Modular Technologies Inc. is asserting against Netlist.

SMART claims Netlist’s HyperCloud memory module products infringe the technology covered by U.S. Patent Number 8,250,295, which issued on Aug. 21. The ‘295 patent’s claims are invalid over a number of prior art references that were not previously considered by the USPTO, which SMART knew about but failed to disclose to the USPTO, Netlist claims. To continue reading, click: Orange County Cloud Computing Co. Asks USPTO To Reexamine Rival’s Patent

citrix.jpgIPNews® – Citrix Inc. will have to pay $5 million in additional enhanced damages on top of a $10 million patent infringement damage award in favor of SSL Services LLC a jury handed down in June, a Texas federal judge ruled Monday.

Judge Rodney Gilstrap of the Eastern District of Texas said the enhanced damages could have been trebled but the circumstances of the case warranted the lesser enhancement. Citrix’s infringement was found to be willful, and it failed for many years to adequately investigate the patent it was ultimately found to infringe, he said. To continue reading, click: Citrix Slapped With Extra $5M On Top Of $10M SSL Patent Verdict

ipad-iphone.jpgIPNews® – VirnetX Holding Corp. filed a new patent infringement complaint against Apple Inc. on Monday in the U.S. International Trade Commission alleging the tech giant wrongly poached VirnetX’s wireless security technology for its latest iPhones, iPads, iPods, and Macintosh computers.

Science Applications International Corp., which sold VirnetX part of its patent portfolio in 2006, has now joined VirnetX in the filing of the complaint to resolve a procedural issue that sunk VirnetX’s last salvo against Apple in the ITC. The companies are seeking an exclusion order and cease and desist order to bar all sales and importation of the accused products in the U.S. To continue reading, click: VirnetX Files New ITC Patent Complaint V. Apple

knife.jpgIPNews® – A German regional chamber of commerce sued Martha Stewart, her company, Emeril Lagasse and the Home Shopping Network last week for infringing its trademark for the name “Solingen” as it relates to knives and other cutlery.

Cutlery bearing the protected Solingen name is by law supposed to be made only in Solingen, Germany, but the defendants have been selling and distributing knives bearing the name that are actually made in China, The Chamber of Industry and Commerce Wuppertal-Solingen-Remscheid says. The knives are allegedly of far poorer quality than their German counterparts, rusting and breaking into pieces, and are tarnishing the genuine Solingen brand, according to the chamber. To continue reading, click: Martha Stewart, Emeril, HSN Sued Over German Knife Trademark Infringement

samsung.jpgIPNews® – A U.S. International Trade Commission judge on Friday delivered Apple Inc. its latest win in its patent war with Samsung Electronics Co.

None of the accused devices Apple is importing into the U.S. infringe Samsung’s patents, Administrative Law Judge James Gildea’s initial determination in Samsung’s Section 337 case against Apple said. To continue reading, click: ITC Rules For Apple In Samsung Iphone, IPad Patent Challenge

nuclearpower.jpgIPNews® – A group of University of Texas at Austin scientists announced Wednesday that they have patented a new type of nuclear reactor that could eventually provide a method of transforming toxic nuclear waste into useable fuel.

Mike Kotschenreuther, Prashant Valanju and Swadesh Mahajan, physicists at UT’s College of Natural Sciences, said their hybrid fission-fusion reactor would be able to incinerate nuclear waste and harness the resulting energy. The technology could eventually eliminate 99 percent of the most toxic waste that conventional fission reactors generate, the scientists said. To continue reading, click: UT Researchers Patent Way To Turn Nuclear Waste Into Fuel

kodak.jpgIPNews® – Eastman Kodak Co. told a New York bankruptcy court Friday that it would put its plans to sell off its digital imaging patent assets on hold until further notice, given its difficulty soliciting high enough bids, and could potentially license the patents instead.

Kodak has been trying to auction off its patent portfolio for several months as part of its efforts to emerge from Chapter 11 restructuring. Kodak said it makes the most sense to adjourn the final sale hearing until further notice rather than filing for serial extensions of time. To continue reading, click: Bankrupt Kodak Postpones Patent Portfolio Sale Indefinitely

Libyan flag.pngIPNews® – Libya does not have valid, protectable trademarks for the names of its embassy, a District of Columbia federal judge ruled last week, foreclosing on the nation’s challenge to an individual’s registration of domain names using the terms “Libyan Embassy” and “Embassy of Libya.”

The individual, Ahmad Miski, works as a third party expeditor for the Libyan government’s official document legalization system. He registered the domain names at issue to drive traffic to the website of his Arab-American Chamber of Commerce, according to the court. To continue reading, click: Libya Doesn’t Own Trademarks To Embassy Name, Judge Rules

brick_house.jpgIPNews® – Zillow Inc. accused its rival real estate information website operator Trulia Inc. on Wednesday of ripping off its patented method for automatically refining home valuations based on input from homeowners and other users.

The complaint in Seattle federal court alleges that Trulia.com’s “Trulia Estimates” service introduced in September 2011 infringes a patent Zillow was issued in June 2011 for the “Zestimates” service it had been offering since 2006. The Zillow Zestimate allows home owners and real estate professionals to update automatic valuations of homes with additional home facts and information to refine the valuation. To continue reading, click: Zillow Accuses Rival Trulia Of Home Value Estimate Patent Infringement