franks anatra.JPGIPNews® – Frank Sinatra’s estate on Wednesday successfully blocked the trademark application of a hot dog truck owner seeking to register the trademark “Franks Anatra.”

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board threw out Bill Loizon’s application to register the trademark in relation to catering of food and drink, in response to the estate’s challenge. The board agreed with the estate’s argument that the proposed trademark would create a likelihood of confusion and lead to false associations with the famed singer. To continue reading, click: Hot Dog Purveyor Loses Out In Sinatra Estate’s Trademark Challenge

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IPNews® – Facebook Inc., Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Walt Disney Co. are the targets of new patent infringement lawsuits the Regents of the University of California filed on Wednesday over interactive hypermedia technology.

All three companies are allegedly using patented university technology for displaying interactive information through web pages or software, the university claims in three new lawsuits filed in the Eastern District of Texas. Two of the patents asserted in the new cases were found invalid by a Texas jury in another university infringement case against Amazon.com Inc., Google Inc., Yahoo Inc. and others earlier this year. The university has accordingly asked the Texas court to stay all deadlines in the new cases until the Federal Circuit can rule on the university’s appeal of the invalidity finding. To continue reading, click: University Of California Sues Facebook, Wal-Mart, Disney For Patent Infringement

amazon.jpgIPNews® – A California federal judge on Tuesday ruled in favor of Amazon.com Inc. in OIP Technologies Inc.’s patent infringement suit alleging the world’s largest online retailer used OIP’s technology for an automated online commerce pricing system without authorization.

OIP sued Amazon in March alleging infringement of U.S. Patent Number 7,970,713, titled “Method and apparatus for automatic pricing in electronic commerce.” The patent does not pass the “machine-or-transformation” test, as it only uses a computer for its most basic functions, and more broadly fails to meet the exception for abstract ideas, Judge Edward M. Chen said. To continue reading, click: Amazon Dodges OIP Pricing Patent Infringement Claims

microsoft-building.jpgIPNews® – A newly published Microsoft Inc. patent application for an “immersive display experience” featuring 3-D projections across a user’s environment sheds light on what the next generation of the company’s video game systems could look like after the Xbox 720 makes its debut.

The patent application, filed in March 2011 and published last week, covers a system designed to send visual output to primary and peripheral displays so that the peripheral images appear to be natural extensions of the primary image. The system described could potentially feature headgear like special glasses designed to operate in sync with alternate-frame image sequencing. To continue reading, click: Microsoft Patent Application Could Revolutionize 3D Gaming

pills.jpgIPNews® – Johnson & Johnson unit Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc. won a major patent infringement victory Tuesday when a New Jersey federal judge held that its patent for the popular birth control drug Ortho Tri-Cyclen Lo is valid.

The validity finding amounts to a finding of infringement against generic drug maker Lupin Pharmaceuticals Inc., which filed an Abbreviated New Drug Application to make an off-brand version of the drug and thereby sparked J&J’s infringement suit. Lupin and J&J previously agreed to a consent order stating that Lupin’s ANDA would constitute infringement if the patent was indeed found to be valid. To continue reading, click: J&J Birth Control Patent Upheld In Infringement Suit V. Lupin

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IPNews® – The Eighth Circuit on Tuesday affirmed a $222,000 copyright infringement verdict against a Minnesota woman whom the major record labels accused of sharing copyrighted songs through the peer-to-peer file-sharing service Kazaa.

The Minnesota district court had cut the jury’s damages award to $54,000 three times for three separate jury trials in the case, the latter two of which yielded verdicts of over $1 million, but the labels opted to seek only the $222,000 handed down in the first verdict. The record labels include Capitol Records Inc., Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Arista Records LLC, Interscope Records, Warner Bros. Records Inc. and UMG Recordings Inc. To continue reading, click: Eighth Circuit Upholds $200K+ Kazaa File-Sharing Copyright Infringement Damages

ChuckYeager.jpgIPNews® – Renowned test pilot Chuck Yeager on Monday lost his Ninth Circuit appeal of his failed suit seeking to hold two old friends liable for using his likeness without authorization in their aviation memorabilia business.

Yeager’s claims were time-barred, the appeals court ruled. The Ninth Circuit ruled that a declaration Yeager submitted to the court, filled with hundreds of facts he could not remember at his deposition, was a sham. To continue reading, click: Chuck Yeager Loses Ninth Circuit Likeness Rights Appeal

willitblend.jpgIPNews® – K-Tec Inc., which sparked a viral sensation with its “Will It Blend?” YouTube promotional videos for its Blendtec blenders, won out last week over its rival blender maker Vita-Mix Corp.’s appeal of a $24 million patent infringement judgment in K-Tec’s favor.

The Federal Circuit on Thursday ruled that the district court made no errors and the jury’s verdict was properly supported. In the case on appeal, a Utah federal jury ruled K-Tec was entitled to approximately $11 million in reasonable royalty and lost profits damages, and the district judge later handed down enhanced damages that increased the award to roughly $24 million. To continue reading, click: Federal Circuit Upholds “Will It Blend?” Blender Maker’s $24M Patent Infringement Award

nuvasive-san-diego.jpgIPNews® – The Ninth Circuit let NuVasive Inc. off the hook for a $60 million jury verdict finding it infringed Neurovision Medical Products Inc.’s trademark “Neurovision,” vacating the district court’s judgment and ordering a new trial.

The appeals court found that the Los Angeles federal court ignored Ninth Circuit precedent, persistently cut off or excluded relevant testimony, and repeatedly instructed the jury incorrectly. The case will be reassigned to a new judge in the Central District of California. To continue reading, click: Ninth Circuit Overturns $60M NuVasive Trademark Infringement Judgement

200px-Logo_NIKE.svg.jpgIPNews® – Nike Inc. was granted patents last week for shoes containing data transmission systems to collect information about the footwear’s use and for golf clubs containing sensors to measure the club’s movements.

The footwear patent covers a shoe including a system to send data to a remote system like a display or other device, which could be used to track a user’s identity, location, speed, distance traveled or other data. The golf club patent describes club heads equipped with sensors like gyroscopes and accelerometers to track various parameters of the club, plus related software, hardware and displays. To continue reading, click: Nike Patents Footwear, Golf Clubs With Digital Sensors