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Feb 22 (Reuters) - Images in a graphic novel that were created using the artificial-intelligence system Midjourney should not have been granted copyright protection, the U.S. Copyright Office said in a letter seen by Reuters. The Copyright Office had no comment on the decision. Kashtanova wrote the text of "Zarya of the Dawn," and Midjourney created the book's images based on her prompts. The Copyright Office told Kashtanova in October it would reconsider the book's copyright registration because her application did not disclose Midjourney's role.

Meta can still appeal the verdict to a higher court. Representatives for Meta and Voxer did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday. Voxer said Facebook cut it off from key features of the social media platform in 2013 and misused its technology in Facebook Live and Instagram Live, which launched in 2015 and 2016. Meta asked the court to overturn the verdict or hold a new trial. The case is Voxer Inc v. Meta Platforms Inc, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, No.

An AliveCor spokesperson said the office of the U.S. Trade Representative told the company it would not veto the decision. Any ITC ban is still on hold while Apple and AliveCor continue to clash over the patents. AliveCor accused Apple of infringing three patents related to its KardiaBand, an Apple Watch accessory that monitors a user's heart rate, detects irregularities and performs an electrocardiogram to identify heart problems like atrial fibrillation. Apple Watch Series 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 have ECG technology. AliveCor has separately sued Apple in California federal court for allegedly monopolizing the U.S. market for Apple Watch heart-rate apps, and filed a related patent infringement lawsuit against Apple in Texas federal court.

Feb 17 (Reuters) - Home security provider Vivint Smart Home Inc (VVNT.N) owes rival CPI Security Systems Inc $189.7 million for tricking its customers into moving to Vivint's service, a North Carolina jury decided Friday. The federal jury in Charlotte found Vivint sales representatives unlawfully deceived CPI customers into signing contracts with Vivint by falsely claiming that Vivint had bought the company. CPI said its customers would then unknowingly sign "high-priced, multi-year" contracts that Vivint made "impossible for customers to cancel." It told the court it competed fairly with CPI and that CPI customers had switched to Vivint for legitimate reasons. The case is CPI Security Systems Inc v. Vivint Smart Home Inc, U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, No.

[1/2] People pose with syringe with needle in front of displayed Moderna logo in this illustration taken, December 11, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/IllustrationFeb 15 (Reuters) - The U.S. government should face a patent lawsuit over COVID-19 vaccines, not vaccine maker Moderna Inc (MRNA.O), the Department of Justice told a Delaware federal court on Tuesday. Moderna made the same argument last year in an unsuccessful bid to win an early dismissal of the lawsuit. Both Moderna and Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) have been the target of multiple patent lawsuits over their COVID vaccines, including a lawsuit brought by Moderna against Pfizer in August. The case is Arbutus Biopharma Corp v. Moderna Inc, U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, No.

Feb 9 (Reuters) - A unit of medical device maker Medtronic plc (MDT.N) must pay $106.5 million to competitor Colibri Heart Valve LLC for patent infringement, a Santa Ana, California federal jury said Wednesday. The jury concluded after a seven-day trial that Medtronic CoreValve LLC's Evolut devices violate a Colibri patent for replacing heart valves in patients with heart disease, representatives for the companies confirmed Thursday. A spokesperson for Medtronic said the Minneapolis-headquartered company strongly disagrees with the verdict and will appeal. It alleged doctors use Medtronic's devices in a way that infringes Colibri's patent, which covers a method for controlling the deployment of self-expanding artificial heart valves. The case is Colibri Heart Valve LLC v. Medtronic CoreValve LLC, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, No.

Meta and Dfinity asked the court Monday to dismiss the case with prejudice, which means it cannot be revived. Dfinity sued Meta last year, alleging the logo Meta adopted after changing its name from Facebook would cause confusion with Dfinity's infinity-symbol trademarks. Meta is still facing trademark lawsuits from virtual-reality company MetaX and investment firm Metacapital over its name change. The case is Dfinity Foundation v. Meta Platforms Inc, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, No. For Dfinity: Dennis Ellis, Keith Wesley and Katherine Murray of Ellis George Cipollone O'Brien AnnagueyFor Meta: Bobby Ghajar and Angela Dunning of CooleyRead more:Meta hit with trademark lawsuit over new infinity-symbol logoMeta defeats trademark lawsuit over infinity-symbol logoOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Jacksonville, Florida-based ParkerVision sued Intel in Waco, Texas in 2020 for infringing several patents related to improved radio-frequency receivers. ParkerVision had said it pioneered the communications technology used in Intel's wireless chips in the mid-1990s. ParkerVision said Intel chips used in smartphones, including Apple's iPhone, infringe the patents. ParkerVision has also sued companies including Apple, Qualcomm and TCL for patent infringement over wireless chips and devices that use them. The ParkerVision case is ParkerVision Inc v. Intel Corp, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, No.

SummarySummary CompaniesCompanies Law firms Getty said Stability scraped millions of images without a licenseNew complaint adds to actions against Stability over images used in AI training(Reuters) - Stock photo provider Getty Images has sued artificial intelligence company Stability AI Inc, accusing it in a lawsuit made public on Monday of misusing more than 12 million Getty photos to train its Stable Diffusion AI image-generation system. Getty declined to comment on the Delaware lawsuit. London-based Stability AI released Stable Diffusion, an AI-based system for generating images from text inputs, and image generator DreamStudio last August. The lawsuit also accuses Stability of infringing Getty's trademarks, citing images generated by its AI system with Getty's watermark that Getty says could cause consumer confusion. The case is Getty Images (US) Inc v. Stability AI Inc, U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, No.

Nanoco and Chicago-based litigation funding firm GLS Capital said in a release that the settlement, which includes a license agreement and the "transfer of certain patents," resolves litigation in the United States, Germany and China. Nanoco's quantum dots improve the backlighting of LED displays without the use of toxic heavy metals like cadmium. The Texas lawsuit said Samsung began incorporating Nanoco's technology into high-end QLED TVs launched in 2017. Third-party funding of lawsuits has becoming increasingly common in recent years, though details about specific investments are rarely publicized. The case is Nanoco Technologies Ltd v. Samsung Electronics Co, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, No.

They had hoped to represent a much larger class of artists who filed termination notices with UMG. A provision of U.S. copyright law allows artists to terminate agreements to transfer their copyrights and reclaim them after decades in some circumstances. Kaplan said Friday that the musicians could not represent a broader class of artists who sent termination notices to UMG with effective dates between 2013 and 2031. A related lawsuit filed against Sony Music by musicians including former New York Dolls singer David Johansen has been paused since 2021 for settlement discussions. The UMG case is Waite v. UMG Recordings Inc, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, No.

U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap said halting the lawsuit until the Patent Trial and Appeal Board reviews the patents would unnecessarily delay the court case and prejudice Caltech. Representatives for Samsung and Caltech did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The school's 2021 lawsuit alleges Samsung's Galaxy phones, tablets, watches and Wi-Fi-enabled Samsung products like televisions and refrigerators infringe its data-transmission patents. The Texas case is scheduled to go to trial in September. The case is California Institute of Technology v. Samsung Electronics Co, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, No.

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Companies Apple Inc FollowJan 20 (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Friday affirmed a decision to throw out a $308.5 million jury verdict against Apple Inc (AAPL.O) for allegedly infringing a patent related to digital rights management. PMC, a patent licensing company, first sued Apple for infringing several patents in 2015. He said PMC's patent was unenforceable because the company had used a "deliberate strategy of delay" in applying for the patent, representing a "conscious and egregious misuse of the statutory patent system." The Federal Circuit affirmed Gilstrap in a 2-1 ruling, finding that PMC's "inequitable scheme to extend its patent rights" had prejudiced Apple. Reporting by Blake Brittain in Washington Editing by David Bario and Matthew LewisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

[1/3] The sun sets on the U.S. Supreme Court building after a stormy day in Washington, U.S., November 11, 2022. Solicitor General's input on a lower court decision that prevented Apple and Broadcom from arguing the patents were invalid at trial. Apple and Broadcom also told the Federal Circuit that they should have been allowed to challenge the patents' validity at trial. The companies appealed that decision to the Supreme Court last September. The case is Apple Inc v. California Institute of Technology, U.S. Supreme Court, No.

Thom Browne had argued that, among other things, its designs have a different number of stripes. A spokesperson for Thom Browne Inc said the company was pleased with the verdict. Adidas sued New York designer Thom Browne's brand in 2021, claiming Thom Browne's four-bar and "Grosgrain" stripe patterns on its shoes and high-end activewear violated its three-stripe trademark rights. Thom Browne previously used a three-bar design on its clothing, changing it to the four-stripe design after Adidas objected in 2007. It also requested a court order stopping Thom Browne from using the designs.

Dec 22 (Reuters) - Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) Apple Watches with an electrocardiogram (ECG) function infringe patents belonging to medical device maker AliveCor Inc, the U.S. International Trade Commission affirmed on Thursday. Apple said in a statement that it "firmly" disagreed with the ITC decision but was pleased that the import ban was paused. AliveCor told the ITC last year that Apple copied its technology starting in Series 4 Apple Watches and drove AliveCor out of the market by making its operating system incompatible with the KardiaBand. The USPTO's Patent Trial and Appeal Board declared the AliveCor patents invalid at Apple's request in a related case on Dec. 6. AliveCor has separately sued Apple in California federal court for allegedly monopolizing the U.S. market for Apple Watch heart-rate monitoring apps, and has filed a related patent-infringement lawsuit against Apple in Texas federal court.

Sean Hall and Nathan Butler told a Los Angeles federal judge they will dismiss their 2017 case with prejudice, which means it cannot be refiled. In "Shake It Off," Swift sings: "the players gonna play, play, play, play, play, and the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate." "Playas Gon' Play," written by Hall and Butler, included the phrases "playas, they gonna play, and haters, they gonna hate." Swift told the court in August that she had never heard 3LW's song before writing "Shake It Off." She said she had heard the phrases "players gonna play" and "haters gonna hate" used commonly to "express the idea that one can or should shrug off negativity."

[1/2] Test tubes are seen in front of displayed Pfizer and Biontech logos in this illustration taken, May 21, 2021. Moderna first sued Pfizer in August, accusing the company of violating its rights in three patents related to innovations that Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Moderna said it pioneered before the COVID-19 pandemic. Moderna has also filed a related lawsuit against Pfizer and BioNTech in Germany. In its lawsuit, Moderna asked for an undisclosed amount of money damages from Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines sold since March. Pfizer and BioNTech said in their Monday filing that they developed their vaccine independently, calling Moderna's lawsuit "revisionist history" and arguing its patents "far exceed its actual contributions to the field."

The justices turned away Reston, Virginia-based cybersecurity company Centripetal's appeal of a lower court's decision to negate the award after the judge who presided over the trial disclosed that his wife owned Cisco stock worth $4,688. Centripetal sued Cisco in federal court in Virginia in 2018, accusing it of infringing patents related to Centripetal's network-security technology. The judge awarded Centripetal $1.9 billion in damages plus royalties that Cisco said increased the total to more than $2.7 billion. Morgan told the companies before issuing his ruling that his wife owned 100 shares of Cisco stock, though he was unaware of it during the trial. Centripetal told the Supreme Court that Morgan had complied with the law, and that selling the shares just before ruling for Cisco would "solve one appearance-of-impropriety problem by creating another."

Stelara accounted for $9.1 billion of J&J's $52 billion in global drug sales last year. The drug is also approved to treat Crohn's disease, the skin condition psoriasis and a related form of arthritis. However, J&J alleges that Amgen failed to follow the legal process required by that law for the companies to litigate any patent disputes. If Amgen launches its drug, J&J said it would infringe J&J's patent on the drug's active ingredient and on its use for treating ulcerative colitis. J&J said in a statement that Janssen is "confident in its intellectual property and has filed suit to protect its rights."

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Phoenix-based VIP's toy mimics the design of the Jack Daniel's bottle with comical dog-themed text alterations, like replacing "Old No. After Jack Daniel's sent a cease-and-desist notice, VIP asked an Arizona federal court in 2014 to rule that its toy did not infringe the whiskey company's trademark rights. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2020 overturned a judge's ruling in favor of Jack Daniel's, finding that VIP's toy was a creative work with a "humorous message" that was entitled to First Amendment protections. The Supreme Court last year rejected a request by Jack Daniel's to reconsider that ruling. Jack Daniel's told the high court that the decision made it "virtually impossible to stop misleading or tarnishing use of a mark whenever a copycat deploys 'humor.'"

Nov 15 (Reuters) - A federal jury in Texas on Tuesday said Intel Corp (INTC.O) must pay VLSI Technology LLC $948.8 million for infringing a VLSI patent for computer chips. Last March VLSI won a nearly $2.2 billion verdict from Intel in a separate Texas trial over different chip patents, which Intel has appealed. VLSI lost another related patent trial against Intel the following month. An attorney for VLSI said at trial that Intel's chips cause "millions and millions of infringements per second." Two other patent cases brought by VLSI against Intel are still pending in Northern California and Delaware.

Circuit Court of Appeals said Monday. Punchbowl Inc sued Punchbowl News' parent company, AJ Press LLC, for trademark infringement last year in Los Angeles federal court. The appeals court also agreed with the lower court that AJ Press' name was not misleading. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. For Punchbowl Inc: Peter Willsey of Brown RudnickFor Punchbowl News: Ian Ballon of Greenberg TraurigOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Representatives for Impossible Foods did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the decision. Redwood City, California-based Impossible Foods sued Motif, a Boston-based spinoff of biotech company Ginkgo Bioworks, in March. The court agreed with Impossible Foods that Hemami could still infringe the patents and allowed the claims to continue. Impossible Foods' patents may cover Hemami because it is produced using yeast and does not have any "direct animal provenance," Bryson said. The case is Impossible Foods Inc v. Motif Foodworks Inc, U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, No.

Nov 9 (Reuters) - Eli Lilly & Co must pay Teva Pharmaceuticals International GmbH $176.5 million after a trial to determine whether its migraine drug Emgality infringed three Teva patents, a Boston federal court jury decided on Wednesday. The jury agreed with Teva that Lilly's Emgality violated its rights in the patents, which relate to its own migraine drug Ajovy. Teva sued Lilly over the patents in 2018. The same day Teva sued, the court dismissed two related Teva lawsuits seeking to block Emgality from coming onto the U.S. market. Teva also filed a separate, ongoing patent lawsuit against Lilly in Massachusetts over Emgality last year.

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