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Functionality Appeals

McDermott Will & Emery

Sole Searching: Trade Dress Hopes Booted as Functional, Nondistinctive

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The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed a district court’s summary judgment grant in a trademark dispute, finding that the district court did not err in concluding that a subset of design elements lacked...more

McDermott Will & Emery

Watermelon Sugar: Candy Shape and Color Deemed Functional

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The US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit upheld a district court’s decision that a candymaker cannot trademark the shape and colors of watermelon candy, finding that the combined colors and shape of the candy are...more

McDermott Will & Emery

Lanham Act Liability May Apply to Copyrighted Material

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found that liability under the Copyright Act and liability under the Lanham Act are not mutually exclusive and that liability under the Copyright Act does not negate trade dress...more

McDermott Will & Emery

Burdens Can’t Be Avoided No Matter How They’re Dressed Up

Addressing a multitude of issues, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed the district court’s ruling dismissing infringement of one patent and finding a trade dress invalid but reversed the invalidation of...more

McDermott Will & Emery

Functionality Dooms Alleged Trade Dress Protection

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The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed summary judgment of noninfringement in a trade dress suit, finding that the trade dress was functional and the attorneys’ fee award—as diminished by the district...more

McDermott Will & Emery

Federal Circuit Reverses Judge Stark Decision, Finds Computer Network Patent Eligible

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The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit concluded that a representative claim was directed to a patent-eligible improvement to computer functionality, and therefore reversed a decision authored by Judge Leonard P....more

McDermott Will & Emery

IRS Announces Nonacquiescence in Mayo Regulation Invalidity Holding

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We previously wrote... about decisions made by the District Court of Minnesota and the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in Mayo Clinic v. United States regarding challenges to the validity of certain Treasury...more

McDermott Will & Emery

Colorful Non-Functionality Argument Misses the (Design) Mark

Addressing the functionality of colors in design marks, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed the district court’s entry of judgment for a trademark owner on its unfair competition and trademark claims,...more

McDermott Will & Emery

There’s No Sugarcoating It: Pocky’s Cookie Design Trade Dress Is Functional

Addressing for the second time whether the design of a chocolate-dipped, stick-shaped cookie was eligible for trade dress protection, the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit held again that the product configuration was...more

Knobbe Martens

No Simulating Alice Requirements: Application of Abstract Ideas Alone Cannot Transform Patent Ineligible Subject Matter

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SIMIO, LLC V. FLEXSIM SOFTWARE PRODUCTS, INC. Before Prost, Clevenger, and Stoll. Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Utah. Summary: A claim whose only inventive concept is the applications...more

McDermott Will & Emery

Cookie Trade Dress Infringement Case Crumbles in Face of Functionality Challenge

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The US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit found that trade dress protection did not extend to the design of a chocolate-dipped, stick-shaped cookie, because the product configuration was useful. Ezaki Glico Kabushiki...more

Dorsey & Whitney LLP

Google v. Oracle: SCOTUS Grants Cert In The “Copyright Lawsuit of the Decade” - Now What?

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On November 15, 2019, the Supreme Court granted cert in Google LLC v. Oracle America Inc. For many observers, this was a long time coming; the parties have been litigating the underlying case since August 2010, and from its...more

Knobbe Martens

Avoiding Ineligibility by Claiming a Specific Implementation That Improves upon the Prior Art

Knobbe Martens on

KONINKLIJKE KPN N.V. v. GEMALTO M2M GMBH - Before Dyk, Chen, and Stoll.  Appeal from the District of Delaware. Summary: Claims directed to improving the functionality of one tool that is part of a system do not...more

McDermott Will & Emery

Keep on Truckin’: Aesthetic Functionality Has No Part in Design Patent Validity

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Addressing the issue of the functional requirements of design patents, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit refused to invalidate design patents on truck parts on the basis of aesthetic functionality. Automotive...more

McDermott Will & Emery

Cream and Sugar with That? French Press Trade Dress Is Nonfunctional, Protectable

In confirming that the unregistered trade dress of the Chambord French press coffeemaker was nonfunctional, the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed the district court’s determination that plaintiff’s...more

Holland & Knight LLP

Aesthetic Appeal of a Patent's Claimed Design Is Inadequate to Render It Functional

Holland & Knight LLP on

• In a relatively rare opinion regarding design patents, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit weighed in recently on the requirements for design patents in its Automotive Body Parts Association v. Ford Global...more

Jones Day

ABPA v. Ford: Design Patent Defenses Run Out of Gas on Appeal - A U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decision...

Jones Day on

On July 23, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit released its decision affirming summary judgment that the asserted design patents were not invalid for non-ornamentality under 35 U.S.C. § 171, and rejecting...more

Knobbe Martens

Federal Circuit Judges Disagree Over Contours of Section 101

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The increased prominence of Section 101 in computer-related patent disputes stems from the Supreme Court case of Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank. Before Alice reached the Supreme Court, ten judges of the Federal Circuit considered...more

Foley & Lardner LLP

CAFC Says Functional Claim Language Does Not Create Divided Infringement

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In LifeNet Health v. LifeCell Corporation, one of the many issues the Federal Circuit decided was that functional claim language did not create a divided infringement situation, even though an independent actor could impact...more

Morgan Lewis

Federal Circuit Reverses Claim Construction of Design Patent That Ignored Functional Elements

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Applicants for design patents should consider claiming functional aspects of their designs in addition to the purely ornamental elements as part of their claiming strategy to achieve the broadest protection for their designs....more

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP

Ninth Circuit Decision Finds Side-By-Side Medical Results Charts Arguably Non-Functional and Protectable Trade Dress

The Ninth Circuit recently considered whether the layout of a medical report can be protected as trade dress under the Lanham Act, or whether the layout of a report is merely functional. The subject case, Millennium...more

Farella Braun + Martel LLP

Williamson Decision Will Encourage Patent Defendants to Challenge Software Claims

In Williamson v. Citrix Online, announced on June 16, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled in a partially en banc opinion that claims expressed in terms of functionality can be subject to statutory requirements...more

Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C.

Design Patent Case Digest: High Point Design LLC and Meijer, Inc., Sears Holding Corp. and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Buyers Direct,...

Decision Dates: September 11, 2013 and March 26, 2014 - Courts: Federal Circuit and the Southern District of New York Patent: D598,183 - Holding: Grant of summary judgment of invalidity REVERSED and REMANDED; on...more

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