IPR NEWS – WEEKLY UPDATES FROM 4TH SEP – 10TH SEP
INVESTMENT FIRM METACAPITAL SUES META FOR INFRINGEMENT
Investment firm Metacapital Management LP sued Meta Platforms Inc in Manhattan in federal court on Wednesday, alleging that the Facebook parent company’s use of the name “Meta” to provide financial services would cause customer confusion and violate its trademarks. Metacapital has also asked the court for damages of at least $60 million, the same amount Meta Platforms paid last year to acquire the trademark assets of Meta Financial Group, a regional bank. The investment firm has been using their name since 2001 whereas the name Meta Platforms which has been revamped from Facebook since 2021.
CHAAYOS V. CHAIPOS
This is a trademark infringement dispute between leading tea café chain ‘Chaayos’ and a café selling tea products ‘Chaipos’ where the High Court has sent this case to mediation noticing that there was a possibility of amicable resolution of the matter. The court also noted that the only issue is concerning the phonetic or ocular similarity of the marks ‘CHAAYOS’ & ’CHAIOPS’. There is also a suit filed by Sunshine teahouse Private limited regarding its brand CHAAYOS seeking permanent injunction restraining infringement and unauthorized use of its trademark by CHAIPOS café.
NBA STAR LEBRON JAMES AND DRAKE SUED AND ACCUSED OF STEALING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS OVER FILM
Billy Hunter, former executive director of the NBA Players Association, filed a lawsuit in the New York state Supreme Court claiming he secured the rights to the story based on a novel about the Colored Hockey League, a former segregated league for black players. The book is called Black Ice: The Lost History of the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes, 1895-1925 and was written by George Fosty and Darril Fosty, who are also defendants in Hunter’s suit.
EUIPO PLANS BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY TO COMBAT COUNTERFEITS
The European Union Intellectual Property Office to combat counterfeit which has been a major threat to luxury brands. Anti-Counterfeit has been one of the more obvious block chain application i.e to ensure fake parts aren’t used. As much as 5.8 % of European Union imports from third countries are fake. And a survey states that 9 % of EU citizen in 202 were duped into buying a counterfeit item. It aims to technology neutral plans to support multiple non-fungible token (NFT) platform, ERP solutions, tack and trace systems to curb the counterfeits
APPLE INC v. VIRNETX INC
VirnetX sued Apple in 2010, alleging that VPN technology in Apple’s iPhones, iPads and computers infringed its patents. After several trials and appeals, a jury awarded VirnetX $502 million in damages in 2020. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit heard Apple’s request to toss the jury verdict, as well as VirnetX’s appeal of a U.S. Patent Office tribunal decision to cancel its virtual private network (VPN) patents that also would negate the award if it stands.
INVT SPE LLC v. ITC
INVT appealed a final determination by the International Trade Commission finding that Apple, HTC, and ZTE did not violate 19 U.S.C. § 1337 (Section 337) by importing and selling certain personal electronic devices. INVT appealed, challenging the Commission’s determinations regarding two of the asserted patents. The court agreed with INVT that the computer-implemented claims are drawn to “capability” requiring “some showing that the accused computer-implemented device is programmed or otherwise configured, without modification, to perform the claimed function when in operation.” But here “INVT failed to introduce any evidence to establish that the accused devices, when put into operation, will ever perform the particular functions recited in the asserted claims.
DELHI HIGH COURT RESTRAINS RESTAURANT FROM USING ‘SOCIAL’ TRADEMARK
The Delhi High Court has restrained a Jharkhand based restaurant ‘SOCIAL 75’ from using its registered trademark ‘SOCIAL’ and also directed SOCIAL 75 to remove all references from third party websites, where its services are sold, offered or advertised. The Court was of the view that SOCIAL had made out a prima facie case for grant of ex parte ad-interim injunction, as the impugned trademark SOCIAL 75 was deceptively similar to the SOCIAL’s registered trademark. The important argument put forth by the Social is that the reviews and ratings posted by the general public with respect to the restaurant SOCIAL 75 on Zomato, Facebook and Google revealed that the services offered by it were substandard, thereby adversely affecting Social’s goodwill in respect of high-quality restaurants.
NEETU SINGH & ANR. v. TELEGRAM FZ LLC & ORS
The plaintiff filed a case against Telegram for violating the copyrights of their teaching videos and study materials which is being circulated on different channels illegally. When they approached Telegram to disclose the details of the channel and their IP address, Telegram issued a statement that it would violate the Right to Privacy of an individual under Article 19 of the Constitution of India. The court on September 1 held that “The right to freedom of speech or the right to life including the right to privacy cannot be used by any person or entity, let alone an infringer, in order to escape the consequences of illegal actions, therefore ordering the Telegram to disclose the details of the channel including mobile numbers, IP address, email address, with which the channel created that infringed the copyrights of the plaintiffs within 2 weeks to the respective persons”
SONY CANON STOPS LENS PRODCUTION DUE TO PATENT INFRINGEMENT
Viltrox which is functioning under SHENZHEN JUEYING TECHNOLOGY CO.LTD stops manufacturing the auto focus lenses for Canon RF mount. Canon which is a famous lens and camera manufacturer having customers all over the world is now having issues with its products that is being manufactured by third parties. It is true that Canon is overly protective of its designs of lens, locking users to first party lenses but that is to protect their uniqueness and quality of its products.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHT’S JURISDCITION OVER OUTER SPACE
The Intellectual Property law which is clouded by international agreements for international rights and depends on national law for its scope in local. But do those law applicable to outer space, high seas? That’s been answered by US in 1990 applying Gardiner case that US patent jurisdiction is over US controlled spaceships too. Recently the Artemis Accords which is a bilateral space treaty have been signed between United States and 21 other countries including Israel who signed early months of 2022 and the last added signatory is Saudi Arabia. This treaty aims to put humans on “Moon, Mars and beyond”.
LIFESPAN OF MATERIALS-NEW PATENT GRANTED TO NIT-ROURKELA
The National Institute of Technology- Rourkela was granted patent for developing a machine which will measure and predict the lifespan of composite panels that is used in the construction and manufacturing sectors. This new invention is much applicable in field of defence aviation and automobile sectors. The functionality of this machine is when we charge a mobile, the end of the wire gets damaged, same way when composite panels are used in construction of building one can predict the products life cycle. This machine was titled as Fatigue and Creep Testing Machine for Nonmetallic/Composite Materials.
LIVSPACE PTE LTD & ANR v. LIVSPACE-REVIEWS.COM & ORS
Livspace conducts business all over India known for its interior designing services and also a ‘well known mark’. The domain name www.livspace-reviews.com which is created by an unknown person where the review s have been collected and posted which creates bad image to the plaintiff who is registered owner of the name. The court thus on September 1 directed the MEITY and DoT to issue blocking order against the domain name which causes a confusion among the users regarding ownership of the website, where extremely defamatory reviews about the Livpsace has been put up which causes huge damage to the registered mark.
PFIZER, BIONTECH SEEK TO REVOKE CUREVAC’S PATENT INFRINGEMENT CLAIMS
Earlier, CureVac had filed a patent infringement suit against BioNtech and Pfizer over its use of mRNA technology and sought compensation form those companies for violating their intellectual property rights. On September 2 Pfizer and BioNtech filed in High court seeking that they do not infringe CureVac’s patent. Even before this, there are few patent infringement law suits against Pfizer for the COVID vaccine and various other medicines.