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This week in Other Barks & Bites: the U.S. Department of Justice proposes multiple remedies to Google’s alleged monopolistic practices, including breaking up the tech giant; the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) overturns a lower court ruling, reviving a patent infringement lawsuit against Salesforce; and Limp Bizkit sues Universal Music Group for $200 million in unpaid royalties.
Bites
CAFC Revives Patent Infringement Lawsuit Against Salesforce
On Thursday, October 10, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) issued a non-precedential opinion overturning a Nevada court ruling that found Salesforce did not infringe on two patents from software company Application in Internet Time (AIT). AIT first sued Salesforce for patent infringement in 2013, and the CAFC’s ruling revives the lawsuit against the company. The CAFC found the lower court mistakenly ruled that the two patents were invalid and not infringed upon.
Chamber Points to Europe as Warning on Effects of Price Controls
On Wednesday, October 9, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce published a blog post imploring policymakers to look at the example of Europe when considering “market restrictive policies—such as price controls.” According to the post, Europe takes on average 430 days to approve a new medicine while in the United States it only takes 334 days. And of 104 new oncology products launched globally since 2017, only 56% were launched in Europe, whereas 80% were launched in the United States. “If policymakers continue down the path of price controls and other anti-innovation proposals, patients will pay the price,” the post concluded.
USDA Urges Sharing of Agricultural Research Despite Bayh-Dole
On Tuesday, October 8, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released a statement Wednesday, October 8, urging recipients of funding from the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) to “plan their intellectual property protection, licensing, and material transfer strategies” around the goal of sharing results freely with the public and increasing free access to “germplasm” (genetic resources necessary for plant breeding). The statement acknowledged the rights of grantees to retain title to inventions under the Bayh-Dole Act but said it “encourages the results and accomplishments of the research, education, and extension activities it funds to be made available to the public consistent with federal law.”
In a LinkedIn post on the USDA’s statement, Heidi Nebel of McKee, Voorhees and Sease said that the announcement “is a direct repudiation of the Bayh Dole Act. The Act responsible for up to $1.9 trillion in U.S. industry gross output, formation of 17,000 startup businesses, and support of at least as many as 2.4 million jobs over the past 25 years.” Neibel went on to dub the USDA statement “uneducated policy making at its worst, effectively allowing farmers to appropriate hundreds of thousands of dollars and years worth of breeding research. Under the guise of empowering farmers, it will do just the opposite, diminishing public research and encouraging more privatization of the germplasm pool.”
DOJ Proposes Remedies to Stop Google’s Monopoly Including Breaking Up the Company
On Tuesday, October 8, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed court documents that indicate it is considering breaking up Google to remedy its alleged monopolistic practices. In the document, the DOJ states that it is considering ways to address four different harms created by Google including, search distribution and revenue sharing, generation and display of search results, advertising scale and monetization, and accumulation and use of data. From the range of potential remedies presented the most radical would be to split Google into multiple companies in order to address its alleged monopolistic hold on search engines and the online ad market.
Limp Bizkit Sues Universal Music Group for $200 Million in Unpaid Royalties
On Tuesday, October 8, the band Limp Bizkit sued Universal Music Group accusing its music label of withholding $200 million in unpaid royalties. The lawsuit claims “not only did UMG never have any intention of paying Plaintiffs, it designed and implemented royalty software and systems that were deliberately designed to conceal artists’ royalties and keep those profits for itself. The dispute arose after Limp Bizkit, a band most popular during the late ‘90s and early 2000s, saw a recent resurgence in popularity.
Ozempic Maker Settles Patent Infringement Lawsuit, Opening Potential for Generics
On Friday, October 4, Novo Nordisk and Mylan Pharmaceuticals settled their patent dispute over weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). Mylan was trying to cancel the patent for Novo Nordisk’s popular weight-loss and diabetes drug. Mylan’s partner, Indian company Natco Pharma, also announced a settlement with Novo Nordisk. The settlement opens the potential for Mylan and Natco to bring a generic version of Ozempic to the market.
Barks
USCO Announces 2024–2026 Ringer Honors Fellow
On Thursday, October 10, the U.S. Copyright Office (USCO) announced Elizabeth Porter as a two-year fellow in the Barbara A. Ringer Copyright Honors Program. “The Ringer Fellowship program’s namesake, Barbara Ringer, was appointed by the Librarian of Congress as the eighth Register of Copyrights and the first woman to lead the U.S. Copyright Office. The Office honors her legacy through this paid fellowship, which offers a unique public service opportunity for early-career attorneys who demonstrate a strong interest in copyright law and a record of achievement in law school or practice,” Register of Copyrights Shira Perlmutter said.
EPO Meets to Discuss First Unitary Patent Guidelines
On Wednesday, October 9, the European Patent Office (EPO) held its second meeting of the year to discuss its annual guidelines revision, including the first Unitary Patent guidelines. The Unitary Patent guidelines will be released in April 2025, and the EPO highlighted work done on guidelines for the Unitary Patent Protection Division and the Unitary Patent Register.
WIPO and EUIPO Hold Bilateral Meeting on Promoting IP
On Tuesday, October 8, Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Daren Tang had a bilateral meeting with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) Executive Director João Negrão to discuss collaboration between the two offices. According to the EUIPO, the meeting had a focus on promoting the use of the IP system to small and medium-sized enterprises.
DOJ Files Statement of Interest in Patent Litigation Bounty Lawsuit
On Friday, October 4, the DOJ filed a statement of interest highlighting the “anticompetitive potential and the unprecedented nature” of Taiwanese chip company MediaTek’s alleged patent litigation bounty scheme. RealTek, a competing Taiwanese chip firm, filed a lawsuit against MediaTek last year accusing the company of working with patent trolls to file meritless patent lawsuits against it and other competitors in U.S. courts. The DOJ argued the patent bounty strategy should be “discouraged as a matter of public policy.”
This Week on Wall Street
TD Bank Pleads Guilty to Money Laundering and Hit with $1.8 Billion Fine
On Thursday, October 10, the DOJ announced TD Bank had pled guilty to money laundering charges resulting from an investigation into violations of the Bank Secrecy Act. As part of the plea deal, TD Bank has agreed to pay $1.8 billion in fines. “By making its services convenient for criminals, TD Bank became one,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “Today, TD Bank also became the largest bank in U.S. history to plead guilty to Bank Secrecy Act program failures, and the first US bank in history to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering.”
GM Expects Similar Earnings to Last Year
On Tuesday, October 8, General Motors released a statement for its investor day that details its expectations for 2025 earnings to fall in a similar range to 2024. GM touted its electric vehicle profitability and production, and analysts consider a repeat of 2024 earnings to be impressive considering a recent slowdown in consumption. Both the United States and the European Union have levied higher tariffs on Chinese EVs in recent months hoping to boost domestic competitiveness.
Quarterly Earnings – The following firms identified among the IPO’s Top 300 Patent Recipients for 2023 are announcing quarterly earnings next week (2023 rank in parentheses):
- Monday: None
- Tuesday: Johnson & Johnson (20), Ericsson (24), Bank of America (64)
- Wednesday: Abbott Laboratories (124), ASML (182)
- Thursday: Taiwan Semiconductor (4), Intuitive Surgical (187)
- Friday: None
