Huawei, the Chinese telecommunication giant, revealed that it earned $560 million in patent licensing revenues in 2022. The announcement was made during Huawei’s annual innovation and IP event in Shenzhen. The revenue was generated through bilateral or patent pool licensing agreements.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) launched an investigation into OpenAI’s generative AI platform, ChatGPT, due to concerns over data privacy and consumer safety. The investigation comes amidst increasing scrutiny on major tech firms by the FTC. The FTC Chair, Lina Khan, faced tough questions at a House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing, with allegations of harassment and concerns over leadership raised during the hearing.
The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) formalized its Diversion Pilot Program and made other changes to agency practice. The program addresses instances of minor misconduct caused by practitioner health issues or law practice management issues. The USPTO also published an updated report highlighting that challenges to Orange Book-listed patents, under the America Invents Act (AIA), have decreased since 2016.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a ruling in the case of Float’N’Grill LLC, affirming the rejection of reissue claims covering a floating grill apparatus. The court agreed that the original patent’s specification did not include a plurality of magnets as critical to the original invention.
The Third Circuit affirmed a default judgment against Emerson Quiet Kool Co. Ltd. (EQK) in a trademark case. EQK faced numerous litigation delays, which prejudiced the trademark infringement and false advertising claims brought by Emerson Radio Corp. EQK, despite having a meritorious defense, was unable to survive summary judgment on the trademark infringement claim.
The USPTO issued a final rule formalizing the Diversion Pilot Program and making other changes to agency practice. Among the changes, foreign agents with reciprocal recognition to practice in trademark matters were required to update their contact and licensure information. The USPTO also eliminated the fee charged to change status from patent agent to patent attorney and deferred to state attorney licensing authorities on legal fee sharing agreements between practitioners and non-practitioners.
Advocate General Tamara Capeta issued an opinion on EUIPO v. The KaiKai Company Jaeger Wichmann, clarifying that international agreements like the Paris Convention do not have interpretative effect unless they directly affect a court’s application of law. Capeta found that the Paris Convention’s period for claiming priority to a previous application did have direct effect, resulting in the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) affording a 12-month priority period to prior filed patent claims, when only the six-month priority period should have been applied.
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) honored seven small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as winners of the 2023 WIPO Global Awards for SMEs. The winners included Aerosol Magee Scientific of Slovenia, Centro de Retina Medica y Quirúrgica (CRQM) of Mexico, Flexxon of Singapore, Lactips of France, Shanghai Westwell Technology Co. Ltd. and Xi’an KissFuture Network Technology Co., Ltd., both of China, and YAKWETU Online Limited of Kenya.
A trademark infringement case, filed over a musical adaptation of Anne of Green Gables, was settled in the Southern District of New York. The lawsuit was brought by a licensing company co-owned by Prince Edward Island and heirs of Canadian author L.M. Montgomery against the producers of the musical adaptation, which was being developed for a Broadway production.
Book authors, including comedian Sarah Silverman, filed a pair of class action lawsuits alleging copyright infringement and Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) violations against OpenAI and Meta Platforms. The lawsuits claimed that the plaintiffs’ copyrighted works were used in the training data for ChatGPT and the generative AI platform LLaMA.
Disney CEO Bob Iger hinted at the possibility of selling off traditional TV media assets, including networks ABC and ESPN. The move comes as Disney faces challenges with subscriber numbers for its streaming service, Disney+.
In conclusion, this week saw Huawei announce significant patent licensing revenues, the FTC launch an investigation into OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and the USPTO formalize its Diversion Pilot Program. Legal issues surrounding trademark litigation, reissue claims, and copyright infringement were also addressed. Additionally, the possibility of Disney selling its TV media assets was discussed.
