Roche Sues Stanford Professors And Medical Technology Startup Over Trade Secrets Infringement
Roche Molecular Systems, Inc. and Roche Sequencing Solutions, Inc. (Roche) have filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against professors at Stanford University and their medical technology startup company. Drs. Maximilian Diehn and Ash Alizadeh founded Capp Medical, which Roche acquired back in 2015 to obtain their cancer detection technology, including trade secrets and know-how. Drs. Diehn and Alizadeh worked as consultants with Roche and were joined by fellow Stanford professor Dr. David Kurtz, who worked as a contractor at Roche. Roche claims that the Stanford professors secretly formed another medical technology startup Foresight Inc., while working with Roche, which also worked on developing cancer detection and monitoring technology. The complaint further alleges that the professors applied for patents relating to cancer detection using Roche’s confidential information and know-how, including the technology that was sold to Roche as part of acquiring CappMed. Roche has requested the Court to declare it to be the rightful owner of the disputed patents, and be awarded appropriate damages.
Amazon And Nokia Battle Over Patents Relating To Cloud-Computing Technology
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has sued Nokia in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, claiming infringement of the former’s patents that provide many improvements to cloud computing techniques. AWS alleges in its complaint that it was responsible for developing “groundbreaking cloud computing technology” in the early 2000s, and it continues to innovate and develop new cloud computing products, whereas Nokia was comparatively more prominent in the mobile phone market. It was only in late 2020 that Nokia announced a “new market strategy” that focused on establishing a “Cloud and Network Services” business division. AWS claims that Nokia’s so-called new market strategy relies upon leveraging AWS’s patented technology that addresses issues faced by cloud service providers. The complaint goes on to state that Nokia is using the patented cloud computing innovation without authorisation. Interestingly, this is not the first time that Amazon and Nokia have butted their heads over patents- Nokia sued the tech giant last year in Germany, India, the United Kingdom, and at the European Unified Patent Court for infringing Nokia’s patented technology related to video streaming.
Bombay High Court Protects Bollywood Singer Arijit Singh’s Personality Rights By Restraining AI Platforms And Other Third Parties
Singer Arijit Singh approached the Bombay High Court to seek protection for his personality and publicity rights against unauthorised and unlicensed commercial use. In his suit initiated against Codible Ventures and other third parties, he sought protection for various aspects of his personality, like his name, vocal style, image, caricature, likeness, and signature. It is alleged that artificial intelligence platforms are using sophisticated algorithms to reproduce parts of his personality, like his voice, image and likeness, and exploit his reputation as an established singer. There have been other instances of third-party entities committing infringement acts like selling unlicensed merchandise, promoting events denoting a false association with the singer and even creating domain names under his name. The Court ruled that based on his goodwill and reputation, Arijit has acquired the status of being a celebrity in India, and as a celebrity, he is entitled to protect his personality rights. It further noted that the freedom of speech and expression does not grant the license to exploit a celebrity's persona for commercial gain. The Court issued an ex-parte ad-interim order to restrain the defendants from violating Arijit’s personality rights and issued directions pertaining to removing infringing content from online platforms and suspending domain names containing the singer’s name.
U.S. Olympic Committee Sues Youtuber Logan Paul For Trade Mark Infringement
YouTuber Logan Paul developed a sports drink brand called “Prime Hydration” back in 2022 as part of his collaboration with fellow YouTuber KSI. The brand is under the spotlight for its alleged unauthorised use of trademarks owned by the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee. The Olympic Committee filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado against Paul for using their trademark-protected phrases “Olympic”, “Olympian”, “Team USA” and “Going for Gold” as part of Prime Hydration’s packaging and promotional activities featuring basketball star and three-time Olympic gold medallist Kevin Durant. Talking about the “wilful” and “blatant” trade mark infringement, the Committee claims that although their lawyer contacted Prime Hydration and asked them to stop using the trademarks, the company paid no heed. It further says that only Coca-Cola has the exclusive right to use Olympic trademarks, including the words “Olympic” and “Team USA,” on beverages in the United States. The Committee seeks all profits gained from the sale of the sports drink, and “millions of dollars” in damages.
McDonald’s Loses Right To Use ‘Big Mac’ For Chicken Burgers In The EU
The American food chain McDonalds’ nine-year-long battle with Irish chain Supermac’s has concluded with the European Union General Court’s ruling favouring the latter. Supermacs’ attempts to register its name in the EU were opposed by McDonald’s, citing its similarity to the Big Mac burgers. On the other hand, Supermac’s tried to cancel McDonalds’ registered trade mark on the basis that it was not put to genuine use for all the products and services listed in the registration for at least five years. Initially, the Cancellation Division of the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) had revoked the trade mark registration entirely, upon which McDonald’s appealed the decision. The EUIPO Board of Appeal partially cancelled the trade mark, while still upholding its usage for meat sandwiches, chicken sandwiches and restaurant-related services. As per the General Court’s ruling, although McDonald’s cannot use ‘Big Mac’ for poultry products and restaurant services, it can continue to use the trade mark for red meat products. While we have a decision for the EU, the parties are still feuding over the use of ‘Big Mac’ in the UK.
Singer Cardi B Sued For Copyright Infringement Over Her Song "Enough (Miami)"
Producers Joshua Fraustro and Miguel Aguilar (who go by Kemika1956) have filed a suit in Texas against artist Cardi B, alleging that her hit song ‘Enough (Miami)’ uses the beats from their song ‘Greasy Frybread’. Claiming copyright infringement, the producer duo allege that their song became popular when it was featured in the acclaimed FX series ‘Reservation Dogs’ in 2021. Other defendants listed in the lawsuit include producers James D Steed (DJ Swanqo) and Joshua Parker (OG Parker), Atlantic Records, Celebrity Booking Agency, and Warner Music Group.
Delhi High Court Grants Relief To Adidas In Trademark Infringement Suit
Adidas AG approached the Delhi High Court to seek relief against a Delhi-based shopkeeper who was selling and marketing products under the brand “ADIDAS”. The German sports apparel company granted a license to Bata Pvt. Ltd. in 1989 to conduct commercial trade in India. Interestingly, one of the defendants, Keshav Tulsiani, claimed his honest intention to adopt the trademark “ADIDAS” by the reasoning that his affection for his elder sister is why he chose the brand. The word “Adi” means elder sister in the Sindhi community, and his ardent admiration for his sister makes him a devotee, or a “Das” – leading to the name “ADIDAS”. However, this argument was rejected by the Court, which ruled that the use of the same mark for similar products will create confusion and that the word “ADIDAS” is highly distinctive and enjoys wider protection under trademark law. The lack of proof of use on the defendant’s part also led to the Court ruling in favour of Adidas and awarded Rs 14.22 lakh in damages.
Record Label Giants Accuse Music-AI Startups Suno And Udio Of Copyright Infringement Through Unauthorised Use Of Songs
According to The Recording Industry Association of America’s announcement, record label companies Universal Music Group, Sony Music, and Warner Music have filed two copyright infringement suits against artificial intelligence-based music startup platforms Sunio and Udio. The actions brought against Boston-based Suno and New York-based Udio claim that these AI companies commit copyright infringement through unauthorised use to train the AI systems to create new music similar to the copyright-protected works. The music labels claim that this unauthorised creation of AI-generated music by these companies creates a risk of “overrunning the market with AI-generated music and generally devaluing and substituting for human-created work”. In their defense, Suno stated that developing a tool to create music qualifies as fair use and that the music label companies are trying to stifle competition in the market for original music. Suno’s blog post revealed that it was having productive discussions with major record label companies before the filing of the lawsuit. Udio has yet to respond.
Shein Locks Horns With Temu
Shein has filed a lawsuit against its fast-fashion competitor, Temu, accusing it of trademark and copyright infringement, false advertising, trade secret theft, and selling counterfeit products. The lawsuit, filed in Washington, D.C., claims that Temu stole trade secrets, encouraged sellers to market knock-offs of Shein's popular items, and misled consumers by pretending to be Shein on social media. This legal dispute is the latest in an ongoing feud between the two companies, with both having filed previous lawsuits against each other, including antitrust allegations and claims of unfair competition.
Class action suit filed against Anthropic, an AI company
A class-action lawsuit was filed against Anthropic, the AI company behind the Claude models, by three authors—Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, and Kirk Wallace Johnson. The lawsuit accuses Anthropic of copyright infringement for using pirated copies of their books to train its AI models without permission. The authors argue that Anthropic’s AI products, including Claude, were developed using large datasets containing copyrighted works, sourced from piracy websites. This allegedly allowed Anthropic to avoid paying for proper licenses, depriving the authors of compensation for their work. The lawsuit raises concerns about the ethical use of data in AI development, particularly as AI-generated content increasingly competes with human-created work. The authors seek damages and a permanent injunction to prevent further copyright violations by Anthropic. The case is part of a broader trend of legal action against AI companies, including similar lawsuits faced by OpenAI and Meta, over the use of copyrighted material in training datasets.
BLACKPINK Band Member Jennie Trademark Registers her Name
Jennie from BLACKPINK has officially acquired the trademark for her English name, "Jennie Ruby Jane," in South Korea. The process started in January 2023 when she applied to the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO). After a thorough review and a two-month opposition period, the trademark was granted in August 2024. Jennie has been using this name on her social media accounts and during her acting debut in the HBO series The Idol.
Romania to Join the Unitary Patent System
Romania will officially join the Unitary Patent (UP) system on September 1, 2024. This marks the first territorial expansion of the UP system, increasing the total number of participating European Union member states to 18. As a result, any European patents granted with unitary effect from that date will automatically extend protection to Romania. This also adds a market of 19 million people to the 330 million already covered by the UP system, making it easier for patent holders to protect their intellectual property across more EU countries through a single, streamlined process.
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