*Monthly Insights*

Jack Daniel’s Trademark Dispute Against Parodying Toy Maker Argued Before US Supreme Court

On March 22, 2023, the US Supreme Court heard oral argument in a case about the rights of a trademark holder in conflict with the First Amendment’s freedom-of-speech rights of a company wanting to use those trademarks to sell humorous products. This case has generated great interest because the US Justice Department is siding with Jack Daniel’s in the dispute, and the Biden administration urged the justices to hear and decide the case. Several well-known brand owners such as Nike have filed amicus briefs in support of Jack Daniel’s.

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Means-Plus-Function Claiming:

A Path to The Dark Side

Photo credit: Agnieszka Kowalczyk

A U.S. district court’s recent Markman claim construction order highlights once again some of the problems associated with means-plus-function claiming allowed in U.S. patent practice pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 112(f). Because no algorithms for performing the specialized functions of the claimed “controller” of the “Tower Ride” portion of the amusement park ride “Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance,” an attraction at Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge at Disney's Hollywood Studios and Disneyland in California, are disclosed in the asserted patent, the claim term “controller” was held to be indefinite.

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SuperGuide;

How “At Least One of A, B, and C” Has Been Interpreted

How should the phrase “at least one of A, B, and C” be construed? Can it be understood as disjunctive, where A, B, or C can be optional? Or should it be interpreted as conjunctive, where one of each of A, B, and C are all required? Both interpretations have been used by district courts and the Court of Appeals of the Federal Circuit (“CAFC”) in the past; however, the conjunctive construction has been applied only in a particularly narrow set of fact-specific cases. Particularly, the CAFC focused on the application of grammatical principles necessitating that treatment of modifiers of a list (e.g., at least one of) be applied to all of the listed elements (e.g., A, B, and C).

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Can Material Properties be an Abstract Idea?

Photo credit: Vardan Papikyan

In the scientific community, material properties have long been used to define and characterize materials and other compositions of matter. However, under a recent decision by the International Trade Commission (ITC), some types of material properties may now be considered an “abstract idea,” and thus patent ineligible subject matter.