Here is Think IP Strategy’s weekly selection of top Online intellectual property news breaking in the blogosphere and internet.

 

Highlights this week included:

Victory for Apple: ITC bans infringing HTC phones starting in April (Ars Technica) (ITC 337 Law Blog) (Ars Technica) (FOSS Patents) (Patently-O) (FOSS Patents)

9th Circuit Court of Appeals reaffirms DMCA protection for user-generated content: UMG v Veoh (Ars Technica) (EFF) (Recording Industry vs The People) (The 1709 Blog) (ipwars.com)

Google copyright surveillance would violate EU law, Italian court rules (Out-Law) (The 1709 Blog)

File-sharing 3 strikes killed in Ireland, government promises site blocking (TorrentFreak) (Out-Law)

 

Please join the discussion by adding your comments on any of these stories, and please do let us know if you think we’ve missed something important, or if there is a source you think should be monitored.

 

Global

Global – General

Apple update: You win some, you lose some… trademark loss in China favourable ITC finding (IPKat)

 

Global – Copyright

Former Creative Commons CEO on the battles faced by CC licensing (Ars Technica)

 

Global – Patents

Apple may never be better placed to negotiate a beneficial end to the smartphone wars (IAM)

 

Argentina

Dot ar is live! (IP tango)

 

Australia

ISPs and 3 strikes in Australia (ipwars.com)

IP Australia’s escalating war on ‘business methods’ (Patentology)

Apple v Samsung down under – 2011 redux (Patentology)

 

Canada

Fair dealing or freeloading? iTunes previews to face the music… (IP Whiteboard)

Canadian Library Association on C-11 (Michael Geist)

The daily digital lock dissenter, day 52: Ontario Council of University Libraries (Michael Geist)

Letters of the law: The year in tech law and policy (Michael Geist)

 

China

Online IP infringement cases gumming up the works in China’s courts? (China Hearsay)

Skin in the game: the upside to the Youku-Tudou copyright fight (China Hearsay)

IP reshapes e-commerce strategies (China Law Insight)

 

Europe

Scanned public domain works: what’s the position in Europe now? (The 1709 Blog) (The 1709 Blog)

Football fixtures not protected by database copyright, says ECJ advisor: Football Dataco v Yahoo! (Out-Law) (IPKat)

Last parliament standing: Europe final stronghold of ACTA critics (IP Watch) (Out-Law)

 

Finland

Anti-piracy investigator bemoans lack of training, meddling by lawyers (TorrentFreak)

 

France

Private copying levy: societies “did not do enough”, rules French court: Rue de Commerce v Copie France (The 1709 Blog)

Tribunal de Grande dismisses Samsung’s request for preliminary injunction in Samsung v Apple iPhone 4S chip patent infringement dispute (EPLAW)

 

Germany

FRAND defense requires accepting damages for the past – Mannheim District Court decision in Motorola v Apple dispute (PatLit)

Retired, computerless woman fined for pirating ‘Hooligan’ movie (TorrentFreak)

Microsoft v. Motorola: three Munich hearings in a row, second hearings scheduled for March and April (FOSS Patents)

Samsung hits Apple with four new patents in Germany but backtracks on the iPhone 4S (FOSS Patents)

Analysis of HTC’s preliminary injunction against IPCom and the parties’ related briefs: still no sign of a 3G-compliant workaround (FOSS Patents)

 

India

‘Internet’ domain name dispute. Quite literally – Stephen Koenig vs Arbitrator, National Internet (Spicy IP)

Microsoft continues its IP enforcement drive, wins damages (Spicy IP)

Multiplexes to show anti-piracy clips. Oops! They’re doing it again. (Spicy IP)

 

Ireland

File-sharing 3 strikes killed in Ireland, government promises site blocking (TorrentFreak) (Out-Law)

 

Italy

Google copyright surveillance would violate EU law, Italian court rules (Out-Law) (The 1709 Blog)

 

Spain

“Spanish Napster” victorious as court rejects major label copyright case (TorrentFreak)

 

United Kingdom

UK proposed parody exception: allowing amateur parodies to proliferate on social media (IP Whiteboard)

British Sky v Digital Satellite Warranty: A “Made in Europe” approach to database protection (IP Osgoode)

Sky follows BT in blocking Newzbin2 (Out-Law)

 

United States

US Patents

Dramatic expansion of patentability in the US: Google acquired a patent on doodles (IP Osgoode)

 

US Patents – Decisions

CAFC: Divided patent ownership, equitable title, and failed assignments: Gellman v Telular Corpration (Patently-O) (Property, intangible)

District Court E D Texas: Pleading of inequitable conduct intent to deceive requires only facts from which it is plausible: EON Corp v.T-Mobile USA (Docket Report)

Patent infringement doesn’t pay…unless you’re Verizon, in which case you owe $11 million a month for the next 6 months (Patent Law Practice Center)

District Court N D California: No direct infringement where steps of method claim are performed outside the United States: Mformation Technologies v Research in Motion et al (Docket Report)

Victory for Apple: ITC bans infringing HTC phones starting in April (Ars Technica) (ITC 337 Law Blog) (Ars Technica) (FOSS Patents) (Patently-O) (FOSS Patents)

ITC initial ruling: Motorola Atrix, Droid, Xoom infringe on Microsoft patent (Ars Technica) (ITC 337 Law Blog) (FOSS Patents)

 

US Patents – Lawsuits and strategic steps

Apple – Full ITC to review HTC/Apple decision: Certain Portable Electronic Devices and Related Software (Inv. No. 337-TA-721) (IPBiz) (ITC 337 Law Blog)

BT – BT claims Android and many other Google products infringe its patents (Ars Technica) (FOSS Patents) (IAM)

Cisco – Cisco challenge to two VirnetX Network patents, among the reexamination requests filed week of December 12, 2011 (WHDA)

Elpida Memory – ITC institutes investigation (337-TA-819) regarding Certain Semiconductor Chips With DRAM Circuitry (ITC 337 Law Blog)

EON Corp – Sufficiency of the pleadings – part 2 – inequitable conduct pleadings: EON Corp. v. T-Mobile USA, et al (EDTexweblog.com)

Geotag – Sufficiency of the pleadings – part 1 – infringement contentions: Geotag v. The Western Union, et al (EDTexweblog.com)

GoDaddy.com – Inventor/attorney’s law firm disqualified to serve as plaintiff’s counsel: WhitServe v GoDaddy.com (Docket Report)

Microsoft – ALJ Gildea rules on various pre-trial motions in Certain Set-Top Boxes (337-TA-761) (ITC 337 Law Blog)

Nanya Technology Corporation – ITC institutes investigation (337-TA-821) regarding Certain Dynamic Random Access Memory Devices (ITC 337 Law Blog)

NTP – NTP patents resurface from USPTO re-examination (Patents Post-Grant)

Ogma – ALJ Gildea grants motion to terminate investigation as to Jakks Pacific in Certain Motion-Sensitive Sound Effects Devices And Image Display Devices (337-TA-773) (ITC 337 Law Blog)

Oracle – Oracle wants Google trial to start in January because Java ‘is now losing ground to Android’ (FOSS Patents)

Rovi Corporation – ITC institutes investigation (337-TA-820) regarding Certain Products Containing Interactive Program Guide And Parental Controls Technology (ITC 337 Law Blog)

WebXchange – Multiple withdrawals of plaintiff’s counsel warrants dismissal for failure to prosecute or $100K sanction: WebXchange v Dell (Docket Report)

 

US Copyright

Stop Online Piracy Act vote delayed (Ars Technica)

Representatives decry rush to judgement on SOPA (Ars Technica)

Wrapping up a week of action against SOPA (EFF)

NYT discusses the proposed PROTECT IP Act, pits ip owners against Google (Seattle Trademark Lawyer)

Sen. Reid pushes Web censorship bill; foe promises filibuster (Ars Technica)

Twelve comments filed in response to copyright office proposal to amend 512 designation requirements (Technology & Marketing Law Blog)

Free speech’s weak links under internet blacklist bills (EFF)

SOPA will mean the end of Reddit, says General Manager (TorrentFreak)

RIAA “report card” gives Google low marks for anti-piracy efforts (Ars Technica) (TorrentFreak)

US government targets The Pirate Bay, Megaupload and others (TorrentFreak)

RIAA: Someone else is pirating through our IP-addresses (TorrentFreak)

RIAA and Homeland Security caught downloading torrents (TorrentFreak)

 

US Copyright – Decisions

9th Circuit Court of Appeals reaffirms DMCA protection for user-generated content: UMG v Veoh (Ars Technica) (EFF) (Recording Industry vs The People) (The 1709 Blog) (ipwars.com)

 

US Copyright – Lawsuits and strategic steps

Brownmark – EFF backs Viacom in fight over South Park parody: Brownmark v Comedy Partners (EFF)

Flava Works – Attempts to resolve dispute do not prevent a preliminary injunction: Flava Works v Gunter d/b/a myVidster.com (Chicago IP Litigation Blog)

Grooveshark – RIAA files amended complaint in case against Grooveshark, renamed Arista v. Escape Media (Recording Industry vs The People) (Recording Industry vs The People)

Hoehn – Defendant asks US Marshals to drag Righthaven principals to court (Ars Technica)

John Wiley & Sons – ‘For Dummies’ publisher sues bittorrent users to “educate and settle”: John Wiley & Sons v Does 1-36 (TorrentFreak)

ReDigi – RIAA isn’t buying ReDigi’s second hand digital music (IP Whiteboard)

Universal Music Group – In dueling filings, UMG denies Megaupload censorship accusations (Ars Technica) (The 1709 Blog) (Ars Technica) (TorrentFreak) (TorrentFreak)

 

US Trademarks & Domain Names

More on ex parte cutoffs of foreign “rogue” domain names (Technology & Marketing Law Blog)

Does the House Judiciary Committee debating SOPA know what’s going on in the courts? – Philip Morris v Jiang (Technology & Marketing Law Blog)

 

US Trade Marks & Domain Names – Decisions

District Court E D New York: Use of trademark in gripe site subdomain was not likely to cause confusion: Ascentive v Opinion Corp (Internet Cases)