Search engine accused of aiding infringement by promoting pirate sites, ignoring complaints BY EILEEN McDERMOTT

Gemini Data, Inc., an AI software company, has sued Google, LLC in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California for trademark infringement, alleging that the rebranding of Google’s AI chatbot from BARD to GEMINI represents a “calculated decision to bulldoze over Gemini Data’s exclusive rights without hesitation.”

The Realizing Engineering, Science, and Technology Opportunities by Restoring Exclusive (RESTORE) Patent Rights Act of 2024 would essentially abrogate the 2006 Supreme Court ruling in  eBay v. MercExchange, a case that many patent owners argue has played a key role in weakening the value of patents.

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director Kathi Vidal published a director’s blog post July 11 addressing the office’s current backlog of patent and trademark applications, which the latest USPTO data show to be 785,387 unexamined applications/25.6 months total pendency for patents and 14.5 months total pendency for trademarks.

SCOTUS’ ruling came in its May 9 decision on Warner Chappell Music v. Nealy, a case that asks whether a copyright plaintiff can recover damages for acts that allegedly occurred more than three years before the filing of a lawsuit.