The Patent and Trademark Office will stop granting requests for participation in the Global Patent Prosecution Highway information-sharing program when the requests are based on work performed by Rospatent, Russia’s agency in charge of intellectual property, said a notice in Monday’s Federal Register. The ban is retroactive to March 11, it said. Pending patent applications linked to Rospatent that received “special status” from PTO under the GPPH before March 11 will lose that status and be returned “to the regular processing and examination queue,” it said. PTO has “terminated engagement” with Rospatent, the Eurasian Patent Organization and patent authorities in Belarus, said the notice. PTO announced last month it would take these steps over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Japan Patent Office, secretariat of the GPPH, was advised of PTO’s decision, it said.

Bungie suffered "nearly incalculable damage" from fake Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedown notices given to YouTube that disrupted the video game developer's players, streamers and fans, it told the U.S. District Court in Seattle Friday in a docket 2:22-cv-00371 complaint seeking unspecified damages and injunctive relief. It said the takedown notices, purportedly issued on behalf of Bungie, targeted videos people had uploaded to YouTube, with Bungie's permission, of them playing Bungie games. The suit is filed against unnamed John Does. Bungie said it would learn their identities through a subpoena and amend the complaint.

The Copyright Office announced a final rule Friday “establishing procedures for the initial stages of a Copyright Claims Board (CCB) proceeding" under the Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement (Case) Act (see 2012290048). The rule addresses claims filings, CCB review, service of notice, CCB notifications on pending proceedings, opt-out provisions and counterclaim filings.

U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar in Oakland scheduled a June 28 case management virtual conference on the complaint by Finnish inventor Lauri Valjakka alleging the Netflix Open Connect program infringes his July 2013 U.S. patent (8,495,167) on data communications networks (see 2203180053). Tigar is the third judge assigned the case (in docket 4:22-cv-1490) since it was transferred March 9 to Northern California from Waco, Texas. U.S. Magistrate Judge Virginia DeMarchi in San Jose immediately recused herself, and a second magistrate judge, Sallie Kim in San Francisco, was removed from the case after Netflix declined Wednesday to have it tried before anyone but a U.S. district judge.

Anonymous emails claiming to be from those behind accused video piracy site PrimeWire should be ignored, studios told the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles in a docket 2:21-cv-09317 notice Wednesday. The studios said they were emailed by individuals identifying themselves as the "PrimeWire team" after PrimeWire removed supposedly pirated content (see 2203140047) and were told the links to the content were deleted to comply with the temporary injunction. The studios said the email requested the pending permanent injunction not include the www.primewire.tf domain, which is supposedly free of pirated content. "Out-of-court assertions, made in anonymous emails, merit little weight," the studios said.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Sallie Kim in San Francisco scheduled a June 6 case management Zoom conference Friday on a complaint by Finnish inventor Lauri Valjakka that the Netflix Open Connect program infringes his July 2013 U.S. patent (8,495,167) on data communications networks. Kim was reassigned the case after U.S. Magistrate Judge in San Jose Virginia DeMarchi recused herself a day after it was transferred from U.S. District Court in Waco, Texas, where it was filed Sept. 13. Netflix lawyers haven’t responded to the merits of Valjakka’s arguments, but asked the Waco court in an improper-venue motion in December to move the case to Northern California. It was transferred there March 9 after Valjakka's lawyers didn't oppose the motion. Netflix describes its Open Connect program as providing opportunities for internet service provider partners to improve their customers' Netflix user experiences “by localizing Netflix traffic and minimizing the delivery of traffic that is served over a transit provider.”

Roku went to court Wednesday to thwart “online counterfeiters” that allegedly trade upon its “reputation and goodwill” by selling products that infringe Roku’s trademarks. The defendants are dozens of “foreign entities” based mainly in China that are improperly marketing unauthorized and illegal products “either by reference to or embodying a mark that is identical or substantially identical” to Roku logos, causing “further confusion and deception in the marketplace,” said its complaint in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. The alleged culprits are identified in documents that Roku seeks to file under seal. “Defendants attempt to avoid liability by going to great lengths to conceal both their identities and the full scope and interworking of their illegal counterfeiting operation,” said the complaint. Roku “has been and continues to be irreparably damaged through consumer confusion, dilution, and tarnishment of its valuable trademarks and goodwill and, therefore, seeks injunctive and monetary relief,” it said. It also seeks an order compelling Amazon and any other enabling “online marketplace account provider” to stop “providing services for any accounts” through which the defendants engage in the sale of counterfeit products, it said. Amazon didn’t comment Thursday.

Various Primewire websites now direct to a new site that removed links to pirated content, but that doesn't change the need for permanent injunctive relief against the video pirating operation, Netflix and various studios told the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles Monday in docket 2:21-cv-09317. The plaintiffs were awarded a preliminary injunction in January (see 2201100047). Netflix and the others asked the court to approve the requested permanent injunction, which was amended to include the new website and domain.

Comments are due April 13 on a proposed partial settlement of details for distribution of satellite TV retransmission royalties for the 2015-2017 royalty years and partial distribution by the Copyright Royalty Board of those royalties, said the Federal Register Monday.

It's "self-interested speculation" that computer code used by music label plaintiffs and not disclosed in discovery wouldn't have affected a jury finding Cox Communications liable for piracy by broadband subscribers, Cox told the U.S. District Court in Alexandria in a reply Thursday (docket 1:18-cv-950). It said the music label plaintiffs' actions "convey their fear that this information would have fatally undermined their case; otherwise, they would not have gone to such lengths to conceal it." The plaintiffs oppose Cox efforts to seek relief from the $1 billion verdict against it (see 2202180027).