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By Bloomberg

Toyota Motor Corp., maker of the Prius hybrid car, said it will make about 5,680 patents related to fuel cell technology available royalty-free through 2020.

In a speech yesterday at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show, Senior Vice President Bob Carter of Toyota Motor Sales said the company is making the patents available to “speed the development of new technologies and move into the future of mobility more quickly, effectively and economically.”

Toyota’s proposal follows a June 2014 announcement by Tesla Motors Inc. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk that it was willing to share its electric-car patents.

The Toyota patents will be made available to automakers who produce and sell fuel-cell vehicles, as well as fuel-cell parts suppliers and energy companies that will establish and operate fueling stations. The offer also covers companies working on fuel-cell buses and such industrial equipment as forklifts, according to a company statement.

Keurig’s K-Cup System Found Not to Infringe Tea-Brewing Patent

Keurig Green Mountain Inc.’s single-serve brewing system doesn’t infringe a patent held by a Colorado-based tea company, a Washington-based federal appeals court ruled.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said Jan. 5 that a lower court correctly determined Keurig’s brewing system is different from the invention covered by Teashot Inc.’s patent 5,895,672.

The court said that the patent covered a capsule for tea extraction made from water-permeable material, while Waterbury, Vermont-based Keurig’s K-Cup system uses a capsule with a foil lid that is punctured by a needle during the brewing process. It also said it found Teashot’s arguments about a sanction the trial court levied with respect to noncompliance with a scheduling order to be meritless.

The case is Teashot LLC v. Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc., 14-1323, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The lower-court case is Teashot LLC v. Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc., 1:12-cv-00189, U.S. District Court, District of Colorado (Denver).

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Trademark

Pabst Music-Festival Sign Is Objectionable to City of Portland

C. Dean Metropoulos & Co.’s Pabst Brewing unit is the target of the city of Portland, Oregon’s ire over a sign it’s using for a future music festival, Project Pabst, KOIN-TV reported.

The sign is allegedly a knockoff of a neon sign featuring a white leaping deer that’s now a registered trademark belonging to the city, according to KOIN-TV.

The station reported that although the Los Angeles-based brewer had sought permission to use the trademark in connection with its 2014 festival, permission was denied because city policy bars the use of the mark on products or services that aren’t available to people of all ages.

The city sent a cease-and-desist letter to the brewer, which has restricted its festival to people over 21, according to KOIN-TV.

Indian Trademark Authorities Ordered to Reconsider Application

The Intellectual Property Appellate Board in India’s State of Chennai ordered trademark authorities to reconsider an application from a chain of bistros it had rejected, the Deccan Chronicle reported.

The application from TMA Hospitality Services Pvt. Ltd. of Bengaluru to register “Ammi’s Biryani” for a variety of food presentations was turned down in December 2013, according to the Chronicle.

TMA challenged the rejection, saying the application was rejected after a perfunctory examination, and that no reasons were given for the rejection, the newspaper reported.

The appeal board issued an order for trademark authorities to consider the application on its merits, saying previously the rejection was “in flagrant violation of the principles of natural justice” and didn’t give a reason for the action, according to the Chronicle.

For more trademark news, click here.

Copyright

Google Gets 345 Million Takedown Requests, TorrentFreak Says

Google Inc., creator of the world’s most-used Internet search engine, received more than 345 million requests to remove links to allegedly infringing content from search results, TorrentFreak reported.

TorrentFreak said it used the Mountain View, California- based company’s weekly reports to come up with that number, because Google didn’t release an annual total.

The Internet domain names for which the most takedown requests were received are 4shared.com, rapidgator.net and uploaded.net, each of which received 5 million requests, according to TorrentFreak.

BPI, which represents the recorded-music industry in the U.K., made the largest number of takedown requests, 60 million, TorrentFreak reported.

Facebook Users Again Posting Needless Copyright Declaration

Many users of Facebook Inc.’s social media site are again posting a copyright declaration despite the fact that it’s a meaningless hoax, International Business Times reported.

In the declaration, users say that their copyright is “attached” to all personal details, illustrations, comics, paintings, professional photos and videos “as a result of the Berner convention,” International Business Times reported.

There is no such thing as a “Berner Convention,” and Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said three years ago when the declaration first began to circulate on the site that the Menlo Park, California-based company makes no ownership claim on what its users post, according to International Business Times.

U.S. Opposes Kim Dotcom Wife’s Claims to Seized Property

The U.S. has made a court filing arguing that the estranged wife of Kim Dotcom has no standing to claim 50 percent of her husband’s assets the government is attempting to seize in a lawsuit related to a criminal copyright case against him.

Dotcom is in New Zealand, fighting attempts to have him extradited to the U.S. to face the charges.

Mona Dotcom, in a Sept. 1 filing, staked a 50 percent claim to a number of objects that were subject to the seizure actions filed by the government July 29. The U.S. said the property was amassed as the result of criminal actions.

Her list gives a look at some of the possessions acquired by the man some have dubbed one of the leading copyright infringers of the era.

She claimed the rights to five bank accounts; two pieces of real estate in New Zealand; 16 cars -- including nine Mercedes Benzes; two Cadillacs, one of which is pink; and a Rolls Royce with the license plate “God.”

She also asserted ownership rights on a Jet Ski personal watercraft, a 108-inch television set, three 82-inch TV sets, and a wristwatch from Los Angeles-based Devon Works LLC in a gadget-loaded style that typically sells for as much as $17,500.

In a Dec. 30 filing, the government said Mona Dotcom failed to demonstrate that she had “dominion and control” over the assets she’s seeking, noting that she can’t drive, “and without that ability, it would seem nearly impossible” for her to assert such a claim on the cars.

The government is also arguing that her alleged interest in the property is “unqualified” until a New Zealand court defines the property in which she has an interest and the amount of interest that belongs to her.

The civil case is U.S. v. All Assets Listed in Attachment A, 1:14-cv-00969; and the criminal case is U.S. v. Dotcom, 1:12- cr-00003, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Virginia (Alexandria).