Opinions

This morning, the Federal Circuit issued a nonprecedential opinion in a trademark case and a nonprecedential opinion in a patent case. Here are the introductions to the opinions.

CDOC, Inc. v. Liberty Bankers Life Insurance Co. (Nonprecedential)

CDOC, Inc. (CDOC) appeals from a judgment of the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (Board) dismissing its opposition to Liberty Bankers Life Insurance Company’s (Liberty Bankers) registration of the mark LIBERTY BANKERS LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY and design, and its opposition to Liberty Bankers and the Capitol Life Insurance Company’s (collectively, Appellees) registration of the mark LIBERTY BANKERS LIFE THE CAPITOL LIFE and design. CDOC, Inc. v Liberty Bankers Life Ins. Co. & The Capitol Life Ins. Co., Nos. 91236945 and 91237330, 2020 WL 582932 (T.T.A.B. Jan. 16, 2020) (Board Opinion).

Finding that neither the LIBERTY BANKERS LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY mark and design nor the LIBERTY BANKERS LIFE THE CAPITOL LIFE mark and design are likely to cause confusion with CDOC’s registered mark BANKERS LIFE, the Board dismissed CDOC’s oppositions. Board Opinion, 2020 WL 582932, at *16. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm.

MModal LLC v. Nuance Communications, Inc. (Nonprecedential)

Nuance Communications, Inc. owns U.S. Patent No. 7,379,946, entitled “Categorization of Information Using Natural Language Processing and Predefined Templates.” At the request of MModal LLC, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board instituted an inter partes review (IPR) of claims 1–6 of the ’946 patent under 35 U.S.C. §§ 311–319. The Board eventually rejected MModal’s proposed construction of a key claim limitation—“information . . . required for generation of a particular report”—and determined that MModal had failed to prove unpatentability. MModal LLC v. Nuance Commc’ns, Inc., No. IPR2018-01355, 2020 WL 582392 (P.T.A.B. Feb. 5, 2020) (Final Written Decision).

MModal timely appealed under 35 U.S.C. §§ 141, 319. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1295(a)(4)(A). We affirm.