TheChek News Flow

Tesla has filed trademark applications for the term “Tesla Robotaxi,” after the company’s previous attempts to secure trademarks for its planned self-driving vehicle service hit roadblocks.

The company originally applied in October 2024 for the trademark of the words “Robotaxi” and “Cybercab.” The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) told the company last month it needed more detail in order to allow a trademark for “Robotaxi,” a term that is used by a number of other companies like Waymo, as TechCrunch first reported last month. The USPTO halted Tesla’s application for “Cybercab” outright due to the number of other companies trying to trademark various uses of the term “Cyber.”

Tesla submitted the three new applications for the more specific “Tesla Robotaxi” phrase as it looks to begin testing in Austin, Texas, later this month. It’s looking to attain the trademarks to be used in reference to Tesla’s planned autonomous ride-hailing service, the related mobile app, and the vehicles themselves.

It’s unlikely the applications will be reviewed in time for that test; trademark applications typically sit for months before they are assigned to an “examiner.”

Tesla also has applications pending for trademarks on the phrases “Robobus,” “Robus,” and “Cyberbus,” presumably for the van-like concept vehicle it showed off last October when it revealed the Cybercab prototype. During that event, CEO Elon Musk referred to that vehicle as the “Robovan.” But Estonian robotic delivery company Starship already owns a trademark for that term.

The talks with AI startups concern how the labels—and their artists—would get paid for music’s use in generative AI models

Major music companies are negotiating licensing deals with two startups that could set a new precedent for how songs are used and artists are paid for remixes generated by artificial intelligence.

Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group WMG -1.33%decrease; red down pointing triangle and Sony Music Group want to be compensated by startups Suno and Udio when music by artists they represent is used to train generative AI models and produce new music, according to people familiar with the talks.

To determine how much artists and labels should be paid, the companies want the startups to develop fingerprinting and attribution technology—similar to YouTube’s content ID—to track when and how a song is used, the people said.

In addition, the music companies want to be active participants in the music-related products that the AI companies release, including having a say in which products are developed and how they work.

The companies represent some of the most popular artists, such as Taylor Swift, Drake and Ed Sheeran. News of the negotiations was reported earlier by Bloomberg.

The negotiations are a sign of how record labels, like movie studios, book publishers and news organizations such as The Wall Street Journal’s owner News Corp, are trying to protect against the threat that generative AI poses to their business while creating new revenue streams.

The Recording Industry Association of America, the music industry’s trade group, filed a lawsuit last June against Suno and Udio, alleging the firms were infringing on artists’ and labels’ copyrights.

Suno said its technology was creating new content and not memorizing or regurgitating pre-existing music. Udio said the goal of its training was to develop an understanding of musical ideas that aren’t owned by anyone, and that it has filters to ensure its model doesn’t reproduce copyrighted works or artists’ voices.

Both the labels and startups are now eager to come to terms on licensing rights given a more uncertain regulatory environment and investor pressure to develop commercial frameworks for the use of music in generative AI products.

The Trump administration’s firing of U.S. Copyright Office Director Shira Perlmutter last month especially raised concern in the music business that the White House would favor tech companies in disputes over AI and copyright.

Each label is negotiating with the startups individually, and the talks are at different stages of progression, the people said.

A hurdle for the labels is how to come to commercial terms to license their catalogs at scale in a way that not only protects artists’ work but also garners broad support among musicians, some of whom may be wary.

The labels are seeking provisions for artists to be able to opt out of certain use cases.

Any licensing agreements would likely involve a settlement of the suit between the two sides, and require some amount of damages paid for the use of music so far. Agreements would also likely involve the music companies taking stakes in the AI companies.

Music companies often take stakes as part of licensing agreements with startups. Universal, Warner and Sony had stakes in Spotify when the music-streaming service launched.

Bristol Myers Squibb signs $11bn cancer drug deal with BioNTech

US-German partnership hopes BNT327 will compete with Merck’s bestseller Keytruda

Bristol Myers Squibb has signed a partnership worth up to $11bn to develop a BioNTech cancer drug that has the potential to beat the world’s bestselling medicine Keytruda.

The US drugmaker will co-develop and commercialise the medicine, known as BNT327. The deal is one of the largest-ever pharma partnerships and the biggest for Germany’s BioNTech, which is best known for its Covid-19 vaccine with Pfizer.

BioNTech worked for three years on the drug with Chinese group Biotheus, which originally discovered it, before buying the company for nearly $1bn late last year. 

The drug, which is in more than 20 trials including two late-stage studies, has shown potential to beat Merck’s blockbuster Keytruda, which was the bestselling drug in 2024 with $29.5bn in sales.

Uğur Şahin, BioNTech’s chief executive, said it wanted to work with BMS because it was an “established pioneer with vast experience in the field of immunoncology” — using the immune system to tackle cancer.  

“The potential of the opportunity is bigger than we can deliver alone,” he added. BioNTech estimates the drug could be used to treat up to 3mn patients.

BNT327 is a “bispecific” engineered antibody that can bond to two sorts of cancer cell receptors at once, unlike natural antibodies. This allows it to simultaneously work in the same way as Keytruda — enabling the immune system to recognise and kill cancer cells — and to inhibit a key protein that promotes tumour growth.

Şahin said the drug so far showed longer-lasting efficacy and could offer opportunities for treating many different types of cancer. 

BMS is trying to boost its pipeline in the face of upcoming patent expirations for key drugs including cancer medicine Opdivo — which works in a similar way to Keytruda — and anti-blood-clotting drug Eliquis. 

Christopher Boerner, chair and chief executive of BMS, said the new drug had “significant potential for transforming the standard of care for patients with solid tumours”.

The company has been preparing for patent expiries by cutting costs and striking deals, including the $14bn acquisition of Karuna Therapeutics for its schizophrenia drug. Earlier this year, Boerner said business development was the group’s top “capital allocation priority” in 2025. Its shares are up 15.6 per cent over the past 12 months.

BioNTech has been investing the proceeds from its Covid vaccine into building oncology expertise.

It is pursuing using the mRNA technology developed for its Covid vaccines to create personalised shots to treat individual tumours. It has also been adding other technologies such as BNT327 and a more targeted version of chemotherapy, called antibody drug conjugates, and is exploring how to combine various drugs.

BMS and BioNTech will share the cost of most of the clinical trials of BNT327 equally and target commercialisation in all global markets.

BMS will pay BioNTech $1.5bn upfront, followed by up to $2bn of additional payments until 2028. BioNTech will be eligible to receive up to $7.6bn in further milestone payments. 

US pharmaceuticals group has been looking to rebuild its pipeline before crucial cancer drug comes off-patent

Merck has held talks over a more than $3bn acquisition of Swiss biotechnology group MoonLake Immunotherapeutics, as the US pharmaceutical company seeks to replenish its drug pipeline.

The New Jersey-based drugmaker submitted a nonbinding offer for MoonLake earlier this year, valuing the business in excess of $3bn, a premium to its $2.6bn market value, according to three people familiar with the matter.

The initial approach was rejected but talks could be revived, the people said. Merck’s approach for US-listed MoonLake ahead of late-stage clinical data for its flagship drug — a treatment for hidradenitis suppurativa, a chronic form of acne — puts the biotech company on a strong footing to get sold, the people said. However, they added that there was no guarantee a deal would happen and there was a possibility that other buyers would emerge.

Founded in 2021 by a former McKinsey partner Jorge Santos da Silva, MoonLake is testing its lead drug sonelokimab in phase-three trials as a treatment for hidradenitis suppurativa in adolescents and adults as well as a chronic inflammatory disease known as psoriatic arthritis. Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are advising MoonLake on the sale process.

The negotiations are the first hint that Merck is returning to the negotiating table a year after buying biotech EyeBio in its last multibillion-dollar biotech deal. Its shares have fallen 39 per cent over the past year, compared with an 11 per cent decline in the S&P 500 pharmaceutical index.

Merck, MoonLake, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley declined to comment.

Shareholders have been agitating for Merck to do deals to reverse souring investor sentiment. Pressure has been piled on the pharma group over a projected dip in revenues from $30bn a year cancer drug Keytruda coming off-patent as early as 2028, sharp declines in revenues from its Gardasil vaccine in China, and slower than expected growth in its newly launched high blood pressure drug Winrevair. Merck has also struck several small deals with China-based biotechs in the past year.

Merck’s chief executive Rob Davis told investors in April after President Donald Trump’s tariff policy was first announced that market turmoil was “not stopping us from being aggressive and wanting to move forward and do deals”.

“As it relates to the sellers, I would say that we continue to see, at least in the conversations we’ve had, a little bit of a disconnect between what is the reality of the market that the sellers face and what is the expectation for value that they have,” added Davis. “I don’t think they are fully yet aligned to the realities of where we are today.”

Shares in MoonLake have risen almost 50 per cent over the past two years to more than $40 a share, as investors have bet that it will be an acquisition target.

US healthcare dealmaking has slowed in recent months as the sector grapples with economic uncertainty, turmoil at regulatory agencies including the Food and Drug Administration under the supervision of health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, a vocal vaccine sceptic, and competition from Chinese biotechs producing cheaper copycat versions of drugs.

Despite the slowdown in dealmaking, French drugmaker Sanofi on Monday agreed to buy immunology-focused biotech Blueprint Medicines in a deal worth up to $9.5bn and Bristol Myers Squibb struck an up to $11bn partnership deal with German drugmaker BioNTech over a cancer treatment in development that aims to displace Merck’s Keytruda.

European Commission hands down first punishment for a “no-poach” deal and says food delivery groups shared trade secrets

The EU has fined European takeaway groups Delivery Hero and Glovo €329mn for taking part in an “online food delivery cartel”, in the latest antitrust crackdown by the bloc.

On Monday, the European Commission said the two groups had breached competition rules in the four years leading up to Delivery Hero’s acquisition in 2022 of a controlling stake in Glovo, when the German group only held a minority share in its Spanish rival.

The regulator said Delivery Hero had used its stake in Glovo to co-ordinate with it, with the two agreeing not to poach each other’s employees, and exchanging commercially sensitive information. The companies had also agreed which locations each would trade in, the commission said, adding that such co-ordination reduced choice and increased prices for consumers.

The probe was launched in July 2024, and followed raids of Delivery Hero and Glovo’s premises in June 2022 and November 2023.

The fine marks the first time that Brussels has penalised companies for the anti-competitive use of a minority share in a rival business. It is also the first instance in which it has punished groups for a “no-poach” agreement, in which groups agree not to take each other’s workers.

The EU’s competition chief Teresa Ribera said the case was “important” because of the way the practices were “facilitated through an anti-competitive use of Delivery Hero’s minority stake in Glovo”. She added: “Today’s decision shows once again that competition rules matter to citizens’ daily life.”

Delivery Hero said the settlement enabled “stakeholders to move on swiftly”, and reiterated its “commitment to continuing a culture of compliance throughout its organisation and operating in a responsible and ethical manner in the highly competitive industry in which it operates”.

The update comes at a time of consolidation for takeaway groups, which have faced a tougher macroeconomic environment after a pandemic-era boost.

Delivery Hero’s shares were hit last year when it first revealed the scale of the potential fine. It had previously set aside €400mn to deal with the probe, saying on Monday that the final amount was “lower than anticipated”. Its shares rose 1 per cent in lunchtime trading on Monday.

Both companies admitted their involvement in the cartel and agreed to settle the case, leading to a 10 per cent reduction in their penalties. Delivery Hero will pay €223mn in fines and Glovo will pay €106mn.