An all too typical fact pattern involves a small-time ne’er-do-well infringing on the rights of a much bigger corporation. When the corporation is forced to bring a lawsuit, the “little guy” infringer cries poverty and seeks a settlement. An oft-used tactic of corporations is to settle the matter quickly (and before too much in attorneys’ … Continue Reading
The author would like to thank John Hodges and Elisa Li for their contributions to this post. The emergence of blockchain-supported Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) has captured the interest of the entertainment and business worlds in the past couple of years. Large digital transactions like that of Beeple NFT that sold for $69 million and the ever-mounting numbers … Continue Reading
Last month, in an important ruling for Internet service providers, and anonymous users alike, a new defense is taking shape to subpoenas issued pursuant to the “unmasking” provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”). Specifically, in In re DMCA § 512(h) Subpoena to Twitter, Inc., N.D. Cal. Case No. 20-mc-80214, district judge Vince Chhabria … Continue Reading
Last year, I wrote about a ruling in the Southern District of New York, Sinclair v. Ziff Davis, 18-CV-790 (KMW), that refused to dismiss claims against a media company for embedding an Instagram post into one of its articles online. This ruling and others in federal trial courts in the Second Circuit conflict with the … Continue Reading
On June 21, 2021, the Shenzhen Administration for Market Regulation (Shenzhen AMR) issued the first ever administrative injunction against the alleged infringement of a design patent. The decision was based on a set of local IP regulations implemented in 2019 to increase protection of intellectual property (IP) rights associated with the booming local innovation in … Continue Reading
The Paris Court of Appeal confirmed a previous decision that found Jeff Koons guilty of copyright infringement for one of his “Banality” sculptures. The Paris Court of Appeal even increased the amount of damages and costs that were initially awarded in the first instance. Beyond the fact that, fortunately, it is quite rare that a … Continue Reading
Copyright owners seeking damages under $30,000 now have the choice of adjudicating their claims outside of federal court. Passed as part of the December 2020 COVID-19 relief bill, the Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement Act of 2019 (“CASE Act”) created an alternative small claims tribunal system that can adjudicate certain copyright infringement claims.… Continue Reading
We previously blogged on a New York case that considered these thorny issues. In a new blog published in our Sports Shorts blog, we look again at this issue as very recently adjudicated by an Illinois court. Were these issues to be litigated in the UK, a similar result would likely arise. Namely, a tattoo … Continue Reading
In an opinion that will be of particular interest to writers, the Ninth Circuit has confirmed that authors of non-fiction works cannot later claim that elements of their work were, in fact, fictional in order to extend the scope of copyright protection. The plaintiff in Corbello v. Valli et al., Case No. 17-16337 (9th Cir., … Continue Reading
On June 2, technology companies and copyright holders testified before Congress about the effectiveness of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s (DMCA) “safe harbor” provision. These testimonies came after the U.S. Copyright Office released its long-anticipated May 21 report, which studied and discussed DMCA’s effectiveness and the safe harbor provision.… Continue Reading
Embedding content from a social media site in one’s website initially seemed to be a safe harbor from a copyright infringement claim. In 2007, the Ninth Circuit adopted the so-called “server test,” ruling that in-line linking of images – now more commonly referred to as embedding – did not violate the exclusive display, copying or … Continue Reading
Protection of functional shapes is not just a matter of patent law. If patent protection does not exist or has already expired, the question arises whether shapes with a technical function may be eligible for protection by trade marks, designs, copyright or unfair competition law/passing-off. In order to prevent monopolies on technical solutions prolonging the … Continue Reading
Almost sixty years after the Everly Brothers recorded Cathy’s Clown, the authorship of the song is being disputed by Brother Don and the heirs of the late Brother Phil. In a recent decision, the Sixth Circuit revived the case. It found that Don’s 2011 copyright termination notice, in which he claimed to be the sole … Continue Reading
On March 26, a federal district court in New York held that the publishers of the popular NBA 2K videogame did not infringe on plaintiff’s tattoo copyrights when the publishers depicted those tattoos on basketball players in NBA 2K. The publishers, 2K Games and Take-Two Interactive Software, were successful in asserting multiple copyright defenses, including … Continue Reading
The Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market (the Directive), has now been published in the Official Journal, and entered into force on Friday 7 June 2019. EU member states have two years in which to transpose the Directive (which is now officially Directive (EU) 2019/790 on copyright and related rights in the Digital … Continue Reading
The recent judgment in ATB Sales Limited v Rich Energy Limited [2019] EWHC 1207 (IPEC) illustrates the difficulties parties will have in defending copyright infringement claims over artistic works, if they can only provide limited documentary proof of the creative design process. Background ATB Sales Limited (“Claimant”) brought the action against three Defendants: Rich Energy … Continue Reading
Seeking an interim injunction to protect against copyright infringement can often run into difficulties, as demonstrated by the recent judgment in Happy Camper Productions Ltd v British Broadcasting Corporation [2019] EWHC 558 (Ch). The dispute centred on the script for an episode of ‘Pitching in’, a comedy-drama programme by the BBC about a widower in … Continue Reading
On April 9, 2019, my IP colleagues Kerry Lee and Matt Jones published an informative post about using the ® and ™ trademark symbols – which are internationally used and recognized to signal trademark registration. As their post had a UK perspective, we thought it would be useful to provide a US perspective as well. … Continue Reading
Despite the consistent and continuous opposition to the controversial Article 13, the European Parliament has adopted the ‘Directive on copyright in the Digital Single Market’ (the Directive). MEPs debated and subsequently voted in favour of the Directive, 348 votes to 274 (36 MEPs abstained). The Final Wording of the Directive The latest version of the … Continue Reading
The Copyright Act often seems to lag behind technology, with infringements rampant on the Wild Internet. Not so, as was evidenced by the robust discussions at the third public meeting on Developing the Digital Marketplace for Copyrighted Works, hosted by the US Department of Commerce’s Internet Policy Task Force on March 28, 2019. The Internet … Continue Reading
In a pair of unanimous rulings on March 4, 2019, the Supreme Court clarified (1) that the U.S. Copyright Office must issue a registration certificate before a plaintiff can commence suit and (2) that a prevailing plaintiff cannot recover fees for expert witnesses, jury consultants or other “costs” that are not specifically called for in … Continue Reading
On 20 February 2019, we reported on the then current status of the “Directive on copyright in the Digital Single Market” (the Directive). Unlike the progress of the Directive up until now, matters have progressed quickly in the last couple of weeks.… Continue Reading
Enforcement of a copyright requires that “a registration of the copyright claim has been made.” But what does this mean? On January 8, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.com to decide the meaning of this phrase and, in particular, whether submission of the registration application is sufficient.… Continue Reading
