On March 14, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in Alaska Stock, LLC v. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Pub. Co., 110 U.S.P.Q. 2d 1062 (9th Cir. 2014), determined that registration of a database of stock photographs as a collective work registered the component photographs within.

Overturning a lower court decision, the Second Circuit determined, in Kelly-Brown v. Winfrey, that Oprah must defend a trademark infringement lawsuit despite her argument that the trademark fair use doctrine shielded her production company’s use of the slogan “Own Your Power” in connection with its publications and other media offerings.

For the second time in three years, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York determined, in Viacom v. YouTube, that YouTube qualified for and was shielded from copyright infringement liability by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”).

Can Universal be held liable for damages for making a misrepresentation in a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) takedown notice to YouTube? That’s the question that is now cleared for trial in the long-running California case Lenz v. Universal Music Corporation, a/k/a the “baby dancing case,” now in its sixth year.

The popular online marketplace cafepress.com (“CafePress”) is known for allowing users to upload graphic designs to its website, which then allows users to choose that design or others and have CafePress print it on a wide array of merchandise, including t-shirts, mugs, stickers, buttons, iPhone cases and Halloween accessories. The case discussed here looks at