On September 6, 2013, the Second Circuit narrowed the potential venues for asserting copyright infringement cases when it affirmed the Eastern District of New York’s dismissal of Troma Entertainment’s copyright infringement lawsuit against California residents Lance H. Robbins and King Brett Lauter for lack of personal jurisdiction (decision here). Defendants Robbins and Lauter had allegedly

A federal court in Washington gave some “Peace of Mind” to former members of legendary rock band Boston when it denied Boston’s band leader a preliminary injunction in a trademark dispute.  Plaintiff Donald Thomas Scholz (“Scholz”) is the founder and band leader of Boston, and undisputed owner of all of Boston’s trademarks.  Fran Migliaccio and

In Quirk v. Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc., the Northern District of California granted summary judgment in favor of movie studio Sony Pictures and its co-defendants. In determining that author Joe Quirk had failed to show a genuine issue as to any material fact as to copyright infringement or implied-in-fact contract claims arising from a motion picture

The Ninth Circuit recently nixed a street artist’s copyright infringement lawsuit against Green Day, finding that the band’s unauthorized incorporation of the artist’s work, Scream Icon, into its concert video backdrop was sufficiently transformative to be considered a fair use under copyright law.  Dereck Seltzer v. Green Day, Inc., et al., Case No. 2:10-cv-02103.

On July 19th, 2013, the Fourth Circuit held for the first time that copyright interests can be transferred electronically under Section 204 (a) of the Copyright Act. The Fourth Circuit’s decision adds to a growing body of law suggesting that an electronic “click” or “tap” can constitute a “signed writing” for purposes of transferring copyright

When we last updated you on the status of the Aereo case in the New York federal courts, we reported that on April 1, 2013, a split panel of the Second Circuit had affirmed the New York federal district court’s denial of an injunction against internet television re-broadcaster Aereo, despite a vigorous dissent from Judge

After reading the book and watching the film at issue, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi granted Sony Picture Classics Inc.’s (“Sony”) motion to dismiss Faulkner Literary Rights, LLC’s (“Faulkner”) copyright infringement action based on a paraphrase of a nine word quote from a William Faulkner’s work in the Woody Allen

Getty Images successfully defeated a claim by Marshall Thompson, singer and sole living member of the “Chi-Lite”, alleging that the online posting of his photo for possible licensing, was a violation of his right of publicity under Illinois Right of Publicity Act (IRPA), despite a contrary ruling (in a factually similar case) in Illinois in

On June 21, 2013, a Central District of California court refused to extend ACPA safe harbor protection to popular domain name registrar GoDaddy.com, finding that it intended to profit from the registration and maintenance of various domain names that encompassed plaintiff Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences’ OSCAR, OSCARS, OSCAR NIGHT, ACADEMY AWARD and

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.