Category / Legal Blog Posts
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Copyright Coda: Zeppelin Beats Infringement Suit
A California jury decided quickly and unanimously that Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” was not substantially similar to Spirit’s “Taurus” as the estate of the band’s guitarist claimed in its copyright infringement…
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Court: Mastering Meets Originality Standard Under Copyright Law
The question of whether the sound recording mastering process, and thus the fruits of mastering engineers’ labors, can meet the originality standard under copyright law was decided in a case reported on…
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What Small Business Owners Need to Know About the New Trade Secret Law
On May 11, 2016 President Obama signed into law the Defend Trade Secrets Act (“DTSA”), ushering in a new era in trade secret protection. The DTSA, which can be found in federal…
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Copyright Infringement Defendant: Remasters Entitled to New Copyright
A record company suing CBS for infringing its pre-1972 sound recordings was hit with a novel and thought-provoking defense theory that could substantially limit the reach of its copyright if accepted. In…
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No Quarter: Judge Sends Zeppelin Copyright Infringement Suit to Trial
Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and Robert Plant, the surviving members of Led Zeppelin, lost the main arguments of their summary judgment motion in the latest saga of the copyright infringement suit…
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Three Reasons Why Start-Ups Form Their Companies in Delaware
When someone says “start-up,” we usually visualize Silicon Valley, San Francisco’s South of Market district, or other locales like Austin, TX. But those in the know focus on the tiny state of…
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Court Ices Writer’s Copyright Infringement Case vs. Disney’s “Frozen”
An author of children’s books was dealt a fatal blow in her copyright infringement suit over the movie “Frozen” when a district court in California granted Disney’s motion to dismiss. Muneefa Abdullah, author of…
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Screenplay Copyright Infringement Defendants Win Attorney’s Fees Award
The screenplay copyright infringement defendants in Counts v. Meriweather, a case reported on here in February, completed their success when the court ordered an award of attorney’s fees. Fox won $548,772 in attorneys’ fees and…
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Five Tools for Stopping Imported Counterfeits of Your IP
Owners of intellectual property utilized in connection with imported merchandise (for example, jewelry made from copyrighted designs, trademarks affixed to apparel, or patented devices) have every reason to be concerned about counterfeits from overseas.…
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Skills to Pay MORE Bills: Beasties Win Attorneys’ Fees in TufAmerica Case
It has clearly been a couple of great years on the legal front for the surviving members of the Beastie Boys and the estate of Adam Yauch. The latest success occurred last week…
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Web Developers & Coders Rejoice! HTML is Copyrightable, Says Court
A recent court decision should come as welcome news to web developers and coders of all stripes because it clarifies the copyrightability of web-related assets. The district court in Media.net Advertising FZ-LLC v. Netseer…
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Artists’ Rights Bolstered by Recent Legal Developments
Two recent legal developments should give visual artists comfort that their rights are alive and well in the U.S. Both demonstrate different aspects of “moral rights” at play, one at the state…
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BitTorrent Defendant Fails to Byte Off Attorney’s Fees
Mass BitTorrent lawsuits have been in the news for several years now but appear to have reached a crescendo with and . A recent case out of the 8th Circuit is noteworthy…
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Trademark Scammers at It Again, Versus….Me!
Back in early 2015, I wrote a post relaying a USPTO and WIPO warning to trademark owners about unscrupulous companies that send very official-looking invoices asking for substantial amounts of money for doing…
