The legal issues surrounding the publication of Internet search results is a topic of great interest for copyright experts.  In this interview, originally published in German in the journal Neue Juristische Wochenschrift, and reproduced here with the kind permission of Verlag C.H. Beck, Professor Jan Bernd Nordemann discusses a recent German case on this topic….

The federal district court in Chicago incorrectly required the painter of a portrait of the leader of the Nation of Islam to prove unauthorized copying, instead of merely copying, for purposes of its copyright infringement claim against the publisher of a newspaper for selling unauthorized copies of his work “Minister Farrakhan Painting,” the U.S. Court…

A Kansas federal court did not err in dismissing fish illustrator Joseph Tomelleri’s copyright infringement suit against MEDL Mobile and Jason Siniscalchi, the developers and marketers of a fishing app called FishID, because Tomelleri failed to show that his injuries arose from MEDL’s Kansas activities, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Denver has determined. Furthermore,…

The prior express consent of the author is necessary to use a copyright work under EU law; the statutory presumption of collective management of copyright doesn’t comply with the need for express prior consent, even with an opt-out possibility and for a legitimate objective, Advocate General Wathelet said in his opinion on the pending request…

On 7 July 2016, the CJEU (Court of Justice of the European Union) handed down its decision in Tommy Hilfiger (case C-494/15). The case concerned the imposition of an injunction on Delta Center, a company that sublets sales areas in the “Prague Market Halls” (Pražská tržnice) to traders, after it was found that counterfeit goods…

Since the information transmitted over the internet is often embodied in copyright works, some right owners consequently claim the right to control or at least to participate in the corresponding revenues. They direct their claims to intermediaries at different layers of the network or directly to users. Intermediaries often invoke legal defences such as the…

German Federal Constitutional Court’s decision of 31 May 2016, (ref.: 1 BvR 1585/13): Metall-auf-Metall Sampling technology has become an integral part of today’s music production. It is not unusual in recording studios for artists and producers to recall sounds from other artist’s productions which they particularly liked, copy them from the original recordings and use…

A seller of karaoke equipment whose insurance carrier paid over $1 million to music publishers to settle infringement claims over the alleged unlicensed distribution of song recordings, in exchange for dismissal of the claims with prejudice, was not the “prevailing party” for purposes of the Copyright Act’s fee-shifting provision, the U.S. Court of Appeals in…