Register’s opinion needed to determine validity of textile designer’s “single-unit registration” for 31 separate designs that were not released at the same time. In a case in which textile designer Unicolors, Inc., obtained a jury verdict against retailer H&M for copyright infringement involving designs printed on garments, the Ninth Circuit has reversed and remanded, ordering…
Copyright is an engine for knowledge. Although copyright creates monopolies, it should not be considered as a good in itself, but as a tool which can be used to achieve societally desirable objectives. The U.S. Supreme Court, in a non-traditional 5-4 vote, did just that when – on 20 April 2020, in Georgia vs. Public.Resource.org…
Drake’s use of the lyrics for a 35-second sample of another song was transformative, the amount used was reasonable, and there was no evidence his use negatively affected the sampled song’s market. Affirming a ruling by the federal district court in New York City, the Second Circuit has determined that rapper Drake was correctly awarded…
ORF/Facebook – First follow up ruling after CJEU C18/18 – Glawischnig/Facebook First, a little bit of history. Back in 2016, a Facebook post containing an article with a photograph of the former Austrian politician Eva Glawischnig gave rise to a landmark decision against Facebook. Alongside a photo of Ms Glawischnig, she was referred to as,…
German Federal Supreme Court (Bundesgerichtshof) decisions of April 30, 2020 ( I ZR 139/15 and I ZR 228/15) Recently, the German Federal Supreme Court issued press releases in two cases which are of fundamental importance for the relationship between copyright and conflicting fundamental rights. Specifically, the two cases, Funke Medien (also known as “Afghanistan Papiere”) and Spiegel…
One of the most awaited copyright rulings of 2019 – Nederlands Uitgeversverbond and Groep Algemene Uitgevers v Tom Kabinet Internet BV and Others (C-263/18), on the admissibility of digital exhaustion under the InfoSoc Directive – came out on 19 December, lost in the decisions galore issued by the CJEU the last working day before the…
Although the time limit for the claim that Phil Everly was a co-author would begin running when Phil’s authorship was repudiated by Don Everly, factual issues precluded summary judgment on the issue. A claim brought by the estate and children of deceased pop musician Phil Everly—one of the famous Everly Brothers—asserting that Phil was a…
Like the very similar Patent Remedy Act previously invalidated by the Court, the Copyright Remedy Clarification Act failed to abrogate States’ sovereign immunity. Congress lacked the authority to abrogate the States’ immunity from copyright infringement suits through enactment of the Copyright Remedy Clarification Act of 1990 (CRCA), a unanimous Supreme Court has held. Writing on…
Although the claims failed, the district court did not abuse its discretion in rejecting the defendants’ request for a fee award because the plaintiff’s positions were not objectively unreasonable. The U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco has affirmed district court orders granting summary judgment in favor of a swimming pool builder and remodeler that…
Infringement claims based on failure to obtain licenses for three other songs failed because the plaintiff licensing company did not hold exclusive rights in those works. The vocal music director of Burbank High School and other defendants associated with the school’s student choir program engaged in fair use by adapting, altering, and performing segments of…
