A clothing company that knowingly included inaccurate information in its copyright application—which rendered its registration invalid—was ordered to pay $121,423 in costs and attorney fees to retail outlets that successfully defended themselves against infringement claims. In a copyright infringement action brought by clothing company Gold Value International Textile, Inc,. alleging infringement of its fabric design…

Although the litigant was unsuccessful in her prior litigation, allowing her to proceed now by asserting facts completely opposite to those she asserted earlier would create the perception that the earlier court was misled. A litigant who previously had claimed that she was the co-author of a 1978 Julio Iglesias song was estopped from now…

A defendant need not obtain a favorable judgment on the merits in order to be a “prevailing party” under the fee-shifting provisions of the Copyright Act and Lanham Act. Case date: 25 March 2019 Case number: No. 17-4046 Court: United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit A full summary of this case has been published on…

The resale of copyrighted digital sound recordings through a web-based “virtual” marketplace for “pre-owned” digital music operated by ReDigi Inc. was not protected from copyright infringement claims by the first sale doctrine codified in Section 109 of the Copyright Act, the U.S. Court of Appeals in New York City has held. The Second Circuit affirmed…

The 1976 Copyright Act did not preempt applications for attorney fees filed by two auction houses following a determination that the California Resale Royalties Act (CRRA)—a statute that grants visual artists a right to receive 5% of the proceeds on any resale of their artwork under specified circumstances—was expressly preempted by the 1976 Act with…