Copyrights
Entertainment & Media
Sweepstakes & Contests
Domain Name Disputes
Post-Judgment Collections
Trademark Protection for Architectural Works & Other Designs
February 26, 2017Architects, owners and developers can benefit from understanding the role that intellectual property law plays in protecting architectural plans and building designs. Copyright law lends itself more to the types of protections that architects would…
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Copyright Protection for Architectural Works & Other Designs
February 21, 2017Architects, owners and developers can benefit from understanding the role that intellectual property law plays in protecting architectural plans and building designs. Copyright law lends itself more to the types of protections that architects would…
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Anatomy of a Copyright Infringement Case: Defenses to Allegations of Copyright Infringement
November 27, 2016Below is the third excerpt from a presentation I gave at the State Bar of Texas’ 16th Annual Entertainment Law Institute entitled “Legal & Business Aspects of Music, Film and Digital Entertainment” in October 2006. Again, this…
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Anatomy of a Copyright Infringement Case: Theories of Secondary Liability
November 27, 2016Below is the second excerpt from a presentation I gave at the State Bar of Texas’ 16th Annual Entertainment Law Institute entitled “Legal & Business Aspects of Music, Film and Digital Entertainment” in October 2006 on…
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Anatomy of a Copyright Infringement Case: Elements of a Copyright Infringement Claim
November 27, 2016I thought I’d post some excerpts from a paper that I co-wrote for a presentation I gave with a friend of mine, Buck McKinney, at the State Bar of Texas’ 16th Annual Entertainment Law Institute…
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Salinger v. Colting: Much Ado About Nothing
November 27, 2016Originally published on June 22, 2010 on EntertainmentLitigation.com The copyright world was abuzz on April 10, 2010 when the Second Circuit vacated a preliminary injunction granted in favor of the J.D. Salinger Literary Trust restraining…
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Gaiman v. McFarlane Spawns More Offspring
November 27, 2016Originally published on August 3, 2010 on EntertainmentLitigation.com In 1992, illustrator Todd McFarlane hired Neil Gaiman to write a script for McFarlane’s comic book entitled Spawn. Gaiman developed two new characters named…
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“Alien v. Predator” Doesn’t Infringe Screenplay About the Freemasons’ Search for Atlantis
November 27, 2016Originally published on April 7, 2011 on EntertainmentLitigation.com In what must be one of the most entertaining opinions ever to appear in a Federal Reporter, Judge Denny Chin of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals,…
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7th Circuit to Decide Kanye West “Stronger” Case
November 27, 2016Originally published on November 23, 2011 on EntertainmentLitigation.com Another aspiring songwriter guided by uninformed wishful thinking seeks to cash in against a celebrity. In this case, plaintiff Vincent Peters sued Kanye West claiming that…
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$4 Million Verdict Against A&E Television Affirmed in Favor of “Flip This House” Creator
November 27, 2016Originally published on April 23, 2011 on EntertainmentLitigation.com Even informal comments can be sufficient to form a binding oral contract. Some are more costly than others. Richard C. Davis is the founder of Trademark Properties,…
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Jay-Z Sues David Ortiz for Allegedly Infringing 40/40 Club Trademark
November 27, 2016Originally published on April 18, 2010 on EntertainmentLitigation.com It’s the New York Yankees versus the Boston Red Sox, by proxy. Jay-Z’s 40/40 Club filed suit in the Southern District of New York…
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Zediva “DVD Rental” Service Paused by MPAA Preliminary Injunction
November 19, 2016August 11, 2011 (original publication date on EntertainmentLitigation.com) On April 4, 2011, the Motion Picture Association of America (“MPAA”) filed suit in the Central District of California against Zediva, a company that bills…
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Wizard of Oz, Gone With The Wind and Tom & Jerry Images In Public Domain
November 19, 2016Sometimes the Yellow Brick Road is paved with gold, sometimes it isn’t. See Warner Bros. Entm’t, Inc. v. X One X Productions, 644 F. 3d 584 (8th Cir. 2011). In 1939, More
Rulings in Marvel Entertainment Copyright Termination Case
November 19, 2016Originally published November 30, 2010 on EntertainmentLitigation.com THR-ESQ reports that Judge Colleen McMahon of the Southern District of New York has issued some rulings in the case brought by Marvel Entertainment against the…
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Supreme Court: Copyright Registration Not A Jurisdictional Prerequisite to Filing Suit
November 19, 2016Originally published on April 11, 2010 on EntertainmentLitigation.com One of the weapons in a copyright defendant’s arsenal has been the Rule 12(b)(1) motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, a weapon that could…
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“Disturbia” Not Substantially Similar to “Rear Window”
November 19, 2016Originally published on September 22, 2010 on EntertainmentLitigation.com Steven Spielberg and others were sued for copyright infringement by the owner of the copyright in Rear Window, a short story written in 1942 by Cornell Woolrich…
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