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In the opening paragraph of Flo & Eddie v. Sirius XM Radio, No. 17-55844, decided Aug. 23, 2021, the Ninth Circuit aptly described the “patchwork quilt of federal and state copyright laws” governing pre-1972 sound recordings as a “ball of confusion,” borrowing the title of a classic 1970 Temptations record. (The remainder of the Ninth Circuit’s opinion incorporates the titles of many other pre-1972 recordings into its analysis, all shown in boldface type in the discussion that follows.) The opinion resolves an eight-year, multi-Circuit class action brought by owners of pre-1972 recordings (collectively, Flo & Eddie) against satellite radio provider Sirius XM, with plaintiffs asserting — ultimately without success — a right to be paid royalties for defendant’s past digital transmissions of their pre-1972 recordings.
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Recommendations for Evolving Patent Eligibility of Hardware
By Hanchel Cheng
Regardless of whether a patent practitioner’s clients favor a stricter or more lenient eligibility regime, patent eligibility decisions continue to evolve. We need a line drawn for what practitioners expect to be clearer. Hardware inventions are facing patent eligibility challenges that would have seemed more likely in software inventions. Recent court decisions have shown that what once made a hardware invention eligible may no longer fly.
Fishing for Joint Patent Ownership Under 'BASF v. CSIRO'
By Richard S.J. Hung, Jacob N. Nagy and Evangeline T. Phang
A recent Federal Circuit opinion sheds light on the process for settling co-ownership disputes pursuant to an underlying agreement. Although the precedential opinion does not change the rules of contract interpretation, it suggests considerations when drafting ownership agreements.
By Stan Soocher
Composers of pre-1978 works often assigned both the initial and renewal copyright terms in their works when signing songwriter agreements with music publishers. But what happens when a grant of the copyright renewal term of a pre-1978 work has been made post-1977?
Commentary: What the Music Industry Can Learn from Cable When It Comes to ISPs and Infringement
By Keith Hauprich
In the last two decades, the music industry and, more specifically, songwriters, producers and recording artists have been losing the value of their efforts to online piracy. Perhaps a business-to-business solution can be found between the music industry and cable providers.
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