Copyright holders would be well advised to familiarize themselves with the Copyright Claims Board for resolving copyright infringement claims and to consider its benefits and potential downsides in bringing or defending copyright infringement actions.
In a case that may have significant implications for the ability of mark holders to enforce their marks against many types of products, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit is now considering whether consumer products such as sneakers can be considered "expressive works" to which First Amendment protections can apply.
Trademarks and Free Expression In the Ninth Circuit
When it comes to expressive content, disputes over trademark rights in titles of creative works are commonly fought under the federal Lanham Act. Many of these battles play out in courts in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which has well-developed legal guidelines on the subject — many of them from lawsuits that have arisen in the entertainment industry.
A federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut sided with the family of a production company executive in finding that the wife of late Broadway lyricist Bob Merrill had no right, under §304(c) of the U.S. Copyright Act, to cancel a more than 50-year-old royalty agreement between the executive and Merrill.
A.B. Quintanilla III, founding member and leader of the Latin music group Kumbia Kings, prevailed on appeal in a dispute with a Texas attorney who claimed Quintanilla conspired to cut the lawyer out of his alleged share of a settlement.
The Southern District of New York vacated a bankruptcy court's judgment holding a debtor's business competitor "in contempt for violation of the [Bankruptcy Code's] automatic stay … and assessing sanctions" of $19.2 million.
The chief legal officer of Fox Corp. since 2018 didn't become licensed in California until this summer, a delay one law professor described as a "big screw up" that might expose his communications with fellow Fox executives to public disclosure in the multibillion-dollar defamation litigation brought by two voting companies.
When does a RLUIPA claim become ripe? A federal district court in the Southern District of New York dismissed a RLUIPA claim as unripe, borrowing ripeness doctrine from the takings context and declining to apply a "futility exception" to the requirement that a landowner obtain a final decision before proceeding to federal court.
A look at moves among attorneys, law firms, companies and other players in entertainment law.
