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When Are Short Phrases in Songs Protectable? Image

When Are Short Phrases in Songs Protectable?

Robert W. Clarida & Robert J. Bernstein

It's a common fact pattern: A songwriter alleges that another songwriter has infringed the lyrics of Song A by using a similar short phrase, frequently a current slang phrase, in the lyrics of Song B. Claims like this do not often succeed because "words and short phrases such as names, titles, and slogans" are "not subject to copyright."

Columns & Departments

IP News Image

IP News

Joshua R. Stein & Jeff Ginsberg

Federal Circuit Holds PTAB Judges Unconstitutional, Constructs a Fix—But Not All Judges Agree on What Happens Next

Features

How Judges Are Interpreting Supreme Court's Copyright 'Registration' Ruling Image

How Judges Are Interpreting Supreme Court's Copyright 'Registration' Ruling

Stan Soocher

In Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.com LLC, the U.S. Supreme Court held that, under 17 U.S.C. §411(a), "registration occurs, and a copyright claimant may commence an infringement suit, when the Copyright Office registers a copyright" — that is, acts on a registration application, rather than when an applicant delivers the registration materials to the Copyright Office.

Features

What Would End of Film Studio Consent Decrees Mean? Image

What Would End of Film Studio Consent Decrees Mean?

Karen Hoffman Lent & Kenneth Schwartz

In November, the DOJ asked a federal district court to terminate the Paramount Consent Decrees, a set of rules governing major film studios for the last 70 years. In effect, these rules prohibited movie studios from owning downstream movie theaters and banned a variety of vertical agreements, such as block booking — the practice of bundling multiple films into one theater license.

Features

Counsel Concerns: 3rd Circuit Decides Lawyers' Dispute over Video Game Litigation Client Image

Counsel Concerns: 3rd Circuit Decides Lawyers' Dispute over Video Game Litigation Client

P.J. D'Annunzio

A federal appeals court upheld the dismissal of a Philadelphia lawyer's suit alleging that Los Angeles litigation boutique Pierce Bainbridge Beck Price & Hecht acted in bad faith by failing to follow through with a $160,000 settlement in a dispute over attorney fees.

Features

IP Issues and Esports Athletes Image

IP Issues and Esports Athletes

Frank Ready

A new esports-centric survey released by the law firm of Foley & Lardner projects that esports revenues will climb above the $1 billion mark this year. But the increased stakes and growing sophistication of the industry will likely not be without their headaches.

Features

Challenges to Evidence of Copyright Ownership Image

Challenges to Evidence of Copyright Ownership

Stan Soocher

There has been a long-term debate over whether sound recordings can be copyright works made for hire. Sound recordings don't appear in the list of works for hire set out in §101 of the Copyright Act of 1976, though record labels argue recordings can be deemed so as a "compilation" or a "contribution to a collective work," per §101.

Columns & Departments

Players on the Move Image

Players on the Move

Dan Clark

Copyright Office General Counsel Moves to MPAA

Features

Recent Investigation, Prosecution and Legislation Regarding Fraudulent Deeds Image

Recent Investigation, Prosecution and Legislation Regarding Fraudulent Deeds

Carol A. Sigmond

New York City is seeing an upsurge of deed theft. Attorneys, architects, title companies, real estate brokers, agents, contractors, developers and construction managers need to be alert to this potential issue when blocks of properties are assembled for development in these neighborhoods.

Features

Chapter 11 Plan Support Agreements: Greasing the Wheels for Confirmation Success Image

Chapter 11 Plan Support Agreements: Greasing the Wheels for Confirmation Success

John J. Rapisardi & Joseph Zujkowski 

Plan support agreements are often an essential component of a successful complex Chapter 11 reorganization and provide a framework for a debtor's financial restructuring. These agreements have increasingly been used to induce core groups of major lenders and bondholders to support a debtor's restructuring in return for enhanced recoveries.

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