LJN Newsletters

Despite the recession — or partly as a result of it — 2020 was also a year of growth for patent litigation in the United States. This article provides a look back at patent litigation filing statistics in recent years across district courts in the United States, with an eye toward current trends that in all likelihood will continue deep into 2021.

In response to a copyright claim in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California that the Netflix series Stranger Things infringed on Irish Rover Entertainment's unpublished screenplays, Netflix and the other defendants filed a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss, arguing that the works were not substantially similar as a matter of law.

The audit clause is a necessary means for the licensor to protect its interests and to guard against unscrupulous licensees. But it is a mistake to think that the clause is there solely to prevent malfeasance.

The new, more than 5,000-page spending bill, which includes the latest COVID-19 relief, had a few surprises under its cover. Two of those surprises focus directly on intellectual property and amount to sea changes in the trademark and copyright infringement realms.

Online publication impacts the duration of copyright protection among other purposes, including optimizing creative and ownership rights and the availability of statutory damages and attorney fees. Thus, it is important to determine when Internet distribution constitutes publication.

The CASE Act fulfills the longstanding goal of the U.S. Copyright Office to establish a small claims court. The measure tasked the office with establishing the Copyright Claims Board and adopting governing regulations.

Two former shareholders allege in federal court that an auto-racing video game creator swindled them out of more than $200 million in stock.

A look at moves among attorneys, law firms, companies and other players in entertainment law.