207 results for 'nos:"Copyrights - Property Rights"'.
J. Rosenthal finds that a maker of stuffed animals has not identified specific creative elements of its products that would entitle the maker to recover damages for copyright infringement from another company, which produces very similar toys. Characteristics or common qualities of nature cannot be copyrighted, and suing stuffed animal maker has not identified features of its toys that rise above common natural characteristics of the animals to constitute a creative idea that can be protected under copyright. The claims of the suing toy maker are dismissed, but they are granted leave to amend their complaint.
Court: USDC Southern District of Texas, Judge: Rosenthal, Filed On: May 8, 2024, Case #: 4:23cv4146, NOS: Copyrights - Property Rights, Categories: Copyright, Trademark
J. Koeltl denies Peacock's motion to dismiss copyright claims stemming from its alleged unlawful use of two videos in a documentary, one depicting a press conference about voter fraud given by Rudy Giuliani and the other depicting confrontations between supporters of Joe Biden and supporters of Donald Trump. Peacock could have used other videos of the news conference, so copying the subject videos was not necessary to achieve its purpose. Further, Peacock cannot show that its use of the videos in a documentary was transformative.
Court: USDC Southern District of New York, Judge: Koeltl, Filed On: May 8, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv5845, NOS: Copyrights - Property Rights, Categories: Copyright
J. Scarsi denies all of the assisted living company's post-judgment motions for the architectural photographer's complaint that the company acquired several senior living facilities from non-party Atria Management Company and then made unauthorized use of 43 of the photographers' copyrighted photographs from when Atria hired him to take pictures of the facilities. The assisted living company argues that judgment as a matter of law is appropriate for 38 of the photos because the photographer does not prove that it posted 16 of the photos on its website after receiving the March 2021 infringement notice, but there is enough circumstantial evidence to suggest such a thing, and the assisted living company did not properly challenge this claim during the trial.
Court: USDC Central District of California, Judge: Scarsi, Filed On: May 7, 2024, Case #: 2:22cv6989, NOS: Copyrights - Property Rights, Categories: Copyright, Evidence
J. Evanson denies summary judgment to the music photographer for his complaint that the music streaming service used his licensed photo of Jamaican musician Lincoln Barrington “Sugar” Minott without permission. Neither the music photographer nor the music streaming service are entitled to summary judgment because there are factual disputes as to whether the music streaming service's owner had the right to use the photograph by implied or expressed license.
Court: USDC Western District of Washington, Judge: Evanson, Filed On: May 3, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv470, NOS: Copyrights - Property Rights, Categories: Copyright
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J. McCalla grants the plaintiff company leave to serve a third-party subpoena in order to "ascertain defendant's identity" in this copyright infringement lawsuit alleging that the anonymous defendant illegally distributed 34 of plaintiff's adult motion pictures. The company cannot determine the defendant's identity "beyond his IP address." The motion is granted but with certain protective conditions.
Court: USDC Western District of Tennessee , Judge: McCalla, Filed On: May 2, 2024, Case #: 2:24cv2068, NOS: Copyrights - Property Rights, Categories: Civil Procedure, Copyright
J. Leinenweber grants a veterinary clinic’s motion to dismiss a fertility clinic’s copyright claims, finding the fertility clinic has failed to show that consumers would likely confuse its trademarked PROOV ovulation testing device with the veterinary clinic’s OvuPROOF ovulation testing device. The court also dismisses the veterinary clinic’s counterclaim for defamation, but allows its counterclaims for defamation and misrepresentation to proceed.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Leinenweber, Filed On: April 22, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv3854, NOS: Copyrights - Property Rights, Categories: Copyright, Defamation, Technology
J. Brennan denies the graphic designer's motion to amend her complaint, ruling she not only failed to comply with the court's deadline for such a motion, but also fails to show good cause why the deadline should be extended, other than the candy company's alleged failure to timely provide discovery responses, which she could have addressed sooner and with motions to compel.
Court: USDC Northern District of Ohio, Judge: Brennan, Filed On: April 22, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv2305, NOS: Copyrights - Property Rights, Categories: Civil Procedure, Copyright, Discovery
J. Reidinger requests the Ministry of Justice’s assistance, under the Hague Convention, in acquiring testimony for an upcoming copyright infringement suit brought by a tech security company against a similar firm. The firm began using the company’s intellectual property outside of the parties’ contractual relationship, and the request is for oral testimony by a relevant party living in The Netherlands.
Court: USDC Western District of North Carolina, Judge: Reidinger, Filed On: April 19, 2024, Case #: 1:21cv67, NOS: Copyrights - Property Rights, Categories: Copyright, International Law, Contract
J. Foster grants the pornographer's motions to serve third-party subpoenas seeking information on various unknown internet users in 12 cases alleging that the users unlawfully downloaded and distributed its copyrighted movies. Expedited discovery is warranted because the requests are specific in that they seek only the users' names and addresses, the pornographer has stated an actionable claim, there are no other ways to obtain this information, the case cannot proceed without it, and appropriate guardrails can be, and hereby are, put in place to protect the users' privacy.
Court: USDC Minnesota, Judge: Foster, Filed On: April 11, 2024, Case #: 0:24cv1060, NOS: Copyrights - Property Rights, Categories: Copyright, Privacy, Discovery
J. Cooper denies the travel company's motion to dismiss the photographer's suit alleging that it copied and shared her videos and photographs from her Instagram account without her permission, and grants the photographer's motion for leave to file a third amended complaint. The photographer's proposed third amended complaint cures the pleading defects the travel company points out in its motion to dismiss, namely a lack of specificity in the dates of alleged infringement, and, accepting as true her claimed dates of discovery of the infringement, her claims are not time-barred. Instagram's policies also did not unambiguously grant the travel company the right to share the photographer's copyrighted works.
Court: USDC District of Columbia, Judge: Cooper, Filed On: April 9, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv1528, NOS: Copyrights - Property Rights, Categories: Civil Procedure, Copyright
J. Baker recommends granting default judgment to a photographer and awarding him $15,000 in damages on his copyright claim against a night club that unlawfully used his photo of an Army captain in doctor’s clothes to advertise its “Medic Strippers” event. The club failed to timely respond to the action and the photographer makes sufficient allegations to support his claims.
Court: USDC Eastern District of California, Judge: Baker, Filed On: April 4, 2024, Case #: 1:22cv565, NOS: Copyrights - Property Rights, Categories: Copyright, Evidence
J. Caproni finds for the news outlets in a copyright suit filed by a photographer over an Instagram post that featured a photograph of the case of Friends. A copyrighted photograph included in a social media post is transformative when the purpose is to report of comment on the post. Therefore, the news outlet's publication of the photo constituted fair use.
Court: USDC Southern District of New York, Judge: Caproni, Filed On: April 1, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv1492, NOS: Copyrights - Property Rights, Categories: Copyright
J. Irizarry dismisses all federal copyright infringement claims against a group of audio book streaming services, including Amazon-owned Audible, over the rights to stream audio books based on the writings of Teri Woods, an acclaimed urban fiction writer. The court finds the streaming services were granted full rights to distribute the works on their respective platforms.
Court: USDC Eastern District of New York, Judge: Irizarry, Filed On: March 30, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv507, NOS: Copyrights - Property Rights, Categories: Copyright, Technology
J. Bastian denies the publisher's motion to dismiss the professional photographer's complaint that the publisher used a copyrighted photograph of Kris Kristofferson on its website without permission. Although the photo went live on the website on Feb. 14, 2019, and the photographer first saw the copyright infringement during the same year, the applicable statute of limitations that bars copyright infringement discovered before 2020 does not apply because there was no reasonable way for the photographer to find the photo due to the lack of "storm warnings" alerting the photographer of the publisher's infringement. The publisher is based in the Pacific Northwest while the photographer is based in Kentucky, and the internet is so vast that it would take a long time to monitor the usage of a single image.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Washington, Judge: Bastian, Filed On: March 28, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv25, NOS: Copyrights - Property Rights, Categories: Copyright
J. Snyder grants a photographer's motion for default judgment in a copyright infringement dispute with a real estate services company. The photographer alleges that the company used one of her photos without permission and without credit. The photographer sent a cease and desist letter, but the company did not respond. The photographer has sufficiently alleged copyright infringement. The photographer is awarded $22,000 in statutory damages and $1512 in costs.
Court: USDC Central District of California, Judge: Snyder, Filed On: March 28, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv5528, NOS: Copyrights - Property Rights, Categories: Copyright, Damages