207 results for 'nos:"Copyrights - Property Rights"'.
J. Bibas denies cross-motions for summary judgment in copyright claims contending an artificial intelligence startup copied content from Westlaw because the level of originality of Westlaw "headnotes," or summaries of points of law within judicial opinions, cannot be determined through summary judgment.
Court: USDC Delaware, Judge: Bibas, Filed On: September 25, 2023, Case #: 1:20cv613, NOS: Copyrights - Property Rights, Categories: Copyright
J. Gonzalez finds the maker of a Lego-based replica of the Second Beit Hamikdash, or Second Holy Temple, successfully argued its creation is sufficiently unique to qualify for copyright protection and enters judgment in his favor on counterclaims that sought to invalidate his copyrights. Notably, he pushed back against arguments that the temple's design was in the public domain and therefore not protectable by producing evidence showing the temple was in fact destroyed in 70 C.E. without any visual references in existence to base his designs on, which required him to conduct extensive research into the temple's history in order to create his design.
Court: USDC Eastern District of New York, Judge: Gonzalez, Filed On: September 21, 2023, Case #: 1:21cv2883, NOS: Copyrights - Property Rights, Categories: Copyright
J. Brodie denies partial final judgment to a group of film production companies on copyright claims that their 2013 documentary showcasing an aspiring dirt-bike rider and subsequent feature film infringed a set of documentaries first released in 2001 and 2003 which featured the 12 O'Clock Boyz dirt-bike stunt group. The production studios fail to argue they face undue hardship or injustice if they must wait until the court resolves several claims against one of the defendants who recently filed for bankruptcy, as well as several counterclaims.
Court: USDC Eastern District of New York, Judge: Brodie, Filed On: September 21, 2023, Case #: 1:18cv5930, NOS: Copyrights - Property Rights, Categories: Copyright
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J. Boasberg dismisses a research firm's claims against a group of attorneys and law firms in connection with $30,000 in research done into potential bias in the D.C. jury pool for the Proud Boys' trial that it was allegedly never paid. The firm fails to state a claim for copyright infringement, and the remaining claims are state law-based.
Court: USDC District of Columbia, Judge: Boasberg, Filed On: September 19, 2023, Case #: 1:23cv523, NOS: Copyrights - Property Rights, Categories: Copyright, Jurisdiction, Contract
J. Haines dismisses copyright claims contending Netflix impermissibly used a photograph of plaintiff's tattoo design in the second season of the documentary series "Tiger King." The tattoo, which caricaturized documentary subject Joe Exotic, "along with a Lysol brand aerosol can, illustration of five COVID-19 viruses, and a toilet paper banner with the words 'Quarantine 2020,'" is protected under the fair use act as a social comment on the widespread success of the first season of "Tiger King" during the pandemic.
Court: USDC Western District of Pennsylvania, Judge: Haines, Filed On: September 18, 2023, Case #: 3:22cv131, NOS: Copyrights - Property Rights, Categories: Copyright, Property
J. Talwani issues a mixed ruling in a lawsuit stemming from a writer's short story about a kidney donor who is not happy to receive a letter from her living donor. A kidney donor who shared a similar letter with the writer told publishers and journalists that the writer plagiarized her letter. The writer is entitled to a declaration that she owns the copyright to her short story. Although the story copied parts of the donor's letter, the story's version of the letter, in combination with the rest of the short story, makes transformative use of the letter for an entirely new purpose than the original letter served. However, the writer's defamation claim fails because it was not defamatory for the donor to assert that the writer had used her letter in the first versions of her story without attribution.
Court: USDC Massachusetts, Judge: Talwani, Filed On: September 14, 2023, Case #: 1:19cv10203, NOS: Copyrights - Property Rights, Categories: Copyright, Defamation, Interference With Contract
J. Gutierrez grants the trainer $163,900 in attorney fees after she and Sculpt Society succeeded against the choreography-based fitness company's claim that the trainer, who used to work for the company, used its methods to start Sculpt Society. The trainer asked for $239,000 in attorney fees, but that amount is adjusted because the work of the practice support supervisor for clerical or secretarial tasks is excluded in lodestar analyses as it is considered part of the firm’s overhead, among other reductions.
Court: USDC Central District of California, Judge: Gutierrez, Filed On: September 11, 2023, Case #: 2:22cv4735, NOS: Copyrights - Property Rights, Categories: Copyright, Attorney Fees
J. Hsu finds in favor of English singer-songwriter Sam Smith and Normani over their song "Dancing With a Stranger," whose melodic phrase allegedly infringed on another artist's song of the same name. The melodic phrases are not substantially similar and each song's melody has a different shape. The phrase “dancing with a stranger” is not unique enough to be protected by copyright.
Court: USDC Central District of California, Judge: Hsu, Filed On: September 6, 2023, Case #: 2:22cv1508, NOS: Copyrights - Property Rights, Categories: Copyright
J. Garaufis adopts a magistrate judge's report and recommendation and enters default judgment against a website owner as to liability on a professional photographer's claims for copyright infringement, but denies it with respect to statutory damages and attorney fees. To prevail on a claim for statutory damages, a litigant must show the work was published prior to the date of alleged infringement, and in this case, the litigant fails to provide evidence that his photograph was published prior to the date the website owner posted the photograph on its website.
Court: USDC Eastern District of New York, Judge: Garaufis, Filed On: September 5, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv5942, NOS: Copyrights - Property Rights, Categories: Copyright
J. Reidinger grants the so-called “World’s Largest Tie Store” its motion to dismiss allegations of copyright infringement when one of its ties reportedly featured work by a North Carolina artist used without her permission. The work, entitled “50 Rock Star Scientists Mosaic,” was allegedly copied by the store. However, the court lacks personal jurisdiction because the store, based in Florida, did not purposefully seek to do business in North Carolina, and their sales in North Carolina account for only 0.45% of its total profits since 2014.
Court: USDC Western District of North Carolina, Judge: Reidinger, Filed On: August 30, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv139, NOS: Copyrights - Property Rights, Categories: Copyright, Jurisdiction, Business Practices
J. Thrash grants the franchising business's motion for summary judgment as to the technology company's claims for misappropriation of trade secrets and copyright infringement arising from the alleged theft of e-commerce software code. The company failed to show that the code embedded in the business's website was not readily ascertainable. The combination of the company's technical know-how, organizational capabilities and problem-solving approach are too vague and inclusive to be considered a trade secret. None of the elements identified by the company's computer science expert in a report analyzing the codes qualify for copyright protection. However, the motion is denied with regard to the company's claim for breach of contract.
Court: USDC Northern District of Georgia, Judge: Thrash, Filed On: August 30, 2023, Case #: 1:21cv1971, NOS: Copyrights - Property Rights, Categories: Copyright, Trade Secrets, Contract
J. Arterton denies the academic resource website's motion to dismiss, ruling the educational material creator has plausibly alleged a copyright notice and watermark violation based on the proximity of the website's copyright to protected materials included on the website for educators. The language in the notice and watermark section of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is meant to be interpreted as broadly as possible, especially at the pleading stage, and so the website's copyright being located on the same page as the materials it does not own and did not create is sufficient for the claim to proceed.
Court: USDC Connecticut, Judge: Arterton, Filed On: August 28, 2023, Case #: 3:21cv1242, NOS: Copyrights - Property Rights, Categories: Copyright, Education, Evidence
J. Whitehead denies counter claimant American Marriage Ministries partial summary judgment on its common law trademark and Consumer Protection Act counterclaims, which arise from Universal Life Church Monastery Storehouse's lawsuit alleging that an employee and others defamed the religious organization by showing a side-by-side comparison between the Universal Life Church's and the employee's websites. There are still disputed issues of material fact on how distinctive AMM's trade name is from Life Church's trade name, which leads to further dispute on the likelihood of confusion.
Court: USDC Western District of Washington, Judge: Whitehead, Filed On: August 24, 2023, Case #: 2:19cv301, NOS: Copyrights - Property Rights, Categories: Copyright, Trademark, Consumer Law
J. McCormick grants the sculptor $1.1 million in attorney fees and costs following a jury's $450,000 verdict finding that the real estate company infringed on the sculptor’s “Untitled” sculpture. The sculptor’s original lodestar figure is over $1.3 million as it included work performed over two years that involved extensive motion practice, discovery and trial preparation, but not all requested hours are reasonable because the sculptor’s attorneys spent a significant amount of time conferencing, and the attorneys sometimes triple-billed this time.
Court: USDC Central District of California, Judge: McCormick, Filed On: August 21, 2023, Case #: 8:21cv1585, NOS: Copyrights - Property Rights, Categories: Copyright, Attorney Fees
J. Whitehead denies counter-claimant American Marriage Ministries' (AMM) motion for summary judgment for its common law trademark and CPA counterclaims, which arise from the religious organization's lawsuit alleging that the employee and others defamed the religious organization by showing a side-by-side comparison between the religious organization's and the employee's websites. There is a factual dispute as to whether AMM's mark is suggestive or only descriptive of its services.
Court: USDC Western District of Washington, Judge: Whitehead, Filed On: August 18, 2023, Case #: 2:19cv301, NOS: Copyrights - Property Rights, Categories: Copyright, Trademark, Defamation
J. Lin dismisses the video game publisher's claim that two of its former employees created a competing game using confidential information from the "P3" game they began developing for the publisher. The former employees signed a forum selection clause and their alleged conduct is closely related to the contract containing the clause. Korea is also the more convenient forum, as most of the witnesses and evidence are located in Korea or written in Korean.
Court: USDC Western District of Washington, Judge: Lin, Filed On: August 17, 2023, Case #: 2:23cv576, NOS: Copyrights - Property Rights, Categories: Trade Secrets, Jurisdiction, Contract
J. Matsumoto enters defaults judgment against a provider of supplemental vitamins on copyright infringement claims alleging it copied significant portions of a competitor’s website for use on its own site. The court issues an injunction prohibiting the defendant from further infringing the protected material, as well as ordering it to deactivate the infringing website. The court, however, declines a request to transfer the domain name to the litigant’s control, finding the litigant fails to include in its suit the names of the domain registrar or webhost.
Court: USDC Eastern District of New York, Judge: Matsumoto, Filed On: August 16, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv5106, NOS: Copyrights - Property Rights, Categories: Copyright, Technology