Richardson vs. Kharbouch, brought in the Northern District of Illinois, was an infringement case that illustrated the dangers of doing copyright work on a shoestring. The plaintiff, Eddie Lee Richardson, also known as Hotwire the Producer, sued Karim Kharbouch, also known as French Montana. According to plaintiff/Richardson/Hotwire, he came up with a song when he was just…
Amazon v. Pionera, out of the Eastern District of California, is notable not for its legal maneuvering, but rather the elaborate scam that was at the center of the dispute. The plaintiff, Amazon, alleged trademark infringement and cybersquatting against defendant Manoj Goel and his company, Pionera. The defense did not answer the allegations for most…
In Ironhawk Technologies Inc. v. Dropbox, Inc., the Ninth Circuit considered two trademarks: SMARTSYNC by Ironhawk Technologies (the earlier-registered, “senior” mark) and SMART SYNC by storage space giant Dropbox (the later-filed,”junior” mark). The district court had granted Dropbox summary judgment on the grounds that, as a practical matter, Ironhawk was primarily selling to a highly…
An interesting issue of contract law emerged from a patent dispute in the Southern District of New York in mid-October. Perry Street Software, Inc. v. Jedi Technologies, Inc. involved a motion to compel arbitration involving dating apps, patents, and Terms of Service. Jedi Technologies holds a patent used by many dating mobile applications. Perry Street…
In Parker v. Winwood, musician Steve Winwood was accused of copyright infringement for allegedly copying the bass line of “Ain’t That A Lot Of Love” — written by Willa Dean Parker and Homer Banks in 1965 — for his song, “Gimme Some Lovin’,” written in 1966. 51 years later, Willa Dean Parker and the widow of…
Taylor Swift is known for aggressively protecting her intellectual property as a songwriter, but in Hall v. Swift she found herself on the defensive. Pop artists Sean Hall and Nathan Butler alleged Swift infringed on the lyrics to their best-known song, “Playas Gon’ Play,” in her song, “Shake It Off.” Hall and Butler: “Playas, they gonna play,…
Here in the United States, we sometimes have a hard time determining who owns the copyright of something, or whether a work is in the public domain, subject to fair use, similar enough to be infringing, etc., etc. But on April 15th, the European Union committed itself — and the internet service providers (ISPs) that…
Dubay v. King is a case wherein the purported heir to the creator of the comic book The Rook from the 1960s and 70s sued Stephen King — and all of his publishers and movie producers — for alleged copyright infringement of The Rook through The Gunslinger series. The defendants made a motion for summary judgment in the Middle District of Florida.…
A U.S. Supreme Court decision interpreting what’s necessary to sue under the Copyright Act is both very interesting, and very important. For years, the federal Courts of Appeal have been divided into two schools of thought regarding when a copyright holder has standing to sue for infringement: Those Circuit Courts (like the Second Circuit, presiding…
Readers of my blog know that I’m generally in favor of enforcing copyright. If you’ve got the goods on someone and those are your rights, you should be entitled to collect for it — or at least stop it. Likewise, if you’ve been called out for infringing, the right thing to do is usually to pay…
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