The Supreme Court recently handed down a decision in Warner Chappell v. Nealy that some practitioners view as disappointing. We wrote about the underlying 11th Circuit case a year ago. Nealy was incarcerated during the time period when some of the songs he had co-produced were infringed. He claimed that because he was deprived of access…
In July 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court reached a decision in Jack Daniel’s Properties, Inc. v. VIP Products LLC that received a lot of attention for a number of reasons, bad puns being among them. The case concerned squeaky dog toys that recall several well-known brands of alcoholic beverages. VIP sold a series of dog…
A client recently asked whether they should file their trademark not only in the US, but in other countries where they manufacture or sell their products. In Abitron Austria v. Hetronic, the U.S. Supreme Court provided the answer — and also served an opinion salad. The case began in the Western District of Oklahoma when…
*Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 2 In mid-May, the Supreme Court of the United States decided Andy Warhol Foundation For The Visual Arts, INC. v. Lynn Goldsmith, et al. The Court affirmed a Second Circuit decision, which had reversed a district court decision. For those unfamiliar with the background of this case, we wrote about it…
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…
Roughly speaking, the Fifth Circuit Court held that a copyright infringer has to “want” to engage in conduct that infringes. That is, plaintiff had to allege that defendant’s conduct was volitional. The U.S. Supreme Court denied review of the Fifth Circuit’s decision, effectively allowing that decision to stand. The BWP Media v T&S Software case involved an internet service…