In today’s intellectual property law update, the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) announced that their electronic system will again be down for maintenance for the entire weekend. Strike 3 Holdings, a prolific adult movie producer, who filed almost 2,000 copyright infringement lawsuits last year, has seen more of its copyright lawsuits dismissed for Read more about Intellectual Property Law Update[…]
One of my favorite quotes goes something like this, “always be yourself, unless you can be Batman, then be Batman.” Well, when it comes to copyrighting weeds, I would rather be Batman. Copyright Lawsuit In a recent Copyright Case, an artist sued the Batman actor, Val Kilmer, for stealing his golden weeds. Specifically, tumbleweeds. The Read more about Who wins, Batman or Copyright?[…]
Rights under Copyright Law A copyright owner automatically receives a number of different rights when they create a copyright work. Those rights include the right of reproduction, public display, distribution and the right to prepare derivative works. For some types of work, this also includes the right of public performance. However, when an owner sells Read more about Exhaustion of Copyrights based on Sale[…]
In today’s online world, photographers often promote their work on the internet, using website and social media pages to help generate publicity and interest in their photographs. Some of these websites show amazing photographs which demonstrate the talent of the photographer. However, because these websites are on the internet, potential customers simply copy the images Read more about Flickr Photo Not Fair Use Images[…]
Fortnite Sued for Dance Moves Recently, online video game makers have been selling avitar custom modifications including various tools or weapons, skins, clothing and emotes such as a dances or player movements. Many players use these emotes as a way to celebrae or to simply have fun while playing the game. However, some of these Read more about Fortnight Sued for Dance Moves – Lessons Learned[…]
Copyrights and Work for Hire Doctrine Stan Lee, the co-creator and ambassador of the Marvel Universe, died this week. From a copyright perspective, Lee’s legacy is a complicated mess. Marvel, one of the original comic book publishers introduced over 8,000 characters including those created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Joe Simon and Steve Ditko. This Read more about Stan Lee’s Copyrights and Work for Hire[…]
Today, the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it will take on the issue of whether a copyright registration or a copyright application is required before bringing a copyright infringement suit. Currently, depending on the location of your copyright lawsuit, some courts require a copyright registration. Other Courts simply require that you have filed a copyright application Read more about Copyright Application vs. Copyright Registration[…]
Capturing just the right photograph, often is the result of countless hours of time, effort, attention, planning and preparation. While capturing the photograph can represent countless hours, stealing the photograph off the internet takes only seconds. In today’s digital world, many photographers try to promote their best work on the internet where they can showcase Read more about Stolen Photos Costs Company[…]
The Metropolitan Museum announced access to nearly 400,000 images – for free. The Museum provides these images under an Open Access license for all public-domain works in the Met collection. The Creative Commons Zero (“CC0”) license allows use of the images without restriction. Entrepreneurs, artists, and business owners can now use and share these images Read more about Free Use Images[…]
The Ninth Circuit has ruled that prior to seeking a Takedown under the DMCA, copyright holders must perform a fair-use evaluation of the alleged infringement. Failure to do so, may expose the copyright owner to damages for wrongfully seeking a DMCA takedown. By its definition, fair use includes non-commercial portions of a work which do Read more about When a Takedown is used Wrongly[…]