Intellectual Property Law

City owes $117K in legal fees to critic it sued over meeting clips in his YouTube videos

A California city must pay more than $117,000 in attorney’s fees for a critic it sued over alleged copyright infringement due to government meeting footage he included in his YouTube videos. The Inglewood meeting footage couldn’t be copyrighted, a federal judge ruled in August, and on Thursday he made the…

Oct 14, 2015 10:10 AM CDT

Donald Trump campaign is once again targeted for song use; is ASCAP license enough?

Donald Trump is once again feeling the wrath of a musician who claims the Republican presidential candidate is using his music without permission. A lawyer for Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler sent Trump a letter Saturday demanding that the candidate stop using Aerosmith’s 1973 hit “Dream On” at campaign events, the…

Oct 13, 2015 11:06 AM CDT

Yoga poses are about healing, and not copyrightable, says 9th Circuit

A series of 26 poses, which yogi Bikram Choudhury claims to have created and refers to as “the sequence,” is an “unprotectable idea” which cannot be copyrighted, the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday. The court found that Choudhury’s breathing exercises are also not subject to…

Oct 9, 2015 2:30 PM CDT

Gotta catch ‘em all: Pokemon lawyers hit cafe manager with $5,400 bill for copyright infringement

As anyone who has ever watched Pokémon knows, Pikachu and the other characters can only say their names and nothing else. This is probably why they have a team of lawyers writing their complaints and briefs for them. According to a Monday story from Vice, a Seattle café manager is…

Oct 5, 2015 12:08 PM CDT

Hospitality contractor claims it owns Yosemite trademarks

A contractor that lost its hospitality contract with the National Park Service says it owns trademarks to “Yosemite National Park” and the names of places within the park. In a suit filed in the Court of Federal Claims, Delaware North Parks & Resorts Inc. is seeking compensation for the new…

Oct 5, 2015 5:45 AM CDT

Lawyer blasted by federal appeals court for forwarding judge email did nothing wrong, state bar says

Corrected: Although blasted by a federal appeals court last year for circulating a congratulatory email from a federal judge, a BigLaw partner did nothing calling for attorney discipline, the California State Bar has determined. Partner Edward Reines of Weil Gotshal & Manges said in an August pro hac vice motion…

Oct 2, 2015 12:55 PM CDT

Mom’s release doesn’t preclude child’s copyright suit over T-shirt design, federal judge rules

A mother’s release allowing a second-grader in New York City to participate in a clothing company’s T-shirt design contest does not preclude the child’s subsequent copyright suit, a federal judge ruled Tuesday. However, U.S. District Judge Gregory Woods hasn’t yet decided what he says is the central issue in the…

Oct 2, 2015 10:45 AM CDT

LegalForce is looking for a few good apprentices

Raj Abhyanker's Trademarkia search engine has become a popular spot for inventors and entrepreneurs to learn whether their ideas have already been trademarked. Abhyanker estimates that Trademarkia draws 2 million visitors a month, 60,000 visitors a day or "one person every couple of seconds."

Oct 1, 2015 7:40 AM CDT

Genius grant winner studies impact of patent policies on medical research

Among the 24 winners of the MacArthur Foundation’s genius grants this year is an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who studied how intellectual property rights stifle medical innovation. The grant winner, Heidi Williams, is best known for a study that found granting nonpatent intellectual rights to a private…

Sep 30, 2015 9:45 AM CDT

PETA lawyer discusses monkey’s copyright suit over selfie

The U.S. Copyright Office has said that a monkey can’t be the author of a copyrighted work. But a lawsuit filed last week on behalf of Naruto, who is allegedly the monkey whose toothy selfies sparked an Internet sensation, is asking a federal court to find otherwise. In an interview…

Sep 28, 2015 2:35 PM CDT

9th Circuit says the Batmobile is a copyrightable character

The Batmobile—the car driven by Batman in the original DC Comics series—is an “automotive character” entitled to copyright protection, the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday. The case deals a POW! to Mark Towle, a Southern California mechanic who had been sued for selling replica Batmobiles…

Sep 25, 2015 6:15 AM CDT

‘Happy Birthday’ song is in the public domain, judge rules

The company that has collected royalties since 1988 for use of the “Happy Birthday” song did not have a valid copyright, according to a federal judge in Los Angeles. U.S. District Judge George King ruled against Warner/Chappell Music Inc. on Tuesday, report the Associated Press, the New York Times, the…

Sep 23, 2015 9:30 AM CDT

Copyright holders must consider fair use before sending takedown notices, 9th Circuit says

It’s been eight years since Stephanie Lenz posted the video of her infant son dancing to Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy” onto YouTube that started her long-running conflict with Universal Music Corp., the holder of Prince’s copyrights. According to Reuters, the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday…

Sep 14, 2015 5:20 PM CDT

Judge bars showing of Aretha Franklin documentary at Telluride; second screening is halted

A federal judge in Colorado issued a temporary injunction last Friday barring the screening of an Aretha Franklin concert documentary at the Telluride Film Festival. Now the producers have withdrawn the film from a second venue, the Toronto International Film Festival. U.S. District Judge John Kane issued the injunction in…

Sep 9, 2015 11:21 AM CDT

Brownstein Hyatt acquires IP litigation boutique

Denver-based Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck has acquired a seven-lawyer intellectual property litigation firm based in Reno, Nevada. The acquisition of boutique firm Watson Rounds expands Brownstein’s IP group to 30 professionals, making Brownstein’s intellectual property practice one of the largest in the Mountain West, according to a press release. The…

Sep 2, 2015 1:30 PM CDT