Mealey's Copyright
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January 17, 2024
High Court Told ‘Chaos’ Will Ensue ‘In A World Without Chevron’ Deference
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court was told Jan. 17 that “chaos” will ensue “in a world without Chevron” deference by government attorneys, who urged it to apply stare decisis and uphold Chevron, which is being challenged in two cases arising out of federal fishing regulations.
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January 17, 2024
On Remand, Judge Awards Fees To Copyright, Trademark Defendants
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — A federal judge in Michigan on Jan. 16 rejected the “quixotic” positions advanced by a copyright and trademark owner and his company in opposing a request for attorney fees by prevailing infringement defendants, declining what he said was a call to “unwind the entire litigation and revisit almost every substantive ruling that has been rendered to date.”
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January 17, 2024
Government Wants To Argue In Supreme Court Copyright Discovery Accrual Suit
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth B. Prelogar filed a motion on behalf of the U.S. government in the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking to participate in upcoming Feb. 21 oral arguments in a dispute over whether copyright damages can be recovered for infringement that occurred prior to the three-year statute of limitations under the Copyright Act’s discovery accrual rule.
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January 16, 2024
7th Circuit Upholds Fee Award, Judgment In Favor Of Copyright Defendants
CHICAGO — A determination by a federal judge in Illinois that documents relating to bond offerings do not qualify for copyright protection was affirmed Jan. 12 by the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, finding in the same ruling no abuse of discretion in a subsequent award of more than $1.5 million in attorney fees to two prevailing infringement defendants.
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January 12, 2024
Appellant: Dismissal Of Patent, Copyright, Lanham Act Claims Was Error
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A patent owner is seeking reinstatement of its lawsuit against a former employee and his new company, asserting in an appellant brief filed with the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that a Utah federal judge wrongly construed “positioned between” and “formed between” in relation to a claimed air gap in the steel core of a buckling-restrained brace (BRB).
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January 10, 2024
Clothing Retailer Rejects Claims Its AI Systematically Steals
LOS ANGELES — Claims involving a clothing retailer’s use of artificial intelligence implicate ordinary business practices and cannot form the basis of Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and copyright claims, Shein Distribution Corp. says in a reply brief rebutting designers’ claims that the company systematically duplicates and steals protected and commercially valuable designs.
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January 10, 2024
Copyright Claims Tossed With Leave To Amend In California Software Row
SAN FRANCISCO — Counterclaims of direct and contributory copyright infringement leveled by a software developer against a former licensee were dismissed as “too conclusory” on Jan. 9 by a federal judge in California.
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January 09, 2024
Microsoft, OpenAI Face Journalists’ Suit Over AI Training
NEW YORK — Microsoft Corp. and various OpenAI are no better than any run-of-the-mill thief after they “systematically pilfered” copyrighted works despite enjoying both the means and ability to pay, two journalists allege in a class action filed in federal court in New York.
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January 08, 2024
Hip Hop Artist Awarded Summary Judgment On Copyright Infringement Claim
CHICAGO — A hip-hop artist who performs as “French Montana” has prevailed in Illinois federal court in a copyright infringement action over music created by a plaintiff when he was 16 years old.
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January 08, 2024
Pet Brush Maker May Subpoena Meta To Obtain Online Counterfeiters’ Identities
SAN FRANCISCO — A group of website operators accused of selling and advertising counterfeit goods lost their bid to quash a discovery subpoena on Meta Platforms Inc., with a California federal judge finding that the plaintiff demonstrated that good cause exists to obtain the defendants’ identifying information for the purpose of serving them with its complaint for intellectual property infringement and unfair competition.
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January 05, 2024
Amicus Asks 2nd Circuit To Clarify Fair Use Standard In Digital Library Suit
NEW YORK — Filing a brief in support of neither party in an appeal by Internet Archive (IA) of a New York federal court’s finding that the “controlled digital lending” practiced in its digital library did not constitute fair use under the Copyright Act, amicus curiae HathiTrust asks the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to specify that fair use, “as an ‘equitable rule of reason,’” should be decided on a case-by-case basis “to avoid rigid application of the copyright statute when . . . it would stifle the very creativity” protected by the statute.
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January 04, 2024
Preliminary Injunction Entered In Alien Costume Copyright Litigation
PITTSBURGH — A federal judge in Pennsylvania has ruled that a United Kingdom-based costume company will likely suffer irreparable harm if multiple China-based defendants are not enjoined from selling a knockoff product.
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January 02, 2024
Latest AI Copyright Suit Sees New York Times Target Microsoft, OpenAI
NEW YORK — The New York Times Co. (NYT) sued ChatGPT owners Microsoft Corp. and various OpenAI entities for copyright infringement, saying there is nothing transformative about using valuable and protected materials to create a substitute product.
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December 22, 2023
Former Governor, Others Sever, Transfer, Dismiss Portions Of AI Copyright Suit
NEW YORK — Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and other copyright holders who filed suit over the use of their works to train artificial intelligence told a federal judge in New York that they reached an agreement to dismiss one defendant and sever and transfer their claims against Microsoft Corp. and Meta Platforms Inc. to a federal court in California and said they would not oppose a fourth defendant’s motion to stay discovery while the court resolves pending motions.
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December 21, 2023
In Copyright, Trademark Row, Judge Allows Fourth Amended Complaint
SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in California on Dec. 20 ruled that a third amended complaint (TAC) seeking cancellation of two trademarks adequately pleads that the underlying applications contained false and misleading information but failed to provide “sufficient factual context” that the applicants knew or had reason to believe that their registrations were procured by fraud.
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December 19, 2023
Panel Won’t Rehear Dispute Over Copyright Deposit Copy Requirement
WASHINGTON, D.C. — An August holding by the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that the mandatory deposit requirement set forth in the Copyright Act is unconstitutional will stand, for now.
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December 19, 2023
11th Circuit Upholds Denial Of Default Judgment In Copyright Litigation
ATLANTA — A panel of the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said a federal judge in Georgia did not err in refusing to grant a copyright infringement plaintiff a default judgment against a musician who never entered an appearance in either court.
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December 18, 2023
California Jury Delivers Photographer $6.3M Award In Copyright Case
LOS ANGELES — In a verdict lodged with the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, a jury said a photographer is entitled to the maximum statutory damages award of $150,000 for each of 42 willfully infringed copyrighted images.
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December 15, 2023
RIAA To High Court: Use Equitable Tolling For ‘Black Box,’ AI-Based Infringement
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In one of eight amicus curiae briefs filed in a dispute over the discovery accrual rule in the context of copyright infringement, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) urges the U.S. Supreme Court to clarify that equitable tolling applies to the Copyright Act’s three-year limitations period when the infringement “is undetectable as a practical matter.”
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December 15, 2023
Labels Ask 5th Circuit To Affirm $46M Award For ISP’s Contributory Infringement
NEW ORLEANS — An internet service provider’s (ISP) knowledge that its subscribers were engaging in online “mass infringement” of their copyrighted music, coupled with its failure to act on that knowledge, were more than sufficient to support a jury’s finding of contributory infringement and an accompanying damages award of $46 million, record labels argue in their appellee brief in the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
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December 13, 2023
Authors Amend Copyright Claim Against Meta For Using Books To Train AI
SAN FRANCISCO — Three weeks after a California federal judge called their theory of copyright infringement “nonsensical,” 13 authors filed an amended putative class complaint against Meta Platforms Inc. dropping all claims except for a direct copyright infringement claim against Meta for using their copyrighted works to train its AI chatbots.
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December 13, 2023
New York Federal Judge: Copyright, Trademark Claims Barred By Res Judicata
NEW YORK — Allegations by a plaintiff that a beekeeping supply company, its owners, operators and others infringed his copyrighted advertising text and made unauthorized references to his trademark while advertising a competing product were dismissed Dec. 12 by a federal judge in New York, who adopted a 2019 report and recommendation for the same by a New York federal magistrate judge.
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December 13, 2023
Amici Back Coders’ Facial Challenge To DMCA’s Anti-Circumvention Provisions
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In their second time before the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, this time appealing the dismissal of their facial challenge to the anti-circumvention and anti-trafficking provisions of Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), two software coders were supported by the filing of four amicus curiae briefs, including one by legal scholars, that are critical of the statute’s technological protection measures (TPMs).
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December 11, 2023
Panel Upholds Win For Zillow On Copyright Claims By Photographer
SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in Washington correctly dismissed allegations of copyright infringement leveled against Zillow Inc., the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled Dec. 8, agreeing that a photographer failed to establish volitional conduct by the online real estate website.
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December 11, 2023
Digitization Dispute Belongs In California, New York Federal Judge Concludes
NEW YORK — A group of copyright infringement defendants working to collect, digitize and upload 78 rpm phonographic records won transfer on Dec. 8 of the allegations against them from a federal court in New York to the Northern District of California.