Blogs
Gibson Succeeds in Protecting The Look of Its Guitars
In 2019, Gibson, the guitar company, brought a lawsuit against Armadillo Distribution and others for trademark infringement by virtue of Armadillo’s copying of the look of Gibson’s guitars. The case went to trial on May 16, 2022. Armadillo tried to use a “laches” defense to defend the case. This defense is used where there has…
Court Finds Coach of the Miami Dolphins Use of a Powerful Passage From Self-Help Book is Probably Not “Fair Use”
On May 13, 2021, Gerald Alexander, coach of the Miami Dolphins football team, posted a passage on Twitter from a book by Dr. Keith Bell called Winning Isn’t Normal. The passage used was in essence: “Winning isn’t normal… Winning is unusual – as such it requires unusual action. In order to win you must do…
Student Who Accosted Native Americans Outside of Lincoln Memorial Loses His Defamation Suit
On January 18, 2019, Nathan Phillips and a few Native Americans took to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Kentucky, where they encountered a crowd of students, including the Plaintiff, Nicholas Sandmann. Phillips felt that Sandmann was “blocking [him] from exiting the situation” and “intentionally stood in [Phillips’] way in order to stop [him]…
Kanye West Sued for Copyright Infringement, Again
Kanye West released his album titled “Donda 2” in February 2022 exclusively on the Stem Player MP3 platform. The album was very successful, bringing in over $2.2 million in sales in just one day. On June 29, 2022, Ultra International Music Publishing LLC (UIMP) filed a lawsuit against Kanye West for the unauthorized use of…
Meta Hit with Copyright Infringement Suit by Epidemic Sounds
On July 20th, 2022, a Swedish company known as Epidemic Sound filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging that in creating its “Reels Remix” feature, Meta (the company that owns Facebook and Instagram) has infringed on Epidemic’s copyrighted music. Here is what the case is about: Meta…
Popular Netflix Series, Bridgerton, Inspires Imitation, But Netflix Loses Its Patience with Fan Flattery
Netflix released the wildly popular television series named Bridgerton in December of 2020, produced by the successful Shonda Rhimes. The show is set in the Regency era (1811 -1820) in the city of London and explores the romantic life of Daphne Bridgerton. By 2021, the series was watched by 82 million households worldwide. Netflix owns…
Is it Worth Suing for Copyright Infringement?
The Copyright Act contains all of the laws that apply to creative, “expressive” works, like music, photography, books, screenplays, and films. If someone copies your creative work, whether the “infringing work” be identical or “substantially similar”, you may have a claim for copyright infringement. However, you will generally need to do no less than three…
Judge Roy Moore Loses Appeal of His Claims Against Sacha Baron Cohen
As part of his television show on Showtime called “Who Is America,” Sacha Baron Cohen convinced former Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, Judge Roy Moore, to fly out to Washington D.C for an interview. Although Judge Moore was told that the interview was for an “Israeli Television program,” he was actually to be…
Lil Yachty Hauls UK Music Company into Court in California Over Use of His Name and Image in NFT
On August 3, 2022, U.S. District Judge for the Central District of California, Michael W. Fitzgerald, denied a motion to dismiss a case filed by Miles Park McCollum, professionally known as “Lil Yachty,” against two crypto companies called Opulous and Ditto. Opulous sells “non-fungible tokens” (“NFTs”). An NFT is essentially a digital certificate or token…
Editor’s Claim of “Fair Use” of Photos of Picasso Artwork Fails
Art editor Alan Wofsy (Wofsy) and French citizen Yves Sicre De Fontbrune (YSF) have been fighting in courts in both the United States and France for 26 years over the use of photographs of artwork by Picasso. A catalog of 16,000 works by Picasso was obtained by YSF in 1979. In 1991, YSF brought a…