Pepsi Finally Prevails in the 2016 Copyright Lawsuit Over Superbowl 50 Ad “The Joy of Dance”
On May 21st, 2021, a panel of judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that PepsiCo (“Pepsi”) did not steal an advertising firm’s idea for a Super Bowl ad that aired in 2016. During Superbowl 50, Pepsi aired an ad entitled “The Joy of Dance,” which featured singer Janelle Monae…
Read MoreOn May 25th, 2021, Chief U.S. Judge Timothy C. Batten Sr. of the Northern District of Georgia tossed a copyright infringement suit against Netflix and the creators of its hit television show “Outer Banks.” “Outer Banks” is a mystery adventure series where a group of teenage friends searches for treasure after the disappearance of the…
Read MoreOn March 31st, 2021, U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams denied a motion to dismiss a copyright infringement lawsuit against singer-songwriter sensation Ed Sheeran over his hit song “Thinking Out Loud.” Structured Asset Sales, who owns the recording of “Let’s Get It On” by Marvin Gaye, filed the suit on June 8th, 2020, alleging (again) that…
Read MoreOn February 26th, 2021, a California federal judge decided that the lawsuit over a “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” remake will not be sent back to state court after concluding that the suit contains copyright violations only a federal court can decide. Filed on December 18th, 2020, the trust of Truman Capote, author of the 1958 novella…
Read MoreKevin Wooten is a high school English teacher from North Carolina that has written the adventure novel Pennywise: The Hunt for Blackbeard’s Treasure. Within Wooten’s novel, a group of teenagers living in the Outer Banks region of the North Carolina coast finds hidden treasure. After Wooten published his novel in 2016, Netflix released the first…
Read MoreThe Oscar-nominated biopic Florence Foster Jenkins about the notoriously awful yet well-intentioned opera singer was released in 2016 to great critical acclaim. Screenwriter Nicholas Martin enjoyed the praise, but his opera singer ex-girlfriend Julia Kogan was less thrilled because she claimed to be Martin’s co-author and deserves credit for the film. Since the movie was…
Read MoreOn December 9, 2020, Judge Ellen L. Hollander of the U.S. District Court of Maryland issued a lengthy opinion designed to sort out the complex copyright considerations regarding the ownership of Tom Clancy’s literary works, but the decision ultimately did not resolve who owned the Jack Ryan character at the center of Clancy’s books. Tom…
Read MoreJust weeks after Neil Diamond filed suit over Trump’s use of his “Rockin’ in the Free World” at rallies, singer-songwriter, and producer Eddy Grant filed suit against Trump and his campaign on September 1, 2020, alleging copyright infringement over the use of Grant’s 1983 hit “Electric Avenue” in a campaign video posted to Trump’s Twitter…
Read MoreOn September 26, 2020, Judge Yandle for the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois granted tattoo artist Catherine Alexander’s Motion for Partial Summary Judgment in her copyright infringement lawsuit against World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. (“WWE”) and Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. (“Take-Two”). Alexander claimed WWE and Take-Two copied the tattoos she inked…
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