The other day I sat down to watch the classic 1947 movie, Miracle on 34th Street starring Natalie Wood, Maureen O’Hara, John Payne, and Edmund Gwenn. For those who haven’t seen this movie, it is an exceptional well acted film. It is just a warm, good hearted movie that leaves you feeling happy after […]
For songwriters, one of the greatest perks of copyrighting their work is the continuous flow of royalty checks. If Merv Griffin were still alive today he could attest to that. Merv Griffin wrote the recognizable music called “Think” which aired five days a week on the game show Jeopardy during the final jeopardy question. […]
In England, there is a law referred to as the “Loser Pays” Rule. The law states that the losing party of a civil litigation case must pay the winning party’s legal fees. The English created this law to deter individuals and corporations from making frivolous claims and wasting the judicial system’s time and also […]
By: Tyler Hampy As mentioned in my last post, this post will continue the discussion on the fair use doctrine. Specifically, this post will discuss whether parodies of copyrighted works can be considered fair use. To recap, the fair use doctrine permits the legal use of copyrighted material without first acquiring permission from the […]
By: Dan Pierron It seems there is a growing trend in the reporting of patent litigation and the prosecution of patents by high-profile applicants (the likes of Google, Apple, Microsoft, etc.) where the basic gist of the invention is described in the article in very broad terms, but there is little or no reference […]
Do you remember the ridiculously cheesy LifeCall commercial that first aired in 1989? Perhaps you may be able to recall it better with this famous catchphrase, “Help! I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.” Do you now remember? LifeCall, a medical alert and protection company produced this commercial showing an elderly woman fall within […]
My last post related how Online Service Providers (OSPs) are subject to disqualification for § 512 safe harbor from copyright infringement liability based on actual or red flag knowledge of user-generated content (UGC) containing infringing material. Another disqualifier for safe harbor is the OSP’s control of and benefit from the infringing act. Control and […]
To prove copyright infringement, the plaintiff must show that it owns a valid copyright and must establish that the defendant engaged in the unauthorized copying of the work protected by the copyright. “Copying” refers to the act of infringing any of the exclusive rights that accrue to the owner of a valid copyright under […]
