In Brief:   Automating how to choose an outfit is not patentable subject matter.

In Brief: An inventor can’t claim their invention is invalid after an assignment.

In Brief:   A picture is worth a thousand words but using it may not pass the fair use test.

The New Republic magazine published 44 film reviews written by famed film and theater critic, Stanley Kauffmann. The magazine didn’t hire Kauffmann to write the reviews. He wrote them, submitted them and the magazine printed them. The parties never really talked about who owned the articles. They never entered into a “work for hire” agreement.

Violent Hues Productions published a tourism guide that used a stock photograph depicting the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington D.C. The problem is Violent Hues used it without the permission of the photographer, Russell Brammer.

Breaking attorney-client privilege can open a floodgate of information in infringement litigation.

Copyright infringement needs more than ‘sort of’ similarity. %CUT% Experian Information Solutions, Inc. registered the copyright for a database containing consumer names and addresses. Experian’s employees made some selections in adding data, reconciling discrepancies, and discarding useless information. Experian licenses access to its database to companies for use in marketing campaigns. Nationwide Marketing Services Incorporated is Experian’s competitor. Nationwide is relatively new to the market and much smaller than Experian. Experian got an offer to purchase a Nationwide’s database of names of addresses. Experian tested Nationwide’s database  against its own and came up with a 97% match rate.  Experian brought suit for copyright infringement and trade secret misappropriation against Nationwide. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court’s order for summary judgment in Nationwide’s favor on the copyright claim. The court held that the selection and arrangement process was sufficient to create minimal protection in Experian’s database. But, Experian did not prove infringement. Neither side could produce the databases as they appeared at the time of the alleged infringement. Experian could only show an 80% match rate between the current versions of the two databases. That wasn’t enough for copyright infringement. Experian’s trade secret misappropriation claim was remanded back to the district court.

You own your domain name, right? Maybe not. %CUT% While working for the law firm, Trowbridge Sidoti LLP, attorney, Kim Taylor, registered a large number of domain names for the firm, including SyndicationLawyers.com. She registered them in her own name instead of the firm’s, even though they were going to be used by the firm. After she left the firm, Kim refused to transfer the domain names claiming she owned them. Trowbridge Sidoti sued. After 10 hours of deliberation, the jury returned a verdict against Taylor with respect to all of the domain names. The jury found that Taylor’s actions only caused harm with respect to the SyndicationLawyers.com domain name and awarded $7,800.00 in damages.

No matter how right you are, you need to register a copyright before filing suit. %CUT%Section 411(a) of the Copyright Act requires registration of a copyright before bringing suit. Federal Circuits are split on how to interpret this. Some circuits say filing an application is enough. Other circuits say the plain language of the statute requires actual registration. In Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corporation v. Wall-Street.com, LLC, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals went with registration means registration. Wall-Street licensed content from Fourth Estate. After the license expired, Wall-Street continued to post Fourth Estate’s content without permission. Fourth Estate applied for registration and then filed suit before the works were actually registered. In affirming the dismissal of the suit, the Eleventh Circuit focused on the fact that the Copyright Office had to examine the application before registration. So filing the application can never be enough.

Just in time for summer, Mister Softee gets its just desserts courtesy of a federal judge. %CUT% The war started when Dimitrio Tsirkos decided to rebrand his “Mister Softee” trucks as “Master Softee”, including mimicking the graphic of the delicious ice cream cone. Tsirkos was a former vendor of the venerated purveyor of the taste of summer. As a vendor, Tsirkos had to pay royalties. As a non-vendor, he got out of having to pay Mister Softee. Mister Softee sued and obtained an injunction permanently enjoining Tsirkos from operating his rogue ice cream trucks using confusingly similar branding. Tsirkos refused to surrender. He continued to operate his Master Softee trucks despite the injunction. A federal court judge held Tsirkos in contempt repeatedly and ordered him to pay $329,000.00 in damages. When he still wouldn’t stop, the court entered another order adding $287,258.00 in attorney’s fees and $52,605.00 in costs.