Copyright Infringement

Here’s What Happened: Bucky Woodall wrote a screenplay titled “Bucky the Wave Warrior”. It was about a modern day teenager who wants to learn about the ocean and surfing. Bucky gave the script to his sister-in-law’s stepsister who worked for Disney Company in the live action division. The stepsister inquired if Disney accepted unsolicited scripts […]

Here’s What Happened: Westlaw (owned by Thomson Reuters) gives attorneys handy headnotes and a key system for legal research. The headnotes summarize and organize a judge’s opinion so that an attorney can, at a glance, determine the relevance of a court’s opinion. Thomson Reuters owns the copyrights to the headnotes. Ross Intelligence Inc. used an […]

Here’s What Happened: Fans of the movie Home Alone 2 may remember the prank Kevin pulled on the hotel staff that ended with the phrase, “Merry Christmas, Ya Filthy Animal”. DT Fashions LLC registered the trademark in 2013. DT’s best-selling products included t-shirts, sweatshirts, and sweaters containing the phrase “Merry Christmas Ya Filthy Animal.” DT […]

Here’s What Happened: Shein Distribution Corp. holds the distinction of being one of the most famous fast fashion brands. Fast fashion is the refuge of those who want to be on the cutting edge of fashion trends but are budget conscious. Fast fashion is cheap and trendy. Fast fashion brands manufacture clothing quickly to take […]

Here’s What Happened: Air travel can be very expensive. Sometimes ticket pricing makes sense. Sometimes it doesn’t. For instance, it could be less expensive to fly with a stop or two than to fly directly to your destination. So you’d book a flight with your true destination in the middle and just get off the […]

Here’s What Happened: In 1983, Eddy Grant composed and recorded the song “Electric Avenue”. Eddy licensed the work to Warner Music. A Warner Music affiliate registered the copyright of the “Electric Avenue” sound recording in a compilation titled “Eddy Grant: The Greatest Hits”.  When the Warner license expired in 2006, the copyright registration reverted back […]

Here’s What Happened:   In 1983, Sherman Nealy and Tony Butler formed Music Specialists, Inc. The company recorded and released one album and several singles. A few years later, Sherman and Tony had a parting of the ways. Sherman’s post Music Specialists career hit the skids. He was convicted of drug related offenses and served […]

In Brief:   A Creative Commons license is enforceable just like any other license. Here’s What Happened:   Larry Philpot, a professional photographer, photographed Ted Nugent at a concert in July 2013. In August 2013, Larry registered the photograph with the US Copyright Office. He published the photograph on Wiki Commons under a Creative Commons License. […]

In Brief: Third party websites can imbed photos and avoid copyright infringement. Here’s What Happened:   In 2007, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that imbedding thumbnails of photos on a website is not copyright infringement. (Perfect 10 v. Amazon, 508 F.3d 1146 (9th Cir. 2007). The North Circuit reasoned that embedding an image […]