Does an exclusive agent for a photographer have standing to bring a copyright infringement suit on behalf of that photographer? The Ninth Circuit has said yes; the Northern District of Georgia says no. Plaintiff Creative Photographers, Inc. (“CPi”) represented non-party photographer Ruvén Afanador. The defendants are accused of infringing the copyright in one of...
Read more →As told in the complaint, plaintiff Gail Taylor nee Bridges started her concert photography career in high school, with some of her photographs published in a 1975 high school yearbook. By 1980, she had at least 1000 photos of the most famous artists and bands of the era. She stored the photos at her...
Read more →I hadn’t paid a lot of attention to the furor over a proposed license change to the Dungeons & Dragons game by Wizards of the Coast until I read an article on Ars Techica. The original license, called the Open Game License Version 1.0a, is what I would call an open culture license, granting...
Read more →I’ve been meaning to write about this case for a long time, and was finally inspired by the “Order Finding Defendants Entitled to Attorneys’ Fees,” entered after the case ended on a motion to dismiss, which tells you it went resoundingly badly for the plaintiff. Long-read warning. Since the case ended on a motion...
Read more →For the legal notices. This kind of story requires a timeline. Grocery store chain Fairway Markets went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The chain had a copyright license for the use of photographs in the stores on “Store Furnishings” granted by photographer Ferguson and Katzman Photography, Inc. (“Katzman”). The license expired during the pendency of...
Read more →I raised an eyebrow reading the decision in Beard v. Helman. The court seems to have a misunderstanding about the difference between an owner and a licensee. After a casual conversation at a Renaissance fair, plaintiff Beard designed for defendant Helman a dragon image to be used for a boot button. There was originally...
Read more →In an earlier post I asked whether a written agreement allowing the creation of a “Sequel” assigned the copyright in the original season of a telenovela, referred to as “the Series.” Caracol argued that the writing wasn’t a clear and unambiguous transfer of the rights in the Series, particularly since other parts of the...
Read more →Caracol Television, S.A. and Telemundo Television Studios co-created a telenovela called “El Señor de los Cielos,” referred to as “the Series.” The parties agreed that if either party wanted to create a derivative work, i.e., another season, the other would have the option to become a co-producer. Telemundo wanted to make another season of...
Read more →The Copyright Act gives a great deal of power to the original creators of works. For works created after 1977, the original author of a work can terminate any grant of rights roughly between 35 and 40 years after the date of the grant and provided that at least two years’ notice of the...
Read more →I read the headlines about Johnson v. Nike with passing surprise, because the case was decided of on a motion to dismiss. The designs aren’t that different and what crossed my brief attention led me to think that it was a copyright infringement case about the similarity of these two designs: But it is...
Read more →Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
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