Property, intangible

a blog about ownership of intellectual property rights and its licensing

copyright

  • Mattel $100 Million Richer, For Now

    Yesterday the Bratz court dealt with a boatload of motions, most importantly MGA Entertainment’s motion for remittitur of the $100 million verdict. MGA Entertainment claimed that the $100 verdict was duplicative, and that the jury really meant that the verdict should be $20 million. The MGA parties argue that Mattel had a singular theory of… Continue reading

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  • Broken Chain

    (Read yesterday’s post below if you haven’t yet) The court identified two breaks. The easy one was the last one – the oral assignment from Marx Toys, Inc. to the plaintiff. Of course, under § 204(a), a transfer of copyright ownership must be in writing or by operation of law. There was a second break… Continue reading

  • Can’t Break Away From Those Chains

    You have the following transactional events: Registering of copyrights for toy action figures with authorship by Louis Marx & Co. Bill of sale of Louis Marx & Co. to The Quaker Oats Company Bill of Sale of Louis Marx & Co. to Dunbee-Combex Change of Name from Dunbee-Combex to Dunbee-Combex-Marx d/b/a Louis Marx & Co.… Continue reading

  • The Reason for a Declaratory Judgment Counterclaim

    Exclusive Rights blogged on a recent decision from the 11th Circuit. It involves the “Rooker-Feldman” doctrine on the availability of review of state court decisions by a federal court. I promptly mentally filed the decision in the category of “I’ll look it up if I ever need it,” but the brief summary of facts by… Continue reading

  • Wild Things

    The IPKat gives us an interesting story of a failed joint authorship theory for a children’s book. The German court held that the illustrations were not a joint work of authorship with the literary work and characters because there was a lack of sufficient interaction between the illustrations and the plot of the story. It’s… Continue reading

  • File Your Annual Report

    IP suits occasionally get sidetracked when there are problems with the corporation’s authority to act, like here. Attacking the authority looks like a quick way out of the suit for the defendant, so worth a try. The Exclusive Rights blog brings us the story of a lawsuit almost foiled by the failure of a corporation… Continue reading

  • Bratz To Remain On Sale For At Least a Year

    The fallout from the Mattel win continues – MGA filed a motion under seal for a stay pending appeal; Mattel filed a motion asking for the appointment of a receiver: Mattel makes this Application on the grounds that MGA has filed, both in this Court and in the Ninth Circuit, stay applications based on MGA’s… Continue reading

  • In Service of the Government

    Wired reports about a prisoner who sued the government for copyright infringement for its sale of desk-blotter calendars he created as part of his assigned work duties while incarcerated. Suits for copyright infringement against the government are controlled by 28 U.S.C. § 1498(b): Hereafter, whenever the copyright in any work protected under the copyright laws… Continue reading

  • Estate of Saunders v Estate of Garcia

    According to the complaint, Merl Saunders and Jerry Garcia performed together as the Merl & Jerry Band. It was a partnership with equal shares. The two created Master Tapes, which were jointly owned but in the Garcia estate’s possession. Jerry Garcia’s estate released the recordings on an album (left) entitled Pure Jerry: Jerry Garcia &… Continue reading

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  • It All Looks So Different In the Snow

    It’s a fairly sure bet that when the government is sued for infringement of intellectual property, the government will win. In Gaylord v. U.S., the Postal Service was accused of infringing the copyright in the statues of soldiers that are part of the Korean War Veterans Memorial, by using them on a stamp. The Court… Continue reading

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