copyright
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Implied, Irrevocable, Nonexclusive, Royalty-Free License to Retain, Use and Modify
The IP Law Blog digests an interesting software licensing case. An independent contractor software developer worked for a number of years writing applications for his client. When the relationship ended the copyright (and trade secret) lawsuit ensued. The Ninth Circuit found that the client had not just a license to use the software, but an… Continue reading
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Pay Me Now or Pay Me Later
Tacori Enterprises v. Rego Manufacturing is such a meaty case that I’ll do separate posts on the various trademark and copyright issues in the case. This post is a lesson on how not to assign ownership of a copyright and register it – the plaintiff spent tens of thousands of dollars defending attacks on the… Continue reading
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No Payments Should Have Been a Tip Off –
A quick lesson in bringing a claim for copyright ownership – there’s a three year statute of limitations from when you knew or had reason to know about the disputed ownership, and a registration that covers your work but doesn’t name you as an author, a copyright notice not listing you, and no royalty income,… Continue reading
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Love Letters
Martin Luther King’s heirs are arguing over the ownership of the love letters Dr. King wrote to his wife Coretta. The King couple’s daughter, Bernice, is refusing to turn them over to her brother, Dexter, for use in a book to be published by Penguin Group. Penguin has threatened to pull out of the book… Continue reading
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Mattel Moves for Everything
A little behind in my reporting on the Bratz case. New reports are that Mattel filed a motion for a permanent injunction to enjoin MGA from making and selling Bratz dolls and from using the Bratz name and trademarks. There are a slew of motions. First for declaratory judgment: [T]he Court should now issue a declaratory judgment pursuant… Continue reading
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Bratz Post-Verdict Spinning
You may have seen that there’s some dispute in the Mattel v. MGA case over the amount of the verdict. Mattel claims it’s $100 million and MGA claims it’s either $20 million or $40 million, saying some of the awards in the verdict form are duplicative. I put the verdict form here, so you can… Continue reading
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Bratz Verdict!
The verdict is in, but not without some confusion. Reuters reported a verdict for Mattel for $100 million, AP says $40 million. I suppose either way it’s a lot of money. Here’s the horse’s mouth, see for yourself. For all parties combined it could be $100,031,500, plus a little interest: $66,031,500 from MGA, $33,000,000 from… Continue reading
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Steamboat Willie as Public Domain
The LA Times recently ran a story about whether some early “Steamboat Willie” cartoons are still protected by copyright. It’s not new news; in 2003, inspired by an internet article, Douglas Hedenkamp wrote a law review article on the subject and concluded they are not. But an entertaining article for both the gist of the… Continue reading
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Hint from the Bratz Jury
Reuters is reporting that the Mattel v. MGA Entertainment jurors asked “Can we find that the first generation dolls violate copyright but the second generation do not?” Continue reading
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Penguin to Continue Publishing Steinbeck
In the past I could have just linked to William Patry’s blog for a case like this, but unfortunately no more. We’ll just have to soldier on and do our best to understand the intricacies of termination rights in copyright law without the benefit of his knowledge and insight. A recently published termination case, Penguin… Continue reading
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