Property, intangible

a blog about ownership of intellectual property rights and its licensing


copyright

  • Bratz Mandamus Denied

    The 9th Circuit, brief and to the point: Petitioners’ motion to file portions of the emergency motion and the petition for writ of mandamus under seal is granted. The motion to exceed the page limitation on the petition is granted. The emergency motion for an order suspending trial is denied. Petitioners have not demonstrated that… Continue reading

  • Bratz Hobby

    Watching the Bratz litigation has become a bit of a hobby for me. Law.com reports that MGA applied for a writ of mandamus with the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, asking it to overturn the district court’s denial of the motion for mistrial that MGA filed when it learned that a juror was… Continue reading

  • Tickler for Licensing IP

    This IP Finance blog post points us to a publication by the UK Intellectual Property Office giving some basics for licensing intellectual property. It looks like a useful handbook to remind us of the various points to remember when doing licensing work. Continue reading

  • Bratz Continues

    No mistrial in Bratz. Trial on damages to continue tomorrow. Continue reading

  • More Bratz

    The Bratz story just keeps getting more interesting. Seems one of the jurors commented that Iranians are “stubborn, rude”, and as “thieves” who have “stolen other persons’ ideas.” The CEO of MGA, the company with the Bratz line of dolls, is Iranian. Juror dismissed, motion for mistrial filed. AP story here. Previous entries on Bratz… Continue reading

  • Sold! Or Just Licensed?

    It’s perhaps a bit off-topic for this blog to post about ownership of tangible property, rather than the ownership of the IP itself. But the disagreement over when an object that contains copyrighted work is sold or merely licensed is heating up. There are three recent district court cases in the 9th Circuit that have… Continue reading

  • Mattel Wins Bratz!

    Following up on a previous post, in an unsurprising outcome the AP is reporting that the jury found that the designer of the Bratz dolls conceived of the idea while employed at Mattel, hence the concept is owned by Mattel. It’s not quite clear from the AP article what exactly Mattel owns, since the article… Continue reading

  • Lassie Speaks!

    Professor Patry‘s primer on the termination provisions of copyright (straightforward to him, convoluted to the rest of us). Don’t miss his “About Me” portrait on this one – Updated August 5, 2008: Here is a link to the decision in Classic Media, Inc. v. Winifred Mewborn that I have posted since it is no longer… Continue reading

  • Works Are Never Made for Hire

    Malibu Textiles, Inc. v. Carol Anderson, Inc. is a good demonstration of the confusion that, almost 20 years after CCNV, still surrounds whether a work is a “work made for hire.” In Malibu, designs for lace were created by an independent party but Malibu filed copyright applications for the lace designs listing ownership as works… Continue reading

  • Ownership of Music in Snow White

    The Los Angeles Intellectual Property Trademark Attorney Blog reports here that there is an ownership dispute over the music in a 1987 live-action version of Snow White. The blog reports: MGM asserts that defendant, Arik Rudich, is an individual now residing in Israel, who composed certain music and/or songs included in the picture, which picture… Continue reading