beneficial owner
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Who Is Not a Beneficial Owner of Copyright
Six years into the case, we’re on to the third decision on ownership in the case of Roberts v. Gordy and have yet to reach the question of infringement. In the first opinion, the district court held that, although there were three registrations for the infringed work, none was effective and so the court dismissed […] Continue reading
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Not Enough Ownership
Defendant Lingfu Zhang was accused of downloading the movie Fathers & Daughters via BitTorrent. Plaintiff Fathers & Daughters Nevada, LLC was the author and registered copyright owner of the film and sued Zhang. But copyright ownership is tricky. F&D had a sales agency agreement with non-party Goldenrod Holdings and its sub-sales agent Voltage Pictures.1 Goldenrod […] Continue reading
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Three Registrations, One Work: The Answer
I previously posted about a copyright infringement suit with three registrations for the same work, brought by William L. Roberts aka Rick Ross, and Andrew Harr and Jermaine Jackson aka The Runners, alleging infringement of a musical work titled “Hustlin’.” I asked what happens on a motion for summary judgment on the questions “was the […] Continue reading
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Three Registrations, One Work: A Quiz
(Explicit lyrics) We have a copyright infringement lawsuit filed by William L. Roberts, aka Rick Ross, and Andrew Harr and Jermaine Jackson, aka The Runners, alleging infringement of a musical work titled “Hustlin’.” In 2001, Roberts signed a recording agreement with Slip ‘N Slide Records (SNS), a name used interchangeably in agreements with First-N-Gold Publishing, […] Continue reading
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Four Agreements, No Standing
Today’s post is another of the many currently-pending lawsuits by photographers against textbook publishers (recursive link) for under-reporting the number of copies of books that were published. In this case, the defendant publisher Pearson Education challenged the standing of plaintiff Viesti Associates, Inc., a stock photo agency. Viesti had four different agreements with photographers, two […] Continue reading
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Someone Else Can Have Registered the Copyright
The nice thing about appeals court decisions is that they’re often short. The court generally doesn’t have to plow through a kitchen sink of claims and instead gives us a brief education on a fine point of the law. In Smith v. Casey from the 11th Circuit, the issue is exactly who has to have […] Continue reading
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Beneficial Owners Don’t Have Standing
The Eastern District of Virginia recently held that a beneficial owner of a patent has standing to bring an infringement claim. It appears the Federal Circuit disagrees. The ‘451 patent was invented by Mayer Michael Lebowitz and James Seivert, both deceased. The Lebowitz Trust now owns Mr. Lebowitz’s ownership interest in the patent. The Trust […] Continue reading
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Does a “Beneficial” Patent Owner Have Standing?
Often there is the concept of “beneficial owner” in intellectual property-related transactional documents. My limited experience is that the concept is useful for tax purposes, i.e., one can have legal title in one company and “beneficial” ownership in another in order to create a favorable tax position. This presents some interpretive problems in the United […] Continue reading
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