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Mealey's Copyright

  • September 12, 2025

    Google AI Copyright Case Proceeds As Court Preps For AI Metadata Discovery Issue

    SAN JOSE, Calif. — A federal judge on Sept. 11 dismissed with prejudice claims involving certain Google LLC artificial intelligence models and vicarious liability claims against parent company Alphabet Inc. but otherwise denied a motion to dismiss.  Earlier a magistrate judge said she would not take up artificial intelligence copyright plaintiffs’ request to appoint a special master but would hold a hearing on a motion to compel after plaintiffs complained that discovery lacked metadata critical to identifying copyrighted material.  Google LLC filed its response to the motion on Sept. 10, saying it had “gone above and beyond” what was required of it.

  • September 12, 2025

    2nd Circuit: Labels Waived Inducement Argument, But Opinion Slightly Amended

    NEW YORK — A Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel partly granted a group of record labels’ petition to reconsider its finding that the labels failed to show that video sharing website Vimeo Inc. had “red flag” knowledge that user-uploaded videos contained copyrighted musical recordings, agreeing to remove a footnote musing on whether the labels had preserved for U.S. Supreme Court review arguments that Vimeo could not be entitled to the safe harbor defined in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

  • September 11, 2025

    Split Panel Enjoins Interference With Copyright Register’s Job Pending Appeal

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A divided District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Sept. 10 enjoined various federal government parties from interfering with Shira Perlmutter’s service as the register of copyrights and director of the U.S. Copyright Office pending appeal; Perlmutter appealed a trial court’s denial of her motion for preliminary injunction in a case challenging her purported firing in May by President Donald J. Trump.

  • September 11, 2025

    Designers, Shein Settle Claims Retailer Used AI To Misappropriate Works

    LOS ANGELES — A federal judge in California dismissed a case after eight independent designers reported having reached a binding settlement with Shein Distribution Corp. and related entities over claims that the retailer used an artificial intelligence algorithm to identify popular styles and then misappropriated copyrighted works.

  • September 11, 2025

    No Special Master, But Judge Will Hear AI Metadata Discovery Issue

    SAN JOSE, Calif. — A federal judge said she would not take up artificial intelligence copyright plaintiffs’ request to appoint a special master but would hold a hearing on a motion to compel after plaintiffs complained that discovery lacked metadata critical to identifying copyrighted material.  Google LLC filed its response to the motion on Sept. 10, saying it had “gone above and beyond” what was required of it.

  • September 11, 2025

    8th Circuit: No Errors In Family Name HVAC Trademark Jury Instructions

    ST. LOUIS — An Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said it found no error in a Missouri federal judge’s grant of summary judgment on copyright claims or jury instructions on trademark claims in a dispute over the use of a family name between two heating and air conditioning entities after a founding member of the family business started a new company, affirming findings adverse to the plaintiff-appellant entity.

  • September 10, 2025

    Superman, Tweety Bird Owners Sue Midjourney Over AI’s Outputs

    LOS ANGELES — Midjourney Inc. knowingly trains its artificial intelligence on copyrighted works and allows users to generate unauthorized reproductions despite having the technological prowess to prevent it, the owners of characters such as Batman, Superman, Bugs Bunny and Tweety Bird allege in a lawsuit filed in California federal court.

  • September 10, 2025

    Judge Questions Completeness Of $1.5B Settlement Between Authors, Anthropic

    SAN FRANCISCO — The federal judge overseeing the artificial intelligence copyright class action against Anthropic PBC questioned the completeness of the $1.5 billion settlement, expressing concerns that important questions remained that could not be answered in the timeframe proposed by the parties.  The judge postponed preliminary approval of the agreement until the parties could submit clarifying information.

  • September 08, 2025

    Authors, Anthropic Reach $1.5 Billion Settlement Of AI Copyright Class Action

    SAN FRANCISCO — Anthropic PBC has agreed to pay no less than $1.5 billion to resolve claims it improperly pirated nearly half a million books while obtaining data for use in training its Claude artificial intelligence, a class of authors says in a Sept. 5 motion for preliminary settlement approval.

  • September 08, 2025

    ISPs, U.S. To High Court: ISP Infringement Liability Ruling Could Stifle Web

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A coalition of trade organizations representing internet service providers (ISPs) tells the U.S. Supreme Court in a Sept. 5 amicus curiae brief that the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ finding that an ISP was liable for contributory infringement for piracy actions from internet users could “undermine decades of progress in getting Americans everywhere connected to the Internet.”

  • September 05, 2025

    11th Circuit: ‘Shotgun’ Copyright Case Against Sub Shot Rightfully Tossed

    ATLANTA — A Florida federal judge’s decision to dismiss a pro se plaintiff-appellant’s copyright infringement claims against the commercial entity behind the Firehouse Subs restaurant chain was affirmed by a panel in the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, which found no abuse of discretion in the judge’s finding that the complaint was an impermissible shotgun pleading.

  • September 05, 2025

    Judge: Tech Company Established Ownership In IP Fight With TikTok Before Trial

    SAN FRANCISCO — In a pair of orders, a California federal judge held that a China-based company adequately established that it owns the asserted copyrights and trade secrets in a “heavily litigated” dispute with TikTok Inc. and affiliated entities, including source code from an earlier video-editing app that preceded the plaintiff entity’s app.  The judge found that there is no triable issue of fact as to the ownership of the code.

  • September 03, 2025

    Design Firm Tells High Court 8th Circuit Got Floor Plan Fair Use Case Wrong

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A design company is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to take up its petition for a writ of certiorari, arguing that the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ finding that two real estate agents’ use of floor plans in home resale listings was a noninfringing fair use created a doctrinal “Catch-22” that makes owners of copyrights of architectural details unable to enforce their rights.

  • September 02, 2025

    9th Circuit Resurrects Copyright Dispute Over Catholic Liturgical Songs

    SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel revived a copyright infringement dispute between two writers of Catholic liturgical music, partly reversing an Oregon federal judge’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the defendant-appellee songwriter and her publisher because questions of fact remain as to whether the defendant songwriter had access to the plaintiff-appellant’s hymn.

  • August 29, 2025

    Point Of Robots.txt Focus In Publishers’ AI Copyright Suit

    WILMINGTON, Del. — Whether the robots.txt file instructions barring bot scraping of websites constitutes a binding technical measure or simply directions that can be ignored came before a federal judge in New York, as OpenAI Inc. entities and a publisher of 45 media brands brief a motion to dismiss.

  • August 27, 2025

    Federal Judge: Contract Counterclaims In Copyright Fight Barred By State Case

    NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A federal judge in Connecticut granted a plaintiff design company’s motion for summary judgment on all of a defendant technology company’s contract-related counterclaims under the doctrine of res judicata, but the judge said there were unresolved factual disputes regarding the design company’s copyright infringement claims that stem from a dispute over a website it was commissioned by the technology company to make.

  • August 27, 2025

    Copyright Suit Parties Debate Relevance Of Newspaper’s AI Use

    NEW YORK — The New York Times Co., Microsoft Corp. and OpenAI entities sparred over whether the newspaper’s use of an in-house ChatGPT tool could constitute evidence of fair use defense in a copyright case or whether such use is noninfringing and not relevant to the claims in the New York federal court case.

  • August 27, 2025

    Anthropic, Authors Reach Agreement On AI Copyright Claims

    SAN FRANCISCO — Anthropic PBC and authors told a federal judge in California on Aug. 26 that they reached an agreement in principle resolving claims that the company pirated copyrighted works during the process of obtaining material to train its artificial intelligence.

  • August 26, 2025

    Miss. Federal Judge: Experts On Damages From Alleged Copyright Infringement Out

    JACKSON, Miss. — A Mississippi judge found that testimony from two experts retained by a local newspaper publisher is inadmissible under Federal Rule of Evidence 702 and Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc., granting separate motions filed by a digital news company accused of violating copyright laws.

  • August 20, 2025

    COMMENTARY: A Survey Of State Laws Regulating Third-Party Litigation Funding

    By Mark A. Behrens and Christopher E. Appel

  • August 25, 2025

    1st Circuit Affirms Latest Dismissal Of Artist’s Infringement Row With Fair

    BOSTON — Considering a second appeal from a graphic artist who accused the company behind an annual fair of infringing her photorealistic Trappist monastery installation at the fair by sharing videos of it, a First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel this time affirmed a Massachusetts federal judge’s decision to dismiss the complaint, agreeing that it was untimely filed.

  • August 22, 2025

    Judge: News Outlet’s Copyright Suit Against AI Search Engine Proceeds

    NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York found sufficient contacts between Perplexity AI Inc. and the state for jurisdiction, even if California would qualify as an equally viable jurisdiction, and declined to dismiss infringement claims involving 10 works that Dow Jones copyrighted after the filing of the suit.

  • August 21, 2025

    9th Circuit: Supertramp’s Royalty Agreement Not Terminable, Judgment Reversed

    SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge erred in finding that a publishing agreement related to the music from the band Supertramp was terminable, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held Aug. 20; the panel remanded for a judgment in favor of the plaintiff former band members who claimed that the band’s main songwriters suddenly stopped paying royalties in 2018.

  • August 21, 2025

    Federal Judge Denies Injunction Pending Appeal In Fired Register Of Copyrights’ Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the District of Columbia on Aug. 20 denied a motion for an injunction pending appeal filed by the register of copyrights and director of the U.S. Copyright Office who sued after she was purportedly fired in May by President Donald J. Trump and was denied a preliminary injunction in her case; a similar motion remains pending before the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

  • August 21, 2025

    Judge Sees No Similarity Between Novels And Netflix Film, Tosses IP Claims

    ORLANDO, Fla. — A federal judge in Florida dismissed with prejudice copyright, false advertising and related claims brought by a novelist against Netflix Inc. and related entities, finding that the novelist failed to show that the 2021 Netflix disaster comedy “Don’t Look Up” copied any protectible element of his books.