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Mealey's Copyright

  • June 30, 2025

    High Court To Consider ISPs’ Liability For Users’ Infringement

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on June 30 granted a petition for a writ of certiorari from an internet service provider (ISP) that told the court that the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals was wrong to find it liable for contributory infringement for the actions of internet users who infringed on copyrights held by a group of record labels and music publishers; the high court also denied the labels’ cross-petition challenging the Fourth Circuit’s decision to vacate a $1 billion award in their favor for vicarious infringement.

  • June 27, 2025

    Beastie Boys, Chili’s Stipulate To Dismissal Of ‘Sabotage’ Copyright Claims

    NEW YORK — The Beastie Boys and the parent company of Chili’s restaurants on June 26 stipulated to the dismissal of the hip-hop group’s copyright infringement suit against the casual dining chain alleging that it inappropriately used the 1994 single “Sabotage” in a commercial without permission; a New York federal judge signed off on the stipulation on the same day.

  • June 25, 2025

    9th Circuit Won’t Rethink Revival Of Sam Smith Song Copyright Suit

    SAN FRANCISCO — Despite arguments from Sam Smith and others that a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel’s revival of a copyright suit involving the song “Dancing With a Stranger” conflicts with earlier Ninth Circuit copyright precedent, the appeals court denied their petition for rehearing, leaving in place a per curiam opinion that a jury could reasonably see substantial similarity between the song’s chorus and that of a song written by the plaintiffs-appellants.

  • June 24, 2025

    9th Circuit Revives Antitrust Counterclaims In Real Estate IP Dispute

    SAN FRANCISCO —A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on June 23 found that a California federal judge wrongly dismissed antitrust counterclaims brought by a real estate entity in response to copyright claims filed by another real estate entity that says it misappropriated photos; the panel held that the defendant-appellant adequately established that the plaintiff-appellee engaged in anticompetitive practices for the purposes of surviving dismissal.

  • June 23, 2025

    VPPA, UCL Claims Against Online Video Retailers Must Be Arbitrated, Judge Rules

    SAN FRANCISCO — Determining that attempts to settle and dismiss putative class claims against online retailers under the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) and California’s unfair competition law (UCL) did not contradict an intent to arbitrate under a totality of the circumstances, a California federal judge granted the defendants’ motion to stay and to compel arbitration.

  • June 20, 2025

    Split 9th Circuit Says Walmart Infringed On Artist’s Lamps, Not Photos

    SAN FRANCISCO — A partially split Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel issued a mixed opinion in a copyright dispute between an artist and Walmart Inc., with the majority holding that the company infringed on the artist’s copyrighted lamp designs by selling imitations but reversing a California federal jury’s finding that Walmart infringed on the artist’s copyrighted photos of the lamps.

  • June 20, 2025

    3rd Circuit Accepts Appeal In Legal Summary AI Copyright Suit

    PHILADELPHIA — The Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals granted a petition for interlocutory appeal of a Delaware federal judge’s ruling that neither originality nor fair use protected a company from copyright claims stemming from its use of a competitor’s summaries of legal documents in the training of an artificial intelligence product designed to produce similar results.

  • June 17, 2025

    High Court Won’t Hear ‘Let’s Get It On’ Copyright Claims Against Sheeran

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on June 16 passed on a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by a partial owner of the rights to Marvin Gaye’s song “Let’s Get It On,” leaving in place the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ affirmation of a New York federal judge’s finding that pop singer Ed Sheeran did not infringe on the Gaye classic.

  • June 16, 2025

    9th Circuit Revives IP Dispute Over 1980s Home Computer System

    SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled that a Washington federal judge erred in finding that a software company lacked standing to bring a copyright infringement claim, partially reviving an intellectual property dispute involving a 1980s brand of computer that has had what the judge in a March 2023 grant of summary judgment called “a tortured history.”

  • June 16, 2025

    Justices Reject Designer’s Copyright Discovery Rule Challenge In Photo Use Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on June 16 rejected a design company’s petition for a writ of certiorari, leaving in place a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decision to vacate a New York federal judge’s finding that copyright claims against the company were time-barred.

  • June 13, 2025

    Judge Says New York Times’ AI Use, Licensing, Irrelevant To Copyright Suit

    NEW YORK — The New York Times Co. and other news entities’ use of artificial intelligence, stances on the technology and licensing deals are not relevant to their copyright claims against Microsoft Corp. and others over the alleged use of news articles used to train AI, a federal judge in New York said in turning away objections to a magistrate judge’s ruling on a motion to compel.

  • June 12, 2025

    Movie, TV Titans Claim Midjourney AI Is ‘Bootlegging Business Model’

    LOS ANGELES — Disney Enterprises Inc., Marvel Characters Inc. and other movie companies behind some of the most well-known movies and television shows of all time sued artificial intelligence company Midjourney Inc. on June 11, calling the company “the quintessential copyright free-rider and a bottomless pit of plagiarism.”

  • June 06, 2025

    Copyright Claims About Spanish-Language Religious Films Time-Barred, Judge Rules

    LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge dismissed with prejudice a Mexican motion picture company’s copyright infringement complaint involving multiple Spanish-language films telling stories from the life of Jesus Christ, agreeing with the defendant film distributors that the plaintiff company’s claims are time-barred by the Copyright Act’s statute of limitations.

  • June 04, 2025

    2nd Circuit Partly Revives Contract Dispute Over Musical Composition Payments

    NEW YORK — In a June 3 summary order, a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel partly revived a music publisher’s complaint against a South Korean musician, holding that a January 2014 licensing agreement did not make changes to the division of copyright ownership interests of musical compositions.

  • June 03, 2025

    Judge Orders Pesticide Company To Provide More Answers In IP Discovery Dispute

    COLUMBUS, Ohio — An Ohio federal magistrate judge on June 2 ordered plaintiff pesticide manufacturers identify with specificity the protectible elements of two copyrights they say were infringed by a defendant pesticide manufacturer, granting the defendant company’s motion to compel discovery in which the company accused the plaintiff entities of responding to questions about the copyrights with “evasive” answers.

  • June 02, 2025

    Nurse Testing Material Firm Opposes AI Copyright, Trademark Dismissal

    LOS ANGELES — A nursing test preparation company opposing summary judgment tells a federal judge in California that copyright covers its presentation of factual data and that the sale and use of its materials to train artificial intelligence constitutes infringement.

  • May 30, 2025

    9th Circuit: Car Chase Film’s Mustang Not A Copyrightable Character

    PASADENA, Calif. — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel largely affirmed a California federal judge’s rejection of copyright infringement claims brought by the owners of the rights related to the film “Gone in 60 Seconds” regarding a Ford Mustang known as “Eleanor,” holding that the car is not a copyrightable character under a Ninth Circuit test.

  • May 29, 2025

    8th Circuit Reverses Summary Judgment In Source Code Copyright Row

    ST. LOUIS — An Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on May 28 ruled that a Missouri federal judge wrongly dismissed a plaintiff software company’s copyright infringement complaint for basing its claims on a faulty submission to the U.S. Copyright Office, holding that there is a dispute as to whether the company was aware of the inaccuracy.

  • May 29, 2025

    Judge Details Stay, Interlocutory Appeal In Legal Summary AI Copyright Suit

    WILMINGTON, Del. — Because sufficient questions exist about the originality of Thomson Reuters Enterprise Centre GMBH headnotes and whether a competitor’s use of them to train artificial intelligence constitutes fair use, an interlocutory appeal and stay of the case will advance the litigation and potentially foreclose the need for a costly trial, a federal judge in Delaware said while reiterating that he believes his rulings properly allowed the case to proceed to trial.

  • May 29, 2025

    Register Of Copyrights Denied TRO In Suit Challenging ‘Purported’ Removal

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO) filed by the register of copyrights and director of the U.S. Copyright Office seeking to enjoin her removal was denied from the bench by a federal judge in the District of Columbia on May 28.

  • May 29, 2025

    OpenAI: No Reason To Reconsider Denying Leave To Amend For News Outlets

    NEW YORK — News outlets’ motion for reconsideration of a ruling denying them leave to amend their artificial intelligence copyright suit is procedurally improper, and because the outlets never demonstrated that ChatGPT produced their copyrighted works, the motion lacks any foundation, OpenAI Inc. entities told a federal judge in New York in an opposition brief.

  • May 27, 2025

    Magistrate Judge Partially Strikes Expert After AI Mangles Study Citation

    SAN JOSE, Calif. — A federal magistrate judge in California on May 23 struck a portion of an expert report offered by Anthropic PBC containing errors introduced by its Claude artificial intelligence and ordered the company to produce 5 million prompt-output pairs evenly divided between pre-suit and post-suit periods.

  • May 27, 2025

    OpenAI: ChatGPT Output Preservation ‘Unprecedented’ Privacy Violation

    SAN FRANCISCO — Requiring preservation of ChatGPT outputs users wish to delete simply so news plaintiffs in a copyright suit can secure a litigation advantage constitutes an “unprecedented” privacy violation and sets a “dangerous precedent,” OpenAI entities tell a federal court in California in a May 23 supplemental opposition after a magistrate judge ordered the preservation and denied a motion for reconsideration.

  • May 27, 2025

    Register Of Copyrights Sues, Seeks TRO After ‘Purported’ Removal By Trump

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The register of copyrights and director of the U.S. Copyright Office filed a complaint and a motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO) in a federal court in the District of Columbia challenging her “purported” removal by President Donald J. Trump “without any authorization from Congress or advice and consent from the Senate.”

  • May 22, 2025

    Kanye West Ordered To Supply Requested Discovery, Pay Fees In Copyright Fight

    LOS ANGELES — Kanye West and associated entities must turn over evidence in a copyright infringement suit claiming the rapper included unapproved music samples in two tracks on his album “Donda,” a federal judge in California ruled; the judge held that West and the related entities were wrong to argue that they were not in possession of any responsive documents.