In Re Google Generative AI Copyright Litigation addresses a class action of authors and visual artists against Google for direct copyright infringement, and its parent company, Alphabet, for vicarious infringement. This particular case stands out because the plaintiffs claim that copyright infringement occurred when the rightsholders’ works were copied into generative AI models, not that…
Trader Joe’s Company v. Trader Joe’s United is a trademark dispute wrapped in a labor relations case — or the other way around. A three-judge panel at the Ninth Circuit found the latter to be true, reversing the Central District of California’s deference to the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) over trademark infringement claims. Trader…
One of my mentors at the first law firm where I worked said, “You’re not a grownup until you’ve lost one you should have won, and you’ve won one that you should have lost.” In CareDX Inc. v. Natera, Inc.,plaintiff biomedical company CareDx seems to have done both, first in the District of Delaware and…
A muralist’s claim of copyright infringement had several false starts, a change of venue, and a stinging defeat on appeal – all of which could have been prevented.
A subpoena enforcement action in the Ninth Circuit concerned the movie studio Capstone Pictures’ DMCA claim against internet service provider Cox Communications. Capstone alleged that Cox violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) by not suspending the accounts of users who were downloading and sharing its movie Fall. At issue was section 512 (“512”) of…
Apple v. ZeroDensity was a civil action in the Eastern District of Virginia in which Apple appealed a TTAB ruling. ZeroDensity, which had applied to register the marks REALITYHUB, REALITY ENGINE, and REALITY KEYER, filed an opposition to two of Apple’s trademark applications, REALITY COMPOSER and REALITY CONVERTER. Alleging that Apple’s marks were merely descriptive,…
“Reprehensible” is a strong word, but that’s how a state court described the conduct of Phillips 66 in a trade secret case brought by the much smaller Propel Fuels. Propel Fuels, Inc. v. Phillips 66 Company was a case in the Superior Court of California that arose after a long courtship between the two companies…
Lorente-Garcia v. Giraldo-Navarro et al. was a case in the Southern District of Florida concerning two songs: 1998’s “Algo Diferente,” and 2021’s “Don’t Be Shy.” The composer of the earlier song filed suit against the singers of the new song, alleging copyright infringement. Unfortunately, plaintiff relied on a so-called “expert witness” who had been a…
Di Reed v. Marshall et al. was a case that originated in the Southern District of Texas and made its way to the Fifth Circuit. The parties consisted of members of a vocal group known as Jade that was popular in the nineties, along with an additional singer being named as a defendant. Jade in…
Bartz et al. v. Anthropic PBC is an ongoing case in the Northern District of California that is of interest because it contains a small win for creators, at least in the context of this case. In another Anthropic case from the same district, a different judge dealt a more definitive blow to plaintiffs suing…