A copyright dispute late last year forced a holiday play to go dark before the Rockefeller Center tree was ever lit. The suit centers around the play Who’s Holiday by Matthew Lombardo. No, the dispute is not over the apparent typo in the play’s name. Rather, it is that the defendant’s play is based on the character Cindy…
Readers of my blog know that I’m generally in favor of enforcing copyright. If you’ve got the goods on someone and those are your rights, you should be entitled to collect for it — or at least stop it. Likewise, if you’ve been called out for infringing, the right thing to do is usually to pay…
To boldly go where no nerds have gone before… In Paramount Pictures Corp. v. Axanar Productions, Inc. the U.S. District Court for Central California was presented with a case of fan fiction gone awry. A small studio called Axanar Productions set out to produce a piece of Star Trek fan fiction centered around an obscure character named Garth…
Ironically, the same week that the president of Mexico declined to meet with the president of a formerly friendly nation because of various perceived (and perhaps actual) insults, the United States Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) granted a decision in favor of a Mexican non-profit association of distilleries. The Consejo Regulador del Tequila was granted…
You might think that the inaccuracy of the following statement is obvious: “If it’s on the internet, it’s free.”‘ Still, many of today’s internet users, including business owners, seem to believe it and use what they download with litigious results. There are at least two lawsuits in the Southern District of New York—Veronina v. Scores Holding Company and Taylor v. 44th…
Big girls may not cry, but the creative team behind the smash Broadway musical Jersey Boys might be doing just that. On November 28, a jury in Nevada federal court found that the musical’s creators were guilty of copyright infringement—to the tune of 10% of the show’s profits. Jersey Boys centers around the life and times of 1960s doo-wop…
A new client came to me admitting that he’d been defrauded hundreds of thousands of dollars. While the most direct route would be to sue the other party now and ask questions later, it’s in my client’s interest to get a result that’s actually payable—not to mention that unnecessary litigation is not a good use…
A recent court decision in Kings County called Della Pietra v. Poly Prep Country Day School has expanded who can bring a cause of action under whistleblower provisions of the New York Not-for-Profit Corporation Law. While the case is significant, and potentially persuasive, it is not a binding precedent. The facts of the case are interesting. Della Pietra…
Sometimes, in the heat of a new project or business opportunity, slowing down to make a written agreement seems boring, unnecessary, and even adversarial. When everything is going well, the parties can feel that reducing it to writing means they don’t trust each other. But an interesting, recent case illustrates exactly how important it is to…
Recently a lawsuit over a prominent band’s name was filed in state court in Virginia. At first glance, the lawsuit has the ingredients required for an intellectual property case eligible for federal jurisdiction. So why is it being argued in state court? The lead plaintiff, Aston “Family Man” Barrett, began playing with Bob Marley and his…