Amazon v. Pionera, out of the Eastern District of California, is notable not for its legal maneuvering, but rather the elaborate scam that was at the center of the dispute. The plaintiff, Amazon, alleged trademark infringement and cybersquatting against defendant Manoj Goel and his company, Pionera. The defense did not answer the allegations for most…
I was a full-time musician before law school, but Standing on the Horizon is the first album as a band leader (playing tenor sax, soprano sax and bass clarinet) consisting of my own compositions played with four extraordinary, Grammy-nominated and award-winning musicians. In early October 2023, the album was released on Spotify, iTunes, Pandora and…
The Larson v. Perry saga essentially ended with the judge’s denying summary judgment to both sides; essentially, “a pox on both your houses.” The background of this case was famously retold in The New York Times Magazine’s “Who is the Bad Art Friend?” I also wrote about it in “Bad Friends, Inspirations, and Betrayals” in…
Lane Coder Photography v. Hearst Corporation is a copyright case from the Southern District of New York …which lost all its steam shortly after it began. The case was brought by a photographer who was hired to take real estate pictures of the Connecticut home of Paul Simon and Edie Brickell. The purpose was to…
In Nealy v. Warner Chappel Music Inc., a twice-incarcerated plaintiff sued his former manager for licensing his music without authorization — all while the inmate had been serving his first sentence. Argued before the 11th Circuit, this case highlights a circuit split. The sole issue was whether the plaintiff could bring a lawsuit for copyright…
*Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 2 In mid-May, the Supreme Court of the United States decided Andy Warhol Foundation For The Visual Arts, INC. v. Lynn Goldsmith, et al. The Court affirmed a Second Circuit decision, which had reversed a district court decision. For those unfamiliar with the background of this case, we wrote about it…
This case, filed against my client in the Eastern District of Arkansas in the middle of 2019, started with two lamps made to look like they were made of deer antlers. Ultimately, we brought a motion for summary judgment and argued that the plaintiff’s lamp was not sufficiently original to merit copyright protection — because it…
Forum shopping is the concept that some plaintiffs will skip their local court in favor of another jurisdiction that has a track record of ruling favorably in similar cases. In Leong v. Agence France-Presse et al., a plaintiff based in Portugal found reason to bring his suit in New York even though there were perfectly…
UFO Magazine, Inc. v. Showtime Network, Inc. involved a plaintiff’s second attempt to convince the District of Wyoming to hold Showtime liable for infringing the trademark UFO. The work in question was UFO, Showtime’s documentary-style television series by JJ Abrams. UFO Magazine has been publishing since 1998. One of the latest ideas the magazine was…
TTAB rulings are sometimes less exciting than cases we pluck from the federal judiciary — but this one involves Prince and the mark PURPLE RAIN. NPG Records (NPG) and Paisley Park Enterprises (Paisley Park) filed an opposition to the attempt of Bang Energy Drink to register the mark PURPLE RAIN for the sports supplements and…