Parties, events, and weddings are the lifeblood of working musicians. It’s money in the hand, as opposed to what might come out of royalties down the road. This incentive is what led a client to reach out to me recently; he had a great gig booked, was looking forward to it…and then the contract came. The event…
A lawsuit was recently filed in the Southern District of New York that isn’t exactly fascinating for its merits, but it does speak to the perennial issue of intellectual property rights: the erroneous but popular idea, even among commercial users, that “if it’s on the internet, it’s free to use!” In Bigelow v. Breitbart News Network,…
Anyone who has had the pleasure of riding outbound LIRR trains from New York’s Penn Station over the years probably remembers a memorable sight: the 5Pointz graffiti artist showcase emblazoned on the exterior walls of some aging factory buildings in Long Island City. Having reached at least a tacit deal with the owner of the…
An interesting case was recently decided in the Southern District of New York called Charisma World Wide Corp v. Avon Products. It appears to be a case over intellectual property rights, but decided without relying on intellectual property law. The case was over a technical analysis as to whether the court had subject matter jurisdiction to even listen…
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…