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Mealey's Copyright

  • September 05, 2025

    11th Circuit: ‘Shotgun’ Copyright Case Against Sub Shot Rightfully Tossed

    ATLANTA — A Florida federal judge’s decision to dismiss a pro se plaintiff-appellant’s copyright infringement claims against the commercial entity behind the Firehouse Subs restaurant chain was affirmed by a panel in the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, which found no abuse of discretion in the judge’s finding that the complaint was an impermissible shotgun pleading.

  • September 05, 2025

    Judge: Tech Company Established Ownership In IP Fight With TikTok Before Trial

    SAN FRANCISCO — In a pair of orders, a California federal judge held that a China-based company adequately established that it owns the asserted copyrights and trade secrets in a “heavily litigated” dispute with TikTok Inc. and affiliated entities, including source code from an earlier video-editing app that preceded the plaintiff entity’s app.  The judge found that there is no triable issue of fact as to the ownership of the code.

  • September 03, 2025

    Design Firm Tells High Court 8th Circuit Got Floor Plan Fair Use Case Wrong

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A design company is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to take up its petition for a writ of certiorari, arguing that the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ finding that two real estate agents’ use of floor plans in home resale listings was a noninfringing fair use created a doctrinal “Catch-22” that makes owners of copyrights of architectural details unable to enforce their rights.

  • September 02, 2025

    9th Circuit Resurrects Copyright Dispute Over Catholic Liturgical Songs

    SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel revived a copyright infringement dispute between two writers of Catholic liturgical music, partly reversing an Oregon federal judge’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the defendant-appellee songwriter and her publisher because questions of fact remain as to whether the defendant songwriter had access to the plaintiff-appellant’s hymn.

  • August 29, 2025

    Point Of Robots.txt Focus In Publishers’ AI Copyright Suit

    WILMINGTON, Del. — Whether the robots.txt file instructions barring bot scraping of websites constitutes a binding technical measure or simply directions that can be ignored came before a federal judge in New York, as OpenAI Inc. entities and a publisher of 45 media brands brief a motion to dismiss.

  • August 27, 2025

    Federal Judge: Contract Counterclaims In Copyright Fight Barred By State Case

    NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A federal judge in Connecticut granted a plaintiff design company’s motion for summary judgment on all of a defendant technology company’s contract-related counterclaims under the doctrine of res judicata, but the judge said there were unresolved factual disputes regarding the design company’s copyright infringement claims that stem from a dispute over a website it was commissioned by the technology company to make.

  • August 27, 2025

    Copyright Suit Parties Debate Relevance Of Newspaper’s AI Use

    NEW YORK — The New York Times Co., Microsoft Corp. and OpenAI entities sparred over whether the newspaper’s use of an in-house ChatGPT tool could constitute evidence of fair use defense in a copyright case or whether such use is noninfringing and not relevant to the claims in the New York federal court case.

  • August 27, 2025

    Anthropic, Authors Reach Agreement On AI Copyright Claims

    SAN FRANCISCO — Anthropic PBC and authors told a federal judge in California on Aug. 26 that they reached an agreement in principle resolving claims that the company pirated copyrighted works during the process of obtaining material to train its artificial intelligence.

  • August 26, 2025

    Miss. Federal Judge: Experts On Damages From Alleged Copyright Infringement Out

    JACKSON, Miss. — A Mississippi judge found that testimony from two experts retained by a local newspaper publisher is inadmissible under Federal Rule of Evidence 702 and Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc., granting separate motions filed by a digital news company accused of violating copyright laws.

  • August 20, 2025

    COMMENTARY: A Survey Of State Laws Regulating Third-Party Litigation Funding

    By Mark A. Behrens and Christopher E. Appel

  • August 25, 2025

    1st Circuit Affirms Latest Dismissal Of Artist’s Infringement Row With Fair

    BOSTON — Considering a second appeal from a graphic artist who accused the company behind an annual fair of infringing her photorealistic Trappist monastery installation at the fair by sharing videos of it, a First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel this time affirmed a Massachusetts federal judge’s decision to dismiss the complaint, agreeing that it was untimely filed.

  • August 22, 2025

    Judge: News Outlet’s Copyright Suit Against AI Search Engine Proceeds

    NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York found sufficient contacts between Perplexity AI Inc. and the state for jurisdiction, even if California would qualify as an equally viable jurisdiction, and declined to dismiss infringement claims involving 10 works that Dow Jones copyrighted after the filing of the suit.

  • August 21, 2025

    9th Circuit: Supertramp’s Royalty Agreement Not Terminable, Judgment Reversed

    SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge erred in finding that a publishing agreement related to the music from the band Supertramp was terminable, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held Aug. 20; the panel remanded for a judgment in favor of the plaintiff former band members who claimed that the band’s main songwriters suddenly stopped paying royalties in 2018.

  • August 21, 2025

    Federal Judge Denies Injunction Pending Appeal In Fired Register Of Copyrights’ Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the District of Columbia on Aug. 20 denied a motion for an injunction pending appeal filed by the register of copyrights and director of the U.S. Copyright Office who sued after she was purportedly fired in May by President Donald J. Trump and was denied a preliminary injunction in her case; a similar motion remains pending before the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

  • August 21, 2025

    Judge Sees No Similarity Between Novels And Netflix Film, Tosses IP Claims

    ORLANDO, Fla. — A federal judge in Florida dismissed with prejudice copyright, false advertising and related claims brought by a novelist against Netflix Inc. and related entities, finding that the novelist failed to show that the 2021 Netflix disaster comedy “Don’t Look Up” copied any protectible element of his books.

  • August 20, 2025

    No Fees For Publisher That Overcame Copyright Judgment Before 5th Circuit

    AUSTIN, Texas — Adopting a federal magistrate judge’s report and recommendation, a Texas federal judge denied attorney fees to a publishing company that saw the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals vacate a summary judgment of copyright infringement against it after a panel held that the Canadian civil codes it was accused of illegally copying were effectively uncopyrightable “law” in the country.

  • August 18, 2025

    9th Circuit Affirms Quashing Of Subpoena For ISP Customers In Piracy Row

    SAN FRANCISCO — On a matter of first impression, Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held Aug. 15 that an internet service provider (ISP) acting only as a “conduit” for the infringement of copyrighted materials cannot be forced by a clerk-issued subpoena to provide the identities of subscribers who used torrenting software under a section of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

  • August 18, 2025

    Class Responds To Anthropic, Amici’s Attempt At Immediate Appeal

    SAN FRANCISCO — A class of copyright holders told the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in opposition to artificial intelligence company Anthropic PBC’s petition for an immediate appeal of a class certification ruling that summary judgment in the case left only allegations that Anthropic PBC pirated and retained works en masse and that any claim that a verdict would be a death knell for the company is undercut by an agreement to cap the appellate bond at $5 billion.

  • August 15, 2025

    Getty Images Dismisses AI Copyright Suit With Intent To Refile In California

    WILMINGTON, Del. — Getty Images (US) Inc. on Aug. 14 notified a federal judge in Delaware that it was seeking voluntary dismissal of its artificial intelligence copyright suit without prejudice so that it may refile the action in a California federal court where Stability AI Ltd. argued the case properly belonged.

  • August 15, 2025

    2nd Circuit Affirms Co-Ownership Of ‘Zioness’ Mark, Vacates Fee Denial

    NEW YORK — A panel in the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a federal jury’s finding that two pro-Zionist advocacy groups were the co-owners of the trademark “Zioness,” holding that sufficient evidence supported a finding that there was overlap of use of the mark before its registration.

  • August 13, 2025

    Anthropic, Amici Ask 9th Circuit For Review Of Class, Fair Use Rulings

    SAN FRANCISCO — A ruling denying summary judgment on claims that Anthropic PBC pirated and kept copyrighted works and a second one certifying a class of potentially impacted copyright holders is replete with individuality issues and notice manageability problems and the rushed class ruling prematurely forces the company to grapple with the possibility of billions of dollars in business-ruining damages, the company and various amici curiae tell a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel in seeking immediate appeal.

  • August 12, 2025

    Judge Won’t Stay AI Case While Anthropic Appeals Class Cert, Fair Use Rulings

    SAN FRANCISCO — Any appeal by Anthropic PBC of a ruling rejecting fair use defenses for pirating copyrighted works or granting class certification should involve a full record, and to the extent going to trial financially threatens the artificial intelligence company, that reality would be the outcome of its own conduct, a federal judge in California said Aug. 11 in declining to stay the case pending appeal.

  • August 11, 2025

    Split 5th Circuit Affirms Fee Denial To Game Makers In Wrestler’s Copyright Suit

    NEW ORLEANS — A split Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel disagreed on whether a retired professional wrestler’s copyright infringement suit against several video game companies was objectively unreasonable, with the majority ultimately determining that a Texas federal judge did not abuse discretion in denying attorney fees to the gaming entities after a jury found no infringement of the wrestler’s comic book character by the game makers.

  • August 08, 2025

    Kanye West Says More Sanctions Not Needed In Copyright Infringement Suit

    LOS ANGELES — Kanye West tells a California federal court that further sanctions are unnecessary in a copyright infringement suit involving accusations he lifted samples for songs on his album “Donda,” disagreeing with an artist revenue entity’s assertion that a deposition shows that West and business entities associated with him had made false statements about discovery to the court.

  • August 07, 2025

    Judge Says Plaintiff Entity Can’t Show It Used Indian Political Mark First

    DALLAS — A Texas federal judge held that a plaintiff organization based in Texas that supports a political party in India cannot show that it claims priority to its name, agreeing that the defendant entity used its “nearly identical” name before the plaintiff entity came into existence.