July 29 2021
by Jessica R. Corpuz
The IP Law Blog
In December 2019, Scott Hervey wrote about the copyright infringement lawsuit filed against Taylor Swift by the writers of the song “Playas Gon’ Play.” The song was released by the girl group 3LW in 2001 and included the lyrics “Playa, they gonna play / And haters, they gonna hate.” In 2014, Taylor Swift released “Shake It Off,” which included the lyrics “Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play,
Read More
July 26 2021
by Josh H. Escovedo, Scott M. Hervey
The IP Law Blog
This week on The Briefing by the IP Law Blog, Scott Hervey and Josh Escovedo discuss the copyright lawsuit over a Black Mirror episode starring Miley Cyrus, the plot of which filmmaker Geoffrey Blair Hajim said was lifted from his film “Strange Frame: Love and Sax.”
View the episode on the Weintraub Tobin YouTube channel, here.
Listen to the podcast,
Read More
July 22 2021
by Scott M. Hervey
The IP Law Blog
Over the past few weeks, there have been a number of news articles and stories about police officers playing popular music during a citizen/officer interaction that is being filmed by the citizen. For example, Vice reported on a Beverly Hills police officer breaking out his phone and playing over a minute of Sublime’s “Santeria” when the officer discovered that his interaction with a well-known LA-area activist was being live-streamed by the citizen via Instagram.
Read More
July 9 2021
by Scott M. Hervey, Josh H. Escovedo
The IP Law Blog
In this week’s episode, Josh Escovedo and Scott Hervey discuss an update to the litigation over Andy Warhol’s series of portraits of the artist Prince (Andy Warhol Foundation v Goldsmith). They provide a recap of last week’s episode, which covers the Second Circuit decision in favor of Goldsmith, the photographer whose image Warhol used to create the Prince Portraits, and the holding that Warhol’s renditions were not transformative enough to be fair use.
Read More
June 29 2021
by Scott M. Hervey, Josh H. Escovedo
The IP Law Blog
In this week’s episode, Josh Escovedo and Scott Hervey discuss the litigation over Andy Warhol’s series of portraits of the artist Prince (Andy Warhol Foundation v Goldsmith). Their discussion covers the Second Circuit decision in favor of Goldsmith, the photographer whose image Warhol used to create the Prince Portraits, and the holding that Warhol’s renditions were not transformative enough to be fair use. The decision overturned a lower court decision in favor of the Warhol Foundation.
Read More
June 3 2021
by Jessica R. Corpuz
The IP Law Blog
We recently wrote about a case in the Southern District of New York against Mashable relating to the embedding of content from social media platforms like Instagram. In that case, the court held that Instagram’s terms of use (which were accepted by the plaintiff, a photographer, when he created an Instagram account) were insufficiently clear to allow Mashable to escape liability for publishing Instagram content through the process of embedding. Thereafter, the parties settled out of court.
Read More
March 12 2021
by Josh H. Escovedo
The IP Law Blog
We recently discussed a new trend in celebrity copyright litigation on our YouTube channel and podcast (The Briefing on YouTube). Specifically, we discussed celebrities taking a stand and defending copyright claims brought by photographers against celebrities who reposted photos on their social media accounts. Two specific celebs who have taken a stand are Emily Ratajkowski and LeBron James. I am writing today to discuss what may be a new strategy in such copyright litigation.
Read More
January 22 2021
by Josh H. Escovedo
The IP Law Blog
The Supreme Court recently denied petitions for certiorari in two of the most highly watched intellectual property cases before the Court. Those cases were Jack Daniel’s Properties Inc. v. VIP Products LLC and The Moodsters Company v. Walt Disney Company. Both cases were on petition from the Ninth Circuit and are summarized below for your convenience.
I. Jack Daniel’s Properties, Inc. v. VIP Products LLC
In Jack Daniel’s Properties,
Read More
October 2 2020
by Josh H. Escovedo, Scott M. Hervey
The IP Law Blog
Weintraub Tobin IP attorneys Scott Hervey and Josh Escovedo discuss the copyright dispute over the TV show “Empire,” Jon Astor-White v. Daniel Strong.
Read More
June 25 2020
by James Kachmar
The IP Law Blog
Unicolors, Inc. creates and markets artistic design fabrics to various garment manufacturers. Some of these designs are marketed to the public and placed in its showroom while other designs are considered “confined” works that Unicolor sells to certain customers. Unicolors withholds marketing them to the general public for a set period of time. In order to save money, Unicolors often times groups various designs into a “single work” when filing with the U.S. Copyright office for copyright registration.
Read More