Impact of Mickey Mouse on public domain. The latest artificial intelligence and intellectual property cases - Thaler lost again. Nirvana Nevermind baby gets day in court. Tolkien estate and more.
Podcast: The Briefing by the IP Law Blog - Senator Hawley Targets Disney with So-Called Copyright Reform Bill
The Briefing by the IP Law Blog: Senator Hawley Targets Disney with So-Called Copyright Reform Bill
Podcast: The Briefing by the IP Law Blog - Heirs of Evel Knievel Clearly Do Not Have a Friend in Disney
The Briefing by the IP Law Blog: Heirs of Evel Knievel Clearly Do Not Have a Friend in Disney
Daily Compliance News: October 12, 2020-the Trump Swamp edition
Stealth Lawyer: Lou Mongello, Disney Expert & Historian
The legislature of New York’s Nassau County passed a law on Monday to ban women’s and girls’ sports teams from using sports facilities in the county on Long Island unless they exclude transgender girls and women from playing....more
The National Football League must pay more than $4.7 billion in class-action damages for overcharging subscribers of its “Sunday Ticket” telecasts, a California federal jury said on Thursday....more
The expiration of the 95-year copyright for Disney’s first Mickey Mouse from Steamboat Willie marked a momentous day in IP history. It also shines a spotlight on the public domain, and the inescapable fact that, as time...more
As one of the largest and most iconic entertainment brands in the world, the Walt Disney Company is most readily associated with two things: their main mascot, Mickey Mouse, and the fierce protection of their intellectual...more
Several artists, frustrated with Artificially Intelligent (AI) image generators skirting copyright laws, are using AI-image generators to produce images of Mickey Mouse and other copyrighted characters to challenge the...more
Appropriate for the pirate genre, citing the parties’ “dueling experts,” a District Court recently denied Disney’s motion for summary judgment in a copyright lawsuit in which the plaintiffs claimed the films in the popular...more
With gas prices on the rise across the United States, the White House is urging the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether “illegal conduct” by “large oil and gas companies is pushing up . . . prices for American...more
Strange as it may be, with vast majority of the world still reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic, we are on the eve of the opening ceremony for the “2020” Tokyo Summer Olympics. Olympic games in “normal” times are logistical...more
In March, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a copyright lawsuit that alleged Pixar’s 2015 film “Inside Out” was based on Denise Daniels, a child development expert, who had pitched her idea to Walt Disney Co... ...more
Certain literary or graphic characters may, in some cases, enjoy copyright protection. Think James Bond – or Batman and even his Batmobile. Recently, the Ninth Circuit was called upon to determine whether the Moodsters,...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed that “lightly sketched anthropomorphized characters representing human emotions” were not copyrightable. Daniels v. Walt Disney Co., Case No. 18-55635 (9th Cir. Mar. 16,...more
When Disney chose to delay the production and release of merchandise related to The Child—commonly referred to as Baby Yoda—from its hit series, The Mandalorian, it created a significant opportunity for unlicensed fans to...more
To follow up a story we two previous blogs, Redbox and Disney have settled their lawsuit over Redbox’s sale of download codes from Disney “combo packs. Combo packs were sets that Disney sold comprising a Blu-Ray and DVD of...more
The Central District of California recently sank a copyright infringement lawsuit against the Walt Disney Company’s Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise, finding that numerous elements of the Plaintiffs’ allegedly similar...more
Redbox and Disney have filed their briefs in preparation for argument, scheduled for February 5, on Disney’s motion for a preliminary injunction against Redbox’s alleged copyright infringement. The judge’s ruling could make...more
Demi Lovato, Idina Menzel, and Disney are amongst the defendants who were sued over the hit song, “Let It Go,” featured in the popular 2013 Disney film, Frozen....more
In December 2016, a California federal court issued a preliminary injunction against VidAngel, Inc.’s custom-filtered video streaming service. Thursday, in Hollywood Studios v. VidAngel, Inc., a Ninth Circuit panel affirmed...more
The Walt Disney Company claims there was no monkey business in creating the Oscar-winning animation film Zootopia and has moved to dismiss writer Gary L. Goldman’s lawsuit for copyright infringement. Goldman, an author whose...more
Much like the world of Underland created in Lewis Carroll’s book Alice Through the Looking Glass, the blurring between copyright and trademark rights can create a topsy-turvy universe....more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit affirmed the district court’s dismissal of a copyright infringement complaint by an entity that has brought similar copyright ownership claims against famed comic book author...more