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The Copyright Act Preemption

Perkins Coie

Does Copyright Law Preempt Contractual Provisions Imposing AI-Related Usage Restrictions on Content?

Perkins Coie on

The explosive growth of generative AI has been accompanied by a corresponding growth of contractual provisions addressing generative AI issues. Website operators in particular are increasingly seeking to use their online...more

McDermott Will & Emery

Google It: Federal Copyright Law Preempts California Causes of Action

Addressing a state law-based challenge to the way search results are displayed on copies of websites, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that copyright preemption precluded a website owner from invoking state...more

Proskauer - Minding Your Business

Two Copyright Claim Wrongs Don’t Make a Copyright Claim Right: Analyzing Melendez v. Sirius XM Radio, Inc.

On October 4, 2022, a Second Circuit panel affirmed the lower court’s decision that defendant Sirius XM Radio Inc.’s ads showcasing The Howard Stern Show do not violate plaintiff John Edward Melendez’s publicity rights. The...more

White & Case LLP

Website terms of service – enforceable or preempted?

White & Case LLP on

There is a deepening circuit split on whether the US Copyright Act preempts contract claims arising from terms of service. A recent petition to the US Supreme Court by a song lyrics website highlights this, with potentially...more

Morrison & Foerster LLP - Left Coast Appeals

This Week at the Ninth: Cars and Chickens

This week, the Ninth Circuit explores the constitutionality of a state statute aimed at protecting consumer information given to car dealers, and clarifies the preemptive scope of federal regulatory approval of food labels. ...more

Robinson+Cole Data Privacy + Security Insider

Automotive Data Company Loses Fight for an Injunction Against New Consumer Privacy Statute

Automotive data and software company CDK Global LLC (CDK),  filed suit in 2019 against the Arizona Attorney General in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona seeking an injunction against a new law from taking...more

Mintz - Trademark & Copyright Viewpoints

Second Circuit Declines to Decide if Human Skin Can Be a Tangible Medium of Expression under Copyright Law and Affirms Dismissal...

In a recent decision from the Second Circuit, Judges Parker, Chin, and Carney side-stepped a novel question: whether human skin can be the kind of "tangible medium of expression" required for copyright protection. Instead,...more

Knobbe Martens

“But It’s a Photo of Me!”-Celebrities Face Legal Action for Unauthorized Use of Images on Social Media

Knobbe Martens on

In October 2019, professional photographer Michele Eve Sandberg filed a complaint against musical trio Jonas Brothers (both as an entity and as individuals) for unauthorized use of photos Sandberg snapped of the band during...more

Fish & Richardson

EDTX & NDTX Monthly Wrap-Up – March 2019

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Two recent cases in the Eastern District of Texas touched on the federal patent preemption defense. One case addressed preemption in the context of an assignment of patent ownership dispute, and the other case addressed...more

McDermott Will & Emery

Artists Denied Royalties Under CRRA Because of Federal Pre-Emption

McDermott Will & Emery on

Addressing the California Resale Royalties Act (CRRA), the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld a district court’s dismissal of a plaintiff’s CRRA claims concerning resale royalties that postdated the 1976...more

Weintraub Tobin

Royalties, Preemption And Attorney’s Fees

Weintraub Tobin on

The Ninth Circuit recently was called upon to decide awarding attorney’s fees in a case where artists were suing for unpaid royalties under the California Resale Royalties Act (“CRRA”). In the case, Close v. Sotheby’s, Inc....more

Sullivan & Worcester

Au Revoir, Droit de Suite—9th Circuit Narrows California Resale Royalty Act to a Single Year’s Sales

Sullivan & Worcester on

The idea of moral rights continues to be a notable difference between European and American intellectual property rights with respect to visual arts. Last week’s decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in a...more

Jackson Walker

Coming Into Focus: Recent Decisions Help Define the Scope of Right of Publicity Claims

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When it comes to the right of publicity, it helps to keep tabs on California law. The right to prevent the unauthorized commercial use of a person’s name, likeness or other indicia of identity may vary from state-to-state....more

Fenwick & West LLP

Litigation Alert: Ninth Circuit Rules on Copyright Preemption of Right-of-Publicity Claims

Fenwick & West LLP on

Last week, in Maloney v. T3 Media, Inc., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that claims under state right-of-publicity law are preempted by the Copyright Act “when a likeness has been captured in a...more

Fish & Richardson

Federal Copyright Preemption Extends to Preempt State Laws Which Protect Material That Congress Expressly Declined to Protect...

Fish & Richardson on

Recently, we discussed the broad reach of the doctrine of Federal Copyright Preemption. In Ultraflo Corp. v. Pelican Tank Parts, Inc. 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 509 (Jan. 11, 2017), the Fifth Circuit made clear that not only does...more

Orrick - Trade Secrets Group

Misappropriation Versus the Copyright Act: Round 2 in the Fifth Circuit

A few months ago, Trade Secrets Watch covered the GlobeRanger Corp. case in which the Fifth Circuit joined 10 other circuits in determining that the Copyright Act does not preempt state trade secret misappropriation claims....more

WilmerHale

Copyright and Trademark Case Review: Copyright Preemption, Software-as-a-Service and Popularity on the Internet

WilmerHale on

Copyright Decisions - Claim for Copying of Useful Article Design Preempted by Copyright Act: Ultraflo Corp. v. Pelican Tank Parts, Inc., No. 15-20084 (5th Cir. Jan. 11, 2017)...more

Fish & Richardson

Federal Copyright Preemption of State Law Claims – Still a Powerful Defense Tool in Commercial Litigation

Fish & Richardson on

Recently our colleagues Natalie Arbaugh and Rex Mann discussed the Fifth Circuit’s decision in GlobeRanger Corp. v. Software AG USA, Inc., 2016 WL 4698270 (5th Cir., Sept. 7, 2016), focusing on the Court’s discussion of the...more

Orrick - Trade Secrets Group

REDUCING RISKS: Court Finds Copyright Act Does Not Preempt State Trade Secret Claim

Over the years, it has proven difficult to fit software in any one category of IP protection. And while software’s ability to seemingly transcend patents, copyright, and trade secrets provides software developers and...more

Akerman LLP - Marks, Works & Secrets

Second Circuit Revives Copyright Claims Against Sony and Ghostface Killah

In Urbont v. Sony Music Entertainment Inc., 15-1778, the Second Circuit recently revived claims against Sony and Ghostface Killah, holding that although third parties may raise a work for hire defense, here there were factual...more

Ladas & Parry LLP

California District Court Puts Baby In A Corner

Ladas & Parry LLP on

In the United States, federal laws take precedence over state law and common law causes of action where there is an overlap. This lesson was recently learned again in Lions Gate Entertainment Inc v TD Ameritrade Services...more

Jackson Walker

‘The Autumn Wind’ and the Right of Publicity

Jackson Walker on

As a child of the 60’s and 70’s and an insatiable NFL football fan, I can still hear the swaggering voice of narrator John Facenda in the now-iconic 1974 NFL Films production “The Autumn Wind,” which has been dubbed The...more

Sullivan & Worcester

The Right of Publicity: How Much Control Do NFL Players Have Over Their Names?

Sullivan & Worcester on

How much control should athletes have over their names? Not an unlimited amount, according to one recent court ruling. Late last month, in Dryer v. National Football League, the Eighth Circuit denied an appeal by three...more

BakerHostetler

Central District of California Holds That the California Resale Royalty Act Is Preempted by Federal Copyright Law

BakerHostetler on

As previously discussed on this blog, the validity of the California Resale Royalty Act (the “RRA,” Civil Code Section 986), a 1976 law that requires resellers of fine art to pay a royalty of 5 percent to the artists behind...more

McDermott Will & Emery

NFL Players’ Right of Publicity Claims Denied - J. F. Dryer et al. v. The National Football League

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The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed a district court summary judgment in favor of defendants, denying plaintiffs’ publicity rights claims in footage and interviews made by the defendants and finding that...more

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