I have to give it to creative, resilient lawyers (and in fact, I have lauded them in the past). When the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in Allen v. Cooper, 140 S.Ct. 994 (2020), a decision holding that the...more
We live in a time of contradictions and confusion, and today we aim to explore how some such tensions have manifested themselves in the area of intellectual property law. On the one hand, we have a national and...more
In Allen v. Cooper, the Supreme Court held that the copyright clause in the U.S. Constitution did not authorize Congress to abrogate states’ Eleventh Amendment immunity from copyright infringement. In addition, Congress’s...more
On March 23, 2020, a unanimous, if slightly fractured, Supreme Court ruled in Allen v. Cooper, 140 S. Ct. 994 (2020), that Congress did not properly abrogate sovereign immunity when it enacted the Copyright Remedy...more
In a remarkable decision, Allen v. North Carolina, the Supreme Court held on March 23 that the state of North Carolina can lawfully plunder a videographer’s copyrighted videos and photographs of the recovery of Blackbeard’s...more
A unanimous decision from the Supreme Court of the United States in Allen v. Cooper affirmed a previous ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and held that states cannot be sued for copyright infringement,...more
ALLEN V. COOPER - Before Kagan, Roberts, Alito, Sotomayor, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Thomas, Breyer, and Ginsburg. Appeal from the Fourth Circuit. Summary: States cannot be sued for copyright infringement as the Copyright...more
Edward Teach, more popularly known as Blackbeard, roamed the seven seas and terrorized merchant vessels off the U.S. and Caribbean coasts during the colonial period. He ultimately met his demise when the colony of Virginia...more
On March 23, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a state cannot be sued for copyright infringement because Congress lacked authority to abrogate the states’ immunity from copyright infringement suits when it enacted the...more
In a case where the subject matter (copyrights relating to footage of a salvaged pirate ship) is arguably more intriguing than the question presented, the Supreme Court held that a section of the Copyright Act allowing...more
The Supreme Court on Monday affirmed the Fourth Circuit’s decision upholding State sovereign immunity against claims of copyright infringement.[i] The case arose over Petitioner Allen’s suit against North Carolina’s...more
The Supreme Court of the United States has held that the state government is free to infringe copyrights without fear of retribution. In Allen v. Cooper, the Supreme Court decided whether the state of North Carolina could be...more
Blackbeard and his band of pirates pillaged and plundered up and down North Carolina’s Outer Banks more than 300 years ago, inspiring stories (both true and fictional) that capture imaginations to this day. On March 23rd, the...more
On March 23, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Allen v. Cooper, 589 U.S. ____, that the Copyright Remedy Clarification Act of 1990 violated the 11th Amendment by purporting to authorize private copyright...more