The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed a district court decision implementing a preliminary injunction and striking a new defense first asserted in an amended complaint as untimely and frivolous. ACT, Inc. v....more
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
When there is a right, there is a remedy—or so the maxim goes. But when a state infringes upon your copyright, such a remedy may be more difficult to obtain. Just a year ago, the Supreme Court held in Allen v. Cooper 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
Despite having a valid claim, a photographer’s attempt to hold North Carolina liable for copyright infringement failed under the doctrine of state sovereign immunity. Contractors entering agreements with states to produce...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
State governments can be creditors of individuals, businesses and institutions that are debtors in bankruptcy in a variety of ways, most notably as tax and fine collectors but also as lenders. They can also be debtors of...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
The Supreme Court ruled on Monday in Allen v. Cooper, No. 18-877, that state governments are immune from copyright infringement claims in spite of Congress’s Copyright Remedy Clarification Act of 1990. The Court’s decision...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
On March 23, 2020, in Allen v. Cooper, the Supreme Court held that Allen, who spent over two decades, photographing the shipwreck of Queen Anne’s Revenge, better known as the flagship for the pirate Blackbeard, cannot sue the...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
Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard, was an 18th century English pirate who roamed Caribbean and Atlantic coastal waters. In June 1718, Blackbeard’s 200-ton flagship, Queen Anne’s Revenge, ran aground off of the Bar of...more
On March 23, 2020, in a decision containing not a small amount of whimsy (more regarding that aspect anon), Justice Kagan, joined almost unanimously by her brethren, upheld a State's ( North Carolina) sovereign immunity...more
On March 23, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its first of three anticipated copyright decisions for this term – Allen v. Cooper – in which the Court unanimously held that states are shielded from copyright suits by sovereign...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 Supreme Court of the United States held that the Copyright Remedy Clarification Act of 1990 (“CRCA”) does not abrogate the states’ sovereign immunity from copyright infringement suits....more
On March 23, 2020, the United States Supreme Court ruled that States cannot be sued for copyright infringement under principles of sovereign immunity. This ruling arose from a filmmaker’s suit against the state of North...more