(Podcast) The Briefing: The Ninth Circuit Puts the Brakes on Eleanor’s Copyright Claim
The Briefing: The Ninth Circuit Puts the Brakes on Eleanor’s Copyright Claim
Can a car be a copyrightable character? In Carroll Shelby Licensing v. Halicki, the Ninth Circuit said no — ruling that “Eleanor,” the iconic Mustang from ‘Gone in 60 Seconds,’ lacks the distinctiveness and consistency...more
The Copyright Act does not expressly address the protection of individual characters in expressive works, but courts have long recognized that certain characters, particularly those with strong visual or narrative identities,...more
District court grants Disney’s motion for summary judgment, holding it did not infringe plaintiffs’ copyright in blue-eyed ukulele-playing turtle character, but rather independently created its own musical turtle character,...more
Ninth Circuit holds that custom Ford Mustang called “Eleanor,” which appeared in four films from 1974 to 2000, is not entitled to character copyright protection under Towle test and that licensor of custom car design did not...more
Court Narrows Scope of Character Copyright, Drawing Sharp Line Between Props and Protectable Expression - Not every film icon gets legal protection. On May 27, 2025, the Ninth Circuit ruled that Eleanor—the legendary Mustang...more
Celebrated on the first day of every year, Public Domain Day marks the day works with copyrights that expired the year prior enter the public domain. While the calculations to determine copyright expiration can be complicated...more
Defamation cases are hard ones in the real world. Recent US matters involving Dominion Voting, Sara Palin, and even Cheetos show that these cases continue to interest the general public as well as legal cognoscenti....more
At heart, and still, I am a non-singing Jersey Boy, and one who grew up reading Sherlock Holmes stories and watching Star Trek, the Original Series (before it even needed that modifier), in reruns in the 1970s while also...more