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Summary Judgment Copyright

Loeb & Loeb LLP

Sound and Color, LLC v. Samuel Smith

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Ninth Circuit reverses summary judgment in favor of pop singer Sam Smith in music copyright dispute, holding in unpublished opinion that hook in plaintiff’s song may be protectable as unique selection and arrangement of...more

Ervin Cohen & Jessup LLP

Ninth Circuit Revives Copyright Suit Over Sam Smith’s “Dancing with a Stranger” and Reaffirms the Jury’s Role

On April 29, 2025, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals revived the copyright infringement case filed by Sound and Color, LLC against Sam Smith, Normani, and related parties (collectively, “Defendants”) concerning the hit song...more

Loeb & Loeb LLP

Eden Film Production LLC v. Lockjaw LLC

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District court dismisses claim for copyright infringement against writers, producers and distributors of television show Yellowjackets, holding no substantial similarity between protectable elements of Yellowjackets and...more

Perkins Coie

Fair Use Defense Failed in Thomson Reuters v. Ross, Jury Still out for Generative AI

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The first substantive decision on the fair use defense in an artificial intelligence (AI) copyright case came down against the defendant, who used AI to create a competing product. However, as the decision expressly limited...more

ArentFox Schiff

Moana’s Legal Odyssey: Five-Year Copyright Dispute Ends With Disney Sailing Free

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This month, after half a decade of litigation, the copyright infringement case against Disney over its beloved animated film Moana finally reached a conclusion, with a jury finding non-infringement after deliberating for just...more

Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt PC

Delaware Court Delivers First Copyright Verdict on AI Training

On February 11, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware became the first to rule on whether the use of copyrighted materials to train an AI system qualifies as copyright infringement. In Thomson-Reuters...more

Ballard Spahr LLP

Court Issues First Decision on AI and Fair Use

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Recently, a federal court issued the first ruling on the closely watched issue of fair use in copyright infringement involving AI. The court ruled in favor of the plaintiff on its direct infringement claim, and ruled that the...more

Husch Blackwell LLP

Delaware Court Grants Summary Judgment to Plaintiff in Machine Learning / AI Copyright Case

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Albert Einstein is credited with saying “the measure of intelligence is the ability to change.” In September 2023, Judge Stephanos Bibas—sitting by designation in the District of Delaware—denied plaintiff Thomson Reuters’...more

Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C.

Fair-Use Whiplash: Thomson Reuters v. Ross Intelligence Revisits Fair Use for Artificial Intelligence

On Tuesday, February 11, a Delaware district court issued much-awaited summary-judgment decisions in Thomson Reuters Enterprise Centre GmbH et al v. ROSS Intelligence Inc., No. 1:20-cv-613, potentially shaping how future...more

BakerHostetler

Surprise Move: Judge Walks Back AI Copyright Ruling in Thomson Reuters v. ROSS

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Thomson Reuters v. ROSS, 1:20-cv-00613-SB, is the first district court case to address fair use and copyright infringement related to training AI models. Judge Bibas granted summary judgment of no fair use upon a balancing of...more

Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP

The Supreme Court and Intellectual Property in 2024-2025: What Was Decided, What Is To Come And What Was Declined

In wrapping up the 2023-24 term and embarking on the 2024-25 term, the Supreme Court was asked to decide a number of intellectual property cases. The Court issued several significant opinions in 2024 and has taken several...more

McDermott Will & Emery

Let’s Not Get It On: Battle of the Greatest Hits

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The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed a district court ruling that Ed Sheeran’s 2014 hit “Thinking Out Loud” does not infringe the copyright on Marvin Gaye’s 1973 classic “Let’s Get It On.” Structured Asset...more

Snell & Wilmer

Second Circuit Holds Musical Works Registered Under the Copyright Act of 1909 Are Limited to the Deposit Copy

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The Second Circuit recently decided Structured Asset Sales, LLC v. Edward Christopher Sheeran, considering whether Sheeran’s hit song “Thinking Out Loud” infringed the copyright of Marvin Gaye’s 1973 classic “Let’s Get It...more

McDermott Will & Emery

Creative License: Fair Use Defense Paints Over Infringement Battle

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Affirming the application of the fair use defense to copyright infringement, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit determined that a district court’s sua sponte invocation of a fair use defense to parallel trademark...more

McDermott Will & Emery

Late Expert Report Dooms Copyright Case

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The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit weighed in for a third time on an eight-year copyright battle, this time finding that a district court did not abuse its discretion in excluding the plaintiff’s proposed expert or...more

McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP

The New York Times Calls Out OpenAI on Its Motion to Dismiss

Responding to the OpenAI brief that read more like a press release than a traditional motion to dismiss, the New York Times attacked OpenAI's approach from the very first sentence, calling the factual background of OpenAI's...more

McDermott Will & Emery

Rock On: Clichéd Song Themes Don’t Infringe Copyright

The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed a district court’s summary judgment grant to an alleged song copier, finding neither evidence of factual copying nor striking similarity between the two songs. Kirk...more

Foley Hoag LLP - Making Your Mark

How Original! The Oscars and the Craft of Derivative Works

Happy Oscar season! As we ramp up for film’s most anticipated event, the lists start flying for the year’s potential winners. Frequently, the Academy favors somewhat obscure, esoteric films—so it might be surprising to learn...more

Smart & Biggar

Canadian IP Litigation 2023: Year in Review

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The year 2023 witnessed several developments in Canadian IP litigation. From summary judgment finding its limits to the denial of a permanent injunction for the first time in almost three decades, several cases decided in...more

Farella Braun + Martel LLP

Fair Use Question Goes to Trial in AI Copyright Lawsuit – Thomson Reuters v. Ross Intelligence

On September 25, 2023, a United States Circuit Judge determined that fact questions surrounding issues of fair use and tortious interference required a jury to decide media conglomerate Thomson Reuters’s lawsuit against Ross...more

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP

AI Insights: In AI Training Case Brought by Thomson Reuters, Court Denies Summary Judgment

In AI Training Case Brought by Thomson Reuters, Court Denies Summary Judgment - In Thomson Reuters v. Ross Intelligence, a district court largely denied the parties’ cross motions for summary judgment and held that a...more

Proskauer - Minding Your Business

Thomson Reuters v. Ross Intelligence: D. Del. SJ Decision Provides Insight as Copyright Litigation Tests the Legality of...

Generative AI has taken the world by storm since OpenAI launched ChatGPT in November 2022. But the buzz and excitement of GAI has come with difficult legal questions that threaten the new technology. Several lawsuits—some of...more

Weintraub Tobin

Court Rules Lego Creation Based on Religious Texts is Eligible for Copyright Protection

Weintraub Tobin on

In JBrick, LLC v. Chazak Kinder, Inc. et al, 1-21-cv-02883 (EDNY Sep. 21, 2023) (Hector Gonzalez), the District Court for the Eastern District of New York granted the plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment regarding the...more

McDermott Will & Emery

It’s a Taking: Copyright Deposit Requirement Violates Fifth Amendment

Addressing the issue for the first time, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia found that the Copyright Act of 1976’s requirement to deposit two copies of a work with the Library of Congress within three months...more

Davis Wright Tremaine LLP

D.C. Federal District Court Holds Work Created Entirely by an AI System Cannot Be Copyrighted

On August 18, 2023, in Thaler v. Perlmutter, Judge Beryl A. Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted the U.S. Copyright Office's motion for summary judgment, affirming the Copyright Office's...more

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