A recent Second Circuit case has brought the debate surrounding contentious art and intellectual property rights to the forefront. The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that Vermont Law School's decision to...more
The Lillian Corporation purchases a vacant and dilapidated office building with plans to demolish it and build luxury condos. Only one thing stands in the way: a mural on the side of the building painted years earlier by a...more
As you may recall from our prior posts regarding the advisory jury verdict and subsequent district court ruling in the 5Pointz litigation (Cohen et al v. G&M Realty LP et al.), in 2018, Judge Block in the U.S. District Court...more
Too bad that on Oct. 5 the Supremes passed on applying a due process determination to define the “recognized stature” of art. The Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 (“VARA”) gave visual artists limited “moral rights” in their...more
G&M Realty (G&M), the owner of the famous New York City graffiti space known as 5Pointz, asked the Supreme Court to strike down as unconstitutional the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA), a federal copyright law that provides...more
On Monday, G&M Realty, a real estate development company, asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a $6.75 million damages award that the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York entered in favor of a group of...more
In response to the death of George Floyd and a public outcry for social justice reform, on June 5, 2020, a team of eight artists joined a group of community volunteers to create a street mural with letters fifty feet in...more
The use of copyright to protect street art is on the rise. While street artists should be aware of their rights under copyright law, building owners should also be aware that authorizing street art on their buildings without...more
The Second Circuit recently affirmed that a developer’s whitewashing of street art painted at the “5Pointz” warehouse complex in Long Island City was a violation of the Visual Artists Rights Act (“VARA,” codified at 17 U.S.C....more
The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed that plaintiffs-appellees’ temporary artwork had achieved appropriate stature to be protected by the rarely invoked Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 (VARA), and that an...more
A $6.75 million judgment was upheld by the United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, against a developer that whitewashed 45 spray-painted artworks on its site — several months before the demolition permits were issued....more
Last week, the Second Circuit issued a landmark decision clarifying the types of work protectable under the federal Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA) in Cohen v. G&M Realty L.P. The decision confirms that graffiti art is a...more
On February 20, 2020, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit decided Castillo v. G&M Realty L.P., holding that aerosol artwork with a short lifespan may still achieve “recognized stature” under the Visual...more
To many, the names “Rocky Balboa” and the “Italian Stallion” are as universal and front of mind as the names “Chuck Wepner” and the “Bayonne Bleeder” are regional and tucked into (or have already fallen out of or never made...more
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
I am pleased to report on the outcome of a matter we announced in February. After a disagreement with the City of Palo Alto (California) about her sculpture Digital DNA, Sullivan & Worcester LLP client Adriana Varella has...more
A recent article I co-authored and published in the New York Law Journal recaps and highlights the key takeaways in the federal district court’s decision in Cohen v. G&M Realty L.P. (E.D.N.Y, Feb. 18, 2018), relating to the...more
Having been a violinist, one area of law which has always intrigued me is performers’ rights. Known as “moral rights,” performer’s rights, among other things include the right to control how the performer’s rendition of a...more
In recent art world news, following last month’s federal district court ruling that a New York City developer violated the Visual Artists Rights Act (“VARA”) when he demolished well known graffiti space, 5Pointz Aerosol Art...more
• From Miami's Wynwood to San Francisco's Mission District to Chicago's West Loop, graffiti/street art has become a popular way for communities to revitalize neighborhoods and property owners to reap the benefits of the...more
In recent art world news, last week a federal district court in New York ruled the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 (“VARA”), a federal law protecting visual artwork from destruction, covered the graffiti artists’ aerosol...more
We previously posted about an advisory jury verdict rendered in the 5Pointz litigation (Cohen et al v. G&M Realty LP et al.), a case involving the whitewashing of the famous exterior aerosol (or “graffiti”) art in the space...more
Sullivan & Worcester LLP has taken action on behalf of its client, artist Adriana Varella, to protect her sculpture Digital DNA from removal and destruction by the City of Palo Alto, California. Digital DNA has stood in the...more
Insuring fine art can present challenges that are not encountered with other types of property. One of these challenges involves the application of the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 (17 U.S.C. §106A) (“VARA”) when artwork...more
As was reported in detail by the New York Times and others earlier this week, artist Peter Doig prevailed in what most agree was the strangest art related trial in many years. In a nutshell, Doig was accused by a former...more