The United States Supreme Court granted certiorari to review the Second Circuit’s inconsistent application of the fair use doctrine when it comes to copyrighted art. The case at issue assesses
Continue Reading A Royal Circuit Split: Supreme Court Will Decide on “Prince Series” Copyright Controversy
Appropriate for the pirate genre, citing the parties’ “dueling experts,” a District Court recently denied Disney’s motion for summary judgment in a copyright lawsuit in which the plaintiffs claimed the
Continue Reading Yo Ho Ho And a Bottle of . . . Oh No! Court Deep-Sixes Disney’s Motion for Summary Judgment
Copyright in characters is not a new concept but it can take interesting twists. We saw this recently when litigation over the Netflix movie Enola Holmes raised the question just
Continue Reading Comic Publishers No Heroes to Artists Seeking NFT Score
On January 15th, the Department of Justice announced it has ended its two-year review of the 80-year old consent decrees that govern the operation of the largest music
Continue Reading DOJ Keeps the Music Playing for ASCAP and BMI
In response to a copyright claim that the Netflix series “Stranger Things” infringed the plaintiff’s unpublished screenplays, Netflix and the other defendants filed a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss, arguing
Continue Reading “Stranger Things”: Copyright Challenge to Popular Series Survives Motion to Dismiss
Owners of copyright in characters are often well-advised not to press their claims too far in litigation at the risk of losing their rights altogether. This may be what motivated
Continue Reading Follow Up: Enola Holmes Case Settles, Leaves Unsolved Mysteries
A planned Netflix movie about Sherlock Holmes’s sister is the target of a lawsuit from the estate of Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of the legendary detective. The estate has
Continue Reading Sherlock Holmes’s Sister Subject of Copyright Infringement Claim