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2018 Substantial Similarity Update Available
The 2018 annual supplement to our treatise Substantial Similarity in Copyright Law is now available from PLI.
Practical Law Update Completed
Eric Osterberg’s article Copyright Infringement: Analyzing Substantial Similarity in Westlaw’s Practical Law has recently been updated.
In-House Patent Lawyers Can Design Around Patents They Wrote For Their Former Employer
In house lawyers, even patent lawyers, can jump to a competitor, as long as they don’t violate duties owed to their former employer/client. Furthermore, patent lawyers are free to conduct for their new employer infringement analyses of patents they wrote for their former employer. That is the holding in a 2016 Massachusetts case, Gillette Co. […]
SaaS Providers – What Exactly Is Your Business?
Is a SaaS provider’s business making software, or performing the service the software automates? If you are a SaaS provider (or a lawyer who represents SaaS providers and licensees) you will likely answer: both. It’s Software as a Service, dummy. Not so fast, at least not in the trademark world. Recent events involving the SaaS […]
Arbitration: Everything You Promised, Nothing You Didn’t
If you agree to arbitrate with a particular arbitrator, but that arbitrator won’t serve, you go to court. That is the teaching of a recent case out of the Second Circuit, Moss v. First Premier Bank. In Deborah Moss’ online contract with her payday lender she agreed to arbitrate any dispute using NAF as the […]
Spirit v. Led Zeppelin, Taurus v. Stairway To Heaven
The copyright infringement lawsuit accusing Led Zeppelin of plagiarizing the song Taurus in the iconic Stairway to Heaven just got really interesting because the judge denied (in part, but in the most important part) defendants’ motion for summary judgment, and whether the songs are “substantially similar” seems like it may be a close call. If […]
2015 Substantial Similarity in Copyright Law Supplement Available
The 2015 annual supplement to our treatise Substantial Similarity in Copyright Law is now available from PLI.
The Government Can’t Take Your Copyright
A little known and infrequently invoked feature of the U.S. Copyright Law is its prohibition against government-mandated copyright transfer from an individual author. 17 U.S.C. § 201(e) reads: When an individual author’s ownership of a copyright, or of any of the exclusive rights under a copyright, has not previously been transferred voluntarily by that individual […]
Clickwraps and Browsewraps: What’s the Difference?
Clickwrap and browsewrap agreements are documents typically used by website owners to mandate the terms on which users may access their websites. The difference between the two is the manner in which the user agrees to the terms. Clickwrap agreements require an overt act of consent by the user. Typically, the user must click a […]
Copyright Fair Use – Is “Transformativeness” The Key?
Fair use is a statutory defense to copyright infringement. The fair use statute, 17 U.S.C. § 107, suggests certain types of uses that generally may qualify as fair use, and identifies four factors a court must consider to decide when any particular use qualifies. The statute reads as follows: Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 […]
