Technology has always been a few light years ahead of the law, and when the law catches up, tech usually has moved on to the next big thing. So, because of the glacial pace in which case law does expand, which is an inverse relationship with tech, it sometimes creates problems on the technical aspects …
Category: copyright
Government Shutdown Effect on IP Offices
At midnight on Friday, December 21, 2018, the U.S. government entered a partial shutdown, which means all non-essential federal departments will close operations until funding has been appropriated by Congress. This includes national parks, NASA, and federal agencies. Those exempt include airports and the U.S. Postal Service, which will continue normal service through Christmas Eve, …
SCOTUS Watch: Supreme Court Grants Certiorari in Copyright Cost Row
On September 27, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari in Rimini Street, Inc. v. Oracle USA, Inc.,[1] in order to resolve a split in the circuits related to prevailing copyright litigant’s awarding of “full costs,” and whether that means only taxable costs under 28 U.S.C. §1920 – court and witness fees, copying costs, expert …
Software Removing Metadata Not Enough Showing to “Conceal or Induce” Copyright Infringement
Technology is meant to make things easier or improve conditions in society. However, sometimes technology, in the form of software, can sometimes do errant things that can create issues later. So is the case with Stevens v. CoreLogic, Inc.,[1] decided by the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on June 20, 2018. The Ninth …
“Au revoir” to California Resale Royalties Act, Says Ninth Circuit
In what will be a major case to shake up the art world, the nation’s only droit de suite statute has again been eviscerated as a federal appeals court has found the resale royalty right only applies to a narrow timeframe aspect of the statute. On July 6, 2018, the Court of Appeals for the …
Second Circuit Will Not Yet Hear Embedded Tweet Appeal
In a somewhat unsurprising move, the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit denied an interlocutory appeal (28 U.S.C. §1292) requested by publisher defendants in Heavy, Inc. v. Goldman.[1] The order can be found here 18-910_goldman-CA2_intapp_dend. As discussed in an earlier posting on this blog, the district court case, Goldman v. Breitbart News Network, LLC, held …
SCOTUS Watch: Supreme Court to Hear Case of What “Registration” Means
On June 28, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court granted the petition for writ of certiorari in Fourth Estate Pub. Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.com, LLC. The justices took up the case to resolve a split in the circuits surrounding the definition of “registration” within the meaning of 17 U.S.C. §411(a), the copyright infringement statute. Currently, the …
IP & Nonhumans: Lessons of Naruto the Monkey on AI
A particular copyright case, although not dealing directly with technology, has fingerprints that lead to one area of technology that shares some legal issues with animals: artificial intelligence. On April 23, 2018, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued Naruto v. Slater,[1] in a ruling that was not entirely unexpected since the parties …
Geoblocking Required to Avoid Copyright Liability, per D.C. Circuit
Geoblocking is the practice of digitally embedding territorial access restrictions into content distributed across the Internet. At a time when the European Union is legislating anti-geoblocking regulations, it appears the U.S. is going in the opposite direction. In Spanski Ents., Inc. v. Telewizja Polska, S.A.,[1] on March 2, 2018, the Court of Appeals for the …
Fed Circuit Watch: Google Use of Java APIs Not Fair Use
One of the most important copyright cases was recently decided by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, addressing Google’s use of Java code owned by Oracle. On March 27, 2018, in Oracle America, Inc. v. Google LLC,[1] the Fed Circuit held that Google’s use of Oracle’s Java code was not fair use. This …