A word (verbal) sign (trademark) in which neither the choice of words nor their arrangement and connection are a manifestation of a creative invention, and nor are they original or create a result that could be defined as the manifestation of intellectual activity of a person with an autonomous creative value, is not a work…
German Federal Supreme Court’s decisions of 21 February 2019 (ref.: I ZR 98/17, I ZR 99/17 and I ZR 15/18) Protection of moral rights in Germany, in particular the right to prohibit distortion of the work Moral rights derived from copyright are not harmonized within the European Union. Rather, every EU member state has developed…
A preliminary injunction against a competitor was upheld in light of costume maker Rasta Imposta’s likelihood of success on the merits of its copyright infringement suit. Costume supplier Silvertop Associates, Inc., doing business as Rasta Imposta, was entitled to a preliminary injunction stopping competitor Kangaroo Manufacturing from selling a “knock-off” full-body banana costume because Rasta…
In the consolidated claims of Mircom & GoldenEye v Virgin Media, the claimants sought court orders from the UK court requiring Virgin Media to disclose the names and addresses of tens of thousands of its broadband subscribers who, the claimants say, had unlawfully downloaded pornographic films. The claimants required the individuals’ names and addresses in order…
In this Estonian case the court analysed whether a photo model can be regarded as the joint author of the (copyrightable) photograph in which she poses. The court stated clearly that merely posing for a picture did not automatically create any copyright for the photo model. In order to acquire copyright to a photograph, the…
Protected elements of illustrated children’s book were not substantially similar to defendants’ book and animated adaptation as a matter of law. The U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia has affirmed a district court’s decision holding that an author of a children’s illustrated book failed to state a copyright infringement claim against media company Viacom International,…
A clothing company that knowingly included inaccurate information in its copyright application—which rendered its registration invalid—was ordered to pay $121,423 in costs and attorney fees to retail outlets that successfully defended themselves against infringement claims. In a copyright infringement action brought by clothing company Gold Value International Textile, Inc,. alleging infringement of its fabric design…
To ensure you don’t miss out on interesting IP law developments reported on our other IP blogs, we will, on a regular basis, provide you with an overview of the top 3 most-read posts from each of our IP law blogs. Here are the top posts from April, May and June. Top 3 Kluwer Copyright…
Although the litigant was unsuccessful in her prior litigation, allowing her to proceed now by asserting facts completely opposite to those she asserted earlier would create the perception that the earlier court was misled. A litigant who previously had claimed that she was the co-author of a 1978 Julio Iglesias song was estopped from now…
The operator of a YouTube channel criticizing the pastor of a church was not entitled to punitive damages in a malicious prosecution case when the church relied on counsel in initiating a copyright infringement suit. In a malicious prosecution of copyright infringement claims brought by the operator of a YouTube channel that featured videos containing…
