On Tuesday, March 31, 2020, Judge John Padova, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, ruled mostly in favor of Epic Games, Inc. in a lawsuit involving the Fortnite dance emote "Phone It In." Judge Padova granted Epic Games, Inc.'s motion to dismiss concerning plaintiff Leo Pellegrino's causes of action concerning the following claims: (1) unauthorized use of name or likeness; (2) misappropriation of publicity; (3) invasion of privacy by misappropriation of identity; (4) unjust enrichment; (5) unfair competition; (6) trademark infringement under Pennsylvania common law; and (7) trademark dilution under the Lanham Act. However, Judge Padova ruled that plaintiff's claim for trademark infringement under the Lanham Act could proceed.
Articles Posted in Copyright
On Thursday, March 26, 2020, Judge Laura Taylor Swain of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York granted summary judgment in favor of defendants, 2K Games, Inc. and Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., in a lawsuit concerning five tattoos appearing in three basketball simulation video games. Plaintiff Solid Oak Sketches, LLC claimed copyright infringement of tattoos depicted on NBA players Eric Bledsoe, LeBron James, and Kenyon Martin in NBA 2K14, NBA 2K15, and NBA 2K16. The tattoos in question were included in the basketball simulation video games "[t]o further the goal of simulating an actual NBA game."
Bandai Namco is claiming that AtGames misrepresented itself in negotiations for the royalty rights to the game.
After years of debate, the European Union (“EU”) has passed the controversial Copyright Directive (the “Directive”), its first update of copyright rules since 2001. By a vote of 348 to 274, the 28 EU member countries are now required to pass or “transpose” these new rules into legislation in their respective countries. The most controversial…
Alfonso Ribeiro, who played Carlton Banks on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, has sued Epic Games, Inc. and Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. for copyright infringement. Ribeiro alleged that Epic Games and Take-Two infringed on his copyright to the Carlton Dance by offering in-game purchases in Fortnite Battle Royale and NBA 2K16, respectively,…
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled the annotations of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated (OCGA) are in the public domain and no copyright can be asserted over this work.
MLB persuaded Twitter to suspend the account of Rob Friedman, which shows brief videos and GIFs of individual pitches from MLB games, but the fair use doctrine may protect Friedman's tweets.
On Monday the Ninth Circuit ruled that animals do not have standing to sue people for breaking copyright laws. Had Congress intended for copyright protection to extend to animals, the should have expressly written it into the law, the three-judge panel concluded.
On March 13, 2018, Jamaican songwriter Michael May filed a complaint in New York federal court against pop artist Miley Cyrus. May, who performs under the name Flourgon, alleges copyright infringement associated with some of the lyrics in Cyrus's 2013 song, "We Can't Stop."
In a somewhat surprising holding, a US district court judge in New York recently held that a news organization's embedding of someone else's tweet with copyrighted material violates the tweeter's right to exclusive display of the tweet.
