Copyright Infringement

Subscribe to Copyright Infringement

Last Tuesday, the Authors Guild and 17 authors, including George R.R. Martin, Jonathan Franzen, Elin Hilderbrand, John Grisham and Jodi Picoult, filed a proposed class action complaint against OpenAI, alleging direct, vicarious and contributory copyright infringement. The Plaintiffs seek “redress for Defendants’ flagrant and harmful infringements of Plaintiffs’ registered copyrights in written works of fiction.”

Plaintiffs’ complaint alleges that: Continue Reading Authors Guild and 17 Well-Known Authors Claim OpenAI Infringes Their Copyrighted Works

Last week, seven major publishers filed a lawsuit claiming that a new captioning service offered by audiobook company Audible, Inc. violates copyright law.  The “Audible Captions” feature transcribes the narration from the audiobook and displays the text on-screen, so that listeners-slash-readers can follow along in real time.  Although previous Audible offerings have allowed users to…

Last week, Judge Daniels granted in large part a summary judgment motion that Characters For Hire, a company that provides costumed characters for children’s events, had filed in response to trademark, unfair competition and and similar claims.  According to the plaintiffs (Disney, Marvel, and Lucasfilm), Characters for Hire’s costumes, including ones named “Frozen Themed,” “Avenging Team,” and “Star Battles,” are strikingly similar to well-known characters from the plaintiffs’ Frozen, Avengers, and Star Wars franchises.

Judge Daniels rejected the plaintiffs’ claims of consumer confusion, noting that whether children believed the generic characters were the same as the more famous Disney versions was irrelevant:
Continue Reading Judge Daniels Narrows Trademark Case Against Company Offering “Frozen Themed” Costumed Characters for Children’s Parties

Two photographers filed a complaint Tuesday against the band Mötley Crüe, alleging that the band and its merchandise vendors used the photographers’ work without permission as part of the band’s “Final Tour.”  The band allegedly included the photographers’ work on clothing and other items sold during the tour (the band’s last before their retirement), which…