Copyright Law

In International Falls, Minnesota, agents with Customs and Border Protection seized nearly 22,000 counterfeit Barbie dolls worth almost $140,000 from a railcar. These dolls were imported by the parent company of Dollar Tree, Greenbrief International and were intended to be sold in Dollar Tree’s more than 15,000 stores operated in 48 states and five Canadian provinces. Dollar Tree is a Fortune 200 company that operates under the names Dollar Tree, Family Dollar, and Dollar TreeCanada. The fashion dolls were found in a shipping container aboard a Canadian National Railway train during an inspection at the Minnesota-Canada border. On the rail…

On October 12, 2018, Gigi Hadid posted a photograph of herself on Instagram. The New York company, X-clusive Lee, Inc. (“X-clusive”), that allegedly owns the copyright to the photograph has since filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against the model seeking an injunction, statutory damages, any profits realized from the publication of the image, and attorney fees and costs. The lawsuit arises out of X-clusive’s allegation that Hadid uploaded this copyrighted photograph to her social media account without license or permission from X-clusive. Gigi Hadid is perhaps best known for her modeling for the likes of Versace, Chanel, Eli Saab, Fendi,…

Ten publishing companies that represent songwriters behind hits by the likes of Lady Gaga, Drake, and Rihanna filed a lawsuit against Peloton, the fitness technology company, alleging copyright infringement. Specifically, the publishers complain that the fitness company has used over 1,000 of its copyrighted musical works without permission since 2017. In response, Peloton began removing classes from its repertoire that feature songs the publishers claim were being used without proper licenses. Peloton is one of the world’s most successful fitness and technology companies. Since its inception in 2012, Peloton has more than 600,000 subscriber members and is reported to be…