BLOG

  The Walt Disney Company recently moved to dismiss a copyright infringement lawsuit brought against it by the estate of Michael Jackson. “The Last Days of Michael Jackson,” the subject of the lawsuit, was aired by ABC earlier this year as a documentary television retrospective on the star’s Jackson 5 years to his final days. In essence, the estate claims the documentary features copyright-protected videos and songs owned exclusively by the estate and without ever seeking permission for the same. In response, Disney continues to maintain its documentary constitutes fair use. In its complaint, Michael’s Jackson’s estate focuses on the…

The first microwave was invented by accident in a Raytheon laboratory testing magnetrons. Perry Spencer, the accidental inventor, was a Raytheon employee and self-taught engineer. One day while working near the magnetrons, which are high-powered vacuum tubes inside radars, Spencer noticed a peanut butter chocolate candy bar in his pocket had begun to melt. With this newfound knowledge of how to cook food within seconds, Spencer, together with Raytheon, patented the invention. Two years later, the first commercial microwave oven was launched by Raytheon, cost $5,000 at the time, and approximated 750 pounds in weight and nearly 6 feet in…

Billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, Elon Musk, recently settled a dispute with an artist over a farting unicorn image. Tom Edwards, a Colorado-based potter, first released the drawing of a unicorn farting into a pipe to power an electric car in 2010. The mug featuring the image was consistent with the signature light-hearted cartoons of Edwards’ “Wallyware” brand and contained the phrase “electric cars are good for the environment because electricity comes from magic.” The dispute began last year when Musk tweeted a picture of the coffee mug including Edwards’ work with the caption “maybe my favorite mug ever.”…

In response to continued criticism for failing to adequately prevent copyright infringement on its platform, YouTube has launched a tool designed to fight the issue. Known as the “Copyright Match” tool, the initiative is designed to identify re-uploads of a user’s content to other accounts. The uploaded video is first scanned and checked for similarities to other videos. Any such matches appear appropriately in the “matches” tab. Once a match has been identified, the user may choose to take no action, request YouTube remove the video, or take matters into their own hands by contacting the creator directly. When a…

In 2010, the United States Postal Service released its collection of Liberty Forever stamps. After approximately three billion stamps had been printed, USPS realized the image it had obtained from Getty Images, a stock photography company, was not of New York’s beloved Statue of Liberty but instead, bore the face of the Statue of Liberty replica positioned outside the New York-New York hotel and casino in Las Vegas. Robert Davidson, the replica’s sculptor, was hired in 1996 to create the statue after completing his work on the 110-foot replica of the Sphinx down the street. Davidson claims he was given…

After decades of experience in the law, Mrs. Fond will join the firm as a legal assistant. Mrs. Fond studied at Armstrong College, where she dual-majored in English and Business. Through years of experience as both a legal assistant as well as an office manager, Mrs. Fond brings strong communication and administrative skills to the practice. Moreover, her gregarious personality and receptivity renders Mrs. Fond exceptionally capable of dealing with clients, the courts, and opposing counsel.

In 1859, Ms. B Franklin Coston was issued the first patent related to a fireworks display. While fireworks originated and were well-known in China, Ms. Franklin invented a “Method of Signalizing Any Numeral or Combination of Numerals by the Display of Different Pyrotechnic Fires.” The patent details the successive exhibitions of fires of three different colors, those colors unsurprisingly being red, white, and blue. Decades later, The Walt Disney Company patented a “Precision fireworks display system having a decreased environmental impact.” Disney’s invention involves a launching device and an electronic control system capable of causing the projectile to explode mid-air…

The Copyright Act permits registration of original works of authorship with the United States Copyright Office. Copyright registration is not required, however, because a protectable copyright arises once the work is fixed in a tangible medium of expression. That being said, registration is a prerequisite to bringing a lawsuit for infringement. There has long existed a split among federal courts as to whether an application for registration pending satisfies this rule. Earlier this week, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a case deciding this long-disputed issue. Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corporation v. Wall-Street.com, LLC, an appeal from the Eleventh Circuit…

Allegations have surfaced suggesting Donald Glover, whose stage name is Childish Gambino, plagiarized his single “This Is America” based on rapper Jase Harley’s 2016 song, “American Pharaoh.” The controversy began after Jamie Foxx brought Glover on stage at the BET Awards for high praise and an impromptu performance of the hit single. Reddit users took to the internet in noting the similarities shared with the prior song. To prove copyright infringement, Jase Harley would need to demonstrate that the two songs are in fact “substantially similar” and that Glover reasonably had access to the song. Substantial similarity is not analyzed…

Two hundred twenty-eight years after the first patent was issued for a process of making potash (an ingredient used in fertilizer), the ten millionth patent has officially issued. Yesterday, U.S. Patent No. 10,000,000 issued for “Coherent Ladar Using Intra-Pixel Quadrature Detection.” The disclosure describes a method of bouncing lasers off of targets to figure out their range and velocity, which could be used in the development of self-driving vehicles. The method was invented by Joseph Marron but the patent is owned by his employer, Raytheon Company. Since being awarded its first patent in 1991, Raytheon has been awarded more than…