Tout arrive en France, especially for folks following recent intellectual property news. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) released a key judgment in January in a case that pitted copyright against freedom of expression.
Superman – the superhero known to be faster than a speeding bullet and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound – seems to be a magnet for lawsuits. The iconic superhero with the ‘S’ on his chest was the subject of another long legal battle that ended earlier this month. Had the case […]
“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single culture in possession of good traditional knowledge must be in want of intellectual property rights.”
Put this in your pipe and smoke it: The High Court of Australia recently ruled that the Tobacco Plain Packaging Act withstands constitutional scrutiny, in JT International SA v Commonwealth of Australia. Retailers and smokers will thus soon find themselves scrutinizing things as well, in order to distinguish between identical cigarette packages stripped of all branding and trade-marks.
In the recent decision The Hebrew University of Jerusalem v. General Motors LLC, the US District Court of the Central District of California ruled that Albert Einstein’s publicity rights now belong to the public domain given that more than 50 years have passed since his death in 1955.
While “going viral” is a phrase more likely to be used in reference to musicians such as PSY (of "Gangnam Style" fame), a painting has received world-wide notoriety due to a bungled restoration job at the hands of a senior citizen.
In a time where the price for cable TV and Internet subscriptions seem to be ever-increasing, a bid for Astral Media Inc. by Bell Canda Enterprises Inc. (BCE) in March, 2012 for $3.38 billion has roused the concerns of a number competing corporations and consumer groups.
On Thursday, September 13, 2012, the European Parliament adopted a new directive stating that cinematographic and audiovisual works as well as phonograms that are protected by copyright but whose rights holders cannot be found could be made available to the public across the EU.
In July the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) released a report on copyright licensing in the digital age. The report details the response of the UK Government to Professor Ian Hargreaves’ recommendation of a Digital Copyright Exchange (DCE).
Michael "Mike D" Diamond, Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz and the estate of the recently deceased Adam "MCA" Yauch (“the Beastie Boys”) have launched an action against Monster Energy Drink (hereafter “Monster”) for the use of approximately 3 minutes of their music in a video promoting the “Ruckus in the Rockies” event.