Oct 18 2012
Warner Bros., which now owns publisher DC Comics, won a major legal victory on Wednesday against the heirs of Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel, the co-creators of Superman. The family of the creators of the Man of Steel had sought to enforce their rights under a 1976, “termination rights law” that went into effect in …
Sep 08 2012
Normally Hollywood is seen as being a wholly owned subsidiary of the Democratic Party (Clint Eastwood notwithstanding). So it was a bit of shocker when the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) issued a statement praising the platform language of the Republican Party during the RNC: “The Republican Party platform language strikes a very smart …
Sep 06 2012
Round Two in the battle between two high couture fashion houses, Christian Louboutin and Yves Saint Laurent, goes to Louboutin as the Second Circuit (the federal appeals court that covers New York) reversed a lower court’s finding that Louboutin’s famous red sole could not constitute a trademark. Yves Saint Laurent had produced a line of …
Aug 28 2012
Last month, stock photo giant Getty Images paid $100,000 to Car-Freshener Corp., makers of those ubiquitous tree-shaped air fresheners. Getty Images had several stock photos for license and sale in their catalog that included the famous trademarked fresheners. The federal lawsuit was filed in November 2009 and was reported on in this blog in October …
Aug 17 2012
In big news for the TV and film industry in particular, the Second Circuit (the Federal Appeals Court that covers, among other states, New York) ruled that a claim could be brought for “theft of an idea” when a TV network takes an idea that was protected by a contract between the parties. In Forest …