Plaintiff Curtis James Jackson III, the hip-hop recording artist known as 50 Cent, appealed the district court’s grant of summary judgment for Defendant William Leonard Roberts II, the hip-hop recording artist known as Rick Ross, on the grounds that Jackson’s claim of violation of the Connecticut common law right of publicity is preempted
2d Cir: An Author’s Name Can Be CMI But Not This Time
Defendant carried Plaintiff’s product in its catalog. At some point it dropped Plaintiff’s product, substituted its own, and kept some of Plaintiff’s ad copy. Plaintiff argues that the removal of its name constituted removal of CMI for purposes of the DMCA.
Held: An author’s name can function as CMI (however the court didn’t give examples).
Reply Brief in LTTB v RedBubble (Lettuce Turnip The Beet – Asthetic Functionality)
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Trademark Infringement
- Plaintiff Owns A Prior Protectable Trademark in U.S. Commerce
- Defendant Indefensibly Used A Trademark Which Causes A Likelihood of Confusion With Plaintiff’s Mark
Who Can Be A Plaintiff?
What Is Ownership of a Trademark? What is abandonment? What is genericide? What is Misuse of a Trademark? what is naked licensing?
What Is Priority? What is
Commodores Entertainment Corp. v. McClary, No. 14-14883 (11th Cir. 2018)
Dispute over COMMODORES trademark
Band name trademark disputes
Divisibility of common law trademark rights
Appellate Jurisdiction
This case arose from a dispute over the ownership of the mark “The Commodores.” Defendant appealed an order granting judgment as a matter of law to CEC and converting a preliminary injunction into a permanent one against defendant and
Trademark – Personal Jurisdiction
Seventh Circuit
Ariel Investments, LLC v. Ariel Capital Advisors LLC, No. 17-2645 (7th Cir. 2018)
Ariel Investments, based in Illinois and doing business nationally, and Ariel Capital, based in Florida, both manage money for clients. Investments has used its name since 1983; Capital only since 2014. In a suit under the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C.
Copyright – DMCA Safe Harbor
Fourth Circuit
BMG Rights Management v. Cox Communications, No. 16-1972 (4th Cir. 2018)
BMG filed suit against Cox, alleging copyright infringement, seeking to hold Cox contributorily liable for infringement of BMG’s copyrights by subscribers to Cox’s Internet service. On appeal, Cox argued that the district court erred in denying it the safe harbor defense and
Trademark – Laches and Acquiescence
Ninth Circuit
Eat Right Foods Ltd. v. Whole Foods Market, Inc., No. 15-35524 (9th Cir. 2018)
Court Description: Trademark The panel vacated the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the defendant in a trademark infringement case, affirmed the district court’s denial of the plaintiff’s cross-motion for summary judgment, and remanded with instructions.
Copyright – Standing
Second Circuit
John Wiley & Sons, Inc. v. DRK Photo, No. 15-1134 (2d Cir. 2018)
DRK, a purported assignee of photographers’ rights to sue for infringement, filed suit seeking statutory damages from Wiley, a licensee, for exceeding its licensed use of certain photographs as to which DRK non‐exclusively represents the photographers. The Second Circuit invoked
Copyright Substantial Similarity
Ninth Circuit
Rentmeester v. Nike, Inc., No. 15-35509 (9th Cir. 2018)
Court Description: Copyright. The panel affirmed the district court’s dismissal of a copyright infringement action brought by photographer Jacobus Rentmeester against Nike, Inc. Rentmeester alleged that Nike infringed his copyright in a photograph of Michael Jordan when it commissioned its own photograph of Jordan