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Mealey's Copyright

  • February 26, 2026

    Hayes Estate And Trump Settle Copyright Claims Over Campaign Use Of Soul Song

    ATLANTA — The estate of soul musician Isaac Hayes and other associated entities have settled their dispute with President Donald J. Trump and his 2024 election campaign over the alleged infringement of the Hayes-written song “Hold On, I’m Comin’,” and the parties stipulated to the dismissal of the complaint in a Georgia federal court with prejudice.

  • February 25, 2026

    Judge Says Nvidia May Not Avoid Discovery While Court Considers Stay

    OAKLAND, Calif. — Nvidia Corp. must engage in written discovery stemming from an amended complaint expanding the universe of copyright material it allegedly used in the training of its artificial intelligence while the court considers both a motion to dismiss and a motion to stay discovery pending the resolution of the first motion.

  • February 24, 2026

    5th Circuit: Texas Federal Judge Failed To Explain Fees In Copyright Case

    NEW ORLEANS — While a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel rejected plaintiff-appellants’ arguments that a Texas federal judge lacked jurisdiction to enter attorney fees in a copyright row after the Fifth Circuit had already affirmed an earlier finding that the parties would bear their own fees and costs, the panel also found that the judge failed to provide a lodestar analysis to explain the $500,000 awarded in attorney fees.

  • February 23, 2026

    2nd Circuit Revives Photographer’s Shutterstock Suit For DMCA Safe Harbor Questions

    NEW YORK — While a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel agreed with a New York federal judge’s dismissal of a photographer’s copyright management information (CMI) claims against Shutterstock Inc., the panel also held that factual disputes remain as to whether Shutterstock is protected from infringement claims by the safe harbor provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

  • February 20, 2026

    2nd Circuit Affirms Fees To Be Paid By Plaintiff In Tossed Rap Copyright Fight

    NEW YORK — In a summary order issued Feb. 19, a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel saw no abuse of discretion in a New York federal judge’s holding that a musician who sued rapper Donald Glover, who performs as Childish Gambino, of copying elements of his song in Glover’s 2018 hit “This Is America” owes the rapper and other defendant entities more than $286,000.

  • February 19, 2026

    9th Circuit: Dances In Workout Videos Not Protectible Under Copyright

    SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a California federal judge’s decision to grant summary judgment in favor of defendant entities accused of copying dance routines seen in workout videos; the panel held that the dances represent a functional fitness method and not a copyrightable expression of choreography.

  • February 12, 2026

    Trademark Dilution Claim Stripped From Band Rights Dispute As Judge Adopts Report

    MIAMI — A federal judge in Florida adopted a magistrate judge’s report and recommendation and granted summary judgment to a plaintiff Venezuelan musician on a record label’s counterclaim of state-level trademark dilution in a battle that began with the musician’s allegation that multiple music companies illegally uploaded his music to online streaming platforms.

  • February 11, 2026

    AI Artist Says Copyright Applies To More Than Just Humans

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Copyright Act has never been limited to just human authors, and the U.S. Copyright Office’s policy not to grant protections to artificial intelligence-created works goes against both the statute and the U.S. Constitution, a man says in reply in support of his U.S. Supreme Court petition for a writ of certiorari.

  • February 10, 2026

    9th Circuit: ‘Hatchet Wielding’ Man’s Copyright Claims Fail, Not Defamation Claim

    SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel largely affirmed the dismissal of a sprawling pro se complaint brought by the subject of a documentary titled “The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker,” agreeing with a California federal judge’s finding that the man’s copyright claims failed but also finding that he narrowly established a defamation claim against one defendant-appellee for potentially fabricated claims made in the documentary.

  • February 03, 2026

    Federal Judge Refuses To Reconsider Ruling In Trade Secret Suit Against Insurer

    LAS VEGAS — A federal judge in Nevada denied a software provider’s motion to reconsider an earlier ruling that granted in part and denied in part an insurer’s motion for summary judgment in the provider’s lawsuit alleging that the insurer and another software provider misappropriated its trade secrets to develop a clone of its flood claims services system application, holding that the motion is untimely and the plaintiff failed to assert adequate grounds to grant its motion for reconsideration.

  • February 03, 2026

    Copyright Office Defendants Say AI-Prompted Art Not Subject To Protections

    DENVER — An artist could have chosen to copyright whatever portions of a work he created, but he is not entitled to protection for artificial intelligence outputs that are essentially random and result from repeatedly prompting the technology, defendants told a federal judge in Colorado.

  • January 30, 2026

    Judge Partly Dismisses Architect’s Complaint Alleging Partial Home Copying

    JACKSON, Miss. — A plaintiff architectural design entity can pursue claims that a property sales company infringed the design of a single element of a copyrighted home design, a federal judge in Mississippi held, but it could not pursue claims based on technical drawings the judge found were not part of the registration of the architectural work.

  • January 27, 2026

    Copyright Requires Human Authorship, U.S. Supreme Court Told

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The law firmly establishes that an author must be human and not a machine, and lower courts properly affirmed a decision not to award copyright protections to art a man credits an artificial intelligence as authoring, federal respondents tell the U.S. Supreme Court.

  • January 26, 2026

    4th Circuit: Judge Wrong To Revive Blackbeard Ship IP Row Against North Carolina

    RICHMOND, Va. — A North Carolina federal judge was wrong to reopen a videographer’s complaint against North Carolina and multiple elected officials, a Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held Jan. 23; the panel said the judge failed to justify the reasons for applying a 2006 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the 2021 decision that revived copyright infringement claims centering around images depicting the sunken remains of the pirate Blackbeard’s flagship.

  • January 26, 2026

    3rd Circuit Upholds Finding That Doctor Wasn’t Shown To Copy Exam

    PHILADELPHIA — A partly split Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a New Jersey federal judge’s decision to grant summary judgment in favor of a doctor accused by the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) of copyright infringement for allegedly copying board exam questions; the panel agreed that ABIM failed to establish that the doctor had actually copied the questions.

  • January 16, 2026

    6th Circuit Rejects Parent’s Fair Use Argument For Obtaining School Survey Copy

    CINCINNATI — A Kentucky federal judge was correct to dismiss a parent’s pursuit of a declaratory judgment that the fair-use exception of the Copyright Act permitted her to request a copy of a mental health survey that was to be administered to students at a Kentucky public high school, a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held; the panel agreed that the parent’s claims did not arise under copyright law.

  • January 15, 2026

    Business-Focused Copyright Owner’s AI Suit Fails, Meta Says

    SAN FRANCISCO — A business magazine and book publisher never adequately alleges that any third party directly infringed on its copyrights as a result of the Llama artificial intelligence or that the company knew that such conduct was occurring, Meta Platforms Inc. told a federal court in California in seeking dismissal of the action.

  • January 14, 2026

    5th Circuit: Songwriter Terminated Copyrights For Song Around The World

    NEW ORLEANS —  A Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel agreed with a Louisiana federal judge’s determination that a songwriter and his corporation, and not a music publication company, own the worldwide copyrights associated with the early rock ‘n’ roll song “Double Shot (Of My Baby’s Love).”

  • January 12, 2026

    Judge: Salt-N-Pepa Never Owned Copyrights For Music, Tanking Ownership Suit

    NEW YORK — A New York federal judge held that the artists who form hip-hop group Salt-N-Pepa could not reclaim copyrights or master recording from UMG Recordings Inc. because, as per a 1986 agreement, the copyright interests were vested in their original record label before eventually being transferred to UMG.

  • January 09, 2026

    11th Circuit: YouTube Protected By DMCA Safe Harbor In Piracy Suit

    ATLANTA — A Florida federal judge was correct to grant summary judgment to YouTube Inc. and related entities in a copyright infringement suit brought by an entity that owns the rights associated with many films from Mexico and Latin America, an 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held, agreeing that the safe harbor of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) applied because YouTube was not shown to have knowingly allowed infringing material to be hosted on the platform.

  • January 08, 2026

    Judge Grants Summary Judgment To Defendants In Sunroom Brochure IP Fight

    WORCESTER, Mass. — A Massachusetts federal judge granted two sunroom construction entities’ motions for summary judgment, finding that a graphic designer’s copyright claims against one of the entities failed because of an implied license to use a brochure she designed; the judge also found the designer failed to establish that the other entity had successor liability.

  • January 07, 2026

    Judge Orders Author Who Accused Netflix Of Copying Book To Pay Fees

    ORLANDO, Fla. — A Florida federal judge granted a request for attorney fees from Netflix Inc. and related entities, calling an author’s claims that the 2021 disaster comedy “Don’t Look Up” copied elements of two of his novels “objectively unreasonable, if not frivolous.”

  • January 06, 2026

    6th Circuit Affirms Fees To Morissette In Frivolous IP Claim Suit

    CINCINNATI — A Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a Michigan federal judge’s order that a pro se plaintiff-appellant must pay singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette and a related entity more than $3,000 in attorney fees and costs, finding that the appellant abandoned his challenge to attorney fees and failed to show that he should be allowed to amend his complaint accusing Morissette of stealing the songs on her record “Jagged Little Pill” from him.

  • January 06, 2026

    OpenAI Can’t Escape Production Of 20M Chat Logs, Judge Affirms

    NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York affirmed two rulings by a magistrate judge requiring OpenAI entities to produce 20 million ChatGPT logs after finding that she didn’t ignore privacy concerns or potentially less burdensome production options.

  • January 06, 2026

    Von D Wins On Davis Tattoo Infringement Appeal, Despite 9th Circuit Reticence

    SAN FRANCISCO — In a lengthy per curiam opinion, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ultimately held that a California federal jury’s finding that celebrity tattoo artist Katherine Von Drachenberg did not infringe a photo of jazz musician Miles Davis in a tattoo under the circuit’s intrinsic test of substantial similarity, while two panel judges authored concurring opinions that criticized the intrinsic test standard.