Don’t Film So Close to Me: Can Copyrighted Music Keep Vids of Police Encounters Off The Internet?

Copyright Law, Entertainment IP, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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In this week’s episode of the Briefing by the IP Law Blog, Scott Hervey and Josh Escovedo discuss recent news stories reporting that police officers played copyrighted music during filmed encounters, ostensibly to keep the videos from being uploaded to the Internet. Scott and Josh discuss how copyright law, the DMCA, and fair use apply to this tactic.

Watch the video of this episode on the Weintraub YouTube channel, here.

Scott’s article on this topic on the IP Law Blog can be read here.

Case discussed: Lenz v. Universal Music Group

Bonus Olympic Episode: IOC Gets Gold in Trademark Enforcement

Sports IP, Trademark Law, , , , , , , , , ,

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In this bonus episode of the Briefing by the IP Law Blog, Scott Hervey and Josh Escovedo discuss the stringent trademark enforcement protection for Olympic symbols, words, and phrases as well as recent lawsuits that have reinforced that protection.

Watch the video version of this episode on Weintraub’s YouTube channel, here.

Lawsuits discussed:
San Francisco Arts & Athletics, Inc. v United States Olympic Committee
USOPC v Puma

 

Space Erotica Flick Not Infringed by Black Mirror

Copyright Law, Entertainment IP, IP Litigation, , , , , , , ,

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This week on the Briefing by the IP Law Blog, Scott Hervey and Josh Escovedo discuss the copyright lawsuit over a Black Mirror episode starring Miley Cyrus, the plot of which filmmaker Geoffrey Blair Hajim said was lifted from his film Strange Frame: Love and Sax.

Watch the episode on the Weintraub YouTube channel, here.

Nike Threatens Fire & Brimstone Over Satanic Custom Shoe Makers

Manufacturing IP, Sports IP, Trademark Law, , , , , , , ,

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In this week’s episode of The Briefing by The IP Law Blog, attorneys Scott Hervey and Josh Escovedo discuss the trademark litigation between Nike and a custom shoe maker, MSCHF (pronounced “Mischief”). In Nike Inc. v MSCHF Product Studio, Inc. Nike sued MSCHF over unauthorized versions of the Nike Air Max 97 featuring satanic imagery. The shoes were tied into marketing by Rapper Lil Nas X, and all 666 pairs created by MSCHF were sold.

View the video recording of this episode on the Weintraub Tobin YouTube channel, here.

Andy Warhol’s Prince Prints: Not Fair Use!? (Part Two)

Copyright Law, Entertainment IP, IP Litigation, , , , , ,

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In this week’s episode, attorneys Josh Escovedo and Scott Hervey discuss an update to the litigation over Andy Warhol’s series of portraits of the artist Prince (Andy Warhol Foundation v Goldsmith). They provide a recap of last week’s episode, which covers the Second Circuit decision in favor of Goldsmith, the photographer whose image Warhol used to create the Prince Portraits, and the holding that Warhol’s renditions were not transformative enough to be fair use. That decision overturned a lower court decision in favor of the Warhol Foundation.

This week, Scott and Josh discuss the possible impact of the Supreme Court fair use decision in Google LLC v Oracle America, Inc., including the Andy Warhol Foundation’s petition to the Second Circuit for review of the Goldsmith decision.

Watch the video version of this episode on the  Weintraub YouTube channel, here.

Listen to part one of this topic, here.

Watch part one of this topic, here.

Andy Warhol’s Prince Prints: Not Fair Use!? (Part One)

Copyright Law, Entertainment IP, IP Litigation, , , , ,

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

In this week’s episode, attorneys Josh Escovedo and Scott Hervey discuss the litigation over Andy Warhol’s series of portraits of the artist Prince (Andy Warhol Foundation v Goldsmith). Their discussion covers the Second Circuit decision in favor of Goldsmith, the photographer whose image Warhol used to create the Prince Portraits, and the holding that Warhol’s renditions were not transformative enough to be fair use. The decision overturned a lower court decision in favor of the Warhol Foundation.

Production Note: This episode includes a discussion of the high-profile litigation between the artist Shepard Fairey and the Associated Press over Fairey’s iconic “Hope” poster of then-presidential candidate Barack Obama. Throughout the episode, Scott and Josh mispronounce Fairey’s last name as “Farley.” They offer apologies to listeners and to the artist.

Watch a video version of this episode on the Weintraub YouTube channel, here.

Listen to part two of this topic here.

Watch part two of this topic here.

What’s In a Name: Clearing Titles for Film and Television

Copyright Law, Entertainment IP, IP Litigation, Trademark Law, , , , ,

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In this week’s episode, attorneys Scott Hervey and Josh Escovedo discuss the process of clearing titles for Film and Television shows. They discuss recent high-stakes litigation around entertainment titles, including Stouffer v. National Geographic Partners LLC, Jon Astor-White v. Daniel Strong (Empire), and the “Honey Badger” case.

Watch this episode on YouTube here.

Watch a previous episode of The Briefing by the IP Law Blog discussing the Empire litigation, here.

Read an article Scott wrote on how the Empire litigation extended the permitted use of third-party trademarks on The IP Law Blog, here.

Read an article on The IP Law Blog about the “Honey Badger” case, here.

Defamation Lawsuit Against Netflix Dropped + New York Protects Dead Celebrities

Entertainment IP, IP Litigation, Right of Publicity, , , , ,

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Scott Hervey and Josh Escovedo discuss two topics in this episode of The Briefing by the IP Law Blog. First, they talk about GEO Group’s defamation lawsuit against Netflix over the show “Messiah,” which was just dropped. Then, at 8:20, they move on to New York’s new post-mortem Right of Publicity law.

Watch this episode on Weintraub Tobin’s YouTube channel.

For more information on the New York statute, read Scott’s post on the IP Law Blog: I See Dead People…Filing Lawsuits in New York.

SPIN Trademark Has Peloton Wrapped Around the Axel

IP Litigation, Sports IP, Trademark Law, , , , ,

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In this episode of The Briefing by the IP Law Blog, Peloton petitions to establish that SPIN and SPINNING are generic terms and can’t be trademarked. Josh and Scott discuss Peloton bringing a case against Mad Dogg’s trademarks and how they are now generic.

Watch this episode on YouTube, here.

Read Scott Hervey’s article about the topic on the IP Law Blog.

“Inspired By” Characters – Defamation Lawsuit As a Spinoff Part II

Copyright Law, Entertainment IP, , , ,

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In this second of two episodes on this topic, Weintraub Tobin attorneys Scott Hervey and Josh Escovedo discuss defamation lawsuits in movies and TV that deal with “Inspired by” characters.

Watch this episode on Weintraub’s YouTube channel, here.

Listen to part one of this series here.

Read Scott Hervey’s blog post about this topic on the IP Law Blog.