Top 10 Copyright Cases for the Month of July 2010

1. FM Indus. v. Citicorp Credit Servs., Nos. 08-3154, 08-3781, 09-1382, 09-1406 & 09-1637, UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SEVENTH CIRCUIT, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 15057, November 3, 2009, Argued, July 22, 2010, Decided

OVERVIEW:  In copyright case, as plaintiff's lawyer failed to submit proper draft pretrial order, despite having had several opportunities to do so, suit was properly dismissed for want of prosecution under Fed. R. Civ. P. 16(f)(1)(B) and 37(b)(2)(A)(v) and plaintiff was properly ordered to pay defendant's counsel fees under 17 U.S.C.S. § 505.

CORE TERMS:  pretrial, software, billion, discovery, want of prosecution, infringement, law firms, random access memory, statutory damages, attorneys' fees ...

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2. Baby Buddies, Inc. v. Toys "R" Us, Inc., No. 08-17021, UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 15081, July 22, 2010, Decided, July 22, 2010, Filed

OVERVIEW:  A holder of a patent for a teddy bear pacifier holder failed to establish infringement as a matter of law because no properly instructed juror could have found the bears substantially similar, particularly since the infringer's bear was larger, had few details, and cruder representations of anatomical features than the patent holder's bear.

CORE TERMS:  baby's, pacifier, holder, paw, teddy bear, bow, ribbon, summary judgment, tether, ear ...

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3. MGE UPS Sys. v. GE Consumer & Indus., No. 08-10521, UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 14891, July 20, 2010, Filed

OVERVIEW:  Because a copyright holder's external security key only prevented initial access to its software and not the software's literal code from being freely read and copied upon access, absent evidence the infringers actually circumvented the technology, dismissal of the holder's 17 U.S.C.S. § 1201 claim on a Fed. R. Civ. P. 50(a) motion was affirmed.

CORE TERMS:  software, trade secrets, infringement, dongle, gross revenue, copyright infringement, misappropriation, copyrighted, infringer's, machine's ...

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4. Novak v. Warner Bros Pictures, LLC, No. 08-56957, UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 14549, March 4, 2010 ** , Submitted, Pasadena, California** The panel unanimously concludes this case is suitable for decision without oral argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2)., July 15, 2010, Filed,  PLEASE REFER TO FEDERAL RULES OF APPELLATE PROCEDURE RULE 32.1 GOVERNING THE CITATION TO UNPUBLISHED OPINIONS.

OVERVIEW:  Where copyright holders alleged that defendants' dramatic film, about a football program following a plane crash, infringed their documentary film, the copyright infringement and breach of contract claims failed because the works were not substantially similar except for matters of historical fact, and the parties did not enter into a contract.

CORE TERMS:  similarity, film's, historical facts, summary judgment, substantially similar, triable issue, infringement, articulable, concrete, copyright infringement ...

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5. United States v. Sweeney, No. 09-1759, No. 09-1823, UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 14247, February 10, 2010, Submitted, July 13, 2010, Filed

OVERVIEW:  The evidence was sufficient to convict defendants of the illegal manufacturing and distributing of cable descramblers, in violation of 47 U.S.C.S. § 553, including evidence that there was no purpose for the nonaddressable feature of the descramblers that defendants' company produced and sold other than facilitating the theft of cable programming.

CORE TERMS:  descrambler, cable, structuring, currency, reporting requirements, infringement, signal, interception, conspiracy, unauthorized ...

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6. Love v. Associated Newspapers, Ltd., No. 07-56008, No. 07-56568, UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 13935, February 10, 2010, Argued and Submitted, Pasadena, California, July 8, 2010, Filed,  As Amended July 13, 2010.Related proceeding at Love v. Sanctuary Records Group, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 13954 (9th Cir. Cal., July 8, 2010)

OVERVIEW:  A California district court properly dismissed for lack of personal jurisdiction a trademark rights holder's claims against the recorder of a compact disc that was distributed in the United Kingdom and Ireland because the recorder did not purposefully direct any of the relevant intentional acts at California.

CORE TERMS:  Lanham Act, publicity, attorney's fees, trademark, distributed, exceptional, promotion, extraterritorial, attorney's fees, recording ...

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7. Golden v. Helen Sigman & Assocs., No. 08-1506, UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SEVENTH CIRCUIT, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 13585, September 16, 2009, Argued, July 2, 2010, Decided

OVERVIEW:  Awarding attorneys' fees as Fed. R. Civ. P. 11(b)(2) sanctions was within a district court's discretion because with regard to a plaintiff's state-law claims against a court-appointed representative for the plaintiff's child, existing caselaw clearly granted the representative absolute immunity under Illinois law.

CORE TERMS:  absolute immunity, state-law, custody, guardians ad litem, attorneys' fees, methodology, frivolous, impose sanctions, state-court, sanctioned ...

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8. Robinson v. Sanctuary Music, 08-2078-cv, 08-2320-cv, 08-2333-cv, UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 13474, July 1, 2010, Decided,  PLEASE REFER TO FEDERAL RULES OF APPELLATE PROCEDURE RULE 32.1 GOVERNING THE CITATION TO UNPUBLISHED OPINIONS.

OVERVIEW:  In a contract suit, substitution of assignees' correct name in a complaint and default judgment under Fed. R. Civ. P. 60(a) was not an abuse of discretion because it was clear the right defendant was sued by the wring label, but the judgment should have been vacated under Fed. R. Civ. P. 55(c) because the assignees' default was not willful.

CORE TERMS:  default judgment, music, vacate, default, envelope, entity, recording, abuse of discretion, meritorious defense, rescission ...

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9. Murphy v. Eddie Murphy Prods., No. 09-3267, UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SEVENTH CIRCUIT, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 13477; Copy. L. Rep. (CCH) P29,945, April 12, 2010, Argued, July 1, 2010, Decided

OVERVIEW:  District court did not err under Fed. R. Civ. P. 6(b)(1)(B) in denying a copyright holder's request for an extension of time to file an amended complaint; defendants would have suffered prejudice from the delay, and the holder never identified a valid reason for the delay, In addition, the proposed amendment alleging fraud was futile.

CORE TERMS:  videotape, summary judgment, deadline, blank, time to file, excusable neglect, television, proposed amendment, properly denied, independent grounds ...

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10. Mattel, Inc. v. MGA Entm't, Inc., No. 09-55673, No. 09-55812, UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT, 2009 U.S. App. LEXIS 29187, December 9, 2009, Argued and Submitted, Pasadena, California, July 22, 2010, Filed,  As Amended July 22, 2010.

OVERVIEW:  In a complex copyright and trademark infringement case, it was inequitable to transfer an entire billion dollar brand to a doll designer's former employer merely because it may have started with two misappropriated names; imposition of a constructive trust forcing the second employer to hand over its sweat equity was an abuse of discretion.

CORE TERMS:  doll, sculpt, sketches, substantially similar, invention, constructive trust, similarity, unprotectable, assigned, employment agreement ...

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