Top 10 Federal Copyright Cases for the Month of May 2010

1. Brayton Purcell LLP v. Recordon & Recordon, No. 07-15383, UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT, 606 F.3d 1124; 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 10928; 94 U.S.P.Q.2D (BNA) 1808, October 21, 2008, Argued and Submitted, San Francisco, California, May 28, 2010, Filed

OVERVIEW:  Where plaintiff Northern California law firm alleged that defendant San Diego law firm engaged in copyright infringement by making commercial use of plaintiff's website to compete for clients, plaintiff satisfied the "purposeful direction" prong for personal jurisdiction in the Northern District of California pursuant to 28 U.S.C.S. § 1404(a).

CORE TERMS:  website, venue, elder, aiming, personal jurisdiction, targeting, beaches, passive, intentional act, aimed ...

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2. Berry v. Deutsche Bank Trust Co. Ams., No. 08-5882-cv, UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 10712, May 26, 2010, Decided,  PLEASE REFER TO FEDERAL RULES OF APPELLATE PROCEDURE RULE 32.1 GOVERNING THE CITATION TO UNPUBLISHED OPINIONS.

CORE TERMS:  summary judgment, copyright infringement, Copyright Act, res judicata, failure to state a claim, de novo, defendant-appellee, contributory, quotation, infringer

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3. Cosmetic Ideas, Inc. v. IAC/InteractiveCorp, No. 08-56079, UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT, 606 F.3d 612; 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 10555; 94 U.S.P.Q.2D (BNA) 1735; Copy. L. Rep. (CCH) P29,935, April 27, 2010, Resubmitted, Pasadena, California, May 25, 2010, Filed

OVERVIEW:  A plaintiff who applied to register a copyright, then sued an alleged infringer before the Copyright Office (CO) accepted the registration, stated the essential elements of an infringement claim because, under the application approach, receipt by the CO of a complete application satisfied the registration requirement in 17 U.S.C.S. § 411(a).

CORE TERMS:  registration, register, certificate, infringement, registration requirement, necklace, subject-matter, formality, deposit, notice ...

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4. Carter v. ALK Holdings, Inc., 2008-1168, UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FEDERAL CIRCUIT, 605 F.3d 1319; 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 10456; 94 U.S.P.Q.2D (BNA) 1769, May 24, 2010, Decided

OVERVIEW:  Determination of patent attorney's compliance with Manual of Patent Examination Procedure (MPEP) and Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) was a necessary element of the malpractice claim. Count VIII, which alleged violation of fiduciary duty, involved a substantial question of federal patent law and, as to Fed. R. Civ. P. 11, was not frivolous.

CORE TERMS:  patent, inventor's, frivolous, patent law, practitioner, trademark, invention, fiduciary duty, malpractice, federal law ...

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5. R.C. Olmstead, Inc. v. CU Interface, LLC, No. 09-3428, UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT,  10a0148p.06;, 606 F.3d 262; 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 10172; 2010 FED App. 0148P (6th Cir.), April 28, 2010, Argued, May 19, 2010, Decided, May 19, 2010, Filed,  As Amended May 24, 2010.Rehearing, en banc, denied by Olmstead v. Cu, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 13117 (6th Cir., June 23, 2010)

OVERVIEW:  Because a software developer's expert's report failed under Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(a)(2)(B)(i) for not discussing the basis for concluding a competitor's software's similarities were the result of copying, exclusion under Fed. R. Civ. P. 37(c)(1) was proper, and absent evidence of copying, summary judgment on copyright infringement claim was affirmed.

CORE TERMS:  software, credit union, interface, trade secret, summary judgment, copying, similarity, discovery, deposition, spoliation ...

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6. Miller v. Holtzbrinck Publrs., L.L.C., 09-0919-cv, UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 9893; Copy. L. Rep. (CCH) P29,926, May 14, 2010, Decided,  PLEASE REFER TO FEDERAL RULES OF APPELLATE PROCEDURE RULE 32.1 GOVERNING THE CITATION TO UNPUBLISHED OPINIONS.

OVERVIEW:  Dismissal of plaintiff's complaint was affirmed because the federal Copyright Act preempted plaintiff's claims of tortious interference or that the manuscript created by plaintiff was improperly converted because of an unauthorized publication. Plaintiff had not stated an actionable claim for fraud against an individual.

CORE TERMS:  Copyright Act, fraud claim, law claim, preempted, preempt, promised, copyright infringement, exclusive rights, tortious interference, cause of action ...

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7. Thomas M. Gilbert Architects, P.C. v. Accent Builders & Developers, LLC, No. 08-2103, UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 9299; Copy. L. Rep. (CCH) P29,927, October 28, 2009, Argued, May 6, 2010, Decided,  PLEASE REFER TO FEDERAL RULES OF APPELLATE PROCEDURE RULE 32.1 GOVERNING THE CITATION TO UNPUBLISHED OPINIONS.

OVERVIEW:  Court affirmed summary judgment for plaintiff on defendants' fair use defense in a copyright action because defendants' use of the architectural plans at issue was entirely commercial and substantial, and plaintiff regularly charged for the kind of changes that were made.

CORE TERMS:  license, operating expenses, townhouse, summary judgment, infringer, misuse, implied license, fair use, gross revenues, infringing ...

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8. Bauer v. Yellen, No. 08-2838-cv, UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 9068; Copy. L. Rep. (CCH) P29,924, May 3, 2010, Decided,  PLEASE REFER TO FEDERAL RULES OF APPELLATE PROCEDURE RULE 32.1 GOVERNING THE CITATION TO UNPUBLISHED OPINIONS.

OVERVIEW:  In a writer's pro se copyright infringement suit, an award of attorney's fees pursuant to the Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C.S. § 505, was not an abuse of discretion because her claims were unreasonable given the lack of similarities between her script and the allegedly infringing script; fees incurred to make ad hominem attacks had to be deleted.

CORE TERMS:  award of attorney's fees, attorneys' fees, script, pro se, fee award, quotation marks omitted, notice of appeal, copyright infringement, ad hominem attacks, finalizing ...

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9. Frank Betz Assocs. v. J.O. Clark Constr., L.L.C., Civil Action No. 3:08-cv-00159, UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE MIDDLE DISTRICT OF TENNESSEE, NASHVILLE DIVISION, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 53437, May 30, 2010, Filed, Motion denied by Frank Betz Assocs. v. J.O. Clark Constr., 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 55193 (M.D. Tenn., June 4, 2010)

CORE TERMS:  summary judgment, derivative, registration, architectural, drawing, infringement, copyrighted, infringing, copyright infringement, discovery ...

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10. Harshaw v. Bethany Christian Servs., Case No. 1:08-cv-104, UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN, SOUTHERN DIVISION, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 53121, May 28, 2010, Decided, May 28, 2010, Filed

CORE TERMS:  disclose, summary judgment, medical records, misrepresentation, adoption agency, concealment, russia, adoptive parents, negligent failure, disorder' ...

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