Is Sherlock ‘complete’? 7th Circuit will consider when literary characters are free from copyright

Jun 1, 2014 9:50 AM CDT

Silicon Valley lawyer makes a splash with his father-daughter video lectures

Jun 1, 2014 9:30 AM CDT

Walmart Museum sues photographer’s widow for Walton family pictures and negatives

The Walmart Museum and family members of Wal-Mart Stores founder Sam Walton have filed a lawsuit seeking the rights to family photos taken over the course of several decades. The suit pending in Arkansas federal court seeks negatives, proofs and prints taken between 1950 and 1994 by Fayetteville photographer Robert…

May 26, 2014 12:09 PM CDT

Federal Circuit’s chief judge resigns leadership post after email controversy

Judge Randall Rader of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has announced his resignation as chief judge of the court following a controversy over an email he sent to a BigLaw partner. The court announced on Friday that Rader will step down as chief judge at the…

May 23, 2014 2:56 PM CDT

Blogger: Law firm homepages are losing significance | Will SCOTUS ruling affect Spider-Man rights?

Kevin O’Keefe at Real Lawyers Have Blogs notes an Atlantic article about sharply declining traffic to the New York Times’ homepage (based on the recently leaked internal review of Times digital strategy). Readers are increasingly reaching news sites by way of links from social media sites to individual stories rather…

May 23, 2014 1:30 PM CDT

Akin Gump withdraws from case after winning $25M jury verdict, says client admitted evidence issues

After winning a verdict of nearly $25 million in a federal trade secrets case earlier this year, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld has filed a motion to withdraw from its representation of LBDS Holding Company, LLC. Noting that it is unusual to do so after a favorable jury verdict…

May 22, 2014 3:57 PM CDT

‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ author Harper Lee wants to reinstate lawsuit against hometown museum

Harper Lee, author of the iconic trial novel To Kill a Mockingbird, wants to reinstate a federal lawsuit she had earlier agreed to settle. Lee’s suit, against the Monroe County Heritage Museum in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, alleged that the institution was profiting from using her name and the…

May 20, 2014 6:15 PM CDT

‘Raging Bull’ copyright suit isn’t barred by doctrine of laches, SCOTUS rules

The daughter of Jake LaMotta’s biographer is getting an opportunity to sue the movie studios profiting from DVD and Blu-ray sales of Raging Bull, the movie about the boxer’s life. The 6-3 decision (PDF) issued on Monday holds that Paula Petrella, daughter of biographer Frank “Peter” Petrella, did not wait…

May 19, 2014 3:47 PM CDT

‘Stop the Islamization of America’ is disparaging and can’t be trademarked, Federal Circuit says

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has refused a trademark for the phrase “Stop the Islamization of America” because it is disparaging to Muslims. The Federal Circuit ruled on Tuesday against blogger Pamela Geller, who founded a group by that name and runs a website called “Stop!…

May 14, 2014 12:36 PM CDT

Godzilla may breathe fire, but he still needs a lawyer

A float in a 1991 parade launched a lucrative legal relationship for Chuck Shepard, who may not be able to breathe fire and crunch cities with a stomp of his foot but nonetheless has skills that are much-needed by an iconic monster. As the lead lawyer protecting the Gozilla brand,…

May 12, 2014 10:15 PM CDT

Oracle wins copyright ruling in battle over Google’s Android software

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has given Oracle a big win in its suit claiming Google used its patented and copyrighted Java technology in Android software. The appeals court ruled that application programming interfaces, or APIs, are covered by U.S. copyright law, the San Jose Mercury…

May 12, 2014 1:53 PM CDT

After blogger outcry, legal publisher changes policy on required return of hard-copy casebooks

Updated: Aspen Publishers has apparently responded to an outcry over its plan to require law students to return their property casebooks at the end of the semester. The company came in for criticism after a professor at South Texas College of Law announced he may not switch to a new…

May 8, 2014 3:30 PM CDT

Patent trolls are getting First Amendment protection for their demand letters

May 1, 2014 9:00 AM CDT

Producers of ‘Matrix’ trilogy dodge copyright infringement lawsuit

What does The Matrix trilogy have in common with cryogenically frozen Nazis who become immortal and wage war on the rest of the world? According to a Los Angeles federal district judge, not much—or at least not enough to find that the creative team behind The Matrix stole ideas from…

Apr 30, 2014 10:45 PM CDT

Supreme Court eases standard for award of attorney fees in patent litigation

The Federal Circuit’s standards for the award of attorney fees in patent cases are “unduly rigid,” the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled. The Supreme Court issued opinions in two attorney fee cases today, including one cast as an avenue to deter frivolous litigation by patent trolls. The opinions ease the…

Apr 29, 2014 2:56 PM CDT