The Law Offices of Vince Manapat | Art & Entertainment Law Blog

Google Successfully Defends $600 Million Patent Lawsuit Brought by Company with No Programming Expertise

admin — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 16:48:20 +0000

I don’t usually write about Patent law issues, but this story from The Prior Art is fascinating, and is certainly relevant to copyright and trademark. Essentially, Google successfully defended a patent infringement lawsuit brought by a “patent holding company” or “patent troll,” which is a company that does nothing but file patents. Once the patents are [...]

Government Seeks Input for Intellectual Property Policy

admin — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 17:57:17 +0000

The U.S. Government recently formed a task force to enforce intellectual property laws. Now Victoria Espinel, the U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator, is asking for input from the public about IP policy: To further these goals, we are working to find ways of measuring these threats and their impact on us. How many jobs depend on the [...]

Google’s Numerous Legal Battles

admin — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 20:15:38 +0000

Google’s legal battles both in and out of the courtroom are becoming more ubiquitous. First, the new legal challenge. ABC News is reporting that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Google over it’s controversial policy of (1) having your closest contacts automatically follow you on Google Buzz and then (2) publishing those contacts to [...]

Author Gets Caught Plagiarizing, Defends on Grounds that She Belongs to a Generation of Plagiarists

admin — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 17:43:44 +0000

Helene Hegemann is a precocious author who at 17 is one of the most popular authors in Germany. Her novel “Axolotl Roadkill” is currently the fifth bestselling book in Germany right now. Unfortunately, it turns out that much of the novel is plagiarized word for word from other works. According to the NYT, Hegemann is less [...]

Legal Ethics and Copyright: A Comment on Lawrence Lessig’s New Repulic Article

admin — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:34:07 +0000

Lawrence Lessig has an article in the current issue of the New Republic about copyright and its effect on our culture. Essentially, he criticizes the current climate of copyright licensing, and blames over zealous lawyers have created a situation in which we will need a lawyer “at every turn of page.” I agree with most of [...]

Recovering Artwork Stolen by Nazis: Two Recent Cases

admin — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 20:45:38 +0000

Two cases decided recently highlight the difficulty descendants of holocaust victims experience when trying to recover artwork the Nazis stole from their ancestors. In the first case, a German appeals court decided that the heir to a six million dollar collection of vintage posters may not be entitled to the return of the posters from the [...]

French Government Agency Established to Fight Copyright Infringement Infringes Artist’s Copyright

admin — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 14:45:17 +0000

The French government enacted a law in October 2009 that will effectively cut off internet access to the households of repeat copyright infringers. The legislation established a government agency to oversee the enforcement of the laws called “HADOPI.” The agency chose this as their logo: Soon after HADOPI released this logo, a font designer named Jean-François [...]

Filmmakers, Crowdfunding, and Securities Law: A Cautionary Tale

admin — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 06:06:23 +0000

Most filmmakers are surprised to learn that securities law may apply to the production of their film. It seems counterintuitive to think that securities law, something we normally associate with stocks and Wall Street financial firms, can apply to a small budget film funded by family or close friends or from crowdfunding sources. But in [...]

The Bono Op-Ed: A Digest

admin — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:53:33 +0000

As many already know, U2’s Bono wrote an op-ed in the New York Times about “10 ideas that might make the next 10 years more interesting, healthy or civil.” Bono devoted only three paragraphs of the op-ed to the subject of intellectual property, but those three paragraphs enraged many people. Bono argues that (1) “we’re just [...]

Giving Your Content Away For Free

admin — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 18:31:38 +0000

A Time article describes how several filmakers successfully marketed their films by giving them away online. According to the article, Timo Vuorensola’s Star Wreck reached nine million downloads and generated over $430,000 from collector’s edition DVDs and merchandise. Nina Paley’s Sita Sings the Blues, also released for free online, earned over $55,000. The article ends by stating: Soon, the [...]