Copyright Law Archives

Udta Punjab and Online Piracy of Bollywood Movies

Udta Punjab, the recently released bollywood movie on substance abuse prevalent in Punjab has been mired in controversy from the beginning. Earlier, when the movie had commenced its shooting,the production unit faced trouble for not taking mandatory permission from the district administration and police authorities of Amritsar. However, recently the movie drew attention due to its certification and censorship by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) which became the bone of contention between the producers and the CBFC. In…

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Sony’s use of Emoji: A possible legal dispute

Sony might have to settle a possible trademark as well as copyright dispute with Marco Husges, before it can release an animated film titled “The Emoji ”. Marco Husges, is a game developer and emoji creator who has previously worked on the MMO Shadowbane, Starbreeze Studio’s Enclave and had filed for commercial trademark of the word "emoji" back in 2013. He claims to have trademark merchandising rights over 3000 emojis. The rights over the emoji shouldn’t be confused…

June 8, 2016 BananaIP Reporter Copyrights, Intellectual Property, Trademarks 0Comment 771Views 0Like

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ABS Entertainment, Inc. v. CBS Corporation, et al.

This article relates to an interesting summary judgment passed by the District Court of California in a suit brought for copyright infringement. The Plaintiffs, ABS Entertainment Inc., Barnaby Records, Inc., Brunswick Record Corporation, and Malaco Inc. (collectively addressed as “Plaintiffs”) brought a copyright infringement suit against CBS Corporation and CBS Radio Inc. (collectively addressed as “CBS” or “Defendants”) for publicly performing, through radio broadcasts or digital internet streams, the Plaintiffs’ pre-1972 sound recordings. It is necessary to state the…

June 6, 2016 BananaIP Reporter Copyrights, Intellectual Property 0Comment 783Views 0Like

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Google’s use of Java APIs in Android – fair use?

The District Court of the Northern District of California held last week that Google's use of 37 Java APIs of Oracle does not give rise to copyright infringement liability because it is fair use. On remand from the Federal Circuit, in a Jury trial, Google's use of Java APIs and around eleven thousand lines of code was held to be fair use as it is meant to promote inter-operability and compatibility between programs. You may read our earlier post for…

May 31, 2016 BananaIP Reporter Copyrights, Intellectual Property, Open Source Licensing 0Comment 835Views 0Like

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National IPR Policy – Copyright Related Objectives

On the 13th May 2016, the much anticipated National IPR Policy was released which aims to lay down a system of growth for intellectual property rights (IPRs) in India by ensuring the protection of new innovations ,research and development while establishing a stable framework in the country for the domestic and foreign investors alike. Though the salient features of the IPR Policy have been explained in detail in our previous post, the core objectives of the Policy are highlighted below…

May 23, 2016 BananaIP Reporter Copyrights, Intellectual Property 0Comment 972Views 0Like

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The featured imnage is of Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner as Mr. Spock and Captain Kirk from the television program Star Trek. The post is about a copyright issue with Star Trek. To read more click here.

Complaint against Crowdfunded Star Trek Film Prevails

By virtue of being the owner of a movie,the producer (or his licensee) as a sole proprietor or the right holders have exclusive rights to use the trademarks, copyright and any Intellectual Property contained in a motion picture, in any manner whatsoever, including the right to reproduce, make derivative works, distribute, perform or right to publicly display the work. These intellectual Properties in a movie includes, but is not limited to names, photographs, the specific characters, likeness, titles, artworks/images/stills/posters, dialogues…

May 16, 2016 BananaIP Reporter Copyrights, Intellectual Property 0Comment 785Views 0Like

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I got (NO) power-IPRS restrained from issuing licenses by Delhi HC

Not too long ago, the Delhi High Court meted out a very important decision with respect to the status of IPRS as a copyright society. The suit was filed by Mrs Chitra Jagjit Singh (Plaintiff), wife of the late artist Mr Jagjit Singh and a popular artist herself, against IPRS (Defendant 1) for wrongfully issuing licenses with respect to her and her late husband’s copyrighted works. It was pleaded by the Plaintiff that IPRS was no longer a copyright society,…

May 2, 2016 BananaIP Reporter Copyrights, Intellectual Property 0Comment 671Views 0Like

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Copyright Pirates! BREIN is coming for you!

Well we’re all aware how heinous a crime piracy is and how every year the entertainment industry suffers a loss of millions of dollars due to it. For more than a decade anti-piracy organizations have been targeting pirate websites to curb instances of piracy. One such organization is BREIN (Bescherming Rechten Entertainment Industrie Nederland, which roughly translates to association for the Protection of the Rights of the Entertainment Industry of the Netherlands), a Dutch organization which has been an active…

March 30, 2016 BananaIP Reporter Copyrights, Intellectual Property 0Comment 824Views 0Like

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Providers of free Wi-Fi free from copyright liability

Last Wednesday, IP Kat had reported about an interesting opinion given by the Advocate General Szpunar in the case of Tobias Mc Fadden v Sony Music Entertainment Germany GmbH, C-484/14 which states that the Operator of a shop, hotel or bar who offers a password free Wi-Fi network are not liable for copyright infringement committed by users of that network. In the instant case Tobias Mc Fadden operated a business of lights and sound systems near Munich that provides a…

March 24, 2016 BananaIP Reporter Copyrights, Intellectual Property 0Comment 747Views 0Like

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Lionsgate v. Ameritrade: A classic case of copyright claims dressed in TM claims’ clothing

Spoofs have had a long history of getting into trouble. So it’s no surprise that when brokerage giant TD Ameritrade tried to put a cheeky spin on the iconic line “Nobody puts Baby in the corner”, Lionsgate was not so forgiving. We had initially covered the matter , back in July, 2015 when Lionsgate filed an infringement suit against Ameritrade in Los Angeles. Just to jog your memory and for our younger readers, who might not be familiar with the film…