Court: Widow owns 'King of the Road' copyright

LexisNexis Copyright & Trademark Law Center Staff — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 11:23:48 GMT

(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) The widow of country music legend Roger Miller has won a protracted legal battle over the rights to some of his biggest hits, including "King of the Road."

A federal judge ruled last week that Mary Miller and Roger Miller Music, Inc. own the copyrights to the songs the artist…

Lady Gaga fires back in NY court at music producer

LexisNexis Copyright & Trademark Law Center Staff — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 10:44:56 GMT

(NEW YORK) Lady Gaga is firing back at a music producer who claims he launched her career and is suing her for $30.5 million.

Her lawyer said in a court filing made public Friday the agreement at the heart of the suit was "unlawful."

Chinese media say Google is politicizing dispute

LexisNexis Copyright & Trademark Law Center Staff — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 10:43:18 GMT

(BEIJING) State media lashed out at Google over the weekend with editorials accusing the search giant of helping forces abroad attack China and its laws, while calling efforts to pressure the country over its Internet censorship "ridiculous."

The critical editorials and op-ed columns came amid signs Go

UN: Trademark filings dropped for 1st time in 2009

LexisNexis Copyright & Trademark Law Center Staff — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 11:06:05 GMT

(GENEVA) Trademark registrations dropped for the first time in 2009 as a result of the global economic downturn, the U.N. intellectual property agency said Thursday.

International filings with the World Intellectual Property Organization fell by 16 percent to 35,925 last year, following a slowdown in new applica

Judge: Site must delay copying of broker reports

LexisNexis Copyright & Trademark Law Center Staff — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 11:04:35 GMT

(NEW YORK) Settling a copyright dispute closely watched in the financial news industry, a judge on Thursday ordered a Web site to delay disseminating the stock recommendations of financial services firms long enough so that the firms can alert their clients first.

U.S. District Judge Denise Cote ruled that Thefl

Producer files $30M suit against Lady Gaga in NYC

LexisNexis Copyright & Trademark Law Center Staff — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 11:02:45 GMT

(NEW YORK) A songwriter and music producer who claims he helped launch pop star Lady Gaga says she squeezed him out of her lucrative career after he co-wrote some of her songs, came up with her stage name and helped get her record deal.

Rob Fusari filed a $30.5 million lawsuit against…

Viacom, YouTube air dirty laundry in legal battle

LexisNexis Copyright & Trademark Law Center Staff — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 11:01:08 GMT

(SAN FRANCISCO) Viacom Inc. and Google Inc.'s YouTube site began airing each other's dirty laundry Thursday, providing a tantalizing peek at the wheeling and dealing that triggered a bitter battle over the copyright laws governing the Internet.

(SAN FRANCISCO) A legal tussle pitting media conglomerate Viacom Inc. against online video leader YouTube is about to get dirtier as a federal judge prepares to release documents that will expose their secrets and other confidential information.

The information expected to be unsealed Thursday will include some

China without Google: 'a lose-lose scenario'

LexisNexis Copyright & Trademark Law Center Staff — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 11:06:42 GMT

(BEIJING) China without Google a prospect that looks increasingly likely could mean no more maps on mobile phones. A free music service that has helped to fight piracy might be in jeopardy. China's fledgling Web outfits would face less pressure to improve, eroding their ability to one day compete abroad. Chinese…

Subscribers to

Jackson estate in record deal worth up to $250 mln

LexisNexis Copyright & Trademark Law Center Staff — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 11:42:09 GMT

(LOS ANGELES) Even in death, Michael Jackson is breaking new records. The King of Pop's estate has signed the biggest recording deal in history: a $200 million guaranteed contract with Sony Music Entertainment for 10 projects over seven years, according to a person familiar with the deal.

The record-breaking con

OpenGate Capital Acquires NICOLE FARHI Fashion Brand

LexisNexis Copyright & Trademark Law Center Staff — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:13:50 GMT

( LOS ANGELES) OpenGate Capital, a global private equity firm, will acquire the highly respected fashion label NICOLE FARHI from French Connection Group PLC in a transaction expected to close within the next 90 days. The deal is the third major equity investment by OpenGate in the past 12 months and further extends….

Dollar General sues rival chain over colors

LexisNexis Copyright & Trademark Law Center Staff — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:50:06 GMT

NASHVILLE Tenn.-(AP) Dollar General Corp. has filed a federal lawsuit against rival discount chain Fred’s Inc. claiming the smaller company is using its trademark yellow a

Who Dat? Inc. sues NFL Properties, Saints, La.

LexisNexis Copyright & Trademark Law Center Staff — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:24:20 GMT

BATON ROUGE, La.- (AP) The company that made a 1983 recording of what became one of the New Orleans Saints' most popular cheers has filed a trademark suit against the state and the team.

NFL Properties LLC, which deals with National Footba

MLB licenser settles card maker lawsuit

LexisNexis Copyright & Trademark Law Center Staff — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 20:44:56 GMT

NEW YORK- (AP) Major League Baseball's licensing wing has settled a lawsuit it filed against a baseball card maker for allegedly stealing trademarks.

Major League Baseball said We

RealNetworks will stop selling DVD copying product

LexisNexis Copyright & Trademark Law Center Staff — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 20:42:21 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO-(AP) RealNetworks Inc. said Wednesday that it will stop selling technology that lets consumers copy DVDs to their computer hard drives, settling a handful of lawsuits filed against the company by Hollywood 's six major movie studios.

Under the settlement terms, RealNetworks is barred from selling its RealDVD product or o

EMI appeals ruling that Men at Work copied tune

LexisNexis Copyright & Trademark Law Center Staff — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 14:24:17 GMT

SYDNEY-(AP) Record company EMI lodged an appeal Thursday against a court ruling that the Australian band Men at Work copied a flute melody from a children's campfire song in their 1980s hit "Down Under."

EMI filed papers with the Federal Court in Sydney listing 14 grounds for appeal and saying that. . .

Student seeks new trial in music downloading case

LexisNexis Copyright & Trademark Law Center Staff — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:47:26 GMT

BOSTON-(AP) A lawyer for a graduate student ordered to pay four music companies a combined $675,000 for downloading and sharing songs online has asked a federal judge to reduce the penalty or order a new trial.

Harvard Law School professor Charles Nesson

Settlement in 'Rocky Top' song lawsuit against A&E

LexisNexis Copyright & Trademark Law Center Staff — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 12:56:32 GMT

NASHVILLE, Tenn.-(AP) The owners of the rights to "Rocky Top," the song that's played throughout football season in Tennessee, have settled a KOUROU, French Guiana-(AP) Joel Barre, the head of Europe's tropical spaceport in French Guiana, is relaxed about letting a former Cold War rival into the very heart of the Guiana Space Center 's control center.

Unthinkable twenty years ago, Europe is lett

EBay found liable in Louis Vuitton suit

LexisNexis Copyright & Trademark Law Center Staff — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 07:31:47 GMT

NEW YORK – (AP) EBay Inc. will pay about $316,500 to Louis Vuitton Malletier for legal costs and damages and stop using Internet search terms the luxury goods maker protested, following a ruling Thursday by the Paris District Court.

The online auction site was found liable for harming the reputation of Loui

Google rebuts DOJ objections to digital book deal

LexisNexis Copyright & Trademark Law Center Staff — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 07:29:31 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO – (AP) Google Inc. wants the digital rights to millions of books badly enough that it's willing to take on the U.S. Department of Justice in a court battle over whether the Internet search leader's ambitions would break antitrust and copyright laws.

The stage for the showdown was set Thursday w

Dr. Dre sues over unpaid Chronic royalties

LexisNexis Copyright & Trademark Law Center Staff — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 07:28:28 GMT

LOS ANGELES – (AP) Dr. Dre sued the new iteration of Death Row Records on Thursday claiming the label failed to pay royalties and released a new version of his iconic album "The Chronic" without his permission.

Dre, whose real name is Andre Young, filed the suit in federal court in Los Angeles aga

SABR says sabermetrics to stay in public domain

LexisNexis Copyright & Trademark Law Center Staff — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 07:29:11 GMT

LexisNexis Copyright & Trademark Law Center Staff — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 07:11:14 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO – (AP) The U.S. Justice Department still thinks a proposal to give Google the digital rights to millions of hard-to-find books threatens to stifle competition and undermine copyright laws, despite revisions aimed at easing those concerns.

The opinion filed Thursday in New York federal court i

Springsteen wants name off lawsuit against NYC bar

LexisNexis Copyright & Trademark Law Center Staff — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 11:24:58 GMT

NEW YORK – (AP) Bruce Springsteen wants his name off a lawsuit demanding licensing fees from a Manhattan bar where a band played his songs.

A statement on Springsteen's Web site Thursday said he didn't know about the lawsuit that was filed Wednesday in federal court and wouldn't have agreed to be a plaint

Judge: Internet provider doesn't abuse copyrights

LexisNexis Copyright & Trademark Law Center Staff — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 10:08:54 GMT

SYDNEY – (AP) An Australian judge ruled Thursday that an Internet service provider cannot be held accountable for illegal movie downloads by its customers, in a test case of a key strategy by entertainment companies to combat online piracy.

The judge said it was the first time a court had ruled on the . .

Court says '80s hit `Down Under' copies kids' song

LexisNexis Copyright & Trademark Law Center Staff — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 10:03:29 GMT

SYDNEY – (AP) Australian band Men at Work copied a well-known children's campfire song for the flute melody in its 1980s hit "Down Under" and owes the owner years of royalties, a court ruled Thursday.

"Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree" was written more than 70 years ago by Australia

Louisiana AG: Shops can sell Who Dat shirts

LexisNexis Copyright & Trademark Law Center Staff — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 06:38:56 GMT

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