Category: Copyright

As soon as an individual expresses an idea, phrase, or some other form of creativity in a tangible medium of expression, it has copyright protection. The United States government makes all works protected, whether registered or not, in order to promote creativity and allow for all original thoughts to be owned by the creators. While […]

Games have evolved from the simplicity of Pong to the complex, 18 quintillion planet universe of No Man’s Sky. Along with this massive expansion, development teams have evolved, too. While the original idea of any app or game is usually attributed to a stroke of genius from one person, it is understood that a team […]

Katherine Craig, a Detroit artist, is suing the Bloomfield-Hills based Princeton Enterprises because the developer wants to tear down a building in Detroit. While opposition to the destruction of buildings is not uncommon—particularly for older, historic buildings—Craig’s reason is quite different: she wants to preserve the 100-by-125-foot mural painted on the side of the building. Why? Because she painted it. 

The Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA) creates a civil cause of action against someone who registers, traffics in, or uses a domain name that is confusingly similar to, or dilutive of, a trademark or personal name. Significantly, a person accused of violating the ACPA must have “a bad faith intent to profit” from the domain name to be found liable. Bad faith may seem like a vague concept, but the lawmakers who wrote the ACPA provided nine factors that might demonstrate whether one has acted in bad faith. Fortunately, the Internet attorneys at Revision Legal are very familiar with the ACPA, and we’d like to take the opportunity to explain these factors.

As a result of a decision made earlier this week, copyright royalties will be on the rise as of 2016—and the Copyright Royalty Board left room open to allow for a possible continuance of the cost hike over the coming years.  On Wednesday December 16, in a highly contested decision, the Board ruled that Pandora […]

Consider the following scenario: You’re a successful business owner, and you have a customer base that’s expanding daily. Recently, you decided it’s time to start a website to continue growing your business, but when you try to register your trademark as your domain name, you find out someone else already owns it. Without warning, you […]

The Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (“ACPA”) is a federal statute that creates a civil course of action under intellectual property. Specifically, the statute is for owners of certain marks pursuing civil action against registrants of domain names that can negatively impact those marks and their owners. To be successful under the ACPA, the owner of […]

As the app market speeds up, developers are rushing from app conception to coding to cross-platform publication. At the same time, developers are trying to navigate this new marketplace without losing any rights to their creative work. The Apple App Store presents a specific set of guidelines for developers to abide by while creating their […]

In City of Inglewood v Joseph Teixeira, the Court found that Teixeira’s use of City Council recordings in his personal critical commentary videos did not violate any kind of copyright laws. The Court’s decision to grant Teixeira’s motion to dismiss was not especially surprising. California state law creates a strong presumption supporting public access to […]

Last week, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals handed down a ruling in the “dancing baby” case that will affect every copyright holder that seeks to send out a DMCA takedown request. The court held that a copyright holder must consider an infringer’s fair use before sending out a takedown notice, or open itself up […]