The King is dead. His legacy, and those who wish to profit from it, remain very much alive. To what extent may a film maker, under the banner of "fair use," incorporate video clips, photographs, and music into a biography about Elvis Presley without permission from the copyright owners of those materials? The district court - weighing the four statutory fair use factors under 17 U.S.C. § ... More...   $0 (11-07-2003 - CA)

Plaintiff Stephen F. Gordon brought suit against Nextel Communications and Nextel's advertising agency, Mullen Advertising, Inc., for copyright infringement for the unauthorized use of several of Gordon's dental illustrations in a television commercial for Nextel's two-way text messaging. The district court found that Gordon created the illustrations; nevertheless, the court granted defendants'... More...   $0 (10-06-2003 - MI)

Legg Mason has expressed its "shock" at the extent of the damages awarded to Lowry's by the jur... More...   $19700000 (10-06-2003 - MD)

Today we resolve an apparent conflict between California's trade secret law (Civ. Code, § 3426 et seq.) and the free speech clauses of the United States and California Constitutions. In this case, a Web site operator posted trade secrets owned by another on his Internet Web site despite knowing or having reason to know that the secrets were acquired by improper means. The trial court found t... More...   $0 (08-25-2003 - CA)

In this declaratory-judgment action, the parties cross-appeal the district court's determination of their respective rights and obligations under a general liability insurance policy. None of the parties thought it necessary, however, to include that policy in the record on appeal. Collectively they have informed us of only four words from the policy--"used in connection with." A party who seek... More...   $0 (08-20-2003 - OK)

PlayWood Toys, Inc. ("PlayWood") obtained a jury verdict against Learning Curve Toys, Inc. and its representatives, Roy Wilson, Harry Abraham and John Lee (collectively, "Learning Curve"), for misappropriation of a trade secret in a realistic looking and sounding toy railroad track under the Illinois Trade Secrets Act, 765 ILCS 1065/1 et seq. The jury awarded PlayWood a royalty of "8% for... More...   $1 (08-18-2003 - IL)

Jewelry Patent Infringement; and Copyright Infringement on a jewelry rope chain.... More...   $350000 (08-07-2003 - CA)

The defendants denied that they committed contributory infringement, even though consumers can use Grokster and StreamCast to swap copyrighted content online.... More...   $0 (07-19-2003 - CA)

This case involves the application of copyright law to the vast world of the internet and internet search engines. The plaintiff, Leslie Kelly, is a professional photographer who has copyrighted many of his images of the American West. Some of these images are located on Kelly's web site or other web sites with which Kelly has a license agreement. The defendant, Arriba Soft Corp.,1 operat... More...   $0 (07-08-2003 - CA)

In this appeal, we address whether an Illinois organization subjected itself to personal jurisdiction in Maryland by operating an Internet website that allegedly infringed the trademark rights of a Maryland insurance company. Carefirst of Maryland ("Carefirst") accuses Chicago-based Carefirst Pregnancy Centers, Inc. ("CPC") of selecting the name CAREFIRST, despite having notice both of Car... More...   $0 (07-02-2003 - MD)

Robert E. Rice owns the copyright to a home video entitled The Mystery Magician that was created in 1986 and reveals how to perform several well-known magic tricks and illu-sions. Rice created and registered the script for The Mystery Magician and signed an agreement with International Cre-ative Management ("ICM") for the purpose of commercially exploiting the video. In February 1986, ICM ... More...   $0 (06-02-2003 - CA)

Celebrities have a statutory right of publicity by which they can prohibit others from using their likeness. (Civ. Code, § 3344.) An obvious tension exists between this right of publicity and the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. (Comedy III Productions, Inc. v. Gary Saderup, Inc. (2001) 25 Cal.4th 387, 396 (Comedy III).) In Comedy III, we considered when constitutional fre... More...   $0 (06-02-2003 - CA)

Copyright infringement claim by Minder Music Ltd. against rapper-producer Dr. Dre claiming that Dr. Dre's that his 1999 song, "Let's Get High," used the bass line of Minder Music group Fatback's 1980 song, "Backstrokin," said Minder Music attorney Alan Dowling were all plagiarized. The album sold 9 million copies worldwide. ... More...   $1500000 (05-08-2003 - CA)

Copyright infringement claims by Atlantic Recording, Arista Records, Inc., BMG Music, Capitol Records, Inc., Elektra Entertainment Group, Inc., Fonovisa, Inc., Interscope Records, Lava Records, LLC, London-Sire Records, Inc., Loud Records, LLC, Maverick Recording Company, Motown Record Company, LP, Sony Music Entertainment, UMG Recording, Inc., Virgin Records of America, Inc., Warner Bros Recor... More...   $12000 (05-02-2003 - NJ)

Southco, Inc., filed a complaint alleging that Kanebridge Corp. had violated Southco's copyright and trademark, and engaged in unfair competition, by reprinting the product numbers Southco uses to describe its captive screw fasteners. Southco sought a preliminary injunction on its copyright cause of action, which the District Court granted. Kanebridge appealed and we reversed the prelimi... More...   $0 (03-31-2003 - PA)

Fraud and willful copyright infringement claims relating to plaintiff's claim that defendants prevented the release of an album featuring performances by rap star Ja Rule and his group CMC and produced by Irv Gotti. TVT claimed that Def Jam and Cohen tortiously interfered with TVT's contract. Ja Rule contracted with TVT in 1994 as part of the CMC group. Their debut album was put on hold when Chris... More...   $1 (03-25-2003 - CA)

In the Copyright Act, Congress sought to benefit the public by encouraging artists' creative expression. Congress carefully drew the contours of copyright protection to achieve this goal. It granted artists the exclusive right to the original expression in their works, thereby giving them a financial incentive to create works to enrich our culture.1 But it denied artists the exclusive righ... More...   $0 (03-20-2003 - CA)

In adopting the Unlawful Detainer Assistants Act (Bus. & Prof. Code, § 6400 et seq.; UDAA) the Legislature found in part that "there currently exist numerous unscrupulous individuals . . . who purport to offer protection to tenants from eviction. The[y] . . . represent themselves as legitimate tenants' rights associations, legal consultants, professional legal assistants, paralegals, attorne... More...   $0 (03-17-2003 - CA)

Urantia Foundation is a charitable trust formed under Illinois law. Michael Foundation is a non-profit corporation organized under Oklahoma law. This appeal arises out of the parties' dispute as to the present validity of Urantia Foundation's copyright in The Urantia Book, a document comprising the scriptural basis for the Urantia movement. The history of the composition of The Urantia Book, or su... More...   $0 (03-11-2003 - OK)

In her complaint, Willis all... More...   $0 (03-05-2003 - NY)

Background The following facts are drawn from the complaint and summary judgment materials. Plaintiff-Appellee Myron Hulen is a tenured faculty member at Colorado State University ("CSU"). He was appointed as an assistant professor in the Department of Accounting and Taxation (now the Accounting Department) in 1989. His field is taxation. Beginning in 1995, Dr. Hulen cooperated with other m... More...   $0 (03-04-2003 - CO)

Defendant Zefer Corporation ("Zefer") seeks review of a preliminary injunction prohibiting it from using a "scraper tool" to collect pricing information from the website of plaintiff EF Cultural Travel BV ("EF"). This court earlier upheld the injunction against co-defendant Explorica, Inc. ("Explorica"). EF Cultural Travel BV v. Explorica, Inc., 274 F.3d 577 (1st Cir. 2001) ("EF I"). The validity ... More...   $0 (01-28-2003 - MA)

On a motion for summary judgment filed in this copyright infringement action, the district court held that the defendants' copying of a copyrighted manuscript for introduction into evidence in a state-court child-custody proceeding constituted a "fair use" of the manuscript under the Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 107, when the substance of the manuscript was relevant to the issues in the child-c... More...   $0 (01-24-2003 - MD)

Dastar Corporation, Entertainment Distributing, and Marathon Music & Video (collectively "Dastar") appeal the district court's grant of partial summary judgment in favor of American States Insurance Company and American Economy Insurance Company (collectively "American") on the sole issue of whether American owed Dastar a duty to defend in a separate action. Because the parties have engaged ... More...   $0 (01-22-2003 - OR)