On December 1, 2016, absent congressional action, new amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure will take effect, amending Rules 4, 6, and 82. (See At-A-Glance Summary, infra.) While these changes seem mostly...more
The Ninth Circuit has confirmed that right of publicity claims purporting to arise from expressive works, like films, are content-based restrictions on speech that are presumptively unconstitutional, and generally should not...more
3/2/2016
/ Anti-SLAPP ,
Breach of Contract ,
Defamation ,
False Light ,
First Amendment ,
Fraud ,
Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress ,
Invasion of Privacy ,
Motion Picture Industry ,
Negligent Misrepresentation ,
Right of Publicity
The recent amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure are the most significant overhaul of the rules governing civil litigation in federal court that we’ve seen in decades, including dramatic changes to the timing and...more
The California Legislature recently amended Civil Code § 48a to make clear that California’s correction statute applies to weekly and online publications performing the same news-disseminating function as a daily newspaper,...more
A recent Ninth Circuit decision has endorsed copyright protection for Batman’s four-wheeled sidekick, confirming that copyright protection can extend to “sufficiently distinctive” elements of an original work, like comic-book...more
When computer science professor Scott Fahlman posted a sideways smiley face on an electronic message board at Carnegie Mellon University in 1982, he could not possibly have known that combination of dots and dashes would give...more
On April 29, 2015, the United States Supreme Court adopted the package of proposed amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (“FRCP”) that had been approved by the Civil Rules Advisory Committee (the “Committee”)....more
When computer science professor Scott Fahlman posted a sideways smiley face on an electronic message board at Carnegie Mellon University in 1982, he could not possibly have known that combination of dots and dashes would give...more
On Sept. 28, 2015, the California Governor approved and the Secretary of State chaptered AB 998, by which the California Legislature amended Section 48a to unequivocally declare that the correction statute applies to weekly...more
In the spring of 2013, this author reported on the then-recent decision, DC Comics v. Towle, 989 F. Supp. 2d 948 (C.D. Cal. Feb. 7, 2013), where Judge Ronald Lew determined that the Batmobile is a comic book character...more
Judge André Birotte Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California has dismissed a lawsuit brought by former college athletes alleging that the licensing of copyrighted photographs from their NCAA...more
The California Court of Appeal held earlier this month that certain right of publicity claims are freely assignable, and that the Copyright Act does not preempt a right of publicity claim where the defendant has no legal...more
Last week, the 9th Circuit affirmed the district court’s decision in Luvdarts, LLC, et al. v. AT&T Mobility, LLC, et al., dismissing with prejudice the vicarious and contributory infringement claims brought by Luvdarts, LLC...more