The Briefing: Court Says “No Way” To 50 Cent’s Battle Over Skill House
The Briefing: Trademark Basics - Protecting Names, Logos, and Brands in Entertainment
Will I Get Sued if I Create Another Hospital Drama? — No Infringement Intended Podcast
(Podcast) The Briefing: The Ninth Circuit Puts the Brakes on Eleanor’s Copyright Claim
(Podcast) The Briefing: The Future of TV? A 2025 Digital Media Trends Analysis
The Briefing: The Future of TV? A 2025 Digital Media Trends Analysis
Season 6 Ep #1 IP State of the Union- Billion Dollar Character Acquisitions- Part 1
Recognizing and Avoiding Trademark Scams and Hoaxes
(Podcast) The Briefing: Bad Spirits – How a Dog Toy Changed TV Title Clearance
The Briefing: Bad Spirits – How a Dog Toy Changed TV Title Clearance
Into the Darkness: Unmasking ‘Mare of The Night’: A Sherlock Holmes Reimagined with Filmmaker CJ Goodwyn
The Briefing: Paramount Splashes Top Gun Maverick Copyright Lawsuit
The Briefing Filmmakers Express Concern Over Impending Death of ‘Biographical Anchor’ Fair Use Basis (Podcast)
The Briefing Filmmakers Express Concern Over Impending Death of ‘Biographical Anchor’ Fair Use Basis
The Briefing: Netflix Defamation Lawsuit About Inventing Anna – Not an Imposter
The Briefing: Netflix Defamation Lawsuit About Inventing Anna – Not an Imposter (Podcast)
The Briefing: Once Upon A Time – SCOTUS Rejects Trademark Infringement Claim Against Quentin Tarantino Film
(Podcast) The Briefing: Once Upon A Time – SCOTUS Rejects Trademark Infringement Claim Against Quentin Tarantino Film
Podcast: The Briefing - Is Linda Fairstein’s Portrayal in Netflix’s “When They See Us” Fair?
When The White Lotus returned to HBO for its third season, it came with the usual dose of dramatic tension, along with one unexpected intellectual property wrinkle. [WARNING – Potential Plot Spoiler Ahead!] In a particularly...more
The Pitch newsletter is a monthly update of legal issues and news affecting or related to the music, film and television, fine arts, media, professional athletics, eSports, and gaming industries. The Pitch features a diverse...more
In this episode, Rusty and Austin explore the potential legal hurdles they might encounter if they were to venture into creating their own hospital drama. With the television landscape already saturated with series like ER,...more
District court dismisses claim for copyright infringement against writers, producers and distributors of television show Yellowjackets, holding no substantial similarity between protectable elements of Yellowjackets and...more
On November 16, 2021, Miramax, LLC (“Miramax”) brought claims of breach of contract, copyright infringement, trademark infringement, and unfair competition against director Quentin Tarantino. Miramax alleges that Tarantino...more
This week on the IP Law Blog, Scott Hervey and Josh Escovedo discuss a claim for copyright reversion made by the screenwriter of Friday the 13th, seeking the reversion to the rights in the screenplay to the popular horror...more
Admittedly, the second word in that title is a mouthful—but Paraskavedekatriaphobia is a real word, with an etymology and definition. It even has a synonym, friggatriskaidekaphobia. Each means “fear of Friday the...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit recently held that the creator of The Friday the 13th screenplay could terminate his copyright grant to Horror Inc. (the producer of the movie franchise) and reclaim it. ...more
The Ninth Circuit’s Unpredictable Approach to Substantial Similarity - Plaintiffs alleging copyright infringement of literary works face an uphill battle. Courts in the Second and Ninth Circuits—where more than half of...more
With Halloween 2020 having just passed, we thought it was important to remember two of the spookiest of intellectual property cases, in particular, those copyright cases addressing issues with well-known horror movies. ...more
On January 15, 2020, director Francesca Gregorini filed suit against Apple, Blinding Edge Pictures, and M. Night Shyamalan, who produced the television series "Servant." Gregorini alleged that "Servant" infringed the...more
The Central District of California recently sank a copyright infringement lawsuit against the Walt Disney Company’s Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise, finding that numerous elements of the Plaintiffs’ allegedly similar...more
In June, I reported on a copyright infringement case concerning Oscar-winning film, The Shape of Water. The suit was filed in February in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, on the same day that the Academy voters started...more
The Shape of Water, winner of four Oscars this year, is defending itself in a copyright infringement lawsuit which asserts the film copies a 1969 sci-fi play. The suit was filed on February 21, 2018, just one day after Oscar...more
On January 17, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. (“Twentieth Century”) argued that a copyright infringement claim relating to the hit novel and film, Gone Girl, should be thrown out. ...more
Demi Lovato, Idina Menzel, and Disney are amongst the defendants who were sued over the hit song, “Let It Go,” featured in the popular 2013 Disney film, Frozen....more
Musical scores incorporated into films are usually produced with the specific film in mind. In the U.S., we call such works “works made for hire,” meaning that the artist does not retain authorship rights to the music....more
In December 2016, a California federal court issued a preliminary injunction against VidAngel, Inc.’s custom-filtered video streaming service. Thursday, in Hollywood Studios v. VidAngel, Inc., a Ninth Circuit panel affirmed...more
I admit that the title of this article may be a bit deceiving. Making films, like any other production of art, is almost always an act of free speech. However, the Ninth Circuit was recently faced with a dilemma of...more
The Central District of California recently dismissed a copyright infringement suit brought by the creators of the screenplay for Rise against the creators of the screenplay God’s Not Dead (“GND”) for failure to state a...more