Press "Enter" to skip to content

Category: Litigation

Copyright in technical report

Can technical report be protected by copyright? For example the Russian courts believe it can be. But unlike the USA or UK copyright law system for the Russian copyright system it was important the presence of creativity rather then originality. So, under the Russian copyright law it was necessary for the subject matter to be created with creativity, the originality was not so important for protection by copyright.

Comments closed

Whether the work is made for hire if the letter agreement was executed after creation?

Over the course of 55 years, Stanley Kauffmann, who was never employed by TNR, contributed numerous film reviews and other articles to The New Republic magazine. During that time, Kauffmann and TNR took some actions consistent with an understanding that Kauffmann was the author of, and owned the copyrights in, his articles. For example, Kauffmann granted many third‐party licenses to republish his TNR articles without objection from TNR.

Comments closed

IP court: making available is different from public performance

The Russian television channel (The First Channel) produces a television program famous in Russia. The program is called “What? Where? When?” where the experts answers the questions asked by the viewers. The program consists of certain amount of rounds. Between these rounds there is musical pause. In one episode of this program, during musical pause, the group of musicians has performed the song. The programs has been broadcasted and then uploaded to the web-site of the channel.

Comments closed

Russian IP court: there is no copyright infringement without IP object

The Russian accredited collecting society (CMO) collecting royalties for copyright in musical works has sued Russian cinema holding, seeking royalties for synchronization right. RAO has proposed cinema holding to conclude agreement for synch right, but the cinema has refused. Therefore RAO has filed suit. In the suit CMO has placed the list of audiovisual works and one author to each relevant AV work.

Comments closed

There is no copyright infringement in similarity caused by nature

GAME Duck

In 1988, Eric Schechter started GAME. At the time, GAME was focused on conducting fundraising activities. The fundraising concept was for individuals to “adopt” a small toy duck and then all the ducks would “race” on a waterway, such as the Salt River Canal or in New York Harbor. The person who had adopted the duck that finished first would win “a new car or prizes,” which had been donated. The sponsoring organization would then retain all the “adoption” fees.

Comments closed

First challenging of theatrical distribution of movies in constitutional court

Russian movie theatrical distributor has filed complaint to Russian constitutional court in order to challenge the rules for theatrical distribution. The distributor believes these rules are of censorship nature. The complaint states on violation of freedom and rights by the actions of Russian ministry of culture (MinCult). MinCult has the rights to shift release dates almost of any film in Russia or repeal the permission for theatrical distribution at all.

Comments closed

Determination of willfulness in copyright infringement

Kast is a California businessman. One of his businesses is Atherton Trust, a real estate wealth management company. In order to develop a web-site for this business he hired website developer – Only Websites. Among other things, Kast “agreed to provide content and other material… throughout the development process.” Kast’s approval would be required on all work, “including the design, development and finalization of the website.”

Comments closed

Even trolling can be treated as insulting of judge

David Diptych “The Judgment of Cambyses”

In Russia there is one interesting occasion. In The commercial court of Krasnodar there is one bankrupt case. The party of the case has sent to judge the motion in envelope with reproduction of “The Judgement of Cambyses”. There was not anything special in motion. It even does not matter what the case is about, the matter is the judge got indignant and scheduled separate court meeting in order to find out why the party has sent its motion in envelope with questionable reproduction.

Comments closed

Russian Facebook VKontakte intends to settle copyright infringement lawsuit

Many Russian right holders have tried to “punish” Russian popular social network VKontakte – Russian Facebook – for copyright infringement. Users of this social network like Vkontakte because you can get satisfaction for your taste in music, video or even books. But in most cases right holders failed because Vkontakte’s position is always the same – “we are only informational intermediary”, therefore “we are not liable if the user posts or links to any illegal content”, “we can only takedown such content in our network”.

Comments closed