Southwestern University School of Law
Los Angeles

Donald E. Biederman Entertainment & Media Law Institute

Conferences

"Brave New World" Conference
January 26th, 2:00-7:45 pm

Summer Programs
International Entertainment & Media Law Program in London

Entertainment Law Program in Los Angeles

Master of Laws Program

LLM in Entertainment & Media Law

December 2005
Volume 27 Number 7

Legal Affairs

Patenting Movies and Music? by Greg Aharonian

International Developments

Canadian appellate court rules that file-sharing may infringe record company and music publisher copyrights; copyright owners are authorized to make new application for order compelling ISPs to identify customers suspected of being P2P users
 

Supreme Court of Canada declines to review decision that digital music players are not subject to private copying levy imposed on “blank audio recording media” by Canadian Copyright Act

Recent Cases  

Disney TV movie “Up, Up, and Away” did not infringe trademark of environmental organization Earth Protector

Fabolous’ hip hop song “Young N” did not infringe copyright to song “Holla Back” owned by publisher/producer Carla Boone

Claim that James Brown’s “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World” infringed copyright of Betty Newsome’s “It’s a Man’s World” was barred by statute of limitations and settlement of earlier case

Book about football clock management did not infringe copyright of another book on same topic

Creator of “Bikram” yoga failed to win dismissal of suit by Open Source Yoga Unity seeking declaration that yoga sequence is not protectable by copyright and “Bikram yoga” is not protected trademark; case then settled

Faxes and internal memo did not constitute exclusive distribution agreement between Big Idea Productions and Lyrick Studios, so Big Idea did not breach a contract when it decided to have its cartoon “VeggieTales” distributed by another company

Appeals court vacates $47 million judgment awarded to prominent sports agent Leigh Steinberg in suit against former partner David Dunn

Worker’s compensation clause in standard NFL player contract entitled Carolina Panthers to dollar-for-dollar credit for post-injury payments to players

New England Patriots did not breach contract with season ticket holder by canceling season tickets

Ontario Hockey League’s “Van Ryn Rule” did not violate antitrust laws, federal appellate court affirms

Court refuses to dismiss Wisconsin radio station’s trademark infringement claim complaining about Clear Channel’s use of “Madison’s Progressive Talk”