A recent report by the Copyright Office includes a series of recommendations on how to reallocate rights and risks in ways some stakeholders like and others do not. Information wants to be free, but intellectual property wants to be protected. The tension between these technological and legal truisms is at the core of the compromises…

Information wants to be free, but intellectual property wants to be protected. The tension between this durable cliché and fundamental principle has informed much of the political and legal debate surrounding the commercial rise of the internet over the past 25 years. This debate is presently centered in Europe, where the European Union seems poised…

A writer (and performer) of the famous “YMCA” song has rocked the music industry by successfully reclaiming the copyrights in many of his works using little known provisions of the Copyright Act of 1976. These provisions allow creators to revoke copyright assignments and again take ownership of their works 35 years after assignment. As more…

Earlier this year in March, Amazon launched the Amazon Appstore, which was then a new avenue for buying Android apps.  Almost immediately after the launch, Apple proceeded to file a trademark infringement suit against Amazon over the usage of the “Appstore” phrase.  The case is contingent upon whether “app store” can be deemed a generic…

In order to initiate an infringement action in federal court, the Copyright Act requires the litigating party to hold a copyright registration. While the circuits are split on what constitutes a copyright registration, the Ninth Circuit recently joined the Fifth and Seventh Circuits in Cosmetic Ideas v. IAC in holding that anapplication for copyright registration suffices for a…