Posting college exam questions online is a tried-and-true strategy practiced by less ethical students for decades. A Chapman University professor may have just found a way to hit back. Professor David Berkovitz of Chapman University’s George L. Argyros School of Business and Economics filed a complaint against five anonymous students in the U.S. District Court in California this past March. He found portions of midterm and final exam questions from his Spring 2021 Business Law course posted on an online forum for students called Course Hero. His complaint alleges that the students infringed his copyright right to “reproduce, make copies, [...]

When working in a field where you’re creating or developing new ideas and materials, it can be complicated to know what is defined as intellectual property and who owns it — especially when you’re first getting started. Intellectual property deals with a wide range of concepts, from creative ideas to algorithms. This means that knowing how to identify intellectual property, its ownership, and the basics of it will help you immensely in the long run. How California Law Defines Intellectual Property To be able to determine whether something can be claimed as intellectual property, you first need to know what [...]

You deserve credit for your own ideas. Unfortunately, sometimes employers can claim that your ideas or the work that you’ve done with them are their own. Ownership of intellectual property in California can be difficult to determine, especially without the help of an experienced attorney. It gets particularly complicated when your employer is involved and your intellectual property becomes a question of employment. If you have concerns about whether your employer owns your intellectual property, it’s best to discuss your case with an experienced California intellectual property attorney. What Is Considered Intellectual Property in California? According to California law, intellectual [...]

Rap stars Drake and Chris Brown have asked a U.S. District Court in Florida to dismiss a copyright claim alleging that the pair “copied” another duo’s song when they wrote their 2019 hit “No Guidance.” Brandon Cooper and Timothy Valentine filed a claim against Drake and Brown in October, asserting that “No Guidance” was copied or principally “derived” from “the beat, lyrics, hook, rhythmic structure, metrical placement, and narrative context” of their song “I Love Your Dress.” The pair seek monetary damages including no less than 50 percent of all direct and indirect revenues generated by “No Guidance.” The attorneys [...]

Music streaming giant Pandora famously paid a $90 million dollar settlement in 2015 to many of the major record labels for streaming music produced before 1972 without the proper licensing under federal copyright law. Now, Pandora has found itself in hot water again for allegedly violating the copyright rights of artists. On February 7, 2022, the estates of Robin Williams and George Carlin filed suit in California Federal Court against Pandora for “willfully” streaming the late comedian’s routines without permission from the copyright holders. In its complaint, Los Angeles firm King & Ballow, representing the comedians’ estates, allege the legendary [...]

Defamation suits against public figures are notoriously difficult to maintain. Public figures are held to a higher burden of proof in defamation cases and, according to the Supreme Court’s landmark 1964 New York Times v. Sullivan case, must show not only that they were defamed, but that the defamatory statement was made according to the stringent “actual malice” standard. We witnessed how difficult it is to meet this standard just last week, when a federal jury in Manhattan returned a verdict against Sarah Palin in her defamation suit against the New York Times over a 2017 editorial linking the ex-politician [...]

Recently, country music trio Lady Antebellum changed their name to “Lady A” in the wake of the George Floyd protests and Black Lives Matter movement. (The old name carried an uncomfortable connection with the pre-Civil War, slave-holding South). But there was a problem: Since the early 1990s, Seattle blues singer Anita White had been using the stage name Lady A. At first, it seemed the two parties would settle the matter of who could use the name amicably and out of court. But negotiations broke down in July of 2020, when the band formerly known as Lady Antebellum filed an [...]

NFTs (or Non-Fungible Tokens) have become the new investment craze - surpassing $40 billion in transactions in 2021. A growing number of celebrities are jumping in on the action, with stars like Tom Brady, Snoop Dogg, Paris Hilton, and The Weeknd all ‘dropping’ their own NFTs or going public about their big investments in the new technology. Even the ever-mercurial Elon Musk temporarily got in on the game, reporting he would sell his song about NFTs as an NFT before backing out and labeling the new NFT-obsessed digital landscape as a ‘sign of mental illness’. The speed with which the [...]

Match Group, which claims it “pioneered the concept of online dating” more than 20 years ago, has accused another dating app, Muzmatch, of using the word “match” in its website's metadata to help boost its profile in internet searches.  This is not the first time Match Group has filed a lawsuit against a competitor dating site. Match sued popular dating service Bumble in 2018, prompting the competition to file a counterclaim. The two corporations reached an agreement to cease their legal battle in June 2020 but did not reveal the terms of the deal. Match Group, the parent company of [...]