Holding: In this copyright dispute between "Barbie" doll-maker Mattel, Inc. ("Mattel") and "Bratz" doll-maker MGA Entertainment, Inc. ("MGA"), a jury sitting in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California found that Mattel's former employee conceptualized the Bratz character and name while he was still under contract with Mattel. The jury held that designer Carter Bryant ("Bryant") made most of the first sketches of the Bratz characters while he was employed by Mattel in 1999 and 2000, and that Mattel owned most of Bryant's Bratz drawings, including the three-dimensional prototypes he made for MGA. The jury also found that that MGA and its chief executive officer, Isaac Larian ("Larian"), were liable for intentional interference with Bryant's Mattel contract. The jury was hung on the issue whether Mattel owned four of Bryant's original drawings from a spiral notebook that MGA argued the designer made while he was away from Mattel. The issue of damages will be the subject of the next stage of the trial. More...

Holding: The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida issued sanctions against owners of a karaoke bar for performing copyrighted songs without necessary licenses. According to the District Court, the logical interpretation of "public performance" is a performance at a place open to the public; proprietors are generally liable if their entertainers or employees perform copyrighted works. Defendants Julie Ann’s, Inc. and Julie Ann Bible owned and operated the Pegasus Lounge and were responsible for determining its music policy. They had been on notice of copyright infringement for four years, but refused to obtain the required licenses which would have cost them $3,375.46 during that period. Accordingly, the District Court awarded Plaintiffs statutory damages in an amount three times the amount of the unpaid fees, that is, $10,126.38 plus $774.49 in investigative costs, for a total of $10,900.87. Further, finding that the acts of infringement were intentional, the District Court awarded Plaintiffs an additional $12,987.08 in attorneys' fees and costs. More...

Holding: The parties agreed to the entry of a consent decree in this copyright infringement case involving plaintiff J. Carlos Ferguson’s original landscape painting. Specifically, defendant Rockwell Hopp, an art dealer, agreed to provide a certificate of authenticity for any piece of art sold by him to every purchaser. Further, defendant agreed to provide a copy of the consent decree to each and every artist that he may represent during the next five years. Lastly, Hopp agreed to provide anyone purchasing art from him with a mechanism for them to contact the creator of the art they purchased. In turn, plaintiff agreed not to seek any further relief for the acts, practices, or omissions alleged in the complaint against defendant, except to enforce the provisions of the decree. More...

Holding: In this action for declaratory relief, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California ruled against plaintiff heir of an author of children’s books and co-plaintiff Disney Enterprises. Specifically, the district court held that the plaintiffs’ copyright termination notices seeking to cancel license rights first granted under a 1930 agreement were invalid. According to the court, a subsequent agreement entered into by the parties in 1983 re-granted such rights and served to bar the intended cancellation sought in 2002. Termination rights over grants given by an author on or after the effective date of the Copyright Act of 1976 are governed by Section 203 (a) of the Copyright Act, but the same provision states that such a grant may not be terminated for thirty five years. More...