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International Developments
A WIPO
arbitration panel has ordered the transfer of the domain names
"dailyvariety.org" and "varietymagazine.org,"
which had been improperly registered by a company in Kenya, to
Reed Elsevier, the publisher of Daily Variety and Variety.
Reed
Elsevier Properties, Inc. v. Titan Net
Case
No. D2006-1298
http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/
decisions/html/2006/d2006-1298.html
Recent
Cases
FIFA breached its contractual obligation to give MasterCard
the first right to sponsor post-2006 World Cup soccer games, a
federal District Court has held (in a ruling relying on Swiss
law). As a result, the court enjoined FIFA from proceeding
with a sponsorship agreement with VISA and ordered FIFA to
comply with its agreement with MasterCard.
MasterCard
International Inc. v.
Federation
Internationale de Football Assn.
464
F. Supp. 2d 246
2006
U.S. Dist. LEXIS 88103
(S.D.N.Y.
2006)
The Tampa Sports Authority has been ordered to stop conducting
mass, suspicionless pat-down searches of every person
attending Tampa Bay buccaneers home games, in a lawsuit filed
by a season-ticket holder who alleges that such searches
violate the Fourth Amendment.
Johnson v. Tampa Sports Authority
442
F.Supp.2d 1257
2006
U.S.Dist.LEXIS 52173
(M.D.Fla.
2006)
The recording group TLC has defeated a lawsuit claiming that
its recording “Unpretty” infringed the copyright to the
song “Make Up Your Mind,” because the evidence showed that
TLC recorded “Unpretty” three weeks before the plaintiffs recorded “Make Up Your Mind,” and the
opinion of the plaintiffs’ expert did not establish that the
two songs were strikingly similar.
Glover v. Austin
447
F.Supp.2d 357
2006
U.S.Dist.LEXIS 62923
(S.D.N.Y.
2006)
A radio station that broadcast recordings without having an
ASCAP license has been found liable for copyright
infringement. The court rejected the station’s argument that
it didn’t need a license because the recordings were
promotional CDs as well as its argument that the exemption
that permits unlicensed performances of music in religious
services did not extend to broadcasts of such services.
Simpleville Music v. Mizell
451
F.Supp.2d 1293
2006
U.S.Dist.LEXIS 65944
(M.D.Ala.
2006)
National Geographic has no contractual obligation to
compensate freelance photographers for the use of their photos
in a CD-ROM version of back issues of the magazine, a federal
District Court has held (following earlier rulings that the
use of their photos did not infringe their copyrights).
Faulkner v. National Geographic Society
452
F.Supp.2d 369
2006
U.S.Dist.LEXIS 66076
(S.D.N.Y.
2006)
In a copyright infringement suit alleging that MGM is
infringing the copyright to Ian Fleming’s short story
“Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” by continuing to distribute its
movie based on the story after the story’s renewal term
began, a federal District Court has held that the studio is
entitled to assert the defense of “equitable estoppel,”
because the trust that owns the renewal copyright did not
assert its claim until years after the renewal term began, by
which time MGM had spent millions of dollars promoting the
movie and had entered into long-term contracts concerning it.
(The dispute arose because Fleming created two separate
trusts, and MGM acquired movie rights to the story from the
trust that owned the story’s first copyright term, but not
its renewal term.)
Legislator 1357 Ltd. v.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
452
F.Supp.2d 382
2006
U.S.Dist.LEXIS 67799
(S.D.N.Y.
2006)
Radio One (the nation’s seventh largest radio broadcaster)
has won a preliminary injunction that bars radio personality
John Mason from broadcasting for competing radio stations and
from soliciting Radio One’s employees and advertisers, in
violation of a contractual non-compete clause.
Radio One, Inc. v. Wooten
452
F.Supp.2d 754
2006
U.S.Dist.LEXIS 67349
(E.D.Mich.
2006)
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