The firm was part of the defense team for clients Time Warner Inc., Warner Communications, Inc., Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., Warner Bros. Television Production Inc. and DC Comics in the ongoing litigation in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California over the copyright termination interest in certain works featuring the Superman and Superboy characters allegedly owned by the heirs of co-creator,More
Milne v. Stephen Slesinger, Inc.
430 F.3d 1036 (9th Cir. 2005), cert. denied, 126 S. Ct. 2969 (2006)
In the first judicial treatment of the new termination right enacted in the U.S. Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998, 17 U.S.C. ยง 304 (d), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the District Court’s decision rejecting an attempt by Disney and Clare Milne to cut off client Stephen Slesinger,More
Harper & Row Publishers, Inc. v. Nation Enterprises, Inc.
501 F.Supp. 848 (S.D.N.Y. 1986), aff’d 723 F.2d 195 (2d Cir. 1983), reversed and remanded, 471 US. 539 (1988)
The Nation magazine, without authorization, had copied portions of former President Gerald Ford’s unpublished memoirs. In this landmark case involving the fair use doctrine, the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1985 decision to reinstate the district court decision for the plaintiffs remains the seminal copyright fair use case under the 1976 Copyright Act.More
Hogarth v. Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.
342 F.3d 149 (2d. Cir. 2003), cert denied, 72 U.S.L.W. 3465, 3589, 3598 (2004)
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the trial decision in favor of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., owner of all existing rights in the Tarzan character, that two Tarzan books published in 1972 and 1976 illustrated by artist Burne Hogarth were works for hire owned by Burroughs,More
Weissman v. Freeman
868 F.2d 1313 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 493 US 883 (1989)
We established the point that defendant’s joint authorship with plaintiff of an underlying medical work did not entitle him to claim copyright co-ownership or fair use of the material newly added by plaintiff to derivative work based on the co-authored underlying work where the defendant had not participated in preparing the new material to update the original work.More
Alexander v. AOL Time Warner, Inc.
132 Fed.Appx. 267 (11th Cir. 2005)
The Firm obtained summary judgment on collateral estoppel grounds for defendants Kensington Publishing Corp. and author and former DEA agent Jerry Speziale on claims brought by Paul Lir Alexander for invasion of privacy and violation of right of publicity by Speziale’s inclusion of information about Alexander’s role as a DEA informant in his book Without a Badge.More