31 October 2015

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Beyonce Copyright Suit: Queen Bey still runs the world

Known for her creativity and originality, Beyoncé was slammed with a $ 7 million lawsuit for one of her latest singles ‘XO’. The ‘Crazy in Love’ singer found herself facing a lawsuit by Ahmad Javon Lane, a singer, who claimed that Beyoncé allegedly infringed his song ‘XOXO’ after he gave a digital copy of the song to one of her background singers, Chrissy Collins. One of the main questions posed before Judge Paul A. Engelmeyer, District Judge, U.S. District Court of Southern District of New York, was whether the two songs were substantially similar and whether the ‘Queen Bey’ had...

26 October 2015

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Big victory for Big Pimpin’

Posted by BananaIP Reporter

in Copyrights, Intellectual Property

“Big Pimpin”, Jay Z’s chart topping rap number had been at the center of a longstanding copyright lawsuit. The law suit was initially filed in 2007 by Osama Fahmy, nephew of Egyptian composer Baligh Hamdi, whose song ‘Khosara Khosara’ was partially featured in the 2000 hit. Last week the US District Court in Los Angeles ruled that Mr. Fahmy ‘lacked the standing' for his copyright lawsuit against both Jay Z (Shawn Carter) and producer Timbaland (Timothy Mosley). A flute riff composed by the late Baligh Hamdi, from the song Khosara Khosara, is repeated throughout Big Pimpin’. The Egyptian song was first...

20 October 2015

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Batmobile lawsuit: Copyright law, the real superhero

Posted by BananaIP Reporter

in Copyrights, Intellectual Property

The IP dispute discussed in this post pertains to the property of the most beloved superhero. United States Court of Appeals was asked to decide over the copyright and trademark infringement action brought by DC Comics against a maker of Batmobile replicas. DC Comics, copyright owner of the Batman comic books, brought a law suit against Defendant Mark Towle who was accused of producing replicas of “Batman’s sidekick” Batmobile as it appeared in both the 1966 television show and the 1989 motion picture. These replicas were sold as part of his business “Gotham Garage”. Furthermore, Towle in order to attract attention...

17 October 2015

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Bajrangi Bhaijaan faces copyright infringement suit

Posted by BananaIP Reporter

in Copyrights

Salman Khan starrer Bajrangi Bhaijaan is making news again. But this time it isn’t because it’s breaking any box office records. The film is now facing a Rs. 50 crore copyright infringement suit. The story goes something like this, Mahim Joshi, a writer, director and TV producer registered his story with the Indian Film and Television Producers Council and the Association of Motion Pictures and TV Programme Producers, in July of 2007. After which he approached Suresh Oberoi and son Vivek Oberoi’s production house Yashi Multi Media (YMM), for a film deal. The parties agreed to a five year exclusive contact....

12 October 2015

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Intellectual Property (IP) in India: A Decade of Progress Part 16

Posted by BananaIP Reporter

in Copyrights, Intellectual Property, Patents, Trademarks

The featured image is of the Lion Capital which consists of the Ashoka Chakra, with a horse and bull on either sides, and an hoisted Indian flag below it. The Lion Capital is the national emblem of India. The image is related to the post as it is a part of the Sinapse Series"Intellectual Property (IP) in India: A Decade of Progress". To read the post click here.

This post exhibits the statistics of IP litigation in India in the past decade. The following table displays the statistics that were arrived at after conducting a search on Manupatra . It tabulates the estimated number of decisions passed by the Supreme Court and High Courts with respect to patents, trademarks and copyrights in the past decade. IP Decisions Passed by SC and HCs from 2004 – 2014 Year Number of Decided Cases for Patent Number of Decided Cases for Trademark Number of Decided Cases for Copyright 2004 23 14 61 2005 26 98 85 2006 35 100 87 2007 40 130 110 2008 56 155 158 2009 65 173 142 2010 52 149 126 2011 67 184 148 2012 52 164 112 2013 50 174 122 2014 113 239 181 Total 579 1580 1332 In the past decade, the number of cases on patents in India has increased. The table above shows a steady...

09 October 2015

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Copyright and Entertainment-PPT by Dr. Kalyan C. Kankanala at GNLU

Posted by BananaIP Reporter

in Copyrights, Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law

This presentation was delivered by Dr. Kalyan C. Kankanala at GNLU as a part of the entertainment law course offered for LLB students. The presentation covers: • Introduction to copyright law and philosophy of copyright law; • Copyrightability - Idea/Expression Dichotomy, Ideas and Expressions, Originality, Modicum of Creativity - tests; • Abstraction of expressions from ideas, public domain works, facts, common scenes, concepts, themes, etc; • Copyrightable Subject Matter - Works protected; • Rights granted to each type of work, and differences in rights; • Term of Copyright; • Ownership - Employer-Employee, Commissioned works - Works for Hire; • Assignment, Licensing and Royalty Sharing with respect to literary...

08 October 2015

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Doordarshan in legal trouble

Posted by BananaIP Reporter

in Copyrights, Intellectual Property

The featured image is of the copyright symbol on a bomb. The image is pertinent to the post as it is about a copyright infringement case . To read the post click here.

A recent legal decision pertains to an interim injunction granted by Delhi High Court against a public broadcaster. Doordarshan India's Central Government founded public service broadcaster, a division of Prasar Bharati, was in the legal broil for indemnifying itself from legal liability rather than acting in the interest of public which in turn contributed in cooperating in the copyright and moral rights infringement perpetrated by the producer against author and artist. Hon’ble High Court of Delhi issued an interim injunction against Doordarshan in a matter between acclaimed playwright, Dr. Sayeed Alam, well-known Indian actor, Mr. Thomas Alter (Plaintiffs) and Doordarshan, Television...

28 September 2015

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No more Free Porn, Malibu Media

Posted by BananaIP Reporter

in Copyrights

Malibu Media runs a website X-art.com, which hosts short erotic films. It is a subscription based website and claims to have more than seven hundred erotic videos. The website claims to host videos of gorgeous models from USA, Europe, South America, etc. Subscription plans on the website range from 19.95 dollars to 99.95 dollars. Sometime in 2011, Malibu Media realized that the business is not growing owing to wide spread piracy of its videos on Bit Torrents and by other means. After conducting a review, the company decided to take this up legally. It started tracking IP addresses where its short...

24 September 2015

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The Monkey Returns!

Posted by BananaIP Reporter

in Copyrights, Intellectual Property

The image is a picture of a monkey. The image is relevant as the post is about the copyright over a picture taken by a monkey. Click on image to view post.

First there was the selfie and then came the Monkey Selfie. Who can forget the series of selfies taken by the six-year-old crested macaque Naruto, who was singlehandedly responsible for the selfie evolution. A place which evens the selfie stick couldn’t take. To jog you memory, here is a brief back ground- English photographer David John Slater, on a trip to the Indonesian National Park, had left his camera without any supervision. The camera landed in the hands of Naruto, the macaque, resulting in what could only be called a selfie phenomenon. The photographer subsequently went on to publish a book,...

24 September 2015

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You Are Free to Sing ‘Happy Birthday’ – Warner’s Copyright Claim Rejected

Posted by BananaIP Reporter

in Copyrights, Intellectual Property

'Happy Birthday' song is considered to be the most sung song in the world. The song is not only rendered on birthdays, but also captured in various forms such as sound recordings, videos, etc. A search on YouTube with the phrase, 'Happy Birthday', yields About 3,770,000 results, indicating its popularity. The 'Happy Birthday' song includes two elements, lyrics and musical composition. Simply put, it includes the words and the tune. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg5HIMnPx7k[/embed] [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13S-bcyHkzM[/embed] Warner/Chappell Music was claiming copyright ownership of the lyrics, and has been earning an estimated (2) million dollars in revenue, per year from licensing. Warner/Chappell claims to be the successor-in-interest of...

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