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Entertainment Law: The joke isn’t funny anymore

Man of a thousand impressions, Kapil Sharma, is back in the news. But this time it isn’t because of his rib-tickling jokes or hilarious antics. His Bollywood debut “Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon” (“KKPK” for brevity) has landed in legal trouble, with its release date right around the corner. The film stars Kapil Sharma, Arbaaz Khan and Varun Sharma in lead roles and is directed by Abbas-Mustan. The production house responsible for the Kannada film Nimbe Huli has filed a complaint…
September 24, 2015 Media and Entertainment Law 0Comment 458Views 0Like
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Let’s Go Crazy – Is the Copyright Ruling Fair?

  Stephanie Lenz uploaded a video of her child dancing to Prince's tune - Let's Go Crazy, to YouTube. In the video, the child is seen making moves, while the song is played in the background. The video was uploaded in 2007 on YouTube. Universal Music, the owner of the sound recording, was not too happy with the use of the music in the video, which was getting great attention. UM sent a DMCA take down notice to YouTube, and YouTube…
September 16, 2015 Copyrights, Intellectual Property 0Comment 636Views 0Like
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Padmini and ors.Vs.Raj Television Network Limited

Case title Padmini and ors.Vs.Raj Television Network Limited Citation Original Application No. 763 of 2013 in C.S. No. 686 of 2013 (Decided On: 13.04.2015) Facts The plaintiffs are the legal heirs of R Venkatraman, who produced the Tamil film ‘Ninaithale Inikkum’ in the year 1979, under the ‘Premalaya’ banner. In 1981 Mr Venkatraman assigned the copyright in the negatives, of both picture and sound, of the said film to ‘Kumar Pictures’, by way of an assignment deed, for a period of…
July 6, 2015 Copyrights, Intellectual Property, IP Commercialization/Licensing, Media and Entertainment Law 0Comment 921Views 0Like
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Models Sue for “use of persona”

  Five US models sued FashionGlama.com and two individuals for the use of their photographs (use of persona) for escort services, and on pornographic websites. These models had allegedly signed 6-month contracts for modelling services, and were shocked to find their photographs on unwelcome websites. The suit alleges fraud, misrepresentation, unauthorized use of photographs (use of persona), breach of reputation, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.   Though rarely pursued, such issues are very common in the Indian context as well. More…
April 22, 2015 Copyrights, Intellectual Property 0Comment 576Views 0Like
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Music Copyright

“Blurred Lines” for American Music Industry after Copyright Controversy

On March 10, 2015, a panel of eight jurors of a California Federal Court found the artists Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams guilty of copyright infringement in a plagiarism suit filed by the heirs of artist Marvin Gaye, alleging that the 2013 hit “Blurred Lines” by Thicke and Williams was a rip off of Gaye’s 1977 song “Got To Give It Up”. ‘Blurred Lines’, written and performed by Robin Thicke, T I and Pharrell Williams, was released on March 26,…
March 19, 2015 Copyrights, Intellectual Property 0Comment 576Views 0Like
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Weekly IP Warm-UP!

GOOGLE V. SPAIN – SPANISH PUBLISHERS SUFFER AS GOOGLE NEWS CLOSES OPERATIONS A new Copyright law which has made it mandatory for Google, Yahoo and other news aggregators to pay licensing fee to all news publishers for using their stories or snippets in Google News, results in Google cutting its operations in Spain. However, the regulation allowed publishers to opt in to Google’s index, and prevent Google from paying licensing fee. COPYRIGHT REGULATION TO ALLOW PRIVATE COPYING; TO FACE IRE…
January 14, 2015 Copyrights, Media and Entertainment Law, Patents, Trademarks 0Comment 569Views 1Like
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Spanish publishers suffer as Google News closes Operations

Spanish Publishers Suffer as Google News Closes Operations

Last week, Google closed its operations in Spain, in response to the new Copyright Law which has made it mandatory for Google, Yahoo and other news aggregators to pay licensing fee to all news publishers for using their stories or snippets in Google News. The regulation, expected to come into effect in 2015, will deal with websites that share pirated content. As per the law, Spanish Government will have the authority to penalize websites up to US$ 750,000 for directing links…
January 7, 2015 Intellectual Property, IP Commercialization/Licensing 0Comment 517Views 0Like
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StartUps and IP: Silver lining for Inventors and Small & Medium Enterprises

Beginning with the inception of an idea through to the development, protection and commercialization of the idea, investments are needed at every step. The huge costs involved in the conversion of an invention to a final product/process, that can be commercialized to yield benefits, appears to be an insurmountable hurdle for several inventors and small to medium scale organizations. The cost for protection of an invention is nearly equal to the cost for developing and solidifying the concept. The recent…
April 16, 2014 Intellectual Property, IP for Start Ups 0Comment 536Views 0Like
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‘Fair Use’ – Professors versus Publishers

  In a recent judgment, A U.S. Court ruled in favor of Georgia State University’s professors’ using excerpts of published works for the purpose of education. The case primarily rules in favor of the professors and the university on the issue of Copyright Infringement. The case involved Georgia State University on the defending side and three major publishing companies namely, Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, and SAGE publications as the plaintiffs who had collectively filed around 74 copyright infringement claims against…
May 28, 2012 Copyrights, Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law 0Comment 664Views 1Like
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