Mass Law Blog
Intellectual property and business litigation, Massachusetts and nationallyWritten by humans
Lee Gesmer’s Mass Law Blog began in 2005, and contains almost 600 posts. The site initially focused on Massachusetts law, but today it follows business and intellectual property law nation-wide. The site is hosted by Gesmer Updegrove LLP, a law firm based in Boston, Massachusetts. The firm represents startup and established companies in the areas of litigation, transactions (including financings, mergers and acquisitions), IP rights, taxation, employment law, standards consortia, business counseling and open source development projects and foundations. You can find a summary of the firm’s services here. To learn how Gesmer Updegrove can help you, contact: Lee Gesmer
Mass Law Blog, Update Week Ending March 21, 2014
9th Circuit holds copyright registration of a collective work registers the component works within it. Alaska Stock v. Houghton Mifflin (link) The PTO held its first Public Meeting on the Establishment of a Multistakeholder Forum on Improving the Operation of the Notice and Takedown System Under the DMCA (link) Long-running DMCA copyright suit settles. Viacom v. Youtube (press release) (blog post) Parties settle remaining issues in Prince v. Cariou copyright fair use case (blog post) Columbia...
Viacom v. Youtube: Mother of All DMCA Copyright Cases Settles
According to my count, I've written seven posts on the Viacom v. Youtube DMCA copyright case. The first time I mentioned Youtube and the DMCA was in October 2006, over 7 years ago. Referencing Mark Cuban's comment that Youtube would be "sued into oblivion" I stated: Surprisingly few observers have asked the pertinent question here: do the Supreme Court’s 1995 Grokster decision and the DMCA (the Digital Millennium Copyright Act) protect YouTube from liability for copyright-protected works...
MyMovingReviews.com Unable to Obtain Dismissal Under CDA
According to Massachusetts U.S. District Court Judge O'Toole the defendants in Moving and Storage, Inc. v. Payanatov are in the moving business and operate a web site at MyMovingReviews.com which, they claim, reflects neutral consumer reviews of moving companies. Not true, assert some of their competitors and the plaintiffs in this case. The plaintiffs allege that MyMovingReviews manipulates the reviews, deleting positive reviews of the plaintiffs and deleting negative reviews of their own...
Mass Law Blog Update – Week Ending March 14, 2014
First Circuit holds that failure to register copyrights in underlying musical compositions dooms copyright infringement claims. Alecia v. Machete Music (link) N. Dist. Cal. court holds that websites copy of photo of politician is protected by copyright fair use doctrine. Dhillon v. Does 1-10 (link) The 9th Circuit has declared open season on the petition for rehearing or hear en banc in its decision in Garcia v. Google - anyone can file an amicus brief (link). This case has been the subject of...
This site is hosted by Gesmer Updegrove LLP, a technology law firm based in Boston, Massachusetts. You can find a summary of our services here. To learn how GU can help you, contact:
Lee Gesmer