The U.S. Ninth Circuit court held in DC Comics v Towle (“Towle”) that Mark Towle’s Batmobile replicas infringed DC Comics’ copyrights, and that the Batmobile was a “character” deserving of copyright protection. (more…)
Category: Ownership
Tariffbusters: Does the CBC v SODRAC decision debunk the "Mandatory Tariff Theory
Introduction to the panel After two exciting and lively debates on the principle of technological neutrality (see Sebastian Beck-Watt’s coverage here) and reproduction rights (see Paul Blizzard’s coverage here), IP…
Thinking Outside the (Legal) Box: IP Osgoode’s Orphan Works Licensing Portal Hackathon
The Event Over the course of three days in early February 2016, IP Osgoode played host to the Orphan Works Licencing Portal Hackathon, a multidisciplinary and international event that resulted…
How Authors Can Get Their Rights Back
The commercial lives of the overwhelming majority of books are remarkably short, particularly when you compare the commercial lives of books to the very long duration of copyright terms. When…
When Choosing the Street (Art) Life Leads to the Court Life Choosing You
After Starbucks, American Eagle and Roberto Cavalli, it is now Moschino and its designer Jeremy Scott’s turn (yes, again) to face the latest street art copyright infringement case. Joseph Tierny — a…
Do War Criminals Have Copyrights? The Role of Morality in Controversial Works
At first, a request for royalties by the estate of Nazi propagandist Goebbels was considered a joke by counsel for Random House. But the publisher now finds itself in the middle of a…