(1) The U.S. Slips - European law firm Taylor Wessing now ranks the United States third in intellectual property protection. The United Kingdom is first, China is last. (thelicensingplate).
(2) Copyrighting Your Tie-Dye – Apparently, it is not a good idea to try to argue that someone has infringed your tie-dye design if the only original aspect of your design is your use of the colors red, white, and blue and orange. In Banzai, Inc. v. Broder Bros., Co., (No. 08-813) the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania ordered the plaintiff to pay costs and attorneys’ fees. From the opinion:
Tie-dying is a widely used method for decorating t-shirts, and the spiral design employed by both parties is a common tie-dye pattern . . . Acknowledging these facts, Plaintiff contends that its copyright protection is not for the spiral tie-dye pattern itself, but for the “original selection of colors and their arrangement” in the spiral design. . . Neither of these selections shows a modicum of creativity. Red, white, and blue are commonly matched colors, perhaps most notably on the American flag. Orange and yellow are adjacent in the spectrum of colors visible to the human eye. Placing these basic, predictable color combinations into a pre-existing design does not satisfy the minimum creativity necessary to establish a valid copyright.
[...]
An award of costs and attorneys’ fees is warranted in this case. Plaintiff’s claim, based upon its selection of two or three commonly-combined colors in what it admits is an otherwise unprotectable design, is objectively unreasonable and frivolous. Further, awarding fees here will deter businesses producing uncopyrightable works from filing unreasonable suits. While there is no indication that Plaintiff acted with improper motivation, because the other three factors are met, the Court will award costs and fees to Defendant.
(3) French Law – The French National Assembly passed a bill that requires ISPs to cut off customers who download pirated material, but the bill is not yet law. (thelicensingplate) (variety). For an argument in support of the bill, see Music, Technology, Policy.
(4) Chrono Trigger – Today, my hopes of future Chrono Trigger excitement were raised and dashed in a single instant. I stopped playing video games with Super Nintendo, in part because the military school I went to in 1996 did not accomadate such luxuries. But I have many fond memories of spending hours playing Chrono Trigger with my friend Kyle. Today I learned that fans of Chrono Trigger had made a sequel to the game that was to run on an emulator. The sequel, entitled Crimson Echoes, was 98% complete when Square Enix sent a cease and desist letter. More here. (Plagiarismtoday).
Events of Interest
(1) The U.S. Slips - European law firm Taylor Wessing now ranks the United States third in intellectual property protection. The United Kingdom is first, China is last. (thelicensingplate).
(2) Copyrighting Your Tie-Dye – Apparently, it is not a good idea to try to argue that someone has infringed your tie-dye design if the only original aspect of your design is your use of the colors red, white, and blue and orange. In Banzai, Inc. v. Broder Bros., Co., (No. 08-813) the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania ordered the plaintiff to pay costs and attorneys’ fees. From the opinion:
Tie-dying is a widely used method for decorating t-shirts, and the spiral design employed by both parties is a common tie-dye pattern . . . Acknowledging these facts, Plaintiff contends that its copyright protection is not for the spiral tie-dye pattern itself, but for the “original selection of colors and their arrangement” in the spiral design. . . Neither of these selections shows a modicum of creativity. Red, white, and blue are commonly matched colors, perhaps most notably on the American flag. Orange and yellow are adjacent in the spectrum of colors visible to the human eye. Placing these basic, predictable color combinations into a pre-existing design does not satisfy the minimum creativity necessary to establish a valid copyright.
[...]
An award of costs and attorneys’ fees is warranted in this case. Plaintiff’s claim, based upon its selection of two or three commonly-combined colors in what it admits is an otherwise unprotectable design, is objectively unreasonable and frivolous. Further, awarding fees here will deter businesses producing uncopyrightable works from filing unreasonable suits. While there is no indication that Plaintiff acted with improper motivation, because the other three factors are met, the Court will award costs and fees to Defendant.
(law.com) (thelicensingplate) (exclusive rights)
(3) French Law – The French National Assembly passed a bill that requires ISPs to cut off customers who download pirated material, but the bill is not yet law. (thelicensingplate) (variety). For an argument in support of the bill, see Music, Technology, Policy.
(4) Chrono Trigger – Today, my hopes of future Chrono Trigger excitement were raised and dashed in a single instant. I stopped playing video games with Super Nintendo, in part because the military school I went to in 1996 did not accomadate such luxuries. But I have many fond memories of spending hours playing Chrono Trigger with my friend Kyle. Today I learned that fans of Chrono Trigger had made a sequel to the game that was to run on an emulator. The sequel, entitled Crimson Echoes, was 98% complete when Square Enix sent a cease and desist letter. More here. (Plagiarismtoday).