Today's [7/27] Cases

Trois. Tre. 三. 


1. Najm v. Auburn Audio Technologies - 5:11-cv-03639

• Feheem Najm, AKAed as T-Pain, is the hip-hop artist probably most closely associated with trending the use of autotune. Antares Audio Technologies, the company that invented AutoTune, has been accused with "misappropriating T-Pain's right of publicity, committing unfair competition, and violating the Lanham Act". T-Pain's single "I'm Sprung" ('05) was known for the use of autotune and has "reportedly endorsed the software". However, last month, T-Pain announced his departure from AutoTune endorsement; this month, he revealed his competing product, The T-Pain Effect. "The T-Pain Effect, which the artist is developing with the digital audio processor iZotope Inc., is billed as a way for amateur and professional musicians to create beats and record vocals that sound like its eponymous star"



(from the Antares website: http://www.antarestech.com/images/tpain_295.jpg)

• This makes me wonder if/when Antares is going to file suit against T-Pain for patent infrigement (if any exists after the T-Pain Effect technology is released).
•  T-Pain is accusing Antares of continuing to use his image to promote its product "even after their business collaboration hit a sour note". T-Pain alleges that Antares pulled in an approximate $1 million from the "alleged unfair competition". (http://www.law360.com/ip/articles/260413)

2. In re: Borders Group Inc. et al - 1:11-bk-10614

• Borders Group has lost its good samaritan and last hope of preservation--Books-A-Million was unable to reach an agreement that satisfied Borders' terms. The 1,000 or so jobs that could have been saved by the Books-A-Million initially-proposed-30-store-saving-deal shall, after all, be lost. Going-out-of-business sales have now begun at all Borders locations. "Borders' intellectual property and much of its real estate are carved out from the current liquidation deal, which only covers physical assets at the stores. Borders and its creditors will look for buyers for the intellectual property and real estate separately", said Borders' attorney Andrew Glenn. (http://www.law360.com/topnews/articles/260337)

3. Ceglia v. Zuckerberg et al - 1:10-cv-00569





(http://sickfacebook.com/images/mark_zuckerberg.jpg)


• As if Mark Zuckerberg didn't have enough on his plate--dealing with the the Winklevoss brothers and Narendra ongoing attempts to claim the stake in the company that is, arguably, theirs, as well as running the most popular social networking site in the world--he's being hit with yet another suit. Paul Ceglia is suing for what he claims to be is his 50% of the social phenomenon. He claims that back in 2003, he and Zuckerberg signed a contract that would allot him 50% interest in the software and assets of Facebook (the version at the time). Ceglia is hoping to obtain e-mails and documents of Zuckerberg's handwriting to aide in evidencing his claim.
  "Ceglia's suit contends that the 2003 agreement created a general partnership between Ceglia, who provided the capital, and Zuckerberg, who provided the technical know-how, to run The Face Book, the predecessor to the now-ubiquitous Facebook.
  The social networking company has acknowledged that Zuckerberg agreed to help develop a now-defunct website known as StreetFax.com, but maintains that the Facebook founder never signed a deal with Ceglia concerning Facebook or any similar social networking service.
  In late June, Ceglia's previous counsel...dropped him as a client without explanation, though Facebook said in a later court filing that one of the attorneys had made comments to reporters that 'addressed his efforts to get to the bottom of whether his client was fabricating documents'". (http://www.law360.com/ip/articles/260483)

Today's [7/25] Cases

Three cases/updates for this Monday.


1. Christian Louboutin S.A. et al v. Yves Saint Laurent America, Inc. et al - 1:11-cv-02381

(http://www.louboutin-onlineshop.com/UploadFile/20090419/20090419061141.JPG)

• Judge Victor Marrero has yet to come to a decision in the Louboutin v. YSL America case; Christian Louboutin S.A. is filing suit against YSL to prevent YSL's sales of red-soled shoes {the well-known Louboutin trademark}. Judge Marrero's awaited ruling will not simply affect the sale of YSL shoes, but also the fashion industry as a whole as it will set a precedent--whether or not a company can brand a "color". I will follow up in a new post whenever he reaches his decision.

2. ConnectU, Inc. v. Facebook, Inc. et al - 1:07-cv-10593

• (Follow-up on my 07/19 post) Friday, Massachusettes Judge Douglas Woodlock decided to toss the suit that the Winklevosses and Narendra (ConnectU) had against Zuckerberg (Facebook).

3. LaChapelle v. Fenty - 1:11-cv-00945





(http://cdn03.cdnwp.celebuzz.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/01/rihanna-sm-video4-580x435.jpg)


• This past Valentines' Day, LaChapelle filed a suit against Rihanna (/ her S&M music-video-makers) for taking ideas from his photography portfolio for her S&M music video. "U.S. District Judge Shira A. Scheindlin said photographer David LaChapelle had successfully demonstrated that Robyn Rihanna Fenty, known professionally as Rihanna, record label Island Def Jam Group, video producer Black Dog Films Inc. and video director Melina Matsoukas copied eight of his still photographs in creating the music video for the Rihanna song 'S&M.'" Judge Scheindlin threw out the allegations of "unjust enrichment", "trade dress infringement" and "unfair competition". "The 'S&M' video, which depicts the singer in a number of sadomasochistic poses and situations, was released on Feb. 1. According to LaChapelle's complaint, various scenes from the video match up with eight still photographs produced and copyrighted by the photographer." {http://www.law360.com/ip/articles/259778}

-------
I recorded in Los Angeles this past Saturday with two friends [both of whom I will be working with from now on]--Miren Edelstien (violin) & Robert English (cajon)--and Matt Blankenship (vocals) from FluxCity. In sum, it was an absolutely incredible experience--quite unlike anything I'd ever done (besides when I recorded at Ex'pression with one of my old bands, Pear Waffles [but that was only a keyboard and drum set]).




Left to right: Robert, Matt, Angel, & Miren @ the studio, post-recording

 At the studio, I met and worked with Alex (vocals), Brittany (violin), Corinne (viola), Aaron (cello), two videographers, &Angel Figueroa (hand percussion & mixing/mastering).
It was a great group of musicians to work with and I can't wait to see how the website/video turns out (in a week or so)!

Previous Cases & Today's [7/19] Cases

I'm going list a handful of cases that I found intriguing during my first month of work, and post their case titles and/or case numbers up here; I will expand upon them (garnished with my opinions) later on, if I have time--I'm typing this up during my lunch break. :]

Today:
1. Alexander v. Murdoch et al - 1:10-cv-05613

• Judge P. Crotty of the New York Southern Court threw out a copyright suit brought by Alexander against Murdoch (owner of News Corp.), Disney Enterpriseses, Fox Entertainment Group, CBS Broadcasting Inc., Apple Inc., Hulu LLC, IMDB.com Inc., Amazon.com Inc., (and many more); Alexander, co-writer of the "Looney Ben" sitcom plot (co-writer Diane Dowgwillow is not a part of the suit), claimed that "Modern Family"'s producers plagiarized his pilot script. Judge Crotty concurred with Judge Francis' opinion stating, "no reasonable jury could find the 'total concept and feel' of 'Modern Family'" adhered to that of "Looney Ben".

2. Sprinkles Cupcakes, Inc. v. Pink Sprinkles, LLC - 3:11-cv-01117

• Sprinkles Cupcakes is suing Pink Sprinkles Cupcakes for using a similar name to its trademarked named. As consumers are likely to be confused by the two similar names (as they both have extremely similar names and products), Sprinkles Cupcakes (that has made its way onto the Oprah Winfrey show) found it egregious for Pink Sprinkles to continue doing business under its name.

3. Dragovich et al v. United States Dept. of the Treasury et al - 4:10-cv-01564

• (no time to elaborate, but: http://www.law360.com/articles/258592/same-sex-couples-win-class-in-calpers-insurance-fight)

4. (UK case): Allen v. Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, case number GLC 72/10, in the High Court of Justice, Chancery Division

• Only July 18th, the lawsuit against JK Rowling (alleging Rowling stole plot ideas for the "Harry Potter" book 4 (Goblet of Fire) from Adrian Jacobs' (now deceased) book, "Willy the Wizard" [published in 1987], after Jacobs' previous agent, C. Little, had given Rowling access to the book while she was writing the "Harry Potter" series ) was dismissed because "Jacobs' estate failed to pay the bond to continue the case. Judge David Kitchin of the High Court of Justice had said in March that the deceased author's estate would have to produce a £1.5 million pound security bond in order the continue with the copyright infringement case". This order was then challenged by Jacobs' estate and was rejected by the UK Court of Appeal. {http://www.law360.com/articles/258662/uk-court-to-potter-plagiarism-suit-expelliarmus-}

• 
  

Previous:
1. United States of America v. City of New York - 1:07-cv-02067

•  The Dept. of Justice sued New York City, claiming that it was disqualifying certain minority candidates due to it's pricey qualifying firefighter test. The city had designed a newer test, but was planning on raising the test price to $54 (from $30). "The plaintiffs argued that the higher price would disproportionately discourage black and Hispanic people from applying to take the test, known as Exam 2000". Previously, in mid-2007 (initial complaint in 2002 filed with the EEOC), the Dept. of Justice had conluded that the test (written exam) was discriminatory. As previously mentioned, the city developed a newer test and began administering a revised exam in January of 2007; the city also launched a $2 million recruitment campaign which resulted in much higher numbers of black and Hispanic applicants that year. The city reported a current 38% of successful test takers to be minorities. The court ruled on July 11th, 2011, that New York City can charge a maximum test-taking fee of $30 to firefighter candidates. On July 13th, Judge Garaufis ruled that the exam must also include gender, ethnicity, and race data, to prevent future discrimination against minorities (the demographic data collected from previous firefighter examinations evidence the court's findings "of disparate impact and disparate treatment").

2. Somers v. Apple, Inc. - 5:07-cv-06507

• (also no time to elaborate: http://www.law360.com/articles/254301/apple-gets-itunes-antitrust-action-tossed)

3. Connectu, Inc. v. Facebook, Inc. - 1:07-cv-10593

• This case is especially interesting if you've watched The Social Network; Facebook (Zuckerberg) asks MA judge to toss out the IP suit from the Winklevoss twins (founders of ConnectU) after they had already dropped "their fight over a reported $65 million settlement".{http://www.law360.com/articles/256582/facebook-wants-winklevoss-suit-in-mass-tossed}

• Armie Hammer as Tyler/Cameron Winklevoss in The Social Network