For our weekly SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, April 17, 2017, we will discuss the following cases:

Mavrix Photographs v. LiveJournal, (9th Cir. April 7, 2017) (available here). Plaintiff Mavrix sued LiveJournal, a social media platform, for posting its photographs protected by copyrights. The district court held that the LiveJournal was protected by the safe harbor provisions in the DMCA. On appeal, the 9th Circuit reversed the district court’s ruling, finding that the safe harbor provision would apply if Live Journal’s users had posted the photos. Here instead, LiveJournal reviewed and approved the photos before the photos were posted. Therefore, the 9th Circuit reversed the district court’s ruling, and remanded the case to the district court.

Unicolors, Inc. v. Urban Outfitters, (9th Cir. April 3, 2017)  (available here).  Unicolors sued Urban Outfitters asserting copyright infringement of a protected design it had registered with the Copyright Office. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of Unicolors finding infringement. On appeal, Urban Outfitters argued that the district court erred in its application of the subjective “intrinsic test”. The 9th Circuit however affirmed the district court’s ruling finding in favor of Unicolors, and holding that where the similarity between two works is so strong, it is appropriate to hold that the works are substantially similar.

All are invited to join us on Monday, April 17, 2017, at noon in our Westlake Village office. This activity is approved for 1 hour of MCLE credit. If you will be joining us, please RSVP to Elisha Manzur by 9 am Monday morning.