Our weekly SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, July 7, 2014 will be a discussion of a Supreme Court case on copyright infringement and a California Appellate opinion on trade secrets. Brief synopses appear below.

ABC v. Aereo (U.S. June 25, 2014) (available here).  The Supreme Court held that Aereo’s service, which provided subscribers the ability to view television programs over the Internet at about the same time as they were being broadcast over the air, constituted copyright infringement because the service “performed” the copyrighted work publicly under the Transmit Clause.

New Castle Beverage, Inc. v. Spicy Beer Mix, Inc.  (Cal. Court of Appeal June 17, 2014) (available here). In this unpublished opinion, the California Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s ruling that the spice mix was not sufficiently defined and therefore did not constitute a trade secret.

All are invited to join us in our discussion during the SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, July 7, 2014 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 Noelle Smith by 9 am Monday morning.