For our weekly SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, June 11, 2018, we will discuss:

Fahmy, v. Jay Z ., (9th Cir. May 31, 2018) (available here). In 1957, Plaintiff Fahmy composed a song called “Khosara” which was used by Jay Z in the song “Big Pimpin” almost 50 years later. Ownership of the copyright to the Khosara song passed from entity to entity, and when one entity asked for a license from Jay-Z, he paid it. However the original author’s Heirs claimed they had an agreement which granted them moral rights to the work and sued Jay-Z. The district court found and the 9th circuit affirmed that moral rights in the United States were not enforceable because United States Law did no recognize the moral rights Plaintiff sought, and the party should have sued in Egypt.

Strike 3 Holdings, LLC v. Doe,  (D. Minn May 25, 2018) (available here). A copyright enforcement agency filed a motion to subpoena Comcast in order to learn the identity of an ISP that was using BitTorent to download copyrighted works. Federal rule of Civil Procedure 26(f) requires parties meet and confer 21 days before a scheduling conference.  This rule put plaintiff in a predicament plaintiff needed to confer with an unknown defendant as required by the rule, but could not identify the defendant without discovery from the lawsuit. Taking this into account, the court granted plaintiff’s motion to amend noting plaintiff likely had an actionable claim for copyright infringement, and that defendant’s expectation of privacy was outweighed by plaintiff’s right to pursue a claim for copyright infringement.

All are invited to join us on Monday June 11, 2018, 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.