Our weekly SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, September 21, 2015 will be a discussion of the fair use doctrine as it applies to copyright law, and attorney fees under Section 285 of the Patent Act:

Lens v. Universal Music Corp., Case No. 13-16106 (9th Cir. Sept. 14, 2015) (available here). Lenz sued Universal Music Corp., alleging that Universal misrepresented in its takedown notice of a home video which used a portion of a song sung by the Artist known as Prince. On appeal, the court said that the DMCA statute requires copyright holders to consider fair use before sending a takedown notice.

Segan LLC. v. Zynga Inc., Case No. 14-01315 (N. D. Cal. Sept. 10, 2015) (available here). Segan owned a patent relating to browsing the Internet. Zynga is a company that creates games for people to play while on Facebook. Segan sued Zynga for patent infringement. Segan lost on summary judgment because no reasonable juror could find in Segan’s favor. Zynga brought a motion for attorney fees under section 285, and also filed a Rule 11 motion against Segan’s attorneys. The district court held that the case was an exceptional case and held both Blank Rome and Segan jointly and severally liable for $100,000.

All are invited to join us in our discussion during the SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, September 21, 2015 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.