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Will the Supreme Court Weigh in on the Copyright Lawsuit of the Decade?

When two tech titans clash in court, the outcome can reverberate widely. In what has been dubbed the “copyright lawsuit of the decade,” Oracle sued Google in 2010 for infringing its copyrights in 37 Java Application Programming Interface (API) packages used in Google’s Android software platform for mobile devices (as explained further below, API packages consist of pre-written computer programs that perform specified functions).

At the first trial in 2012, a jury found that Google infringed Oracle’s copyrights. The judge, however, concluded that the Java API packages were not copyrightable as a matter of law. In 2014, the Federal Circuit reversed and remanded for a second jury trial on Google’s fair use defense. Oracle Am., Inc. v. Google Inc., 750 F.3d 1339 (Fed. Cir. 2014). The Supreme Court denied Google’s cert petition.

In 2016, a second jury found in favor of Google on its fair use defense, and the trial court denied Oracle’s motion for judgment as a matter of law. In 2018, the Federal Circuit overturned the jury’s verdict, concluding that Google’s use of the 37 Java API packages was not fair use as a matter of law. Oracle Am., Inc. v. Google LLC, 886 F.3d 1179 (Fed. Cir. 2018).

On January 24, 2019, Google petitioned the Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari. It identified the issues presented as:

(i) whether copyright protection extends to a software interface; and

(ii) whether Google’s use of a software interface in the context of creating a new computer program constitutes fair use.

The Federal Circuit’s rulings sent shockwaves through the software industry, and fifteen parties—ranging from corporations like Microsoft to software-related associations, and intellectual property scholars—filed amicus briefs in support of Google’s petition. Microsoft warned that the Federal Circuit’s approach “threatens disastrous consequences for innovation” in the software industry by depriving third parties of access to and reuse of functional code used to “facilitate interoperability across myriad software platforms and hardware devices.” An association representing over 70,000 software developers worldwide asserted that the Federal Circuit’s conclusions had spawned confusion concerning whether longstanding practices such as sharing libraries of common software functions constitute copyright infringement. Likewise, Professor Peter S. Menell and Professor David Nimmer (the editor of Nimmer on Copyright) maintained that the Federal Circuit had “upended nearly three decades of sound, well-settled, and critically important decisions of multiple regional circuits on the scope of copyright protection for computer software.”

On March 27, 2019, Oracle filed its opposition to the petition. The tech giant identified the issues as:

(i) Whether the Copyright Act protects Oracle’s computer source code that Google concedes was original and creative, and that Oracle could have written in any number of ways to perform the same function?

(ii) Whether the Federal Circuit correctly held that it is not fair use as a matter of law for Google to copy Oracle’s code into a competing commercial platform for the purpose of appealing to Oracle’s fanbase, where Google could have written its own software platform without copying, and Google’s copying substantially harmed the actual and potential markets for Oracle’s copyrighted works?

After Google filed its reply, the Supreme Court invited the Solicitor General to file a brief expressing the views of the United States. This is where the case presently stands.

The Java Programming Language

Oracle’s predecessor, Sun Microsystems, Inc. (“Sun”) developed the Java programming language to allow programmers to write programs that run on different types of computing devices without having to rewrite the programs from scratch for each type of device. To that end, Java’s motto is “write once, run anywhere.”

To provide programmers with shortcuts for executing specific functions, Sun created the Java API, which consists of packages (akin to a bookshelf in a library), classes (akin to books on the shelves), and methods (akin to “how-to” chapters in each book). See Oracle Am., Inc. v. Google Inc., 872 F. Supp. 2d 974, 977 (N.D. Cal. 2012), rev’d and remanded, 750 F.3d 1339 (Fed. Cir. 2014).

Each method performs a specific programming function (for example, choosing between the greater of two integers). The key components of a method are: the “declaring code” that defines the package, class and method names, form of inputs and outputs, and the “implementing code” that provides instructions to the computer concerning how to carry out the declared function using the relevant inputs.

Google began negotiating with Sun in 2005 to license and adapt Java for its emerging Android software platform for mobile devices. After those negotiations failed, Google decided to use Java anyway, and copied verbatim the declaring code in 37 Java API packages (consisting of 11,500 lines of code), as well as the structure and organization of the packages (referred to as the SSO). However, Google wrote its own implementing code for the relevant methods.

In 2007, Google began licensing the Android platform free of charge to smartphone manufacturers. It earned revenue—$42 billion from 2007 through 2016—from advertising on the phones. In 2010, Oracle acquired Sun, and promptly sued Google for infringement.

The Copyright Question

In 2014, the Federal Circuit reversed the lower court’s ruling that the declaring code and SSO were not entitled to copyright protection. Importantly, while the Federal Circuit only has jurisdiction over patent-related matters, it handled the appeal because Oracle’s complaint had also included patent claims (which the jury rejected). The Federal Circuit, however, applied Ninth Circuit law to the copyright questions presented.

The Federal Circuit began by noting that “copyright protection extends only to the expression of an idea—not to the underlying idea itself.” Moreover, to the extent the particular form of expression is necessary to the use of the idea, then using the expression to that extent is not copyright infringement. This is known as the “merger doctrine” which states that if there are a limited number of ways to express an idea, the idea is said to “merge” with its expression—and the expression becomes unprotected. Further, the “scenes a faire doctrine,” bars certain standard, stock, or common expressions from copyright protection.

Thus, to use a simple example, while a book on arithmetic can be copyrighted, the idea of adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing cannot be. Moreover, if using symbols like “+” and “x” are necessary or commonly used to express the concepts of adding and multiplying, those expressions are not copyrightable.

Applying these principles, the Federal Circuit first observed that copyright protection extends to expressive elements of a computer program. It then rejected Google’s argument that Oracle’s expression merged with unprotectable ideas, noting that Oracle had unlimited options as to the selection and arrangement of the declaring code that Google copied. The Federal Circuit also rejected Google’s reliance on the scenes a faire doctrine. Because at the time the code was written, its composition was not dictated by external factors like “mechanical specifications of the computer” or “widely accepted programming practices within the computer industry.”

The Fair Use Question

After determining that Oracle’s declaring code and SSO were subject to copyright protection, the Federal Circuit remanded for a jury trial on Google’s fair use defense. As noted, the jury found that Google had established the defense, but the Federal Circuit overturned that verdict.

The fair use defense is a judge-made doctrine that has been incorporated into the federal copyright statute as Section 107, which provides that “the fair use of a copyrighted work…for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright.” To determine whether particular copying constitutes fair use, the statute identifies the following factors as:

(1) “The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes.”

(2) “The nature of the copyrighted work.”

(3) “The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole.”

(4) “The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.”

The Federal Circuit ultimately concluded that because Google’s copying was for a highly commercial purpose, was not qualitatively insignificant, and substantially harmed Oracle’s own licensing efforts; the copying was not fair use as a matter of law, notwithstanding the jury’s verdict to the contrary.

Because APIs are key to broad acceptance of standardized software functions, IMS computer and software expert Dr. John Levy believes that were the Supreme Court to affirm the Federal Court’s ruling, it may severely limit the spread of useful API’s to important code bases. As an example, Dr. Levy notes that a small company will usually want to make its declaring code available to all users and developers, so that the underlying application code will get the broadest possible use and market share. The developer counts on having a competitive set of implementing code to make money.

According to Dr. Levy, the Federal Circuit may have been influenced by the fact that Google made so much money using the copied declaring code. But as evidenced by the large number of amicus briefs, the broader software industry cares more about defending a broad reading of “fair use” than assessing damages against companies who make money from copied declaring code.

Dr. Levy sees the issues in the Oracle case as similar to those in a case he worked on as an expert back in the 80386 chip days. In that case, Intel owned the instruction set of the 386 chip. But because Intel customers didn’t want to be limited to a single source for these Intel-compatible processors, Intel licensed the instruction set to other chip manufacturers.

“One licensee produced chips that performed the Intel-owned instruction set. Intel sued that licensee for copyright infringement of the underlying microcode (the implementation of the instruction set in the chip designed by the licensee company),” recalled Dr. Levy.

A federal court ruled that the microcode (firmware) was indeed copyrightable, but that there was no infringement under the “limited expression” doctrine explained above. There simply were not many ways to implement the licensed instructions in microcode, and therefore the licensee’s implementation did not infringe Intel’s own implementation. In the Oracle case, however, the Federal Circuit concluded that there were many ways for a programmer to select and arrange the declaring code that Google copied.

This article was written by Joshua Fruchter of IMS ExpertServices.

For more copyright cases, see the National Law Review Intellectual Property law page.

What Start-ups Need to Know About Intellectual Property

As any entrepreneur is well aware, the early stages of a new business venture are an incredibly busy time. Entrepreneurs must focus on building the core team, structuring the company, attracting investors, developing the product/service, and developing key partnerships, sales channels and marketing plans. These tasks are typically all-consuming for the founders, taxing both their financial and time resources.

During this time, it may be a challenge to simultaneously focus on intellectual property issues. However, this early time period is also a critical time for ensuring that a business takes steps to protect its core intellectual property and avoids the risk of third party intellectual property issues. Today, more than ever, having a solid understanding of intellectual property and developing an IP strategy that aligns with the business is a crucial part of building a new venture on a solid foundation.

This article includes an overview of the different types of intellectual property and provides advice to start-up companies on how to secure their own intellectual property as well as protect against intellectual property risks from others.

The three basic types of intellectual property that startups should understand are:

Patents
Trademarks
Copyrights

Patents

Not every startup business will be best-served by investing its resources in building a patent portfolio, but the question of whether to pursue patent protection warrants a hard and early look. Knowledge of the role of patents is critical for two reasons:

To protect your own business and inventions from your competitors
To avoid the risk of being exposed to assertions of patent infringement by competitors and other third parties

It is important for startups to understand the different kinds of patent protection and how they fit into their business.

Utility patents can be obtained for processes, machines, articles of manufacture, or compositions of matter that are deemed new, useful and non-obvious. The traditional subject matter of such utility patents covers tangible, technical inventions, such as improvements to client-server systems, motors, radios, computer chips and various technical product features. For example, Boeing’s US Patent No. 6,227,447 is a patent that covers methods of remotely controlling a vehicle. Patents can also be directed at new product features and functions. As another example, Facebook’s US Patent No. 8,171,128, titled “Communicating a newsfeed of media content based on a member’s interactions in a social network environment,” protects its News Feed feature.

A separate category of patent, the design patent, may be sought to protect ornamental (non-functional) designs. Some examples of notable design patents include Apple’s D 604,305 covering the design of its iPhone interface and Lululemon’s design patent covering its yoga pants.

The role of patents

Although patents are the most expensive and time-consuming type of intellectual property to obtain, they also provide the best scope of protection. A patent provides its holder with the exclusive right to make, use or sell an invention. This means that it can exclude a competitor from making or selling the patented invention, irrespective of whether or not the competitor copied the invention or even previously knew of the patent. For this reason, a patent that covers an important feature that drives consumer demand and/or distinguishes one’s product or service from that of competitors, can be very valuable.

Benefits of patents for a young business

Patents may provide a number of benefits to young businesses. For example, a robust patent portfolio or a key patent can help attract investors, since it may serve as barrier to entry by competitors. Furthermore, the filing of a patent application will enable the company to advertise “patent pending” along with its product or service. In addition to potentially attracting investors, the “patented” or “patent pending” labels may deter would-be competitors, or force those competitors to adopt different designs and technologies.

As indicated above, once a patent issues it may be used to stop competitors from entering the field and allows for recovery of damages for infringement. Patents can also help the finances of a business by providing an opportunity to generate revenue from licensing.

How to obtain a patent

A patent is obtained by filing an application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The application includes a description of the invention accompanied by drawings, followed by a list of the elements that form the invention, called the patent claims. The patent claims set out the metes and bounds of the invention. Third-party products or services that practice the elements of a claim infringe the patent.

When a patent application is first filed, an examiner is assigned to it. The examiner will reject or allow claims based on an assessment of their patentability, and the patent applicant will have an opportunity to respond to the examiner’s decisions. This back-and-forth with the Patent Office, known as prosecution, can take a number of years and is best done by an experienced patent attorney who understands the procedures, the legal requirements and the art of drafting strong patent claims.

Impact of the America Invents Act

Changes in the patent law implemented by the America Invents Act (AIA) half a decade ago have impacted the leading practices for businesses looking to file for patent protection. First, the U.S. is a “first inventor to file” system. This incentivizes early disclosure of inventions and early filing of patent applications.

When two people independently come up with the same invention, the first inventor to file for a patent on his or her invention is awarded the patent, regardless of which actually invented first. For this reason, it is important for businesses to streamline operations to reduce the time from invention to filing of patent applications.

Early and cost-effective filing can be achieved through provisional applications, which are essentially invention disclosures that can be converted to full patent applications within one year.

In addition, the AIA also provides for a prioritized examination procedure, which expedites the patent examination process. While the use of prioritized examination is more costly up-front, it may reduce overall legal expenses, since a patent can be obtained within one year.

Avoiding infringement of other patents

A second important aspect that startups should consider with respect to patents is a defensive one, i.e., avoiding infringement of the patents held by others. As a matter of practice, startups should conduct a patent search to verify that their business is free of patents that could be asserted against their product or service. The up-front cost of performing this search and related analysis is relatively minor and is offset by the potential for huge savings, both in terms of litigation costs and wasted investment in an infringing idea. The cautionary tale of Vlingo underscores this point.

Vlingo spent years developing voice recognition technology that led to talk of partnerships with Google and Apple. However, another voice recognition company, Nuance, which held a patent on voice recognition, sued Vlingo for patent infringement. Although Vlingo ultimately won the lawsuit, by then the company had already lost its potential partnerships, and the cost of defending the suit forced Vlingo to sell its business to Nuance. An early patent search could have revealed the Nuance patent and may have allowed Vlingo to take appropriate strategic steps to address the issue. For example, they might have been able to adopt a different design to avoid a run-in with Nuance.

Trademarks

Trademarks take us into the world of branding. Trademarks serve to build brand awareness and business goodwill. They can impart consumer confidence in a product by its association with a brand the consumer recognizes and trusts. A trademark can be words, symbols, logos, slogans or product packaging and design that identify the source of goods or services. The Coca-Cola logo is one of the more famous trademarks.

Unlike patents, trademark rights are only acquired through use. Even without registration, the symbols “TM” or “SM” may be used to accompany trademarks or service marks to designate products or services. However, only registered marks may be accompanied by the “®” symbol.

Although registration with the US Patent and Trademark Office is not required to gain trademark rights, registration provides certain important benefits to the trademark holder. For example, without a registration, the trademark rights are limited to the geographic area in which the product or service is marketed and sold, and protection begins only after the product or service is available for sale on the market.

In contrast, federally registered marks provide nationwide rights. Registration also creates a prima facie case of validity of the ownership as well as an exclusive right to use the mark for specified goods or services. Once registered, the owner of a mark can stop importation of infringing products through U.S. Customs.

Clearing and registering key trademarks

Just as with patents, when seeking trademarks, businesses should be aware of whether their desired name, logo or domain name is already in use by others. Searching for existing uses is known as trademark clearance, with the goal being to “clear” a desired mark for use. Clearing the name and brand early on will reduce the likelihood of problems down the road.

Startups should look to protect their brand early by clearing and registering key trademarks. Registration is relatively quick and inexpensive, generally a few thousand dollars for a clearance search and subsequent filing for registration. A trademark application must specify the type of mark — i.e., whether the mark consists of just words or includes a stylized design or even an identifying color or sound. The application must also specify the particular goods or services to which the mark will apply.

As the company grows, it will become increasingly important to police infringing uses of its marks. Such efforts will help ensure that the business is not losing customers due to confusion with knock-offs.

Copyrights

Copyright is a form of intellectual property that protects the expression of ideas. Books, music, art, photographs, architecture and even computer software can be protected by copyright.

However, while copyrights protect the expression of ideas, they do not protect ideas or concepts themselves. For example, a copyright can protect a particular photograph of a bird, but others may still create their own photographs of the same type of bird.

Another requirement for copyright eligibility is that the work must be “an original work of authorship.” Facts, titles, phrases, and forms per se cannot be copyrighted.

Exclusive rights to copyright owners

Like trademarks, copyright registration is optional. As soon as a work is written or recorded or otherwise made “tangible”, it is considered to be copyrighted. US law provides various exclusive rights to copyright owners, including the rights to reproduce the work, prepare derivative works and distribute copies, irrespective of registration.

However, registration provides significant procedural benefits. Critically, registration is necessary in order to file a lawsuit for copyright infringement. It is also necessary to receive certain remedies, such as statutory damages and attorney fees. Registration also provides a presumption of originality and ownership, and it allows US Customs to stop the importation of infringing or counterfeit works.

Businesses should include the “©” symbol or the word “Copyright” on all distributed materials. They should also include the year of first publication, the name of the owner, and the language “All rights reserved.”

Businesses should consider registering any important materials so that the option of filing lawsuits is available to address infringement. Registration can be filed online with the US Copyright Office for a nominal fee.

Startups should also be careful to avoid using third-party photos, music, or writings on their website, marketing materials or products. Such use could lead to a potentially costly infringement dispute with the copyright holder.

Finally, because the author is the copyright owner by default, startups should take steps to ensure that they receive the rights to any copyrightable work created by employees or third-party contractors. The Copyright Act lists specific requirements for works for hire, and employment and third-party contractor agreements should include specific language to address ownership of any copyrightable works.

Conclusion

While intellectual property issues may sometimes get brushed aside during the early stages of a business, developing a diligent and intelligent IP strategy early on is important.

Startups should evaluate the types of intellectual property that can impact their business and strategically consider pursuing patent, trademark and copyright protection as appropriate.

Defensively, startups should also assess the intellectual property landscape of their business. That awareness should include clearance efforts to ensure that the company will not infringe the intellectual property of others, as it develops its products and services.

Learn more about Legal Issues for High-Growth Technology Companies.

ARTICLE BY

Michael J. Kasdan

Wiggin and Dana LLP

Widespread Use of GOOGLE Trademark as a Verb Does Not Render the Mark Generic

On May 16, 2017, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that widespread use of the word “google” as a verb for “searching the internet” – as opposed to use as an adjective for a brand of internet search engine – was insufficient to establish that GOOGLE ceased to function as a trademark. Elliott v. Google, Inc., No 15-15809, slip op. (9th Cir. May 16, 2017). As a result, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court’s granting of summary judgment in favor of defendant Google, Inc. on the plaintiffs’ Lanham Act claim seeking cancellation of the GOOGLE trademark on the ground that it had become generic.

Generic terms are words that are the commonly accepted identification of a type of goods or services. By way of example, “automobile” and “chair” are generic terms when used in connection with their dictionary meanings. Under federal law, generic terms are not protectable as trademarks. Trademarks can become generic over time if they are used as the name for a category of goods or services instead of as a brand name or source identifier. This is commonly known in trademark law as “genericide.” Examples of terms that have lost federal trademark protection due to genericide include “aspirin,” “escalator,” and “thermos,” each of which was once a protectable trademark. A registered trademark may be cancelled if it loses its source-identifying significance by becoming the generic name of a particular type of good or service. 15 U.S.C. §1064(3); Elliott, slip op. at 6.

The question before the Ninth Circuit was “whether the primary significance of the word ‘google’ to the relevant public is as a generic name for internet search engines or as a mark identifying the GOOGLE search engine in particular.” Elliott, slip op. at 12. The plaintiffs argued that the word “google” is primarily understood as “a generic term universally used to describe the act of internet searching.” In support, the plaintiffs presented consumer survey evidence showing that a majority of consumers used the term “google” as a verb for the act of searching the internet.

The Ninth Circuit rejected plaintiffs’ claim as a matter of law for two reasons. First, the court clarified that “a claim of genericide or genericness must be made with regard to a particular type of good or service.” Elliott, slip op. at 8 (emphasis added). Thus, surviving summary judgment would have required plaintiffs to present evidence that the term “google” is generic specifically with regard to internet search engines. Second, the court concluded that “verb use does not automatically constitute generic use,” thus rejecting plaintiffs’ grammatical argument that a word can only be protectable as a trademark when used as an adjective. Elliott, slip op. at 10. The court noted that the part of speech is not dispositive of the genericide issue, as it is well-established that “a speaker might use a trademark as a noun and still use the term in a source-identifying trademark sense.” Elliott, slip op. at 10-11. For example, a restaurant customer might order “a coke,” using the mark as a noun, while still having a particular source of cola beverages – the Coca-Cola Company – in mind. Id. at 11. As a result, plaintiffs’ consumer survey evidence that the public uses the term “google” as a verb was insufficient as a matter of law, because such evidence did not reveal consumers’ thoughts regarding use of the term with respect to internet search engines. Without more evidence, it was not possible to ascertain whether the survey respondents were using the verb “google” in an indiscriminate sense, with no particular internet search engine in mind; or in a discriminate sense, with the Google search engine in mind.

In light of Elliott, a party claiming that a mark has become generic would be wise to present consumer surveys in which respondents indicate whether they believe a term is a brand name or a common name for a particular good or service, regardless of grammatical function. Any consumer survey submitted should be conducted by qualified experts according to accepted principles. As an example, in Elliott, Google offered a survey in support of its position that the GOOGLE mark is not generic, which began by providing a brief overview of the difference between brand names and common names, then asked respondents to classify various words – such as “Coke,” “Jello,” “Amazon,” “Refrigerator,” “Browser,” and “Website” – as either brand names or common names. Id. at 16. Approximately 93% of respondents described “Google” as a brand name. Unlike plaintiffs’ survey, the Ninth Circuit viewed the results of Google’s survey as evidencing consumers’ primary understanding of the word “google” as it related to search engines.

This case contravenes the conventional guidance to always use trademarks as adjectives that modify a descriptive or generic term. Although the Elliott court acknowledged that using a trademark as an adjective makes it easier to prove the source-identifying function of the mark, this holding makes clear that widespread use of trademarks as nouns and verbs does not make them generic, absent significant evidence of indiscriminate consumer use of the mark to refer to any brand of a particular good or service.

This post was written byThomas A. Agnello and Luke W. DeMarte of Michael Best & Friedrich LLP.

When Quirk of Copyright Law Creates Christmas Classic: It’s Wonderful Life and Public Domain

Christmas tree George Bailey stands on a bridge begging for another chance at life. Upon being granted a second chance, he joyously runs home to embrace his family. As the community of Bedford Falls rallies around him and raises funds to save the endangered Building and Loan and George Bailey personally from an unjustified failure, someone proclaims a toast to George Bailey, “the richest man in town.” It’s a powerful ending to a beloved holiday classic, and it would have been forgotten over time but for accidentally allowing a copyright to expire.

The 1909 Act is the copyright act that governs copyrightable works created before 1964. The Act created two, distinct copyright terms for each individual work: a 28-year initial term and a 28-year renewal term. The initial term applied automatically, but the copyright owner had to file a renewal application with the U.S. Copyright Office to get the second term. If the owner failed to file a renewal application before the first 28-year term expired, the work automatically entered the public domain.

Into this copyright framework, a movie called It’s a Wonderful Life was released in December 1946. It was directed by Frank Capra and starred James Stewart. Upon its release, it was not the booming success that one might imagine based on its reputation now. While it was not a complete box-office failure, it struggled financially and never came close to reaching its break-even point. Capra and Stewart would never work together again. In fact, it was a major blow to Capra’s reputation, and in the aftermath of the film, Capra’s production company went bankrupt.

More holiday movies were created over the years, and the film was largely forgotten. At the end of the initial 28-year copyright term in 1974, a clerical mistake prevented the copyright owner of It’s a Wonderful Life from filing a renewal application, and the movie went into the public domain. TV studios, eager for inexpensive content to show during the holidays, began showing the movie every year because they were not required to pay any royalties while the film was in the public domain. Over the next approximately 20 years, the film was shown repeatedly every holiday and claimed its current status as a holiday classic.

Everything changed in 1993. In response to a Supreme Court ruling in Stewart v. Abend, the current copyright owners of It’s a Wonderful Life were able to enforce a copyright claim to the movie. The Court in Steward v. Abend held that a current copyright owner has the exclusive right to exploit derivative works, even in light of potentially conflicting agreements by prior copyright holders. Coincidentally, the Steward v. Abend case involved another James Stewart movie, Rear Window.

Because the current copyright owners of It’s a Wonderful Life still owned the movie rights of the original story on which the movie is based, the current copyright owners argued that their rights to the story told in It’s a Wonderful Life still existed and were enforceable to prevent unauthorized showing of the movie in its current form. The newly-returned owners were thus able to stop any unauthorized showings of the movie, but by then the movie was firmly entrenched as a holiday classic. It has been popular ever since. So the next time you sit down to watch George Bailey offer to lasso the moon for Mary or watch them dancing over an expanding swimming pool, just remember that we all might have missed this movie entirely if not for a clerical mistake causing a renewal application not to be filed.

Article By Lisa Adams & Derek E. Constantine of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.

It’s the Words, Not the Ideas, that Are Copyrightable

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit dismissed a lawsuit claiming that Elton John and his songwriter partner Bernie Taupin had plagiarized their hit song “Nikita” from a song called “Natasha,” explaining that copyright law does not cover general ideas, but only the specific expression of an idea. Guy Hobbs v. Elton John, Case No. 12-3652 (7th Cir., July 17, 2013) (Manion, J.).

Guy Hobbs composed “Natasha,” a song about a love story between a British man and a Ukrainian woman. In 1983, Hobbs registered his copyright in the song and then sent the song to several music publishers, one of them being Elton John’s publisher, Big Pig. However, the song was never published. John released the Nikita song in 1985, wherein the singer from the west describes his love for a girl named Nikita, who he saw through the wall and who was on the other side of the line. The copyright in Elton John song was registered with the U.S. Copyright Office by Big Pig.

Hobbs claimed that he first learned of the Nikita song in 2001. He alleged that the lyrics infringed his copyright of Natasha and sought compensation from John and Taupin. Hobbs later sued John, Taupin, and Big Pig for copyright infringement. Hobbs claimed that his work was entitled to copyright protection because his selection and combination of the elements in Natasha constituted a “unique combination.” Hobbs argued that the number of similar elements between the two works supported a claim for copyright infringement.

The district court held that the elements identified by Hobbs were not entitled to copyright protection when considered alone. Hobbs had not established a “substantial similarity” between Natasha, a song about a British man and a Ukrainian woman who did meet, and John’s Nikita song describing an East German woman peering through the Berlin wall at a man she never met. The district court also rejected Hobbs claim that the elements in the song created a unique combination that was copyrightable. The district court held that although the theme of the two songs had some similar elements in common, the elements identified were not protectable under the Copyright Act. Hobbs appealed.

The 7th Circuit agreed, concluding that “Natasha and Nikita simply tell different stories, and are separated by much more than small cosmetic differences.” The 7th Circuit stated that the Copyright Act does not protect general ideas, but only the particular expression of an idea. In addition, the Copyright Act does not protect “incidents, characters or settings which are as a practical matter indispensable, or at least standard, in the treatment of a given topic.” The 7th Circuit concluded that “as a matter of law Natasha and Nikita are not substantially similar because they do not share enough unique features to give rise to a breach of the duty not to copy another’s work.”

Article By:

Ulrika E. Mattsson

McDermott Will & Emery

Round Up – Intellectual Property and Cyber Security Things You May Have Missed (Including Some Good Summer Cocktail Banter Material)

Cyber Security Report – Earlier this year, Verizon released its 2013 Data Breach Investigations Report. The report analyzes and presents data regarding the current state of various data breaches and network attacks. Some of the results are surprising.

92% of breaches are perpetrated by outsiders
19% of breaches are attributed to state-affiliated actors
76% of network intrusions exploit weak or stolen credentials
66% took months or more to discover

Do Trademark Lawyers Matter? – An empirical study, published in the Stanford Technology Law Review, provided the results of a grueling analysis of 25 years worth of data from the United States Patent and Trademark Office records on whether being represented by a trademark attorney makes a difference in the likelihood of success in getting your mark registered. The results? YES! It turns out that, overall, trademark applicants who are represented by an attorney are 50% more likely to have their marks registered. The results are even more dramatic when an application faces an obstacle (e.g., an office action). In those instances, applicants were found to be 68% more likely to proceed to publication when represented by counsel. Perhaps its time for a national trademark lawyer appreciation day! (I’m not holding my breath).

Does Keyword Advertising Really Work? eBay recently released a study, entitled “Consumer Heterogeneity and Paid Search Effectiveness: A Large Scale Field Experiment” which analyzed the effectiveness of eBay’s keyword advertising efforts. So does keyword advertising really work? Not so much. According to the study, for well known brands (like eBay), new and infrequent users may be more influenced by keyword triggered advertisements. But more experienced searchers and otherwise loyal brand users are not influenced by the ads. When eBay stopped its keyword advertising, almost all of the traffic lost from the absence of the ad was picked up in the native search results. It’s important to note, however, that this study was focused on a single well known brand. The results may be quite different for other brands or for less well known brands. Moreover, the study says nothing about the use of a trademark by a competitor as a keyword to drive traffic to the competitor’s website.

Marketing Your Mobile App – The FTC has released guidelines for mobile app developers when advertising their software. The plain language guide is very high level, but does include some helpful tid bits to remember. Highlights include:

Advertising is everything a company tells a prospective buyer about its app (whether its in the formal ad campaign or in other communications).
Don’t bury key disclosures in “dense blocks of legal mumbo jumbo” or behind hyperlinks.
Build in privacy by design, including principles used in selecting default settings.
If you change your privacy policy, you need to get user’s consent. Merely editing the language of the policy isn’t enough.

Effective Disclosures in Digital Advertising – The FTC also released guidelines for online advertising. This new guidance focuses on the peculiarities and challenges associated with online advertising. Where this adds new value is in its analysis and detail (with examples!) of the following areas:

Proximity and Placement – where disclosures have to be placed to be effective
Hyperlinks – including proper labeling and placement
Prominence – including use of size, color and graphics
Distractions – risks from graphics, sounds and links that may distract from disclosures
Multimedia – use of audio and video

Attack on “Happy Birthday” Copyright. Salon.com reported yesterday that a class action suit has been filed to attack the copyright in the popular birthday celebration tune. According to the report, the lawsuit was prompted by a documentary uncovering evidence that the song was originally published as early as 1893 and that the current copyright is based on a 1924 publication date which grants the work 95 years of copyright protection. Based on my count, there’s only about 6 years left in the alleged copyright to begin with. Hopefully the lawsuit gets resolved before then.

Article By:

Kurt E. Anderson

Giordano, Halleran & Ciesla, P.C.

Administration Launches Strategy on Mitigating Theft of U.S. Trade Secrets

The National Law Review recently published an article, Administration Launches Strategy on Mitigating Theft of U.S. Trade Secrets, written by Lauren M. Papenhausen with McDermott Will & Emery:

The strategy announced on February 20, 2013, should serve as both a wake-up call from the government and an offer of assistance. Given the losses that can arise from competitors’ purposeful theft of trade secrets, entities should review the announcement and decide whether they need to be more active in protecting their trade secrets. The strategy also offers opportunities for increased collaboration with the government.

On February 20, 2013, the White House announced an “Administration Strategy on Mitigating the Theft of U.S. Trade Secrets.” Companies should view the announcement of this strategy as both a wake-up call from the government and an offer of assistance. Given the losses that can arise from competitors’ purposeful theft of trade secrets, entities should review this government announcement and decide whether they need to be more active in protecting their trade secrets.

The administration strategy articulates a broad governmental commitment to addressing an “accelerating” threat to U.S. intellectual property. The strategy encompasses five action items:

Focusing diplomatic efforts to protect trade secrets through diplomatic pressure, trade policy and cooperation with international entities
Promoting voluntary best practices by private industry to protect trade secrets
Enhancing domestic law enforcement, including through outreach and information-sharing with the private sector
Improving domestic legislation to combat trade secret theft
Improving public awareness and stakeholder outreach

Three main themes emerge from the administration strategy that are important for U.S. businesses.

First, the strategy and its supporting documentation highlight how frighteningly real the prospect of trade secrets theft is. The White House report is peppered with references to household name companies that have been victimized by trade secrets theft over the past few years, often at a cost of tens of millions of dollars or more. Mandated reports from the defense industry to the government indicate a 75 percent increase between FY2010 and FY2011 in reports of suspicious activity aimed at acquiring protected information. Coupled with a recent New York Times article asserting Chinese government involvement in more than 100 attempted cyber attacks on U.S. companies since 2006, these reports warrant sitting up and taking notice. According to a report by the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive, particular targets include companies that possess the following:

Information and communications technologies
Business information that relates to supplies of scarce natural resources or that gives foreign actors an edge in negotiations with U.S. businesses or the U.S. government
Military technologies, particularly in connection with marine systems, unmanned aerial vehicles and other aerospace/aeronautic technologies
Civilian and dual-use technologies in sectors likely to experience fast growth, such as clean energy, health care and pharmaceuticals, advanced materials and manufacturing techniques, and agricultural technology

Second, the government alone cannot solve the problem. The administration commits to making the investigation and prosecution of trade secret theft a “top priority” and states that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has increased the number of trade secret theft investigations by 29 percent since 2010. On its face, however, a 29 percent increase in investigations cannot keep pace with a 75 percent increase in attempted trade secret thefts. Historically, as a result of limited resources, the government has been able to address only a tiny fraction of trade secret thefts, and there is no indication that there will be the massive influx of resources necessary to change this dynamic materially. Indeed, the administration strategy recognizes the need for public-private partnerships on this issue and asks companies and industry associations to develop and adopt voluntary best practices to protect themselves against trade secret theft. And, of course, there are significant drawbacks to any after-the-fact solution, whether relying on government intervention or a private lawsuit.

The best solution is to prevent a trade secret theft from ever occurring. Even if that is not possible, having taken strong measures to protect trade secrets will aid success both in any civil litigation against the perpetrator and in any criminal action the government may bring. Entities should consider at least the following types of protective measures:

Research and development compartmentalization, i.e., keeping information on a “need to know” basis, particularly where outside contractors are involved in any aspect of the process
Information security policies, e.g., requiring multiple passwords or multi-factor authentication measures and providing for data encryption
Physical security policies, e.g., using controlled access cards and an alarm system
Human resources policies, e.g., using employee non-disclosure agreements, conducting employee training on the protection of trade secrets and performing exit interviews.

It also will be important in any future litigation that a company has clearly designated as confidential any materials it may wish to assert are trade secrets.

Third, the new administration approach to trade secrets offers some opportunities for U.S. companies.

The government interest in enhancing law enforcement operations indicates that businesses may have a better chance of encouraging the government to investigate and bring criminal charges under the Economic Espionage Act (EEA) against the perpetrators of trade secret thefts. The possibility of seeking government involvement is a powerful tool that should be considered and discussed with counsel any time there is a significant suspected trade secret theft. Obtaining government involvement in specific instances of trade secret theft can allow businesses to take advantage of information learned via government tactics such as undercover investigations and search warrants. It also can significantly enhance any civil litigation—for example, a finding of criminal liability can make a civil outcome a foregone conclusion.

The administration strategy’s focus on improving domestic legislation and increasing communication with the private sector suggests that there is an opportunity for the private sector to collaborate with government actors in communicating industry needs and shaping policy. For example, it is possible that the time is ripe for an amendment to the EEA (currently a federal criminal statute that offers no private right of action) to create a federal, private cause of action for misappropriation of trade secrets. A bill to this effect was introduced in Congress in 2012 and did not progress, but two other amendments to strengthen the EEA that passed overwhelmingly in December 2012, plus the recently issued administration strategy, suggest there may be gathering momentum for such a change.

In an executive order signed on February 12, 2013, entitled “Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity,” President Obama outlined government plans to significantly increase the amount of information that the government shares with private sector entities about cyber threats. Specifically, the order directs government agencies to develop procedures to create and disseminate to targeted entities unclassified reports of cyber threats that identify them as targets, to disseminate classified reports of cyber threats under certain circumstances to “critical infrastructure entities,” and to expand the Enhanced Cybersecurity Services program (previously available only to defense contractors to assist in information-sharing about cyber threats and protection of trade secrets) to “eligible critical infrastructure companies or commercial service providers that offer security services to critical infrastructure.” The directives in the executive order are in addition to and complement various information-sharing tactics set forth in the administration strategy designed to provide warnings, threat assessments and other information to industry. Companies, particularly those involved in the power grid or the provision of other utilities or critical systems, should be aware of the possibility of obtaining additional information from the government about threats to protected information.

Trade Secret Misappropriation: When An Insider Takes Your Trade Secrets With Them

Raymond Law Group LLC‘s Stephen G. Troiano recently had an article, Trade Secret Misappropriation: When An Insider Takes Your Trade Secrets With Them, featured in The National Law Review:

While companies are often focused on outsider risks such as breach of their systems through a stolen laptop or hacking, often the biggest risk is from insiders themselves. Such problems of access management with existing employees, independent contractors and other persons are as much a threat to proprietary information as threats from outside sources.

In any industry dominated by two main players there will be intense competition for an advantage. Advanced Micro Devices and Nvida dominate the graphics card market. They put out competing models of graphics cards at similar price points. When played by the rules, such competition is beneficial for both the industry and consumers.

AMD has sued four former employees for allegedly taking “sensitive” documents when they left to work for Nvidia. In its complaint, filed in the 1st Circuit District Court of Massachusetts, AMD claims this is “an extraordinary case of trade secret transfer/misappropriation and strategic employee solicitation.” Allegedly, forensically recovered data show that when the AMD employees left in July of 2012 they transferred thousands of files to external hard drives that they then took with them. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. v. Feldstein et al, No. 4:2013cv40007 (1st Cir. 2013).

On January 14, 2013 the District Court of Massachusetts granted AMD’s ex-parte temporary restraining order finding AMD would suffer immediate and irreparable injury if the Court did not issue the TRO. The TRO required the AMD employees to immediately provide their computers and storage devices for forensic evaluation and to refrain from using or disclosing any AMD confidential information.

The employees did not have a non-compete contract. Instead the complaint is centered on an allegation of misappropriation of trade secrets. While both AMD and Nvidia are extremely competitive in the consumer discrete gpu market involving PC gaming enthusiasts, there are rumors that AMD managed to secure their hardware to be placed in both forthcoming next-generation consoles, Sony PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Xbox 720. AMD’s TRO and ultimate goal of the suit may therefore be to preclude any of their proprietary technology from being used by its former employees to assist Nvidia in the future.

The law does protect companies and individuals such as AMD from having their trade secrets misappropriated. The AMD case has only recently been filed and therefore it is unclear what the response from the employees will be. What is clear is how fast AMD was able to move to deal with such a potential insider threat. Companies need to be aware of who has access to what data and for how long. Therefore, in the event of a breach, whether internal or external, companies can move quickly to isolate and identify the breach and take steps such as litigation to ensure their proprietary information is protected.

In a Rarely-Seen Joint-Effort in the Competition Arena, the DOJ and the USPTO Unite in Issuing a Policy Statement on Remedies Involving Standard Essential Patents

The National Law Review recently published an article, In a Rarely-Seen Joint-Effort in the Competition Arena, the DOJ and the USPTO Unite in Issuing a Policy Statement on Remedies Involving Standard Essential Patents, written by the Antitrust and Trade Regulation Practice of Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP:

On January 8, 2013 – less than a week after the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) entered into a consent order with Google,^[1] under which Google is generally banned from seeking injunctions on its F/RAND^[2] -encumbered standard essential patents (“SEPs”)^[3] – the United States Department of Justice (“DOJ”) banded together with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) (jointly referred here as “the Agencies”) in issuing the Policy Statement on Remedies for Standard Essential Patents Subject to F/RAND Commitment (“Policy Statement on Remedies for SEPs”).

This was a rare pairing in that, in the past, the DOJ has generally joined forces with the FTC in jointly issuing guidelines in the area of competition and antitrust enforcement policy. Examples include the DOJ-FTC joint “Antitrust Policy Enforcement Regarding Accountable Care Organizations,” “Antitrust Enforcement and Intellectual Property Rights: Promoting Innovation and Competition,” “Antitrust Guidelines for the Licensing of Intellectual Property,” “Antitrust Guidelines for Collaborations Among Competitors,” and “Horizontal Merger Guidelines.” The Policy Statement on Remedies for SEPs is, therefore, a departure from that established practice.

The DOJ issued the policy statement in its capacity as “the executive-branch agency charged with protecting U.S. consumers by promoting and protecting competition,” and the USPTO in its capacity as “the executive-branch agency charged with responsibility for examining patent applications, issuing patents, and—through the Secretary of Commerce—advising the President on domestic and certain international issues of intellectual property policy.” Policy Statement on Remedies for SEPs at 8.

Noting the procompetitive virtues of consensus-driven standards along with their risks, the Agencies sought to balance the rights of SEP holders against the risk of hold-up to implementers. On the one hand, the Agencies recognized that “[i]n some circumstances, the remedy of an injunction or exclusion order may be inconsistent with the public interest” and “may harm competition and consumers.” Id. at 6. On the other hand, they rejected a general ban on injunctive relief actions for SEPS, see id. at 7-8, or rigid imposition of “one-size-fits-all mandates for royalty-free or below-market licensing, which would undermine the effectiveness of the standardization process and incentives for innovation,” id. at 5-6.

In determining whether an injunction or exclusion order may be appropriate, or otherwise should be denied, the Agencies offered a flexible approach that could be used to adapt the remedy to the specific facts of each case by identifying non-exhaustive “relevant factors when determining whether public interest should prevent the issuance of an exclusion order… or when shaping such a remedy.” Id. at 7-9. One such factor is “whether a patent holder has acknowledged voluntarily through a commitment to license its patents on F/RAND terms that money damages, rather than injunctive or exclusionary relief, is the appropriate remedy for infringement.” Id. at 9.

However, according to the Agencies, “This is not to say that consideration of the public interest factors … would always counsel against the issuance of an exclusion order to address infringement of a F/RAND-encumbered, standards-essential patent”; such an order may still be “an appropriate remedy” in some circumstances. Id. at 7.

For example, an exclusion order by the International Trade Commission (“ITC”) or a district court injunction may be appropriate when “a putative licensee refuses to pay what has been determined to be a F/RAND royalty, or refuses to engage in a negotiation to determine F/RAND terms.” Id. The Agencies also made clear that “a constructive refusal to negotiate” could be the basis for injunctive relief or an exclusion order, such as when the putative licensee “insist[s] on terms clearly outside the bounds of what could reasonably be considered to be F/RAND terms in an attempt to evade the putative licensee’s obligation to fairly compensate the patent holder.” Id. Other factors relevant to a particular case may also justify such a relief, making the inquiry a case-specific one. See id. (noting that “[t]his list is not an exhaustive one,” thus leaving room for other considerations).

In contrast, the FTC has taken a much more restrictive view of SEP inunctions. For example, in its Google order, the FTC generally banned efforts by Google to seek injunctive relief on its SEPs, except in the following narrowly enumerated circumstances against a potential licensee who (a) is outside the jurisdiction of the United States, (b) has stated in writing or sworn testimony that it will not license on any terms, (c) refuses to enter a license on terms determined to be F/RAND in the “Final Ruling” of a court (after exhaustion of all appeals) or through binding arbitration or other mutually-agreed process, or (d) fails to provide a written confirmation to a SEP owner in response to a F/RAND Terms Letter as outlined in the FTC Order. FTC Decision & Order at 7-8. The order also allows Google to seek injunctive relief in certain circumstances when the putative licensee first sues Google for injunctions on the potential licensee’s own SEPs. Id. at 11-12. The order also requires rigid adherence to an offer of a detailed licensing agreement and specific steps for negotiating and resolving disputes before pursuing any injunctive relief consistent with the above conditions. See, e.g., id. at 9-12.

Notably, the FTC order is not based on the antitrust laws, but instead relies on Section 5 of the FTC Act, which is primarily a consumer protection statute that prohibits “unfair method of competition” and “unfair acts or practices.” See FTC Complaint, ¶¶ 31-32. Commissioner Ohlhausen dissented generally questioning the applicability of Section 5 to Google’s conduct and the “doctrinal confusion” the order would cause, among other reasons. See generally Dissenting Statement of Commissioner Ohlhausen. Commissioner Rosch issued a separate statement that called into question the FTC’s use of Section 5’s “unfair method of competition” prong without any “limiting principles” – such as “the requirement that a respondent have monopoly or near-monopoly power” – which risked “unsettl[ing] ‘settled principles of [Sherman Act] Section 2 law’ as defined by the Supreme Court case law under Section 2, … as well as the language of Section 2 itself.” Sep. Stmt. of Commissioner Rosch at 3-4.

_{[1] All of the relevant documents, including the FTC Complaint, the Decision and Order, and Separate and Dissenting Statements respectively of Commissioners Rosch and Ohlhausen can be found on the FTC’s website at http://www.ftc.gov/os/caselist/1210120/index.shtm.}

_{[2] “F/RAND” refers to a commitment made by a patentee to an industry standard setting organization (“SSO”) that the patentee will license its patents that are, or will become, essential to a standard adopted by the SSO on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms.}

_{[3] Throughout, “SEPs” is used to refer only to F/RAND-encumbered standard essential patents. These are patents that have been designated as essential to the functionality of an approved standard, such as the telecommunications standards applicable to mobile devices operating on a 3G network, pursuant to the specifications of an SSO.}

POSTPONED – Copyright and Trademark Protection in The Digital Age Conference – February 6-7, 2013

THIS CONFERENCE HAS BEEN POSTPONED BY THE ORGANIZER

The National Law Review is pleased to bring you information about the upcoming marcus evans Copyright and Trademark Protection in The Digital Age Conference:

The marcus evans Copyright and Trademark Protection in The Digital Age Conference will provide strategies for organizations who are dealing with digital copyright and trademark issues, address the management of digital content, digital license agreements, and overall evolution of copyright and trademark to ensure they are protecting their brand.

Category: copyrights