All posts tagged: Infringement

Mickalene Thomas Accused of Copyright Infringement in New Lawsuit

Mickalene Thomas Accused of Copyright Infringement in New Lawsuit

Published by Jenni Sidey

Mickalene Thomas, an artist known for her popular paintings and photo-based installations centering Black women, is facing a lawsuit from the photographer Barbara Karant, who alleges that Thomas used her pictures without attribution or permission in works that appeared at an array of museums and blue-chip galleries. “In installation after installation, and in collage after collage, Thomas has engaged in the wholesale copying of copyrighted works from a fellow artist,” the lawsuit claims. Related Articles Filed last month in Illinois’s North District Court, Karant’s lawsuit revolves around the photographer’s images of the Chicago-based Johnson Publishing Company, which owned the publications Ebony and Jet until 2016. Once considered the largest Black-run publishing firm in the US, the company went out of business in 2019, though its publications remain a point of reference for many artists, including Theaster Gates, who owns many historic photographs and objects from the company’s holdings. (A consortium of foundations acquired the publications’ photo archives of more than 4 million prints and negatives in 2019, with plans to donate them to the Getty …

Federal lawsuits from Interactive Games accuse FanDuel and DraftKings of patent infringement

Federal lawsuits from Interactive Games accuse FanDuel and DraftKings of patent infringement

Published by skeptic

Two major names in online sports betting are now facing twin federal lawsuits filed on the same day, as a smaller tech firm accuses them of using its patented systems without authorization. Interactive Games LLC brought separate cases against FanDuel and Betfair in New Jersey and DraftKings in Massachusetts. In both filings, the company claims the operators are relying on mobile wagering technology that traces back to patents it now controls. The lawsuits state that Interactive Games’ predecessor, Cantor Gaming, “was the first to develop systems that allowed users to gamble, place sports wagers, and play casino games on mobile devices.” The company argues those early breakthroughs became the backbone of today’s mobile betting ecosystem. Interactive Games fight against DraftKings and FanDuel rooted in early smartphone technology The filings walk through the technical hurdles developers faced in the mid-2000s, when smartphones were still new and unproven for gambling. Engineers had to figure out how to confirm a user’s identity, ensure they were physically located in a legal jurisdiction, and detect whether a device had been …

Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes sued for trademark infringement

Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes sued for trademark infringement

Published by Daniella Wilson

Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes are being sued over the name of their steakhouse restaurant. The Kansas City Chiefs players opened their Kansas City restaurant in September and named it 1587 Prime in a homage to their combined professional jersey numbers, with Mahomes wearing “15” and Kelce sporting “87.” However, a recent lawsuit filed by Boston-based shoe company 1587 Sneakers accused the NFL stars, as well as their business partner Noble 33, of trademark infringement for the similar name, saying it has caused “significant harm to our business.” “While we are fans of Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes and respect their accomplishments on the field and in the community, it’s important to acknowledge that — for years now —1587 has stood on its own, …

South Carolina Todd Atkinson Wins 8K in Copyright Infringement Case

South Carolina Todd Atkinson Wins $158K in Copyright Infringement Case

Published by José Betancourt

A judge in U.S. District Court in South Carolina has awarded local artist Todd Atkinson $158,400 in a copyright infringement case against artist Chan Shepherd and the owner of the building on which Atkinson’s mural was originally painted. Atkinson painted the mural, of a train and a water tank, with the words “Water Tank” in a red banner, on the side of a building in Clover, S.C., in the summer of 1982, according to court documents. He filed a copyright certificate on Dec. 11, 2023, and was granted copyright on Mar. 7, 2024. For many years, the building, located at 111 N. Main Street, was home to a bar called the Water Tank; according to Google, it is temporarily closed. Related Articles In a letter dated Oct. 12, 2023, addressed to Justin L. McFalls (and McFalls’s business, Queen City Plumbing), Atkinson’s lawyer, Alex Long, accuses McFalls of hiring another artist, Chan Shepherd, to paint a similar version of the Water Tank mural over the original on the building that McFalls recently purchased. “My understanding is …

Patagonia files trademark infringement lawsuit against drag performer: Pattie Gonia

Patagonia files trademark infringement lawsuit against drag performer: Pattie Gonia

Published by Daniella Wilson

Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Outdoor clothing and gear retailer Patagonia is suing popular drag queen Pattie Gonia for trademark infringement, claiming that the play on its name, in addition to a similarity in branding, has caused “confusion and deception” among consumers. In court documents filed Wednesday in California federal court, seen by The Independent, Patagonia claimed that Pattie Gonia’s recent trademark application for the exclusive right to the brand PATTIE GONIA, which seeks to encompass their advocacy work, apparel, promoting public awareness of and motivational speaking services in support of environmental sustainability and LGBTQIA2S+ equality, and more, “compete directly with the products and advocacy upon which Patagonia built its PATAGONIA brand over the last fifty-three years.” “The trademark application reflects Pattie Gonia’s departure from discrete use of a …

Monsanto Sues COVID-19 Vaccine Manufacturers, Alleging Copyright Infringement

Monsanto Sues COVID-19 Vaccine Manufacturers, Alleging Copyright Infringement

Published by Jenni Sidey

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times, Bayer and its Monsanto division are suing COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers, alleging they used technology Monsanto developed and patented in the 1980s in their vaccines. Bayer said in lawsuits that Pfizer, its partner BioNTech, and Moderna wrongly used technology Monsanto developed and used to make plants resistant to insects. Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna included the technology in their shots to enhance the stability of messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) “and thus the vaccines’ ability to confer immunity to the virus,” lawyers for Bayer and Monsanto said in the suits, which were filed on Jan. 6 with the U.S. court in Delaware. Bayer was not involved in COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing or production. Bayer said it was not seeking to interfere with the production of the COVID-19 vaccines, which are still being made and sold, but said the court should award it money, describing the defendants as having “profited handsomely from infringing vaccine sales worldwide.” “Plaintiffs are entitled to damages as a result of Defendants’ infringement of the … Patent in an …