Ninth Circuit Holds that Apple did not Engage in Copyright Misuse By Laura Fishwick – Edited by Michael Hoven Apple Inc. v. Psystar Corp., No. 10-15113 (9th Cir. Sept. 28, 2011) Slip Opinion The Ninth Circuit affirmed the Northern District of California’s holding that Psystar infringed Apple’s federal copyrights, and vacated and remanded the district court’s grant of Apple’s motion to seal summary judgment papers. The district court had rejected Psystar’s defense of copyright misuse, in which Psystar had argued ... Read More...

By Andrew Crocker Activist Arrested for Allegedly Hacking JSTOR On July 19, police arrested Aaron Swartz, a 24-year-old programmer and Internet activist, in Cambridge, Massachusetts for allegedly committing wire and computer fraud when he downloaded approximately 4.8 million scholarly articles and other files from the JSTOR database, reports the New York Times.  As alleged in the indictment, beginning in September 2010, Swartz used MIT’s network to run an automated script to download the material from JSTOR, and eventually physically jacked ... Read More...

Ninth Circuit reverses court order granting toymaker Mattel ownership of Bratz doll brand By Abby Lauer – Edited by Janet Freilich MGA Entertainment, Inc. v. Mattel, Inc., No. 09-55673 (9th Cir. July 22, 2010) Slip Opinion In a decision making headlines across the nation, the Ninth Circuit reversed the Central District of California, which had given Mattel ownership rights to the Bratz doll brand after a jury found that the designer who created the dolls was working for Mattel when ... Read More...

Ninth Circuit Argues for Less Stringent Test for Protecting Anonymous Online Commercial Speech By Kathryn Freund – Edited by Janet Freilich In re: Anonymous Online Speakers, No. 09-71265 (9th Cir. July 12, 2010) Opinion The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied writs of mandamus appealing the District Court of Nevada’s order to disclose the identities of anonymous online posters. Although the Circuit Court denied the writs of mandamus for procedural reasons, the decision provides a discussion of Free Speech protection ... Read More...

Use of Trademark in Domain Names Found to Be Nominative Fair Use By Harry Zhou – Edited by Anthony Kammer Toyota Motor Sales v. Tabari, No. 07-55344 (9th Cir. Jul. 8, 2010) Slip Opinion On July 8, 2010, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated and remanded an injunction against Farzad and Lisa Tabari by the United States District Court for the Central District of California in a trademark infringement claim brought by Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. (“Toyota”).  The Ninth ... Read More...