Last week the Supreme Court issued a split 4-4 ruling in the Costco v. Omega lawsuit. The opinion can be found here.
The split affirms the decision of the Ninth Circuit that the first sale doctrine does not apply to copyrighted works manufactured and sold abroad. The case has been reported in many news outlets, including the New York Times and Wall Street Journal.
Showing posts with label Costco v. Omega. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Costco v. Omega. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Supreme Court Hearing on Copyright First Sale - November 8, 2010
I was in attendance at the Supreme Court on Monday, November 8, 2010 for the hearing in the Costco v. Omega matter. You can read the transcript of the hearing here.
It was interesting to hear the judge’s questions on the first sale doctrine and its applicability to copyrighted works made and distributed abroad.
A couple of non-substantive observations. (Disclosure: I have worked on this case on behalf of Omega from 2004 – present)
The outside of the courthouse is well-kept and architecturally stands out (even in Washington DC surrounded by other similar inspiring buildings including the Library of Congress, Capital Building and the Senate and House office buildings.
The building itself is celebrating its 75th Anniversary. The huge halls and columns inside are majestic but in some ways only lead up to disappointment once entering the courtroom itself. The courtroom is small. The seating capacity could not have been over 250 people. The vaulted ceilings may make everything seem small but there were relatively few rows of seats. (Some were bench type seating while chairs in rows and on ends of benches comprised the remainder of the seats.) I have been to circuit courts with more abundant seating.
The justices themselves were well prepared and were engaging with questions. Given the serious nature of Supreme Court proceedings in general, I was surprised that there were a couple of moments of laughter (where Justice Breyer indicated that even he had to draw the line somewhere and Justice Scalia quipped, "Let me write that down.").
Relatively speaking, the hour went by fairly quickly with three speakers, Aaron Panner for Respondent Omega, Roy Englert for Petitioner Costco, and Malcolm Stewart for the United States in support of Respondent.
A decision will be made before the end of June.
It was interesting to hear the judge’s questions on the first sale doctrine and its applicability to copyrighted works made and distributed abroad.
A couple of non-substantive observations. (Disclosure: I have worked on this case on behalf of Omega from 2004 – present)
The outside of the courthouse is well-kept and architecturally stands out (even in Washington DC surrounded by other similar inspiring buildings including the Library of Congress, Capital Building and the Senate and House office buildings.
The building itself is celebrating its 75th Anniversary. The huge halls and columns inside are majestic but in some ways only lead up to disappointment once entering the courtroom itself. The courtroom is small. The seating capacity could not have been over 250 people. The vaulted ceilings may make everything seem small but there were relatively few rows of seats. (Some were bench type seating while chairs in rows and on ends of benches comprised the remainder of the seats.) I have been to circuit courts with more abundant seating.
The justices themselves were well prepared and were engaging with questions. Given the serious nature of Supreme Court proceedings in general, I was surprised that there were a couple of moments of laughter (where Justice Breyer indicated that even he had to draw the line somewhere and Justice Scalia quipped, "Let me write that down.").
Relatively speaking, the hour went by fairly quickly with three speakers, Aaron Panner for Respondent Omega, Roy Englert for Petitioner Costco, and Malcolm Stewart for the United States in support of Respondent.
A decision will be made before the end of June.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Weekly Wednesday Wrapup - April 21, 2010
This past week has been very eventful in terms of copyright law news. Below is a listing with links of some of the headlines from the past week.
- Supreme Court to decide copyright first sale doctrine case – Costco v. Omega
- More documents made public in Viacom v. YouTube copyright infringement lawsuit.
Individual documents here:
Exhibit 52, Exhibit 59, Exhibit 60, Exhibit 63, Exhibit 81, Exhibit 242, Exhibit 314 , Exhibit 321, Exhibit 340
- Frankie Valli files copyright infringement lawsuit against former Jersey Boys.
- Library of Congress will retain public tweets.
- Also, the coincidence of the week, the approval process has started for a futures investment market for box office sales in the first week of release.
This has not received a warm welcome from the motion picture studios. For the past 2 weeks, the results of the box office have been too close to call with later revisions determining the projected winner in fact was in second place.
- And finally, just when you thought it was safe to send out cease and desist and offers to settle letters to copyright infringers…..apparently computer hackers are threatening copyright infringement lawsuits to scam those who download from BitTorrent.
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