New York New York Legal Blog

Lawsuits filed by patent trolls have been the bane of many companies over the years. The problem became so extensive that in 2016, Congress passed the Defense of Trade Secrets Act in an attempt to stem the flow of these lawsuits in order to allow them into federal court since they were ordinarily filed in state courts, including those here in New York. Unfortunately, it now appears that this opened up this type of intellectual property to patent-troll type lawsuits.

Another matter that could hasten an increase in litigation regarding trade secrets is a lawsuit filed in 2015. The plaintiff alleged that the defendant failed to deliver software it needed. The defendant then filed a countersuit alleging that the plaintiff took its trade secrets and developed its own software. The jury and judge on the case agreed and awarded millions of dollars in damages to the defendant.

Artists, songwriters, writers, photographers and others often have a hard time convincing the public that their creations are not free for anyone to use. Even when they sign a contract permitting the use of a work of art, the other party may take advantage of the permission. One New York photographer has turned to intellectual property litigation after an advertising agency allegedly stepped outside the boundaries of their contractual agreement.

Jill Greenberg has a reputation for setting trends in the advertising world as well as in fine art photography. The McGarryBowen advertising agency hired her to take some photographs for an advertising campaign for the Clorox Co.'s Fresh Step cat litter. The photographs were taken from under a sheet of glass on which various cats stood and frolicked. Greenberg's contract with the advertising agency apparently allowed for use of the photos in the ad campaign and specifically excluded them from use in video advertising.

Artists often consider their work to be a part of themselves. When they create a song, a photograph or another kind of artistic piece, they generally want the ability to control how that art is made available for public consumption. The artistic community is thriving here in New York, and it is important that artists have the ability to protect themselves and the art they create through copyright law. Recently, songwriter Kenny Nolan has filed a civil suit against Sony/ATV Music Publishing, claiming breach of contract and copyright infringement. He claims that several of his songs were acquired by the publisher without his permission.

Nolan, who is responsible for hits such as "Lady Marmalade," filed his claim regarding two sets of songs that he wrote or co-wrote over the years. He says that the first set of songs was licensed to his frequent co-writer around 40 years ago. The second set of songs was licensed to two other companies. Nolan claims his co-writer and those companies then licensed both sets of the music to Sony/ATV.

When most New York residents post pictures to social media, no legal issue arises. It makes sense that someone's picture of him or herself would not belong to another party. However, model Gigi Hadid recently became the subject of a lawsuit alleging that she violated copyright law when she posted a picture of herself on her Instagram account that was taken by paparazzi.

As most people know, there are companies across the country that employ photographers to do nothing but follow around celebrities and take photographs of them for profit -- the photographers are called paparazzi. One company in particular, which happens to be here in New York, alleges that Hadid failed to obtain the appropriate permission and license to post the photo. Even though it was taken down quickly, it undoubtedly received numerous views beforehand since the model has some 44 million followers.