Copyright Litigation
The Intellectual Property Group’s leadership in the field of copyright litigation is longstanding. The group’s attorneys represented Lotus Development Corp. (now part of IBM) before the U.S. Supreme Court in the landmark Borland case, concerning the scope of copyright protection for computer software user interfaces. The group’s Supreme Court work continued with representation of a Dow Jones/Reuters joint venture in the industry-wide (and ongoing) dispute regarding rights in the works of freelance writers contained in electronic databases. The group’s attorneys represent clients in all types of copyright matters. Their work for Lotus Development included four successful bench trials in federal court, producing one highly favorable settlement (against Paperback Software), one permanent injunction (against Borland, which the First Circuit reversed and as to which the U.S. Supreme Court deadlocked 4-4), and one dismissal of a case brought against Lotus by the creators of VisiCalc. The group helped persuade the Department of Justice to refrain from filing charges against Reuters America in an investigation concerning the alleged misappropriation and copyright infringement of certain Bloomberg databases. The group has handled numerous other copyright cases of varying sizes for clients such as J.P. Morgan, Seagram (now Vivendi Universal) and Scholastic.
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