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Free Mickey? (Don’t Be Goofy)

LexBlog IP

Freed from the shackles of copyright, Walt Disney’s iconic rodent was now in the public domain and, therefore, available for everyone to copy. It is no surprise that the legalities of the public domain are more complicated than the headlines suggest. Trademark law has something to say about use.

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When a vampire not called Dracula bested the copyright system, and what it tells us about derivative works

The IPKat

But for IP types, perhaps their most notable accomplishment was the revenge that they took upon the copyright system. And, while the copyright laws were used to try to keep the film from public view, ultimately it failed, to the continuing benefit of cinematic creation. Enter the copyright laws.

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13 Spooky Copyright Cases, Just in Time for Halloween

Copyright Lately

The case is New Line Cinema v. Cinema Secrets (2000). In 1999, Cinema Secrets licensed the right to sell a Michael Myers Halloween mask from the film’s copyright owner. This prompted a lawsuit by Don Post Studios, which asserted that the Cinema Secrets mask was a copy of its own mask. BMG (1988).

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