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Unregistered Copyright Does Not Preclude Federal Jurisdiction

Capping off an October trio of copyright decisions, the Eleventh Circuit in Fastcase, Inc. v. Lawriter, LLC, 2018 WL 5318148 (11th Cir. Oct. 29, 2018), confirmed that the failure to register a copyright does not defeat federal subject-matter jurisdiction (though it may doom an infringement claim under Rule 12(b)(6)).  The court also held that a plaintiff’s potential liability may be...

Eleventh Circuit Takes District Court to School Over Educational Fair-Use Copyright Dispute

In Cambridge University Press v. Albert, 2018 WL 5095004 (11th Cir. Oct. 19, 2018), the Eleventh Circuit issued its second decision in a decade-long dispute over Georgia State University’s practice of distributing digital excerpts of copyrighted works to students without paying a royalty.  The district court now faces its third trial to assess the fair-use defense as to 48 excerpted...

Laws for the People, By the People, Are Not Copyrightable

A March 23, 2017 order from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia immediately prompted headlines such as “If you publish Georgia’s state laws, you’ll get sued for copyright and lose.”  The case, Code Revision Commission v. Public.Resource.Org, Inc., 244 F. Supp. 3d 1350 (N.D. Ga. 2017), examined whether the Official Code of Georgia Annotated (“O.C.G.A.”)...

SCOTUS Business Cases This Term (Part 2 – Arbitration)

The Court has several arbitration-related cases before it this term.  Lamps Plus, Inc. v. Varela concerns whether the FAA permits a state-law interpretation of an arbitration agreement that finds a contractual basis for class arbitration without class arbitration’s being specifically mentioned.  New Prime, Inc. v. Oliveira involves the FAA’s exception for “contracts...

Court Revives Challenge to Stranger-Originated Life Insurance Policies (STOLIs)

In Sun Life Assurance Co. of Canada v. Imperial Premium Finance, LLC, 2018 WL 4443054 (11th Cir. Sept. 18, 2018), the Eleventh Circuit reversed the dismissal of fraud and breach of contract claims related to the sale of life insurance policies to strangers to the insureds.  Sun Life Assurance Company sold life insurance to senior citizens, who, in some cases, obtained premium financing...

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