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…
Author: Wendy Spiro
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…
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…
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…
Disclosure of Additional Digits on a Credit Card Receipt Sufficient to Confer Article III Standing to Bring a FACTA Claim (Opinion Vacated, and Petition for Rehearing En Banc Granted, October 4, 2019)
On October 5, 2018, a panel of the Eleventh Circuit held that a plaintiff has standing to pursue a claim under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (“FACTA”) if a merchant discloses too many digits of a credit card number on a receipt, even without subsequent misuse of the plaintiff’s identity or credit card. …
Denial of Daubert Motion and Dismissal of Fraudulent Transfer Claim Affirmed
In O’Halloran v. Harris Corp. (In re Teltronics, Inc.), 2018 WL 4700578 (11th Cir. Oct. 2, 2018), the Eleventh Circuit affirmed a district court judgment affirming a bankruptcy court order dismissing a fraudulent conveyance claim. The alleged fraudulent conveyance was the debtor’s transfer of a “blocking right” and right of first refusal under a patent…
Split Panel Upholds Dismissal of Force-Placed Insurance Claims Under Filed-Rate Doctrine
Last week, a split panel of the Eleventh Circuit upheld the dismissal of a class action over “force-placed insurance” under the filed-rate doctrine. Patel v. Specialized Loan Servicing, LLC, 2018 WL 4559091 (11th Cir. Sept. 24, 2018). The “force-placed insurance” in question concerns the residential mortgage market. A typical mortgage contract requires the borrower to…
Availability of Class Arbitration Is a “Question of Arbitrability” to Be Decided by a Court Absent a “Clear and Unmistakable Intent” to Delegate Arbitrability Questions to an Arbitrator
For the second time in as many months, the Eleventh Circuit addressed the question of who—a court or an arbitrator—decides whether an arbitration agreement allows for class arbitration. The court faced this question just last month in Spirit Airlines, Inc. v. Maizes, 899 F.3d 1230 (11th Cir. 2018), but its more recent decision in JPay, Inc….
Eleventh Circuit Upholds Constitutionality of Giving Preclusive Effect to Engle Jury Findings on Intentional Torts
Recently, in Searcy v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., 2018 WL 4214594 (11th Cir. Sept. 5, 2018), the Eleventh Circuit held that giving preclusive effect to a Florida jury’s findings that tobacco companies had concealed the health impacts of smoking did not violate the Due Process Clause when the defendants had notice and an opportunity to…
Court Declares Ratepayers’ Challenge to Jefferson County Bankruptcy Plan Equitably Moot
In Bennett v. Jefferson County, Alabama, 2018 WL 3892979 (11th Cir. Aug. 16, 2018), the Eleventh Circuit held that the doctrine of equitable mootness barred a challenge by ratepayers to Jefferson County’s bankruptcy plan, representing the first time the court has applied the doctrine to a Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy. Jefferson County declared bankruptcy in…