We are pleased to announce that four of our Partners, Scott Brown, Cheryl Burbach, Crissa Cook, and Michael Hurd have been selected to the 2022 Missouri & Kansas Super Lawyers list. Selection for the Super Lawyers list means these Partners rate among the top 5% of...
Copyright Law
Global Entrepreneurship Week – KC
ATTENTION PIONEERS and INVENTORS!! DON'T MISS OUT ON FREE INFORMATIVE SESSIONS FOR ENTREPRENEURS. Global Entrepreneurship Week - KC happens November 14-20, 2022. Learn how to to protect and commercialize your inventions with patents, trade secrets, copyrights and...
Hovey Williams 2023 Recognition in “The Best Lawyers in America”®
Congratulations to our honorees. A well deserved honor.
Copyright Claims Board Begins Accepting Claims
On June 2, 2022, the U.S. Copyright Office announced that the Copyright Claims Board (CCB) will begin accepting claims on Thursday, June 16, 2022. The CCB was established by the Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement (CASE) Act of 2020. The CCB consists of...
Hovey Prevails in Copyright Infringement Case at the 8th Circuit
Hovey Williams LLP successfully defended its client Thomson Sailors Homes and its principals in a copyright infringement action in the Western District of Missouri. In 2019, Judge Steven R. Bough granted summary judgment of no copyright infringement in a case claiming...
Copyright Slam Dunk?
By Kyle Mendenhall Lebron James is being sued for copyright infringement after posting a cropped photograph of himself on Facebook. The original photograph was taken by professional photographer Steve Mitchell, who has registered the photograph with the U.S. Copyright...
A refresher on fair use
Fair use is often cited, but many may not have a clear idea of what it is. In short, fair use is a pragmatic doctrine that allows the use of portions of a copyrighted work without approval from the copyright owner or creator. Typically, this use is done with a good...
Photographers win two recent copyright appeals
Photographers face many challenges in the digital era, none more significant than having their works copied and repurposed without approval. In the two cases discussed below, the photographers took their infringement cases to court and initially lost. According to...
The ins and outs of songwriter credits
The concept of songwriting has evolved. From communal folk songs that evolved over millennia in the public domain to the sampling of other artists’ recordings, ownership has gone from irrelevant to essential revenue streams for the songwriter or the company that...
Allegation of infringement pattern defeats motion to dismiss
On January 4, a federal judge in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California refused to dismiss claims of copyright infringement because he found that the plaintiff photographer had sufficiently alleged a pattern of copyright infringement. The...