Thomson Reuters; Copyright litigation 101
"A common type of intellectual property (IP) infringement involves copyright, which protects “creative” work. This includes literature (running the gamut from blog posts to newspapers to novels), music (both sound recordings and compositions), visual arts (photos, paintings, and illustrations), motion pictures, theatrical works (scripts, stage designs, and productions), and architecture.
Under copyright law, the creator of the work is considered to be its author, unless the author assigns the copyright to another person or entity, such as a publisher or record label.
For works made for hire, the employer or commissioning party is typically considered to be the author, though a few creators of work-for-hire properties have later sued the commissioning party for partial or full copyright ownership. For instance, there have been multiple suits filed against Marvel and DC Comics by original creators of Spider-Man and the X-Men, which resulted in out-of-court settlements with the creators or their estates.
Table of contents:
1. What are elements of a copyright infringement claim?
2. Criminal copyright infringement
3. What is the most common copyright infringement?
4. What happens if copyright is breached?
Case study of copyright litigation
