On November 15, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in Google LLC v. Oracle America, Inc., No. 18-956. The two questions presented before the Court are (1) whether “copyright protection extends to a software interface,” and (2) whether, as the jury found, that Google’s “use of a software interface in the context of a creating a … Continue Reading
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court issued its opinion in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., resolving a long-simmering debate by holding that copyright’s first-sale doctrine applies to copyrighted works lawfully made anywhere in the world. The upshot is that someone who buys an authorized, foreign-made copy (Kirtsaeng involved a foreign version of a textbook) … Continue Reading
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Monday in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., a case addressing whether textbooks — and other copyrighted works — made abroad can be imported and sold in the United States without the copyright holder’s permission. The Court’s decision will clarify to what extent § 109(a) of the Copyright … Continue Reading
The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case on the ability of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and other federal agencies to determine the scope of their own jurisdiction. Generally, under the Supreme Court’s decision in Chevron USA v. NRDC, courts must defer to agencies’ interpretations of ambiguous statutes within the agencies’ respective areas … Continue Reading
