After three years of litigation, a court has held that the “beat that goes on” for Cher’s right to continue receiving royalties on songs created during her marriage to Sonny Bono, despite attempts by Sonny’s widow, Mary Bono, to invoke federal copyright termination rights to end those payments. 

Halloween is coming up at the end of this month, and we are celebrating a little early with the spooky copyright story of Jap Herron!

In 2023, California artist Joe Morford lost his copyright infringement lawsuit against Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan. Morford claimed that Cattelan’s viral artwork “Comedian,” which features a banana duct-taped to a wall, was a copy of his own work, “Banana and Orange.”

Fourteen teams of the US National Basketball Association (NBA) have been sued in federal district court for copyright infringement. The complaints were filed by companies claiming to own rights in various musical works.

In a recent decision, the U.S. Court of Appeal for the Eighth Circuit affirmed a jury verdict holding that the use of the “Success Kid” meme by a congressman’s reelection campaign for fundraising purposes did not qualify as fair use.

In February 2024, proposed legislation was introduced in US House of Representatives which would extend copyright protection to golf courses. The bill is titled “Bolstering Intellectual Rights against Digital Infringement Enhancement Act” or the “BIRDIE Act”.