Mass Law Blog
Intellectual property and business litigation, Massachusetts and nationallyWritten by humans
Lee Gesmer’s Mass Law Blog began in 2005, and contains almost 600 posts. The site initially focused on Massachusetts law, but today it follows business and intellectual property law nation-wide. The site is hosted by Gesmer Updegrove LLP, a law firm based in Boston, Massachusetts. The firm represents startup and established companies in the areas of litigation, transactions (including financings, mergers and acquisitions), IP rights, taxation, employment law, standards consortia, business counseling and open source development projects and foundations. You can find a summary of the firm’s services here. To learn how Gesmer Updegrove can help you, contact: Lee Gesmer
Mass Law Blog Update – Week Ending March 14, 2014
First Circuit holds that failure to register copyrights in underlying musical compositions dooms copyright infringement claims. Alecia v. Machete Music (link) N. Dist. Cal. court holds that websites copy of photo of politician is protected by copyright fair use doctrine. Dhillon v. Does 1-10 (link) The 9th Circuit has declared open season on the petition for rehearing or hear en banc in its decision in Garcia v. Google - anyone can file an amicus brief (link). This case has been the subject of...
Boston Bar Association Interview/Profile
The Boston Bar Association has done a nice interview and profile of me on its blog, "Tipping the Scales." Lee Gesmer is a founder and partner of Gesmer Updegrove LLP, a Boston-based firm formed in 1986 that focuses on the representation of technology companies and emerging businesses. Lee’s practice focuses on litigation in the areas of business and intellectual property law. He is a former Council member and former Co-Chair of the BBA Intellectual Property Section, as well as the Computer and...
Mass Law Blog Update, Two Weeks Ending February 28, 2014
The week ending February 21, 2014 was a light week, so this week's Update covers the two weeks ending February 28, 2014 9th Circuit holds actress owns copyright in her individual performance, reverses lower court's denial of preliminary injunction. Garcia v. Google (link). See blog post on this case here. Utah federal district court issues preliminary injunction order against Aereo, limited to Tenth Circuit. Aereo's first loss in court, although courts in California and the District of...
Film Actress Uses Copyright in Her Performance to Force Youtube to Take Down a Movie
An old legal saw warns that "hard cases make bad law." The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision in Garcia v. Google may be a good example of this maxim. The issue facing the Ninth Circuit was whether an actress can claim a copyright interest in her performance in a film and, if so, under the unusual circumstances in this case, whether the actress could use that copyright to compel Google to remove the film from Youtube. The facts in this case were very hard. The plaintiff, Cindy Garcia...
This site is hosted by Gesmer Updegrove LLP, a technology law firm based in Boston, Massachusetts. You can find a summary of our services here. To learn how GU can help you, contact:
Lee Gesmer