3 Count: Lisa Frank

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1: Judge Clears ‘Gone Girl’ Creators in Copyright Dispute

First off today, Emily Zantow at Courthouse News reports that a federal judge has dismissed an author’s lawsuit over the film Gone Girl and the novel its based on. According to the judge, there was simply no way a reasonably jury could believe that the two were significantly similar to her work.

The lawsuit was filed by Leslie Weller, who claimed that Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn infringed her screenplay Out of the Blue. Weller claimed that she gave a copy of her screenplace to a script consultant linked to Flynn and that Flynn then copied several elements from it including the central theme of the story.

The judge, however, dismissed the lawsuit saying that Weller “failed to connect the dots” in proving that Flynn had access to her work. Furthermore, the judge said that there are significant differences in the plots between the two works and that there was no means through which a reasonable jury could find copyright infringement. As such, the judge dismissed the lawsuit.

2: James Arthur sued for copyright infringement by The Script

Next up today, Sam Moore at NME reports that James Arthur has been sued for copyright infringement by the band The Script.

According to the lawsuit, Arthur’s 2016 song Say You Won’t Let Go is an infringement of The Script’s 2008 song The Man Who Can’t Be Moved. Allegations of the similarities had been swirling for sometime, leading Arthur to respond in 2017 claiming that the only similarity is that they are both blues songs and that “There’s only seven notes in music.”

The lawsuit also targets the songwriters of Say You Won’t Let Go as well as Sony/ATV Publishing, Sony Music, Columbia Records and several other music publishers connected to Arthur and his song.

3: Tucson Businesswoman Lisa Frank Settles Copyright Lawsuit

Finally today, Curt Prendergast at the Arizona Daily Star reports that Lisa Frank, the company best known for selling its colorful artwork on school supplies, has settled a lawsuit against Orb Factory, a company that sells toys at Walmart and other retailers.

Lisa Frank filed the lawsuit in 2015 alleging that artwork featured on Orb Factory’s toys were too similar to the their work. They sued for copyright infringement and the case made it to a trial, which had been ongoing for the past five days.

However, the two sides abruptly reached a settlement before the trial could conclude. The terms of the settlement are confidential though both sides did agree to pay their own attorney’s fees and costs. Orb Factor has also been ordered by the judge to pay $6,200 in jury fees for the use of jurors time so far.

Suggestions

That’s it for the three count today. We will be back tomorrow with three more copyright links. If you have a link that you want to suggest a link for the column or have any proposals to make it better. Feel free to leave a comment or send me an email. I hope to hear from you.

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