3 Count: Granted Cert

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1: Supreme Court to Hear Copyright Dispute Over Andy Warhol’s Images of Musician Prince

First off today, John Fritze at USA Today reports that the Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case that pits photographer Lynn Goldsmith against the estate of artist Andy Warhol.

The case deals with a photograph taken by Goldsmith in 1981 of the musician Prince. She licensed the photo to Vanity Fair magazine for use as an artist reference. Warhol, in turn, was that artist. However, Warhol went beyond the single licensed work and created 15 additional works known as the Prince Series, which became public after the musician’s death in 2016.

The case went before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, which found in favor of Goldsmith and ruled that the Warhol paintings were “substantially similar” to it as a matter of law. The estate appealed that to the Supreme Court, which has announced that it has granted cert in the case and will hear it in the fall.

2: Chris Brown, Sony Respond To Greensleeves’ US$1.5 Million Copyright Lawsuit Over Red Rat’s Song

Next up today, Dani Mallick at DancehallMag reports that Chris Brown and Sony Music have responded to a $1.5 million lawsuit filed against them over the 2017 song Privacy.

The lawsuit, which was filed by Greensleeves Publishing, claims that Privacy is an infringement of the 1997 song Tight Up Skirt by Red Rat. Specifically, the lawsuit sites alleged similarities in both the lyrics and the rhythms between the two songs.

However, the defendants have now responded and said that they reject the majority of the claim. That said, they did state that the two sides had met for at least one settlement discussion though, clearly, no settlement came out of it at this time.

3: Renowned Saint Luke’s Cardiologist Sues Epic Systems Over Copyright

Finally today, James Dornbrook at the Kansas City Business Journal reports that cardiologist Dr. John Sertus has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Epic Systems Corp., accusing the corporation of infringing on questionnaires he developed to diagnose the severity of coronary disease in patients.

Dr. Sertus, as part of his work, created the questionnaires as a way to gauge how patients are performing in their lives by asking them how well they are performing common tasks. However, he claims that Epic has been copying and distributing at least one of those questionnaires without his permission, despite his attempt to get them to license it.

In the lawsuit, he is seeking all profits Epic made from the infringement, as well as punitive damages and attorneys’ fees.

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