Recently in Intellectual Property Law Category

Victor Willis, the policeman from the band The Village People has won a ruling in a California court which entitles him to claim royalties for dozens of the band's hit songs.

The band was made famous in the late seventies and early eighties by their camp disco classics which included 'Y.M.C.A' and 'Go West'.

Willis won a battle to claim partial ownership of dozens of tracks after a California judge ruled that he could terminate a decades-old publishing deal. The judgment allows Willis to earn royalties on the songs, which for years had been paid to a publisher.

Bosses at the high-street discount clothing store, Primark, have announced that they are to take legal action against an Iranian clothes store which has just opened on one of the main shopping streets in Dubai.

The store boldly displays the Primark logo, in the same Primark blue, and opened without any permission from the international clothing brand.

The Iranian businessman behind the store is Yaqoub Hatami. He and four partners opened the store, claiming that they have never heard of Primark, and that the matching logo and livery was pure coincidence.

Phonographic Performance (Ireland) Limited (PPL) has clarified its position on copyright infringement, following a ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in March which seemed to authorise the playing of music in waiting rooms, even if the owner of the copyright had not given permission.

The case in question concerned an Italian dental clinic run by Turin-based dentist Marco Del Corso.

Mr Del Corso was sued by an Italian copyright agency, Societa Consortile Forografici (SCF) after playing music in his waiting room without paying a royalty.

Internet service providers BT and TalkTalk have lost their legal battle to appeal against certain provisions of the Government's proposed Digital Economy Act, paving the way for the entire Act to become law. The Court of Appeal dismissed the claims, ruling that the Act is compatible with European law.

BT and TalkTalk were appealing a judicial review which was conducted in 2011.

Under the proposed legal changes, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will be required to send out warning letters to customers who engage in illegal file-sharing. The letters will explain the law and will threaten termination of service for those who repeatedly infringe.

The European Court of Justice, Europe's highest court, has ruled that social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter do not need to install anti-piracy software as part of their services.

The ruling was made in a landmark case brought by Belgian music royalties company, Sabam, against the website Netlog.

The ruling has been welcomed by groups who advocate the broad use of the internet who have previously warned that the freedom of the internet is at stake from the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).

SOCA the UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency has announced that it will treat illicit file-sharing as an organised crime threat, and have seized the domain of one popular music-sharing site.

At the same time, US publishers have decided to take action against two Irish websites for illegally offering copyrighted ebooks.

Illegal file-sharing is big news around the world, as the US Government attempts to enact data protection and piracy laws which would see those who participate in such activities heavily punished.

Campaigners have spoken out against plans to extradite a 23-year-old university student to the United States on suspected copyright infringement charges.

Richard O'Dwyer, who studies at Sheffield Hallam University, has been charged with a number of offences in the US relating to his TVShack website, which offers internet users access to other websites which stream films and television programmes in violation of copyright laws.

The case has stirred up renewed animosity towards the Extradition Act 2003, the piece of law under which Mr O'Dwyer would be removed to the US. Lawyers and human rights campaigners have spoken out against the move, which was sanctioned by magistrates in Westminster last week.

In a landmark ruling, the High Court has given BT a deadline of 9 November to block the file-sharing website Newzbin2 after it was found to be in breach of copyright law.

Justice Arnold yesterday ruled that British Telecom must block any IP address whose "sole or predominant purpose is to enable or facilitate access to the Newzbin2 website".

He added that the Motion Picture Association (MPA), who brought the case under Section 97A of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, would not have to bring future legal action against new IP addresses created by Newzbin2 to circumvent BT's action.

Pop singer Lady Gaga is famous for her unique and unusual style and she will not tolerate any artist imitating her, even if the artist is a children's cartoon character.

Lady Goo Goo is an animated character who appears on the children's social networking game Moshi Monsters. The character, who looks like a baby version of Lady Gaga, featured in a music video called The Moshi Dance, which was a hit on YouTube during the summer.

The character also sings 'Peppy-razzi', a parody of one of Lady Gaga's songs. The song, along with many others, was to be released in an album of 'Moshi Music' through iTunes later this year.

Cheryl Baker, Mike Nolan and Jay Aston were "bitterly disappointed" to hear the court ruling in favour of former 'Bucks Fizz' band-mate Bobby G that will prevent them from performing under the name 'The Original Bucks Fizz'.

Bobby G and his wife Heidi Manton, who owns the trademark for the name, are still members of the latest incarnation of 'Bucks Fizz'.

The three original members of the band attempted to revoke the trademark and took Bobby G to court, hoping to stop him from using the name as they claimed it misled fans.

Leona Lewis and her recording company Syco unveiled her new single 'Collide' on the 15 July when it was played on BBC Radio 1, and shortly afterwards she was accused of plagiarising the song.

Now, if Leona Lewis wants to officially release her single, she will have to fight an injunction in the High Court, brought by Swedish DJ Avicii.

Avicii, real name Tim Bergling, claims that he first wrote the instrumental part of the song in October last year.

Today, Business Secretary Vince Cable will unveil plans to change UK copyright laws so that it will be legal to copy music and video from its original format to another device for personal use, which is great news since just about everyone in the country has already been doing so for years.

Following recommendations from Prof Ian Hargreaves, professor of digital economy at Cardiff School of Journalism, the Government has realised that the current laws, created 300 years ago, might be somewhat outdated.

By reforming the law, Vince Cable hopes that entrepreneurship will be encouraged, and an estimated £7.9 billion might be injected into the economy.

A long and bitter legal battle has fizzled out after spanning seven years and racking up millions of pounds of legal costs.

Paul Allen, trustee of the estate of Adrian Jacobs, made a claim in 2004 that J K Rowling had plagiarized a book called 'Willy the Wizard', by Adrian Jacobs, when she wrote her famous book 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire'.

Last week, the court of appeal ordered Mr Allen to pay £1.5million as a security against costs, and gave Friday (15 July) as a deadline for the first instalment.

Philip Morris has launched legal proceedings against the Australian government for its plans to remove all company logos and branding from cigarette packets and replace them with colour pictures of the consequences of smoking.

The cigarette manufacturer is claiming the government's plans will breach a bilateral trade treaty between Australia and Hong Kong, where the owner of Australian affiliate Philip Morris Ltd, Philip Morris Asia Ltd, is based.

The company is the first of the tobacco companies that have threatened legal action to file a notice of claim. It is arguing that the ban on logos will severely diminish the value of its trademark, which is property belonging to the company and is protected by the treaty.

The internet has made watching and downloading films so easy that not all films available online are there legally. TorrentFreak, a news blog about BitTorrents and file sharing, releases a yearly top ten list of the most pirated films.

The numbers show that illegal downloads have been increasing every year, and that in 2010 there was the most downloads of a film in a single year. This dubious award was given to the number one most pirated film ever, Avatar.

One film in the 2010 list that didn't make it onto the most pirated ever list, The Hurt Locker, proved far more successful as an illegal download than at the box office. As a result, the filmmakers sued thousands of people alleged to have used BitTorrent to share files.