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  • Netflix accuses Barlow and Bear, creators of The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical, of crossing boundaries of fan fiction "well past its breaking point"

    Netflix has sued the creators of The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical, Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear, for infringing copyrights of the hit show Bridgerton after they performed a live musical concert of their version without permission.
    The streaming platform, which owns the exclusive rights to authorize derivative works based on Julia Quinn’s book series, released Bridgerton's first season in Dece

  • Novelist John Hughes in hot water over plagiarism accusations

    Sydney-based Australian writer-novelist John Hughes and his work "The Dogs" is under intense scrutiny these past few weeks due to allegations of plagiarism. The Guardian Australia investigated and found multiple similarities and identical instances from another literary work, Svetlana Alexievich’s The Unwomanly Face of War. The issue has caused Hughes' work to be removed from the longlist for the

  • Dreamstime launches new tool to help, educate and persuade naive copyright infringers

    Dreamstime, one of the world’s leaders in photo licensing, has introduced LicenseGuard, a proprietary copyright tracking tool that seeks to resolve disputes by offering cost-effective licensing as well as education.
    The tool will use AI-powered scanning technology, cutting-edge image recognition algorithms, and human assessment to track, detect, and flag potentially unlicensed uses of the agenc

  • Writer Christine Davis accused actress Quinta Brunson and ABC of plagiarizing Emmy-nominated series

    Writer, performer, and artist Christine Davis has accused Quinta Brunson, the creator of the popular television show "Abbott Elementary," and the network behind it, ABC, of copyright violations.
    She has alleged that the show is a copy of her own script "This School Year."
    Davis wrote the script for her series about filming a television comedy at school in 2018, and registered the copyright f

  • Seattle Space Needle sues local coffee shop for copying its logo

    Seattle coffee shop Local Coffee Spot is being sued for allegedly copying the logo of the city’s Space Needle.
    The lawsuit states the coffee shop’s purple and white branding is too close to Space Needle's own trademarked design.
    Space Needle’s Chief Operating Officer and Chief Marketing Officer Karen Olson said: “Like the Empire State Building and Eiffel Tower, the Space Needle is a licensed

  • Dua Lipa sued (again) for sharing a paparazzo photo of herself on her Instagram

    British pop singer Dua Lipa is being sued for copyright infringement after sharing a photo of her taken by New York-based paparazzo photographer Robert Barbera in July 2018.
    The photo in question, which was shared by her on Instagram in 2019 without taking permission from the photographer, shows Lipa wearing a black sweater bearing the word “HEROES” in large capital letters while out in N

  • Dua Lipa’s hit song "Levitating" slapped with two copyright cases

    British pop star Dua Lipa is facing two copyright infringement cases relating to her smash hit song “Levitating” released during the pandemic. A US-based reggae band has accused her of copying a portion of their song, while two songwriters have accused her of ripping off their decade-old disco songs.
    The first claim was made by the US-based Artikal Sound System. It sued Dua Lipa and her label

  • PitchMark is now on Medium.com too

    PitchMark is pleased to announce that our content is now available on the Medium platform as well.
    We are excited about engaging Medium’s community of creators and innovators, and will continue raising awareness of the importance of registering their valuable intellectual property before sharing it with the world.
    If you’re on Medium and want to help us get to know this new universe better,

  • High Court dismisses claim for copyright infringement in pop song

    The following article by Rachel Alexander was first published here by Wiggin, a UK based firm focused on the practice of media, technology and intellectual property law. It is re-published here with Wiggin's permission.

    The claimant, Kelly-Marie Smith, is the composer and lyricist of a song, “Can You Tell Me”. The song was never released commercially, but in October 2007 Ms Smith perform

  • Our top 10 stories of 2021

    From pop culture IP news to outrage over recipe plagiarism, these were the stories our readers loved this year.  

    1. Creator of Netflix sensation Squid Game accused of plagiarism
    Shortly after Squid Game became a global streaming blockbuster, the show's creator-director Hwang Dong-hyuk was accused of plagiarising As The Gods Will, a 2014 Japanese movie.
    2. By creating her own IP, mod

  • What might a full IP protection toolkit for brands look like?

    The continued growth of e-commerce means that counterfeit products which were once sold on the streets in the dark of night can now be purchased on the world’s most popular retail platforms. Bharat Kapoor – Vice-President, Online Brand Protection, for authentication and information services firm Authentix – shares more about how to tackle this problem.



    This conversation with PitchMa

  • Giving creators more recognition

    The Copyright Bill tabled in Singapore’s Parliament on July 6, 2021, came into force in November. What were the factors that spurred these amendments, and what do they mean for creators and their clients? Lam Chung Nian – who heads the Intellectual Property, Technology & Data Group at Singapore’s WongPartnership law firm – shares more.



    This conversation with PitchMark managing p

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