On March 21, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld a jury verdict that found that Robin Thicke’s and Pharrell Williams's “Blurred Lines,” the number one song in the world in 2013, infringed the copyright in Marvin Gaye’s 1977 song “Got to Give It Up.” Although the Ninth...
The Second Circuit issued a decision on March 16, 2018, that will make recovery of punitive damages by people suing for discrimination under the New York City Human Rights Law (NYCHRL) easier than under Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Law. The decision, Chauca v. Abraham, involved an appeal...
In an important employment discrimination case, the en banc Second Circuit held that “sexual orientation discrimination constitutes a form of discrimination ‘because of…sex,’ in violation of Title VII.” This decision overturns prior Second Circuit precedent and now allows claimants to assert sexual discrimination claims based on sexual orientation under federal...
Copyright Alert: Supreme Court may clarify copyright “Registration/Application” split A question often presented in my copyright practice is whether an infringement claim can be brought after a copyright applicant has filed its application, made its deposit and paid its fees, or whether the PTO must issue a registration. The answer...
The past few months have been the among the most thought-provoking of my career. I am a litigator and employment lawyer who started practicing in the early 1980s when, for the first time in American history, women were entering the legal profession in large numbers. In law school, feminism was...
RPL Client Watched Film, LLC has been gearing up for the 2018 release of its feature-length documentary, The Feeling of Being Watched, directed by Algerian-American journalist and filmmaker Assia Boundaoui. The film tells the story of Ms. Boundaoui's investigation into the rumors of government surveillance in her childhood neighborhood outside...
On September 5, 2017, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Justice issued a decision of signal importance in the field of employee privacy. The Chamber condemned without sufficient justification an employer’s monitoring of an employee’s communications, leaving European employers with only vague guidance as to when such monitoring may be...
A buyer of a business is often concerned about whether the buyer will be faced with liability for legal claims arising from past operations of the business. Under state law this “successor liability” is often minimized by structuring the sale of the business as a sale of assets alone, coupled...
Two weeks ago on October 27, 2016, New York City passed the “Freelance Isn’t Free Act,” (the “Act”) which provides legal protections for freelancers. The Act will go into effect 180 days after it is signed by Mayor de Blasio. Prior to this Act, a freelancer’s sole remedy for nonpayment...
Recently, California state enacted a new law that allows actors and other entertainment industry professionals to require removal of their ages posted on certain websites. Specifically, A.B. 1687 requires commercial entertainment employment providers like the Internet Movie Database (“IMDb”), that offer paid subscription services for actors and other professionals to...