Sarah Bro
Subscribe to Sarah Bro's PostsSarah Bro is the office managing partner for the Firm’s Orange County office. She focuses her practice on trademark prosecution, enforcement and brand portfolio management, as well as licensing, due diligence, copyright, right of publicity and domain name matters. Read Sarah Bro's full bio.
Ninth Circuit Shows Led Zeppelin a Whole Lotta Love in ‘Stairway’ Copyright Win
By Sarah Bro on Mar 25, 2020
Posted In Copyrights
Ruling en banc, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reinstated a 2016 jury verdict, finding that the rock band Led Zeppelin and the opening notes of its hit song “Stairway to Heaven” did not infringe the 1967 song “Taurus” by the band Spirit. Michael Skidmore v. Led Zeppelin et al., Case No....
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Street Art Street Smarts: Second Circuit Applies VARA, Affirms Moral Rights
By Sarah Bro on Mar 12, 2020
Posted In Copyrights
The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed that plaintiffs-appellees’ temporary artwork had achieved appropriate stature to be protected by the rarely invoked Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 (VARA), and that an award of statutory damages was warranted for defendants-appellants’ willful unlawful actions. Jonathan Cohen, et al. v. G&M Realty L.P., et...
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2019 IP Law Year in Review: Trademarks
By Eleanor B. Atkins, Rebecca Harker Duttry, Sarah Bro and Paul Devinsky on Feb 6, 2020
Posted In Trademarks
Executive Summary Trademark jurisprudence in 2019 may be best summarized in two words: questions and answers. Decisions handed down at the district court level have teed up key questions that are poised to be answered by the United States Supreme Court in the 2020 term—such as the protectability of certain “.com” trademarks, as well as...
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Failure to Mitigate Not a Complete Defense to Statutory Damages Under Copyright or DMCA
By Sarah Bro on Jan 29, 2020
Posted In Copyrights
On an issue of first impression in a copyright infringement dispute out of the Southern District of Texas, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit confirmed that failure to mitigate is not a complete defense to copyright or Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) claims for statutory damages. Energy Intelligence Grp., Inc. et. al.,...
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