Intellectual Property Law

Ninth Circuit: "Exclusive" license from only one copyright co-owner really a nonexclusive license

By McKee, Voorhees & Sease, P.L.C.

In a decision last week, the Ninth Circuit affirmed a district court's dismissal of a copyright infringement claim for lack of standing, as well as several related claims.  The plaintiff obtained an "exclusive" license for one of the exclusive rights from a single co-owner of several copyrighted works.  However, because the plaintiff only obtained the license from one co-owner, and not from all co-owners, the license could not be exclusive, as one co-owner does not have the right to exclude other co-owners from exploiting the work.  Accordingly, as a nonexclusive licensee, the plaintiff did not have standing to assert the copyright infringement claims. 

More detail of Sybersound Records, Inc. v. UAV Corp. after the jump.

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Full post as published by FileWrapper on March 05, 2008 (boomark / email).