Upcoming Zoom Event

Wednesday, October 14, 2020 @ 7:00 p.m.

Substantial Confusion:

The Ninth’s Circuit’s Approach to Early Dismissal of Literary Works Cases

With beaches, movie theaters and amusement parks closed for business, the Ninth Circuit spent its summer vacation deciding four substantial similarity cases involving The Shape of Water, Pirates of the Caribbean, Inside Out and Empire. In unpublished opinions, the Court affirmed early dismissals in two of the cases, but reversed in the other two, leaving copyright lawyers and district court judges trying to make sense of it all.

On October 14, the Los Angeles Copyright Society will host a panel of experts who will explore the Ninth Circuit’s approach to substantial similarity, tackling such issues as when lawsuits can be dismissed prior to discovery, the role of expert witnesses, and the process district court judges may use to decide these cases going forward.

We’ll be joined by Elaine Kim, partner at Mitchell Silberberg who’s represented defendants in many substantial similarity matters, as well as Peter Afrasiabi, partner at One LLP who’s handled these cases on the plaintiffs’ side. Moderating the panel will be LACS immediate past president Aaron Moss, who chairs the litigation department at Greenberg Glusker and has covered these cases for his blog Copyright Lately.

Register here.