Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor: What Can We Expect in IP Law? (Part 2 of 2)
Judge Sotomayor’s career in the judicial system has spanned 30 years and she has ruled on both ends of the spectrum, issuing favorable judgements to both plaintiffs and defendants in IP matters.
In 1997, in Castle Rock Entertainment, Inc. v. Carol Publishing Group, 150 F.3d 132 (2d Cir. 1998), Judge Sotomayor held that a trivia book based on Seinfeld, called The Seinfeld Aptitude Test, violated various copyrights. She also found in favor of licensees of the rights to The Three Stooges in an action to protect their property.
However, in another major case, Tasini v. New York Times et al., 533 U.S. 483 (2001), Judge Sotomayor ruled against a number of freelance journalists claiming that major news outlets had improperly duplicated their work and displayed it on databases like LexisNexis without permission and in violation of copyright laws. Judge Sotomayor opined that these news organizations were in compliance with the Copyright Act of 1976. Ironically, the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately struck down her ruling!
Despite the variation in her decisions, I am glad that there will be a judge on the U.S. Supreme Court with some IP savvy to tackle what is sure to be a huge slate of cases involving new technology.
How do you feel about Judge Sotomayor's qualifications? How do you think her background will affect the Supreme Court's decisions? Please post your comments or contact me to discuss!
