U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
The Ninth Circuit granted en banc rehearing in the Kat Von D tattoo-copyright case, vacating the panel opinion that affirmed a jury verdict finding no substantial similarity between a photographer’s Miles Davis portrait and a photorealistic tattoo — a signal that the full court may overhaul the circuit’s decades-old “intrinsic test” for copyright similarity.
Two California attorneys drew $2,500 fines, six-month Ninth Circuit suspensions, and mandatory AI-disclosure orders after filing briefs that cited cases that did not exist. The court held that an attorney’s signature attests to personal verification of every citation, no matter who or what drafted the brief.
The Ninth Circuit affirmed summary judgment for Igloo, holding that ‘first to market’ advertising claims about a biodegradable cooler concern the origin of an idea — not an observable product characteristic — and therefore fall outside the Lanham Act’s false advertising protections.
The Ninth Circuit upheld an injunction barring a venture lender from interfering with Google’s royalty-free license to manufacture specialized computer chips, affirming that Google’s licensing rights survived the shutdown of its startup partner CNEX Labs.
The Ninth Circuit affirmed dismissal of claims by Rohingya plaintiffs alleging Facebook’s algorithm amplified anti-Rohingya violence in Myanmar, holding that Section 230 immunizes Meta from liability for algorithmically recommending third-party content — though two concurring opinions urged the court to reconsider its broad reading of Section 230.
The Ninth Circuit ruled that Section 230 bars claims by Rohingya plaintiffs alleging that Facebook’s algorithmic design fueled genocide in Myanmar, but two concurrences urged the court to reconsider the sweeping scope of the immunity.
The Ninth Circuit ruled that a California federal judge applied local meet-and-confer rules too rigidly when denying a new trial motion in a willful copyright infringement case over the unauthorized DVD distribution of a Christian film.
On the second trip up, the Ninth Circuit vacated most of the district court’s preliminary injunction against California’s Age-Appropriate Design Code Act — but kept the data-use and dark-patterns restrictions enjoined on vagueness grounds, leaving the statute partially in force.
An unpublished Ninth Circuit memorandum reverses the dismissal of product-liability, negligence, and NIED claims brought after two teenagers ingested sodium nitrite purchased from Amazon — but leaves intact the district court’s holding that Section 230 bars the part of the case premised on Amazon’s removal of warning reviews.
The Ninth Circuit affirmed summary judgment against celebrity fitness trainer Tracy Anderson, holding that the exercise sequences in her 19 fitness DVDs are functional routines — not expressive choreographic works — and therefore unprotectable under copyright law.
A Northern District of California court granted Pinterest summary judgment under DMCA Section 512(c), holding that the safe harbor protects user-generated images embedded in email, in-app, and push notifications because the underlying files remain stored on Pinterest’s servers regardless of how they’re displayed.
The Ninth Circuit held that NFTs qualify as ‘goods’ under the Lanham Act and reversed summary judgment for Yuga Labs on Bored Ape Yacht Club trademark and cybersquatting claims, finding genuine factual disputes for trial.
The Ninth Circuit held that the copyright first sale doctrine does not apply to foreign-made goods, allowing Omega to prevent Costco from reselling Omega watches in the United States without authorization — a ruling the Supreme Court affirmed by an equally divided 4-4 court in 2010, leaving the Ninth Circuit’s gray-market-unfriendly rule in place.
The Ninth Circuit held that Google’s display of thumbnail-size images in search results is fair use, while also addressing the server test for direct infringement — holding that a website that inline-links to content stored on another server does not ‘display’ that content and thus does not directly infringe the reproduction right.
The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court’s injunction requiring Napster to block access to infringing content — holding that Napster’s peer-to-peer music file sharing service was liable for contributory and vicarious copyright infringement and that the Sony Betamax staple article defense did not protect Napster’s business model.
The Ninth Circuit held that a flea market operator could be vicariously and contributorily liable for copyright infringement by vendors selling counterfeit recordings — establishing the framework for secondary copyright liability that would later be applied to online platforms and peer-to-peer services, and holding that financial benefit from infringement and ability to supervise infringing activity support vicarious liability.