September 01, 2022
The Walt Disney Co. has settled a 5-year-old copyright infringement suit filed in Los Angeles federal court by screenwriters who alleged the entertainment giant's billion-dollar blockbuster "Pirates of the Caribbean" film franchise copied their ideas, according to a minute order issued Thursday.
April 21, 2022
The Sixth Circuit will consider next week whether certain information on broccoli seeds can fall under trade secrets law when it hears the appeal of a dietary supplements brand that was ordered to pay a seed company more than $9 million after recruiting the outfit's research director. Here's a look at that case — plus all the other major intellectual property matters on deck in the coming week.
December 17, 2021
A California federal judge on Thursday refused to hand a quick win to the Walt Disney Co. in a copyright suit claiming it pilfered the "Pirates of the Caribbean," finding that there's a factual disagreement over the similarity of the works at issue and that the dispute belongs before a jury.
October 19, 2021
The Walt Disney Co. urged a California federal judge at a hearing on Tuesday to find that the "Pirates of the Caribbean" film franchise didn't crib from two screenwriters, saying evidence produced by competing experts after the Ninth Circuit revived the case shows there's no substantial similarity between the works.
September 08, 2021
The Walt Disney Co. has once again torn into claims by two screenwriters who allege that the "Pirates of the Caribbean" film franchise copied their script after the Ninth Circuit revived the case last year, knocking the pair for relying on testimony from an expert who "questions whether the pirate genre exists."
May 13, 2019
Treasure maps, skeletons and mutinies are par for the course in pirate movies, a California federal judge said Monday while shooting down copyright infringement claims from screenwriters alleging that Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise copied their script.