Volume II

Issue : 15: July 22, 2004

• U.S. District Court Limits State Attempts to Govern VoIP
• Leaving Messages May Create Privacy Law Liability
• U.S. Court Dismisses Appeal on Copyright in Online Product Descriptions
• Canadian Recording Industry Association Appeals Court Ruling Regarding Peer-to-Peer File Sharing
• Microsofts Antispam Strategy Reaps US$4 Million Judgment
• File Sharing On the Rise
• U.S. Court Asserts Jurisdiction over Copyright Infringement Claim

Home > Volume II > Issue 15: July 22, 2004 > U.S. Court Dismisses Appeal on Copyright in Online Product Descriptions

U.S. Court Dismisses Appeal on Copyright in Online Product Descriptions

In a recent decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals (2nd Circuit) upheld a lower court decision that denied MyWebGrocer a preliminary injunction that would have prevented Hometown Info, a competitor, from using product descriptions developed by MyWebGrocer for an online grocery website. The Court ultimately held that MyWebGrocer did not meet the test for the granting of a preliminary injunction. However, the Court recognized that the product descriptions may be protectable by copyright and shielded against doctrinal challenges of merger and scenes a faire to the extent that the product descriptions involved some creativity in their selection and arrangement, even though the factual identification a product's brand, manufacturer, or name is not copyrightable.

For a copy of the decision, visit:

http://caselaw.findlaw.com/data2/circs/2nd/037909p.pdf