In a blow to the owners of the rights to the film Gone in 60 Seconds, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has held that “Eleanor”—the series of Ford Mustangs featured in the film franchise—is not a character entitled to copyright protection. The May 27, 2025, decision in Carroll Shelby Licensing, Inc. v. Halicki, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 12766, F.4th (9th Cir. 2025), clarifies the high bar for a fictional “character” to be independently copyrightable, particularly when that character is an inanimate object.

The Ninth Circuit, sitting en banc, has significantly altered the landscape for establishing specific personal jurisdiction over out-of-state defendants operating online. In its April 21, 2025, decision in Briskin v. Shopify, Inc., 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 9410, 135 F.4th 739, 2025 WL 1154075 (9th Cir. 2025), the court overruled a key aspect of its prior jurisprudence, making it potentially easier for plaintiffs to sue online businesses in their home forums.

In Woodland v. Hill, No. 23-55418, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 11911, — F.4th —, 2025 WL 1417103 (9th Cir. May 16, 2025), the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, in a published decision, affirmed the dismissal with prejudice of a copyright complaint. In the process, it offered some interesting observations on the access element of copyright infringement in light of evolving technology.

One “exception” to the American rule is the “tort of another” doctrine. Under this doctrine, “[a] person who through the tort of another has been required to act in the protection of his interests by bringing or defending an action against a third person is entitled to recover compensation for the reasonably necessary loss of time, attorney’s fees, and other expenditures thereby suffered or incurred.” Prentice v. North Am. Title Guaranty Corp., Alameda Division, 59 Cal.2d 618, 620 (1963).

What happens if the copyright owner applies for copyright registration before the statute of limitations has run but the Copyright Office does not issue a certificate of registration until after the statute of limitations has run? That issue is scheduled to be argued before the United States Supreme Court on January 8, 2019.

Discerning the line between providing too much information in a trade secrets identification (and therefore potentially publicly revealing some of the proprietary information) and disclosing too little information (thereby risking dismissal or the need to amend a trade secrets disclosure) is more art than science