3 Count: Sandal Battle

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1: Google Comes To $6 Million Copyright Agreement With Belgian Newspapers

First off today, Add Dugdale of Fast Company reports that more details are coming out about Google’s recent settlement with Belgian newspapers and it appears that Google has paid approximately $6.5 million to the papers in the form of advertising buys and compensation for the papers running Google Adsense on their site.

The lawsuit began in 2006 when Belgian papers accused Google of copyright infringement over Google News. The lower court and appeals court agreed with the papers and Google temporarily dropped the newspapers’ sites from its search engine though, eventually they returned after Google said the papers had given permission. The settlement was announced earlier this week but details of the payment only came out more recently.

However, other nations, including France, Germany and Brazil are also eyeing Google News and the possibility of royalty payments for newspapers, either through lawsuits or litigation.

2: US Report Slams Russia’s Biggest Social Network VKontakte Over Copyright Infringement

Next up today, Russia Today reports that the US Trade Representative has filed an update to its “notorious markets” report, which highlights in particular some of the improvements and challenges still facing Russia.

Though the report lauds new tougher laws in Russia, the report claims that Russia’s most popular social network, VKontakte as one that enables widespread infringement. According to the report, Vkontakte is uncooperative in removing infringing files.

However, VKontakte was not the only Russian site on the list, which included a variety of Bittorrent, streaming, cyberlocker and social networking sites. The list also included sites from other countries, such as China, Sweden and Canada.

3: Ivanka Trump Copyright Lawsuit: Mystique Footwear Claims Design Theft

Finally today, James Johnson at the Inquisitr writes that Ivanka Trump, the daughter of Donald Trump, is being sued by Mystique Footwear for copyright infringement.

According to Mystique, Trump stole two sandal designs from its footwear collection. Though normally sandals would be considered useful articles and not eligible for copyright protection, the lawsuit specifically targets small sculptures affixed to the sandals, one of a seahorse and one of a starfish, that likely do qualify for protection. Mystique claims that trump copied and modified those designs slightly for her sandals, entitled “Pia” and “Pandra”.

This isn’t the first time that Trump has faced accusations of design plagiarism, in 2011, designer Derek Lam sued her but Lam had failed to file his design patent timely forcing Lam to try and sue for trade dress violations.

Suggestions

That’s it for the three count today. We will be back tomorrow with three more copyright links. If you have a link that you want to suggest a link for the column or have any proposals to make it better. Feel free to leave a comment or send me an email. I hope to hear from you.

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