The ebook pricing case against Apple does not go before US District Court Judge Denise Cote until June 3, but the computer giant has just won another case presented to the same judge. Cote granted summary judgment in Apple’s favor in a trademark case brought by Brick Tower Press over the use of iBooks. The publisher had purchased the assets of Byron Preiss Visual Publications and Preiss’s iPicturebooks, which had published in the early days of commercial ebooks under the iBooks brand. But Judge Cote said Brick Tower’s only rights were in the original logo design, which pair the word […]
Legal
Briefs: Court Hears Google Authors Guild Appeal, and More
For avid court watchers, this morning the Federal Court of Appeals was scheduled to hear oral arguments in the fight over whether to certify the author class in the long-running suit brought by the Authors Guild over Google‘s book scanning. Last year Judge Denny Chin approved certification of the class, and Google appealed that decision. We’re going to spare you further details until the court rules. Sony, which has sold its Reader devices in Australia for some time, has finally opened a Reader ebookstore there to go along with those devices. Price cuts on a variety of Nook devices — […]
Harlequin Cuts Jobs On Weak Quarter; Authors Appeal Royalty Lawsuit
Harlequin sales fell 4 percent in the first quarter, down $4 million to $102.5 million (CA) , with operating profit declining 27 percent to $14.9 million, falling $5.6 million in the period. Parent company Torstar had a similar weak overall quarter, and announced further restructuring in both the book publishing and general media divisions. They are cutting approximately 105 jobs companywide — with roughly 20 to 30 of those positions coming from Harlequin (a deduction based on the dollar figures provided). The book publisher took a restructuring charge of $2.3 million for the quarter, and expects to save $2.1 million […]
Legal: More on Harper Lee Lawsuit; Hagar Cleared Over 2011 Defamation Suit
Updating our Monday story on the Harper Lee copyright lawsuit, the full complaint depicts the alleged depths of the scheme that Samuel Pinkus is said to have engaged in, along with Lee Ann Winick and Gerald Posner, to mislead Lee and her publishers about the copyright status of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. The suit alleges that “Pinkus created several different companies to handle the receipt of royalties and commissions and directed the payment of royalties to a continually changing series of bank accounts” as a bid to avoid the nearly $800,000 in commissions he and his company Veritas Media were required to […]
Harper Lee Sues to Recover Money from Fired Agent, In Latest Battle Over Pinkus’s Split with McIntosh & Otis
As was widely (if not always accurately) reported over the weekend, Harper Lee filed suit on May 2 in New York Federal Bankruptcy Court to recover royalties for TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD allegedly still being collected improperly by Sam Pinkus. She seeks all commissions collected by Pinkus since 2007, plus compensatory damages. In a less publicized case, last year a New York State court re-established Lee as owner of the copyright of her famous novel and ordered Pinkus removed as her agent. In the new filing, however, Lee charges that Pinkus is “still receiving royalties from the novel as of this […]
Authors with Complaints Sue Author Solutions
Following years of complaints about Author Solutions’ business practices and the big target painted when the company was acquired by Penguin last July, those grievances have turned into a lawsuit. Writers (and customers) Kelvin James, Jodi Foster, and Terry Hardy filed suit in New York federal court on April 26, seeking $5 million in punitive damages from Author Solutions and Penguin “for breach of contract, unjust enrichment, California unfair competition law, and New York general business law.” According to the complaint, obtained by Courthouse News but not yet available in the electronic docket, the three writers allege that Author Solutions “fails […]