On September 22 Georgia District Court Judge Amy Totenberg denied CCA and B’s bid last month, as part of a 19-count lawsuit on copyright and trademark infringement, to stop the October 18 publication of Adams Media’s ELF OFF THE SHELF: A Christmas Tradition Gone Bad, a parody of the bestselling holiday children’s book ELF ON THE SHELF. In denying the permanent injunction, Judge Totenberg ruled that Adams Media’s book met the definition of a parody, that stopping publication of ELF OFF THE SHELF “until a trial on the merits would eliminate this prime time for Defendant’s book marketing” since Adams […]
Legal
BN’s Privacy Issues Are Holding Up the Other Borders IP Sales
A lengthy hearing in federal bankruptcy court Thursday did little to resolve a dispute over recommendations from a consumer privacy ombudsman that leaves Barnes & Noble’s $13.9 million bid for Borders’ intellectual property still in doubt. The asset purchase agreement called for a “drop-dead” deadline of September 30, but Judge Glenn flat-out said there was “no way” any deal could be reached in time at the current rate. For now, the parties will reconvene Monday, September 26 at 4 PM. As Judge Glenn heard statements from lawyers for Borders, the creditors committee, Barnes & Noble, as well as the privacy […]
Assange Says Canongate Is “Profiteering” from “Unfinished Draft”
Julian Assange issued a lengthy statement via WikiLeaks last night, saying that Canongate’s publication Thursday of the early draft of his book over his objections is “old-fashioned opportunism and duplicity — screwing people over to make a buck.” He says the house is “profiteering from an unfinished and erroneous draft.” Assange says the manuscript that became the basis of publication–which Canongate has acknowledged was a first draft–is rather “a narrative and literary interpretation of a conversation between the writer [Andrew O’Hagan] and me.” Assange says it was never submitted to the house at all; instead, he says O’Hagan’s researcher provided […]
Barnes & Noble Says Privacy Recommendations “Would Destroy the Value” of Borders IP Purchase
A battle is brewing in advance of the Thursday afternoon court hearing on Barnes & Noble’s $13.9 million bid to acquire most of Borders’ intellectual property, including their extensive customer databases. This dispute focuses on recommendations of consumer privacy ombudsman Michael St. Patrick Baxter, at Covington & Burling. Not only does BN say “implementing all of the recommendations contained in the report would destroy the value of the transaction from Barnes & Noble’s perspective,” but they accuse Borders of withholding those recommendations (as well as correspondence from the FTC and state Attorneys General) in advance of the auction. They write […]
Canongate Will Publish Assange Memoir Against His Wishes, While Knopf Cancels
The man who made countless national secrets transparent without permission now faces a bit of turnabout, as Wikileaks founder Julian Assange’s memoir is set to be published tomorrow, over the author’s apparent objection. Canongate will release the book in the UK, but will present it as “an unauthorized biography” since by their own account the author wanted to cancel the contract. Canongate says Assange “had already signed his advance over to his lawyers to settle his legal bills” and did not pay them back, so the house “decided to honour that contract and to publish. Once the advance has been […]
People, Etc.:
At this morning’s BISG annual meeting, the organization confirmed that vice chair Ken Michaels is now serving as co-chair of the organization’s board, alongside Dominique Raccah, who will step down from her position in a year. (Raccah took over as sole chair of the board last November when co-chair Andrew Weber left Random House.) Little, Brown, John Parsley has been promoted to executive editor. He joined the company in the fall of 2007. David Moldawer has joined Amazon Publishing as senior editor for the New York-based trade group, run by Larry Kirshbaum. Previously he was a senior editor at McGraw-Hill. At […]