In a message dated 04/19/2000 12:58:03 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> From: "Doug Meerschaert" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > Does anyone know upon whom the burden of proof would lie in a
> > copyright case?
>
> In the Tomy case, Tomy (who was suing another toy manufacturer over
> copyright claims) was forced to prove that it held a valid copyright. It
> failed to do so, and the case was dismissed.
>
> In that case, the judge notes that in copyright disputes, it is often a
> first step for the damaged party to prove to the court that the copyright
in
> dispute is valid. So the case can switch directions - first the copyright
> holder has to prove their ownership and validity of their claims, then once
> the claim is established as valid, the defendent has to prove that they're
> not infringing.
>
I can actually cite a real world case from the Game industry.
What Ryan describes is essentially what happened with the FASA/Playmates
lawsuit. FASA was able to prove the validity of their copyright on a number
of 'Mech designs, but Playmates was then able to 'prove' that they weren't
infringing on FASA's copyrights.
Take Care,
Lou Prosperi
-------------
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