Intellectual Property Law

Swatch v Bloomberg: Copyright in a Conference Call

By Marty Schwimmer

From the complaint: Plaintiff Swatch, a Swiss publicly traded company, hosted a conference call for securities analysts. The call was transmitted and recorded by a conference call service. Participants were instructed not to record the call for publication or broadcast. Bloomberg News was not invited or authorized to participate in the call. Bloomberg recorded the call, created a transcript which it made available to others.

Things to ponder: the Work is defined as the sound recording of the call.  What did Bloomberg (allegedly) copy and when did it copy it?

Also note: The Work was allegedly created outside the U.S.

Complaint Swatch

Full post as published by Trademark Blog on February 18, 2011 (boomark / email).