What happens if you demand that a website take down some copyright material, but it turns out that you don’t actually own the material?  Well, Summit Entertainment may soon find out.  Summit distributes the Twilight series.  They successful got songwriter Matt Heart’s song “Eternal Knight” kicked off YouTube, iTunes, and Amazon, claiming the song improperly copied the Twilight intellectual property.  This story is interesting because Heart produced the song  before the Twilight movie came out.  The story is also interesting because Summit is only claiming that Heart violated Twilight’s trademark; however, You Tube, Amazon, and iTunes’ ‘take down’ procedure only refers to copyright infringement. In this case, Heart’s CD cover states “inspired by Twilight”.  This only appears to violate Summit’s trademark, not their copyright. (What is the difference between trademarks and copyrights)

So, Heart believes that Summit misled YouTube, Amazon, and iTunes about the extent of their intellectual property rights; thus he is suing Summit for $75,000.  Summit is very aggressive about protecting its property; some retailers have filed lawsuits to protect themselves from Summit.

Summit should be concerned. If someone demands that a website takes down infringing material, but misrepresents the extent of their ownership or rights, under the Copyright Law, the innocent party is entitled to cost and attorney fees.

Sharmil McKee
Business Lawyer
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
blog@mckeeoffice.com