Ireland-based Iconic Images has initiated a lawsuit against The Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles for copyright infringement. Iconic is a company that manages copyrights over photographs.
In the case at hand, Iconic alleges that the hotel was using without a license an image by photographer Terence O’Neill, which rights are managed by the company.
The photo known as “The Morning After”, which was captured in the same hotel in 1977, represents the American actress Faye Dunaway after the night when she received an Oscar.
Iconic points out that although there were some negotiations with the hotel no result followed. What’s more the hotel expanded the use of this image in different advertisements without permission to do that.
This is an example of the fact that even in the case of older works the relevant copyrights have to be properly negotiated and gained. The reason for this is the fact that such copyrights have a duration the life of the author and 70 years after that.
Source: WIPR.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PLANET 