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Heather Smith-Carra
is an attorney with Banner Witcoff located in their Washington DC Office. She focuses her practice on the preparation and the prosecution of trademark and copyright matters. She previously worked as a research intern for the IP video game blog PatentArcade.com, where she researched, analyzed, and summarized intellectual property litigations focusing on patent, trademark, and copyright law. In addition, she previously held multiple roles at the firm including patent and trademark prosecution paralegal and trademark law clerk.
For more information or to contact Ms. Smith-Carra, please visit her Firm Profile Page.
Recent Articles by Heather Smith-Carra
On February 1, 2018, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit issued a decision in the case, BMG Rights Management LLC v. Cox Communications, Inc. The Fourth Circuit affirmed in part the district court’s granting of summary judgment to BMG on the § 512(a) Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) safe harbor defense. Ultimately, the Fourth Circuit agreed with the district court’s decision that Cox was not entitled to the safe harbor defense, finding that Cox’s 13-strike policy for repeat infringers was effectively no policy at all, and far less than the termination policy required in order to maintain safe harbor protections.
In 2017, there were several noteworthy decisions relating to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Specifically, the Ninth Circuit addressed two separate cases, one dealing with safe harbor provisions, the other on anti-circumvention. This article discusses three separate decisions including Mavrix Photographs LLC v. LiveJournal Inc., 873 F.3d 1045 (9th Cir. 2017)(on DMCA safe harbor), and Disney Enterprises, Inc. v. VidAngel, Inc., 869 F.3d 848 (9th Cir. 2017)(anti-circumvention provisions).
