Music giant EMI filed a lawsuit in New York federal court in late March alleging substantial damages from the unlicensed use of songs in Def Jam’s new video game, Def Jam Rapstar.

Fox Television has launched a copyright infringement suit against network founder Barry Diller, claiming his new digital streaming television service Aereo infringes upon the copyright protection afforded the content of broadcasters’ television programming.

A Croatian journalist alleges that Angelina Jolie copied the storyline from his book, The Soul Shattering, in her directorial debut, In the Land of Blood and Honey. Both works feature a romance between star-crossed lovers engaged in a struggle for survival among the tragedies of the Bosnian Civil War.

The Gap has initiated an investigation to determine whether Kim Kardashian’s reputation has been tarnished as she claimed in her July allegations of trademark infringement and misappropriation. Kardashian alleges The Gap’s Old Navy commercial featured an actress intended to look like the infamous reality star.

Recent patent suits by Motiva and ThinkOptics against video game giant Nintendo Co. exemplify two distinct problems in patent law today: the availability of double litigation through the ITC loophole and the lack of an independent creation defense for inventors not first-to-file.

The Gap has recently lawyered-up in preparation for its suit against Kim Kardashian according to The Hollywood Reporter. In July, reality TV queen Kim Kardashian filed a lawsuit against The Gap over an Old Navy commercial that featured an actress allegedly intended to look like infamous reality star Kim Kardashian.

In late August, a federal judge in Manhattan dismissed a copyright lawsuit filed by Janine Gordon against photographer Ryan McGinley in which Gordon claimed McGinley’s photographs of nudes, interracial couples, and outsiders relied too considerably on her own.

Homebuilder Blair Bangerter realized his dream to create a symbol of optimism and youthful dreams when he sold a near-identical copy of the floating house in the Disney-Pixar film “Up,” The Seattle Times reports. Disney’s approval and support of the project is unprecedented, resulting from the perfect combination of passion, politics and providence.

Katy Perry merchandising group Bravado Inc. filed suit against over 200 vendors for trademark infringement before the pop star’s California Dreams Tour kicked off in late June. The L.A.-based merchandising giant is seeking seizure and destruction of counterfeit merchandise sold in the vicinity of venues in the U.S. where Perry will be performing.

Kodak is seeking more than $1 billion in royalties from Apple and RIM over a patent that covers technology related to a method of extracting a still image while previewing it on a camera’s LCD screen. The final ruling is set for August 30th, and I will be rooting for the “underdog.”