SCOTUS Invites US Brief in Genius' Breach of Contract Case vs. Google
The Supreme Court invited the solicitor general to file a brief expressing the views of the U.S. in ML Genius v. Google, said an entry Monday in docket 22-121. The case involves Genius, an online platform for transcribing and annotating…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
song lyrics, and its requirement that visitors agree to its contractual terms as a condition for using its services. These terms include the promise not to reproduce the contents of Genius’ platform, said the company’s Aug. 5 petition for cert. “Google contractually bound itself to those terms, but, in blatant breach of that contract, Google stole Genius’s labors for its own competing commercial purposes,” said the petition. The 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said in a March 31 judgment the Copyright Act preempts Genius’ breach-of-contract claim, under a provision that applies only to claims equivalent to exclusive rights within the general scope of copyright, said the petition: “At least five circuits disagree with this ruling and only one other circuit agrees.” The question presented is, "Does the Copyright Act’s preemption clause allow a business to invoke traditional state-law contract remedies to enforce a promise not to copy and use its content?"