By Greg Hazley
Goddard Claussen Public Affairs has been hit with a copyright lawsuit by a litigious Nevada-based company which owns the rights to Las Vegas Review-Journal content.
RightHaven LCC filed a complaint Sept. 1 in Nevada’s U.S. District Court charging Goddard Clausen, on behalf of client Americans Against Food Taxes, infringed on RightHaven copyright by publishing content owned by RH online starting on Feb. 15.
The suit names GC Public Affairs, partner Ben Goddard and the food tax group as defendants.
It follows another against Las Vegas PR firm Kirvin Doak Communications and its partners, which were sued by RH this month after RH said the firm posted a R-J story on its website without authorization. The parties reached a settlement in that suit, but terms of the deal were not disclosed.
RH is asking the court to end the alleged infringement by GC and for the defendants to turn over documents related to the work, turn over the domain name to RH, in addition to compensation.
The Washington Post reported that RH has brought at least 126 similar lawsuits since March. Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney Kurt Opsahl, who is working with some defendents, told the Post: “Righthaven is purchasing the copyright and they are not owning these copyrights for the purpose of licensing them to others; their core business is filing lawsuits.”
GC, which has operations in D.C. and Sacramento, has 21 days to respond.
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