Nearly Half of the NBA Teams Sued for Copyright Infringement
Almost half of the teams in the National Basketball Association (NBA) were recently sued for copyright infringement. In the complaint filed against the Atlanta Hawks, one of the plaintiffs—publisher Kobalt Music Publishing America (Kobalt), the exclusive agent for the licensing of all other plaintiffs’ copyrights at issue—alleged that the NBA teams have been exploiting the rights conferred to the copyright holders by syncing videos posted on various websites and social media platforms (e.g., Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok) with music owned by third parties without obtaining the necessary consent to do so. Knobbe Martens Partner Jonathan Hyman and Associate Nickolas Taylor recently authored an article discussing concerns surrounding intellectual property infringement by social media content creators. The lawsuits filed against the various NBA teams similarly highlights the intellectual property infringement concerns that can (and often do) arise in the modern world of social media and the internet.
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