Bee Farm Didn’t Infringe Copyright Related to Honey Harvest Tool
Written August 6, 2020
The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on August 4, 2020, held that a bee farm didn’t infringe a copyright related to a honey harvesting aid when it replaced the tool with its own version. Fischer v. Forrest, 2d Cir., No. 18-02955, 8/4/20.
James Fischer sued Brushy Mountain Bee Farm after it removed and replaced his honey gathering product, Bee-Quick, with a similar tool called the Natural Honey Harvester. Brushy Mountain advertised both Bee-Quick, and later Natural Honey Harvester, online and in physical catalogs.
The appeals court affirmed the lower court’s conclusion that the copyright holder had failed to establish a removal claim under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Litigants can show violation of the DMCA by proving the intentional removal or alteration of copyright management information, or CMI. But Fischer didn’t adequately do so because he misconstrued the meaning of CMI, the Federal Circuit said.