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11th Circuit Rules On Who Controls Copyright Case

By Michael A. Mora
October 01, 2021

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed a lower court ruling that its judges said could have come straight out of a telenovela, or Spanish soap opera. Writing for the appeals court, Senior Circuit Judge Stanley Marcus wrote in the opinion that the "protracted legal battle," which spanned over nearly a decade, "ultimately devolved into a battle over control of this otherwise ordinary copyright case." The circuit court senior judge noted, "This appeal revolves around an issue of corporate control — who speaks for and manages the business affairs of LaTele Television, C.A., a Venezuelan corporation. LaTele Television C.A. v. Telemundo Communications Group LLC, 19-10030.

It was also a bizarre case in part due to eight different judges presiding over the multi-year litigation, including one jurist who disqualified himself because a family member worked for one of the law firms involved, according to court documents.

Spanish media giant LaTele Television had brought the underlying lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Florida alleging Telemundo infringed copyrights in the telenovela Maria Maria, with the defendants' show El Rostro de Analia.

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