Victory in Shloss v. Estate of James Joyce

We won an important victory over the Estate of James Joyce's motion to dismiss last week in Shloss v. Estate of James Joyce. The Estate had moved to dismiss our entire case, arguing that Professor Shloss could not sue for a declaratory judgment of her fair use right to use quotations from Joyce family members on her Website because the Estate had not made threats sufficient to cause Professor Shloss reasonable apprehension that the Estate would sue her if she published her Website.

In a decisive 20-page opinion, the Court found that Shloss had alleged ample reasons to fear being sued by the Estate regarding her Website.

The Court quoted some of the numerous threats made by the Estate against professor Shloss should she use materials written by Lucia Joyce or others. The Court also denied the Estate's motion to strike certain claims from the Complaint. Thus, our claims of copyright misuse by the Estate and that the 1922 Paris edition of Ulysses is in the public domain remain in the case.

The only part of the Estate's motion that the Court granted was to strike one paragraph of the Complaint that contained historical background that the Court found unneccesary to Shloss's claims. This has no substantive effect on the case.

The case will now move forward with all of our claims intact. Stay tuned.

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