The past year was packed with litigation that ranged from broad constitutional questions to the ever present scourge of forgeries. Art Law Gallery presents highlights of some of the most important cases:

The Walking Dead Copyrights: Conductor Lawrence Golan's long-running "zombie" copyright case was argued before the Supreme Court in October. The case centers around the fate of millions of pieces of literature, music, and art that were previously in the public domain. A treaty that the US signed (TRIPs: Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) and the resulting congressional legislation restored the copyright on the pieces of work in question. For Golan, a professor and conductor at the University of Denver, this meant that the resulting rental fees put a vast body of work beyond the scope of his and other small orchestras with limited budgets. The case has far-reaching implications for the art world as well and involves the copyright protection of pieces by Picasso, Escher, and many other artists. The case below is Golan v. Holder, 609 F.3d 1076 (10th Cir. 2010), granted cert. Mar. 2011, argued before S.Ct. Oct. 5, 2011.