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A patient who faced legal threats after writing a negative review about his dentist has cleared a key legal hurdle, as a New York court rejected the dentist’s “ridiculous” arguments for dismissing the lawsuit.We’ve written before about a controversial copyright assignment agreement created by a group called Medical Justice. The agreement asks patients to grant their doctor or dentist copyright in any reviews they might write.

One of those patients, Robert Lee, had a billing dispute with his dentist Stacy Makhnevich. Frustrated, he vented his complaints on review sites such as Yelp. Makhnevich threatened to sue him for copyright infringement and other offenses, citing the copyright assignment in the Medical Justice agreement. Her lawyer warned Lee that he could be on the hook for $100,000 worth of damages.