When you go out with friends to a karaoke bar, probably one of the last questions on your mind is: “Did the bar license this music?” Yet, bars and venues that stream music must pay fees in order to respect musicians’ copyrights and stay in the legal clear. However,...
A new group copyright registration option went into effect on July 22 of this year. The U.S. Copyright Office now allows news sites to register multiple “published updates…within the same calendar month” at the same time, rather than having to individually register...
Once the trademark application is filed, the state trademark office or the USPTO may refuse to register the trademark for many different reasons (you will receive an “Office Action”). A simple edit to the description of the mark or the goods and services may be...
What a wonderful weekend! The American Inns of Court hosted the 2024 Inns of Distinction Gala on Saturday, July 27, 2024, at the U.S. Supreme Court, and I attended on behalf of the Chester Bedell Inn of Court in Jacksonville, Florida. The Inns of Distinction Gala...
The internet has opened a broad field of intellectual property questions since its inception in the 1990s as varied as each new function introduced by an app or website. The increasing availability of media online has made infringement as easy as clicking “Save image...
Written by Guest Blogger John Barry, 3L student at Florida State University, College of Law Can you be held liable for copyright infringement if your social media posts are too similar to another person’s posts? One plaintiff thinks so. This question has been raised...
In the landscape of trademarks, a point of tension exists between small and large businesses. Namely, well-funded corporations have the resources to dominate trademark real estate and to go after competitors. Yet, trademark names are limited. Trademarks of similar...
Can a beat that underlies an entire genre of music become the basis of a copyright infringement claim? A recent case raising this question about reggaeton music has taken a small step forward – not toward a definite answer, but toward further exploration of a...