Insights
Don’t Get Fooled By This Common Business Scam
When you register your business with the Florida Division of Corporations, it’s not a one-and-one deal. You’re agreeing to provide the state with annual reports. Think of these as a sort of “State of the Union” for your company – less pomp and circumstance, but you...
DRI Super Conference: IP Litigation and the Good Life in New Orleans
New Orleans is a wonderful place to meet interesting people and experience some of the best life has to offer. On April 26- 28th, I had the great fortune to serve as the Chair of the DRI Intellectual Property Litigation Seminar in New Orleans. This happened in...
Ed Sheeran’s Win Shows Building Blocks of Music Cannot be Copyrighted
Musical artists have always had to deal with questions of copyright. In recent years, however, many have felt a shiver up their spine from copyright issues that deal with the basic building blocks of music. That encompasses fundamentals like chord progressions,...
Trademark Infringement Case Challenges Courts to Define How the Lanham Act Applies Abroad
We have talked about the Lanham Act previously in regards to how it helps define the U.S. trademark registration system. A recent case involving a U.S. company and its European distributor brings up a specific question about the Lanham Act: does it apply to...
“Mass Copyright Infringement”: Internet Archive Faces Copyright Judgment
As we have discussed, a central theme of U.S. Copyright law is the stimulation of creative ideas, their free exchange, and commercial profitability from them. This is why copyright enforcement is not black-and-white/all-or-nothing – not all infringement is considered...
Will the CDA and DMCA Be Amended or Appealed in 2023?
As the responsibilities of tech giants have soared in the past decade, two foundational Acts of the internet have come under political scrutiny: Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Recently, the Supreme...
“Whiskey” Business – A Parody Dog Toy’s Continued Legal Battle with Jack Daniel’s
At the end of 2022, I wrote about the Jack Daniel's parody toy case against Phoenix-based VIP Company. It has been ongoing for some time now, with both parties arguing their case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Well, just a few weeks back, there was an update...
U.S. Copyright Office Begins to Grapple with Questions of Authorship in AI Generated Works
On March 16, 2023, the U.S. Copyright Office published policy guidance on the registration of works containing materials generated by artificial intelligence (AI). The Copyright Office has been receiving copyright applications for AI technology, as author and...