Intellectual Property

by Dennis Crouch Vidal v. Elster.  Elster is seeking to register the mark TRUMP TOO SMALL, but was initially rebuffed because the law prohibits registration of a mark consisting of the name of a […]

The Chamberlain Group v. Overhead Door Corp., 21-CV-00084 (E.D. Tex. 2023) Overhead door won a jury verdict in this case back in March 2022.  However, Judge Gilstrap ordered a partial new trial […]

Ryan Davis at IP360 is reporting that Rep. Darryl Issa is the new chair of the House Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet. He was previously Chair 2015-2019.   Issa has […]

The start of a new year is a good opportunity for companies to review and take stock of their intellectual property assets.  Continue Reading

It is hard for me to believe that the US Supreme Court is hearing the case of Jack Daniels vs Bad Spaniels. For those who don’t know, Jack Daniels is a form of Whiskey.  VIP Products makes and […]

by Dennis Crouch In a prior post, I mentioned that the Copyright Office had canceled the registration for “Zarya of the Dawn,” a book purportedly created mainly by AI.  That was in error […]

In Pictometry International Corp. v. Roofr, Inc., the court found the plaintiff’s aerial roof measurement patents encompassed unpatentable subject matter and therefore granted defendant’s motion to […]

by Dennis Crouch In 2022, the Federal Circuit held that an invention is only eligible for a US patent if a human conceived of the invention. Thus, no patents for invention wholly conceived by […]

In re General Motors Co. (Fed. Cir. 2022) Without much pretense, the Federal Circuit has rejected GM’s petition to the Federal Circuit seeking transfer of its case out of the Western District of […]

Event review; estate planning vehicles for artists. such artist trusts. The post WYWH: A Primer on Artist Trusts appeared first on Center for Art Law.

The Advertising Standards Authority (“ASA”) has issued its first ruling under the new rules that prohibit gambling ads with “strong appeal” to under-18s, providing a useful example as to how […]

Guest Post by Jordan Duenckel.  Jordan is a second-year law student at the University of Missouri, head of our IP student association, and a registered patent agent.  The Federal Circuit released […]

Feb 1, 2023, is the new deadline for providing comments to the USPTO on this RFC. […]

Trademarks perform a number of important functions. Scott Hervey and Josh Escovedo discuss the spectrum of trademark strength in this episode of The Briefing by the IP Law Blog. Listen to this […]

Guest post by Camilla A. Hrdy, Professor of Intellectual Property Law at University of Akron School of Law, and Daniel H. Brean, Senior In-House Intellectual Property Counsel, Respiratory Care, […]

Several cases that we previously discussed on “The Briefing” will go before the Supreme Court. Let’s review the IP cases to watch in 2023. Continue Reading

By Hanna Tudor[1] In Taylor Swift’s 2022 track and visual “Anti-Hero”, the viewer is invited to the artist’s deepest intrusive thoughts and fears as viewers are taken to her “funeral” […]

What many of us had expected has finally happened, artist have sued for copyright infringement a couple of AI companies, as well as an art repository site (complaint here). Is this the end of AI […]

An 11th Circuit Opinion in the ‘Floribama Shore’ trademark case provides guidance on establishing artistic relevance under the Rogers Test.  Continue Reading

As 2023 commences, it’s time for companies to review and take stock of their intellectual property assets. This applies to companies that have never taken serious steps to protect intellectual […]

By Atreya Mathur “By far, the greatest danger of Artificial Intelligence is that people conclude too early that they understand it.” —Eliezer Yudkowsky[1] Again and again, artificial […]

On 28 November 2022, the European Commission adopted proposals for a revised Regulation and Directive on industrial designs. The proposals, that are now sent to the European Parliament and Council […]

The Supreme Court granted Jack Daniel’s petition for certiorari and will hear the trademark infringement case involving a parody dog chew toy that resembles the Jack Daniel’s Whiskey […]

Do defendants and the court have the right to ask who is funding a particular patent litigation? Chief Judge Connolly in Delaware says they do, and in In re Nimitz, the Federal Circuit denied a […]

The author would like to thank John Hodges and Elisa Li for their contributions to this post. The emergence of blockchain-supported Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) has captured the interest of the […]

I like Twitter. There are many things not to like about the site nowadays, but to me it remains a very interesting and vibrant place in which to spend my time. But after Elon Musk’s takeover, it […]

The heirs of the author who wrote an article upon which “Top Gun” is based, claims the film’s sequel is an infringing derivative work. Paramount has since filed a motion to dismiss the […]

Google, which operates the world’s most popular search engine, recently defeated an antitrust claim brought by an online supplier of stock images in the case Dreamstime.com, LLC v. Google, LLC, […]

As we ring in 2023, sip some champagne and make a resolution to check in on your trademark portfolio more often.  It misses you! Here are a few productive questions to ask: Do your registrations […]

by Soleil Hawley Have you ever wondered about the legality of performances by hologram Elvis and hologram Michael Jackson? Or that AI-generated Anthony Bourdain voice-over? How about this 2015 Audrey […]

By Daniela Baiardi Facts of the case are based on ICC court records.[1] For documents, news and recordings, visit HERE. Background In January 2012, armed violence took place in the territory of Mali […]

The Federal Circuit recently handed down an informative decision in American National v. Sleep Number Corporation affirming the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s final decisions in two inter partes […]

By Nikki Vafai In September of 2022, the Swiss Federal Council, the executive body of the federal government of the Swiss Confederation, voted to create an independent commission on Nazi looted art. […]

In Punchbowl, Inc. v. AJ Press, LLC, the Ninth Circuit affirmed a trademark win for upstart news outfit Punchbowl News. In doing so, the court held that First Amendment protection extends to the […]

Over the past few years the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has been actively taking steps to address consumer protection concerns with sponsorships and endorsements within social […]

Suing an overseas defendant often forces plaintiffs to go through the expensive and time-consuming process of serving the defendant through the Hague Convention. This requires translating the […]

Courtesy of the Commercial Law Court in Barcelona (Juzgado de lo Mercantil), we are getting one of the very first rulings dealing with the interface between intellectual property, NFTs, and the […]

By Atreya Mathur Credit: DALL·E 2; text prompts (left to right): painting of a robot holding justice scales; painting of a robot-artist painting flowers; painting of a robot reading a law bookWhat […]

By James Parker The Supreme Court waited 27 years after deciding the 1994 landmark case of Cambell v. Acuff Rose to revisit the issue of fair use in Google LLC v. Oracle America Inc. Decided in 2021, […]

The U.S. International Trade Commission (“ITC”) continues to be a popular venue for patent litigation under Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930. The speed at which Section 337 investigations […]

Dear Center for Art Law Visitors and Friends, Over the last few days you might have noticed that our site has been undergoing some changes. We have a “new look” which we are pleased to share with […]

By Wenni Iben Introduction Today, Henry Darger (1892-1973) is known to the world as an artist celebrated for vibrant and vividly-colored drawings that now command up to $800,000. During his lifetime, […]

This was generated with AI Article Writer 3.0, I didn’t edit a single word, you be the judge (thanks to Philippe Jougleux for the idea). Link to the header image here, created with Midjourney. […]

In a recent post, I discussed a September Federal Circuit decision (Cooperative Entertainment v. Kollective Technology) that reversed a lower court dismissal of a patent infringement case on Section […]

One of the few bragging rights that we have here at Llama Towers is that this blog has gained a reputation as a place where new legal issues get a discussion before they hit the academic mainstream. […]

On October 4, 2022, in a 52-page Director review decision in an inter partes review (IPR) proceeding involving recently-formed entity OpenSky Industries LLC, USPTO Director Katherine Vidal sanctioned […]

The copyright wars are back, and this time the conflict is all about artificial intelligence. While most of the public has been paying attention to what is going on with AI art tools such as DALL-E, […]

Ethical duties are paramount in any legal practice. Matters relating to copyright, trademark and advertising law give rise to some special ethical considerations. Even unintentional missteps can be […]

On Tuesday 11 October 2022 I gave evidence to the House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee. Beforehand we were given a set of questions to prepare. While this does not reflect the final […]

One of my favourite anime series of all time is the first season of Sword Art Online. It’s a story about your typical massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), an earlier Metaverse to […]