Taylor Swift is a Pioneer of Intellectual Property Rights; American University Intellectual Property Brief, March 13, 2023

 Abigail Smith, American University Intellectual Property Brief; Taylor Swift is a Pioneer of Intellectual Property Rights

"Every time Taylor Swift walks out the door, she facilitates massive changes for the intellectual property rights of artists in the music industry.

Taylor Swift is one of the most popular artists in the world. Even if you don’t like her music, you have to admire her fighting spirit. Lately, she has been in a public battle with Ticketmaster over the availability of tickets for her upcoming tour. Before that, she fought with music streaming services to promote selling albums—thus, profiting off the work put into creating those albums—instead of allowing them to be streamed for free. Before that, she was fighting for her ownership rights over her music. Many of Taylor Swift’s battles have to do with her intellectual property rights, and the outcomes may impact all musicians."

China’s Newest Weapon to Nab Western Technology—Its Courts; The Wall Street Journal, February 20, 2023

Stu Woo  and Daniel Michaels, The Wall Street Journal; China’s Newest Weapon to Nab Western Technology—Its Courts

Rulings nullify patents in industries it deems important, including technology, pharmaceuticals and rare-earth minerals

"The growing conflict between China and the U.S. extends from computer-chip factories to a suspected spy balloon over American skies. Running through it all is a struggle for technological superiority.

China has striven for years to develop cutting-edge technologies, in part through heavy spending on research. Now, according to Western officials and executives, it also has mobilized its legal system to pry technology from other nations.

Officials in the U.S. and European Union accuse China of using its courts and patent panels to undermine foreign intellectual-property rights and help Chinese businesses. They say China is focusing such efforts on industries it deems important, including technology, pharmaceuticals and rare-earth minerals."

Leader of Illegal Copyright Infringement Scheme Sentenced to 5 ½ Years’ Imprisonment; U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Department of Justice, March 8, 2023

U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Department of Justice; Leader of Illegal Copyright Infringement Scheme Sentenced to 5 ½ Years’ Imprisonment

"United States Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero announced that Bill Omar Carrasquillo, 36 years old, of Swedesboro, NJ, was sentenced to 66 months’ imprisonment, five years of supervised release, more than $30 million in forfeiture, and more than $15 million in restitution by United States District Court Judge Harvey Bartle III, for crimes arising from a wide-ranging copyright infringement scheme that involved piracy of cable TV, access device fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, and hundreds of thousands of dollars of copyright infringement."

Artificial Intelligence Meets Its Worst Enemy: the U.S. Copyright Office; The New Republic, March 3, 2023

Matt Ford,  The New Republic; Artificial Intelligence Meets Its Worst Enemy: the U.S. Copyright Office

"What Silicon Valley calls “artificial intelligence” at the moment is something more like the computer aboard the USS Enterprise, which can respond to voice prompts and answer a wide range of queries instantaneously. Where is the nearest solar system? How many Klingon warships are pursuing us? How many life-forms are on the planet below? These answers can come much more quickly than any human could give, but they also do not reflect creativity or imagination in any meaningful sense...

Randomized and uncontrolled generation renders the result ineligible for copyright, the office said. While it noted that Kashtanova said she went to great lengths to enter prompts specific enough to produce her desired result, that input was not the same as actual creative work. The office compared her to a patron who commissioned a piece of artwork from a client based on specific instructions. If she had given the same instructions to a human artist that she gave to Midjourney, the office noted, Kashtanova herself would not be able to claim the copyright of the piece that the artist ultimately produced.

That explanation is a laudably insightful understanding of labor and creation by the Copyright Office. It may be even more apt than the government realized. A “generative A.I.,” after all, is only as good as the material it is “trained” on—the corpus of raw text or images that the algorithm then uses to produce simulacra of new text and images."

ASML chief warns of IP theft risks amid chip sanctions; Financial Times, March 8, 2023

Anna Gross and Tim Bradshaw

, Financial Times ; ASML chief warns of IP theft risks amid chip sanctions

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The head of ASML, the chip toolmaker that is Europe’s biggest tech company, said he was guarding against intellectual property theft more fiercely than “ever before”, as a geopolitical tussle forces China to bolster its homegrown semiconductor industry. Peter Wennink said growing restrictions imposed by the US on China’s ability to source cutting-edge chips and semiconductor equipment had raised the stakes for the company’s security efforts. “It’s like 1973, it’s like the oil crisis,” Wennink told the Financial Times, pointing to increasing efforts by the US, Europe and Japan to bolster their domestic chipmaking capabilities. “Oil was always there until it wasn’t, and it was a strategic commodity. Fast forward to 2020 and it’s the same thing with chips.”"

With an unruly China, safeguarding intellectual property is vital to national security; The Globe and Mail, March 6, 2023

DAVID DURAND AND AARON SHULL, The Globe and Mail; With an unruly China, safeguarding intellectual property is vital to national security

"There is an urgent need for a new Canadian national security policy that considers new and emerging threats.

Such a policy should begin with a strong economic foundation that privileges the domestic development of intangible assets, IP, and the use and commercialization of data, as well as the strategic injection of Canadian technology into international markets. That, in turn, requires a better understanding of the relationship between IP and national security."

The Daring Ruse That Exposed China’s Campaign to Steal American Secrets; The New York Times Magazine, March 7, 2023

 Yudhijit Bhattacharjee, The New York Times Magazine ; The Daring Ruse That Exposed China’s Campaign to Steal American Secrets

"Although China publicly denies engaging in economic espionage, Chinese officials will indirectly acknowledge behind closed doors that the theft of intellectual property from overseas is state policy. James Lewis, a former diplomat now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, recalls participating in a meeting in 2014 or so at which Chinese and American government representatives, including an officer from the People’s Liberation Army, discussed the subject. “An assistant secretary from the U.S. Department of Defense was explaining: Look, spying is OK — we spy, you spy, everybody spies, but it’s for political and military purposes,” Lewis recounted for me. “It’s for national security. What we object to is your economic espionage. And a senior P.L.A. colonel said: Well, wait. We don’t draw the line between national security and economic espionage the way you do. Anything that builds our economy is good for our national security.” The U.S. government’s response increasingly appears to be a mirror image of the Chinese perspective: In the view of U.S. officials, the threat posed to America’s economic interests by Chinese espionage is a threat to American national security.'

Like China’s economy, the spying carried out on its behalf is directed by the Chinese state. The Ministry of State Security, or M.S.S., which is responsible for gathering foreign intelligence, is tasked with collecting information in technologies that the Chinese government wants to build up. The current focus, according to U.S. counterintelligence experts, aligns with the “Made in China 2025” initiative announced in 2015. This industrial plan seeks to make China the world’s top manufacturer in 10 areas, including robotics, artificial intelligence, new synthetic materials and aerospace. In the words of one former U.S. national security official, the plan is a “road map for theft.”"

NFTs are creating trademark problems. For these Minnesota lawyers, expertise is a commodity; Star Tribune, March 8, 2023

 Nick Williams, Star Tribune; NFTs are creating trademark problems. For these Minnesota lawyers, expertise is a commodity

"For NFT creators, knowing what they can register for trademark or patent protection is not clear-cut, either. That's a significant piece of the NFT-law equation, considering the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has received more than 10,000 trademark applications for NFT-related goods and services over the last few years, said Kathi Vidal, undersecretary of commerce for intellectual property and director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, during a recent online panel.

"And we expect that number to grow," she said.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and U.S. Copyright Office are working on a study with input from industry experts to determine how the nation should proceed with NFT laws. The study, a response to a request from the U.S. Senate subcommittee on intellectual property, will help officials determine what policies are to be supported, and what position the U.S. takes on the matter, Vidal said."

From Roald Dahl to Goosebumps, revisions to children’s classics are really about copyright – a legal expert explains; The Conversation, March 7, 2023

Cathay Smith, Professor of Law, University of Montana; Visiting Research Fellow, University of Oxford, The Conversation ; From Roald Dahl to Goosebumps, revisions to children’s classics are really about copyright – a legal expert explains

"The backlash to Puffin Books’ decision to update Roald Dahl’s children’s books has been swift and largely derisive. The publisher has been accused of “absurd censorship”, “corporate safetyism” and “cultural vandalism.” 

At its core, however, updating Roald Dahl’s children’s books is really about the rights and control copyright grants to authors and copyright holders. Those rights are exercised to update children’s books more frequently than many of these critics may realise."

Reducing the Choice Between a Textbook and Your Next Meal; UCFToday, March 6, 2023

James Paradiso,  UCFToday; Reducing the Choice Between a Textbook and Your Next Meal

"With textbooks and other required course materials proven to be costly, UCF faculty, staff and students have come up with creative, yet practical, solutions through the creation of Open Educational Resources (OER), a hub for free teaching, learning and research materials.

“There has always been a need for open educational resources in higher education,” says Nicole Lapeyrouse, a UCF chemistry professor and 2023 Affordable Instructional Materials (AIM) High Impact Award winner. “By adopting or creating OER, you are able to further support students by making your courses more affordable and helping reduce the financial burden on students.”

Isabella Griffin, a student in Lapeyrouse’s Chemistry Fundamentals I course, confirms those benefits.

“The free textbook has helped ease the financial burden associated with being a college student.,” she says. “Sometimes, high prices prevent students from having textbook access — to the detriment of student learning. I greatly appreciate the free and open access to [the Chemistry Fundamentals eBook]. It has increased my ability to access relevant and useful resources related to class.”

“From my own personal experience with not always having access to affordable resources,” says Lapeyrouse, “I wanted to prevent students from having to make a tough call on [whether to] buy the required resources or pay a bill.”

According to the 2022 Student Textbook and Course Materials Survey conducted by Florida Virtual Campus (FLVC), 53% of students from Florida’s public higher education institutions indicated they did not purchase a required textbook for financial reasons. Forty-four percent took fewer courses. Thirty-eight percent did not register for a specific course. And 24% dropped a course due to the high cost of textbooks."

ARE THE CREATIVE COMMONS PUBLIC DOMAIN TOOLS FIT-FOR-PURPOSE IN THE CULTURAL HERITAGE SECTOR?; Creative Commons, February 23, 2023

Creative Commons; ARE THE CREATIVE COMMONS PUBLIC DOMAIN TOOLS FIT-FOR-PURPOSE IN THE CULTURAL HERITAGE SECTOR?

A Creative Commons Needs Assessment Report

"EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

To obtain a clearer picture of the use and understanding of Creative Commonsʼ (CC) public domain tools in the cultural heritage sector, in light of the diverse barriers1 facing cultural heritage institutions (CHIs) in opening up their collections, we performed a needs assessment with a view to developing a set of recommendations to ensure CCʼs tools continue to be relevant and meet the sectorʼs needs. From 1 January (Public Domain Day2) to 15 February 2022, we ran a multilingual online survey using Google Forms to share a 50-question questionnaire in English, French and Spanish.

With hundreds of responses to 50 questions, our survey provides us with ample information. While it is beyond the scope of this brief report to provide in-depth analysis of all the results, we highlight key findings that hold the potential to inform our community about the state of open culture and the role that CC public domain tools might play in supporting it. Hereʼs a brief summary of key findings:"

Industrial espionage: How China sneaks out America's technology secrets; BBC, January 16, 2023

 Nicholas Yong , BBC News; Industrial espionage: How China sneaks out America's technology secrets

"It is part of a broader struggle as China strives to gain technological knowhow to power its economy and its challenge to the geopolitical order, while the US does its best to prevent a serious competitor to American power from emerging.

The theft of trade secrets is attractive because it allows countries to "leapfrog up global value chains relatively quickly - and without the costs, both in terms of time and money, of relying completely on indigenous capabilities", Nick Marro of the Economist Intelligence Unit told the BBC.

Last July FBI director Christopher Wray told a gathering of business leaders and academics in London that China aimed to "ransack" the intellectual property of Western companies so it can speed up its own industrial development and eventually dominate key industries. 

He warned that it was snooping on companies everywhere "from big cities to small towns - from Fortune 100s to start-ups, folks that focus on everything from aviation, to AI, to pharma"."

The Supreme Court May Force Us to Rethink 500 Years of Art; The New York Times, March 1, 2023

  Blake Gopnik, The New York Times; The Supreme Court May Force Us to Rethink 500 Years of Art

"Any day now, the Supreme Court will hand down a decision that could change the future of Western art — and, in a sense, its history, too. Blame the appeals court judgment from 2021 declaring that Andy Warhol had no right to appropriate someone else’s photo of Prince into one of the Pop artist’s classic silk-screened portraits.

The art world quailed at the ruling."

New Copyright Claims Board Rules in Favor of Photographer in First Case; PetaPixel, March 6, 2023

 MATT GROWCOOT, PetaPixel; New Copyright Claims Board Rules in Favor of Photographer in First Case

"In a judgment on February 28, 2023, the CCB ruled in favor of the plaintiff, David Oppenheimer, who sued a lawyer named Douglas Prutton for using one of his photographs on his website without permission. 

The CCB was set up in 2021 to help small copyright infringement claims of lower value giving photographers an alternative to hiring pricey copyright attorneys who generally balk at smaller monetary payouts of this kind."

New open access resources from Library of Congress; Illinois State University News, March 2, 2023

Eric Willey, Illinois State University News; New open access resources from Library of Congress

"For those interested in Open Access materials, one of the places to watch is the Library of Congress (LoC). Often serving in the role of a de facto national library, the LoC contributes Open Access materials on a wide variety of topics to its digital collections and publicizes the efforts through a blog, The Signal.

The librarians at LoC have hit the ground running in 2023, having added historical recordings, books, and datasets to their online collections. These include 58 new recordings to the Archive of Recorded Poetry and Literature from the 1960s-1980s, and LandScan GIS datasets for Ukraine and Russia that include population density. The library also added over 100 Open Access ebooks and German language newspapers published in Washington, D.C.

Even when online materials are Open Access, they still require software to be viewed. In February, LoC announced the creation of an EPUB reader for its ebooks. This viewer allows readers to access over 6,000 OA ebooks on the website without downloading a PDF and provides an improved interface for readers.

LoC is also planning to actively add materials to its online collections in the future and has outlined a digitization strategy for 2023-2027. With over 9 million items already digitized, this program offers five guiding principles to “expand, optimize, and centralize its collections digitization program to significantly expand access to users across the country to rare, distinctive, and unique collection materials which can be made openly available online and use digitization as a core method for preservation reformatting of rights restricted collection materials.”"

On AI-Generated Works, Artists, and Intellectual Property; Lawfare, February 28, 2023

Ryan Merkley, Lawfare; On AI-Generated Works, Artists, and Intellectual Property 

"Today’s laws allow only humans to create a new copyright. So far, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has trod lightly to avoid declaring any wholly computer-generated work eligible for copyright. In the coming years, there will be enormous pressure on lawmakers to allow computer-generated works to be eligible for copyright. If there is a line in the sand to be drawn, it’s between humans and computers. Rather than allow computer art to devalue human works, one solution might be to elevate human art and decide that AI art should never have equal value. 

Legal frameworks worldwide rely on laws written sometimes hundreds of years ago before computers even existed. Beyond those laws, there are moral and ethical questions that remain unanswered. What is the good we hope to create, and what are the harms that might result? What kind of competitive market do we want, and who, or what, will we be competing with?... 

If copyright laws were bent to allow algorithms to become authors, it would upend one of the foundational principles of global intellectual property and just might unleash a torrent of new issues so overwhelming that it could spell the end of international treaties like the Berne Convention, already creaking under the weight of the internet."

Bay Area vegan company sues founder for allegedly stealing trade secrets; SFGate, February 24, 2023

Susana Guerrero, SFGate ; Bay Area vegan company sues founder for allegedly stealing trade secrets

"“Instead of facilitating an orderly transition, following her termination as CEO, Schinner hatched a plot to steal the Company’s property, trade secrets, and confidential information so that she could create a competing company,” Miyoko’s Creamery wrote in the lawsuit."

When Songs Sound Similar, Courts Look for Musical DNA; The New York Times, March 1, 2023

 Ben Sisario, The New York Times; When Songs Sound Similar, Courts Look for Musical DNA

"But are they close enough that Sheeran should be liable for copyright infringement? Or is their overlap limited to fundamental musical building blocks that are part of the public domain?"...

“All of these cases are about the question of how similar is too similar,” said Joseph P. Fishman, a professor at Vanderbilt Law School in Nashville. “The Copyright Act that Congress passed says nothing whatsoever about that question. In the U.S. copyright system, the rules for how that question gets answered are entirely developed by federal judges.”"

How fake copyright complaints are muzzling journalists; BBC News, March 1, 2023

BBC News; How fake copyright complaints are muzzling journalists

"Journalists have been forced to temporarily take down articles critical of powerful oil lobbyists due to the exploitation of US copyright law, according to a new report.

At least five such articles have been subject to fake copyright claims, including one by the respected South African newspaper Mail & Guardian, according to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).

The claims - which falsely assert ownership of the stories - have been made by mystery individuals under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), a law meant to protect copyright holders."

Can You Spot the Copyright Infringement?; The New York Times, March 1, 2023

 Jason M. Bailey, The New York Times; Can You Spot the Copyright Infringement?

"It can be difficult to predict the outcome of copyright cases, some dealing with parody, that reach the courts. Judges must parse precedent and the Copyright Act of 1976, which outlines how to decide whether something is the “fair use” of a creative work. In the cases below, guess which way the judges ruled."

Science Fiction Magazines Battle a Flood of Chatbot-Generated Stories; The New York Times, February 23, 2023

Michael Levenson , The New York Times; Science Fiction Magazines Battle a Flood of Chatbot-Generated Stories

"Elaborating on his concerns in the interview, Mr. Clarke said that chatbot-generated fiction could raise ethical and legal questions, if it ever passed literary muster. He said he did not want to pay “for the work the algorithm did” on stories generated by someone who had entered prompts into an algorithm.

“Who owns that, technically?” Mr. Clarke said. “Right now, we’re still in the early days of this technology, and there are a lot of unanswered questions.”"

What’s the Real Deal between AI Art & IP?; The Michelson Institute for Intellectual Property, February 22, 2023

Executive Editor: David Orozco, J.D., Bank of America Professor at Florida State University & Editor-in-Chief at American Business Law Journal, The Michelson Institute for Intellectual Property ; What’s the Real Deal between AI Art & IP?

"Can Creatives Fight Back Using IP? 

Artists and creatives may use U.S. copyright law to protect their works from unauthorized use or infringement, including works generated by AI. However, the exact extent of protection will depend on the specific circumstances of the case and the application of relevant legal principles, such as fair use and the doctrine of originality.

For instance, if an AI-generated work is deemed to be a “derivative work” based on the original creative work of an artist, the artist may have the right to control the use and distribution of that derivative work. On the other hand, if the AI-generated work is considered a “transformative” use of the original work, it may qualify for protection under the doctrine of fair use, which would allow it to be used without permission from the original artist."

AI-created images lose U.S. copyrights in test for new technology; Reuters, February 22, 2023

Blake Brittain, Reuters; AI-created images lose U.S. copyrights in test for new technology

"Images in a graphic novel that were created using the artificial-intelligence system Midjourney should not have been granted copyright protection, the U.S. Copyright Office said in a letter seen by Reuters.

"Zarya of the Dawn" author Kris Kashtanova is entitled to a copyright for the parts of the book Kashtanova wrote and arranged, but not for the images produced by Midjourney, the office said in its letter, dated Tuesday."

#WeWednesday from Phoenix: Finding options to fund your business; United States Patent and Trademark Office; February 22, 2023 at 11:30 AM MT, 1:30 AM ET

United States Patent and Trademark Office; #WeWednesday from Phoenix: Finding options to fund your business

"Calling all current and future women entrepreneurs! Join us for our next #WEWednesday event virtually or in person at the Phoenix Bioscience Core, known as 850 PBC, located in Phoenix, Arizona on Wednesday, February 22 at 11:30 a.m. MT.

The event will kick-off with a fireside chat between Kathi Vidal, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and Sally Morton, Executive Vice President & Professor, ASU Knowledge Enterprise, and will be followed by a panel of experts sharing stories and tips on how to secure options for funding a small business. 

Confirmed speakers:

• Kathi Vidal, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO
• Alika Kuma, Executive Director, Arizona MBDA Business Center
• Crys Waddell, Creative Strategist and Chief Operating Officer, Hustle PHX
• Keneshia Raymond  Director of Programs and Access to Capital, Startup Tucson
• Shruti Gurudan, Partner, Rose Law Group & Co-Founder, Televëda 
• Tracy Lea, Director of Venture Development, J. Orin Edson Entrepreneurship + Innovation Institute (emcee)"

Register today

Libraries offering Intellectual Property workshop series; WV Mountaineer ENews, February 13, 2023

WV Mountaineer ENews; Libraries offering Intellectual Property workshop series

"This series of Intellectual Property workshops includes introduction, copyright, trademarks, and patents. While these workshops primarily focus on how to search, the participant will learn different aspects of IP as well as familiarity with websites. 

Trademarks: What's In a Name
If you have a new business name or a new product, attend this workshop and learn how to protect your name and avoid counterfeiting someone else’s. 
Register for this workshop scheduled for 6-7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 21

Patents: Learning How to Search
Knowing how to search patents is helpful for inventors to see what similar items already exist and it can help in researching older technologies and figuring out how a new technology works. Attend this workshop to learn about how searching patents using classification will assist you.
Register for this workshop scheduled for 6-7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 7 

Copyright and your Thesis or Dissertation
Join us for a workshop specifically about copyright and graduate student work. We will cover copyright issues specific to theses and dissertations, including your rights as a user of others’ work, the permissions you need to gain, and your own rights over your ETD.
Register for the workshop scheduled for 11 a.m. to noon Monday, March 27 

Register for the workshop scheduled for 2-3 p.m. Tuesday, April 4

Register for the workshop scheduled for 2-3 p.m. Tuesday, April 12"

I Can't Get No Compensation: AI Image Generators and Copyright; Lexology, February 15, 2023

Davis Wright Tremaine LLP - James Rosenfeld, Barry A. Stulberg and Stevin S. George, Lexology; I Can't Get No Compensation: AI Image Generators and Copyright

"This case (and those mentioned in footnote 1), together with the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Foundation v. Goldsmith case argued October 12, 2022, before the U.S. Supreme Court (addressing the question of what does it mean for a work of art to be transformative "fair use" under U.S. copyright law, docket 21-869) will require courts to balance the competing interests of content owners and AI innovators."

This Inner Richmond Bar and Club Could Face A $30,000 Fine for Copyright Infringement; Eater San Francisco, February 21, 2023

 Paolo Bicchieri , Eater San Francisco; This Inner Richmond Bar and Club Could Face A $30,000 Fine for Copyright Infringement

"Neck of the Woods, a Clement Street haunt for college students and fans of lowkey shows, is being sued by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). That makes it one of 12 such nightclubs throughout the country the group is taking to task over allegedly not paying ASCAP licensing fees, for which fines could reach up to $30,000. Hoodline writes the fee is a relatively small payment bars throughout the country commonly pay to play songs on jukeboxes, at open mics, and at events of that nature.

A prominent bar owner in San Francisco, who chose to remain anonymous, told the outlet the fee is somewhere in the range of $1,000 a year. The San Francisco Examiner reports Neck of the Woods kept a license with the ASCAP from 2009 to 2015 but, even then, failed to pay its dues and had its license with the ASCAP terminated. The payment is compensation for musicians who are, ever more so in the digital age, often paid poorly for their talents."

Oral Argument Set in Internet Archive Copyright Case; Publishers Weekly, February 21, 2023

Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weekly; Oral Argument Set in Internet Archive Copyright Case

"The contentious copyright case has engaged a wide range of stakeholders, with amicus briefs filed on both sides."

Bad Spaniel's: barking the line between permitted parody and trademark infringement; Reuters, February 15, 2023

Deirdre M. Wells, William H. Milliken, and Kristina Caggiano Kelly, Reuters; Bad Spaniel's: barking the line between permitted parody and trademark infringement

"The 9th Circuit ultimately vacated the district court's judgment on trademark infringement, based on the two-part Rogers test. The Rogers test was established in the 1989 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision in Rogers v. Grimaldi, and balances trademark and free speech rights. Under this test, a trademark can be used without authorization as long as it meets a minimal level of artistic expression and does not explicitly mislead consumers.

To overcome VIP's First Amendment right to humorous expression, Jack Daniel's was required to show that VIP's use of its trademarks is either (1) not artistically relevant to the underlying work, or (2) explicitly misleads consumers as to the source or content of the work. The trial court did not apply the Rogers test as part of its analysis...

The 9th Circuit's application of the Rogers test — which has traditionally been used for expressive works like movies, music, and books — to the commercial setting has garnered the attention of attorneys and brand owners alike. The outcome of this case has far-reaching implications for gag gifts, novelty T-shirts, and even subtler fashion products."

Librarians Are Finding Thousands Of Books No Longer Protected By Copyright Law; Vice, February 9, 2023

Claire Woodcock, Vice; Librarians Are Finding Thousands Of Books No Longer Protected By Copyright Law

Up to 75 percent of books published before 1964 may now be in the public domain, according to researchers at the New York Public Library. 

"On January 1, 2023, a swath of books, films, and songs entered the public domain. The public domain is not a place—it refers to all the creative works not protected by an intellectual property law like copyright. 

Creative works may not have intellectual property protections for a number of reasons. In most cases, the rights have expired or have been forfeited. Basically, no one holds the exclusive rights to these works, meaning that living artists today can sample and build off those works legally without asking anyone’s permission to do so. 

The books in question were published between 1923 and 1964, before changes to U.S. copyright law removed the requirement for rights holders to renew their copyrights. According to Greg Cram, associate general counsel and director of information policy at NYPL, an initial overview of books published in that period shows that around 65 to 75 percent of rights holders opted not to renew their copyrights. 

“That’s sort of a staggering figure,” Cram told Motherboard. “That’s 25 to 35 percent of books that were renewed, while the rest were not. That’s interesting for me as we think about copyright policy going forward.”"

Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey Is Building to an Anti-Disney Horror Universe; CBR, February 9, 2023

ANDREAS NEUENKIRCHEN, CBR ; Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey Is Building to an Anti-Disney Horror Universe

Disney characters beware -- Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey intends to kick off a shared universe of public domain properties in a horror setting.

"Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey portrays the title character and his companion Piglet as bloodthirsty, feral slashers after having been abandoned by their friend Christopher Robin. This new interpretation became a possibility when the first Winnie-the-Pooh book by A. A. Milne went into the public domain in January 2022 (Disney still holds the rights to its specific depictions of the characters)."

Bear goes selfie-crazy by snapping 400 pictures on Colorado wildlife camera; The Guardian, January 29, 2023

Guardian staff, The Guardian; Bear goes selfie-crazy by snapping 400 pictures on Colorado wildlife camera

[Kip Currier: A fun story, but, unfortunately for this ursine selfie-snapper, U.S. copyright law requires creators to be human. So, this bear can't claim copyright on these pics. See https://www.copyright.gov/comp3/docs/compendium-12-22-14.pdf 

Naruto v. Slater affirmed this human creator requirement at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, in a highly-publicized case answering "No" to the issue of whether a selfie-taking crested macaque monkey named Naruto, represented by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Inc. (PETA), could constitute a copyright creator under the U.S. statute.]

"Most animals don’t notice the cameras, but officials said the bear appeared enthralled by this one."

Artists file class-action lawsuit saying AI artwork violates copyright laws; NPR, February 3, 2023

Darian Woods, Adrian Ma, NPR; Artists file class-action lawsuit saying AI artwork violates copyright laws

"Artificial intelligence has advanced enough to create a seemingly original artwork in the style of living artists within minutes. Some artists argue that these AI models breach copyright law."

Failures are valuable IP: Protect your startup’s negative trade secrets; TechCrunch via JDSupra, January 23, 2023

Eugene Y. Mar, Thomas J. Pardini, TechCrunch via JDSupra; Failures are valuable IP: Protect your startup’s negative trade secrets

"Technology companies and start-ups are familiar with protecting inventions with patents, and protecting their secret formulas, source code, and algorithms as trade secrets. But tech companies may not be aware of another powerful form of IP protection in California known as “negative trade secrets,” which are intended to protect a company’s secret know-how gained from extensive research investment about what does not work."

Column: How Trump tried to trademark and profit off the phrase ‘Rigged Election!’; Los Angeles Times, February 2, 2023

NICHOLAS GOLDBERG, Los Angeles Times; Column: How Trump tried to trademark and profit off the phrase ‘Rigged Election!’

"Lehrer released records, played the Cambridge coffee shop scene and San Francisco nightclubs and became world famous before mostly disappearing from public view and going back to being a math teacher, much of the time at UC Santa Cruz. About songwriting, he told the Washington Post: “My head just isn’t there anymore.”

But his songs remained popular and he presumably continued to make money from them.

Then, late in life, he decided he was done profiting from his work. A couple of years ago he announced that he intended to put all his music into the public domain. In late November, he posted another note on his website saying that “all copyrights to lyrics or music written or composed by me have been permanently and irrevocably relinquished.” 

“In short,” he wrote, “I no longer retain any rights to any of my songs. So help yourselves and don’t send me any money.”

OK, I’ll admit I found this moving, an example of a well-known person putting the public good over the private good, at some financial cost to himself. It’s true that Lehrer is in his 90s and, as far as I can tell, has no children, although surely he’s got heirs of one sort or another. Admittedly, this is not as big a deal as if we heard that the songs of Bob Dylan or Paul McCartney were suddenly free for public use (which they aren’t). But Lehrer’s gesture is generous and selfless nevertheless, because the public domain is, in the end, the public domain. 

People who want to use or perform or record or rearrange or tinker with his songs may now do so “without payment or fear of legal action,” Lehrer wrote."

Lizzo Granted Trademark for '100% THAT Bitch' in Reversal After Application Was Rejected; People, February 2, 2023

Glenn Garner

, People; Lizzo Granted Trademark for '100% THAT Bitch' in Reversal After Application Was Rejected

"The USPTO's Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) reversed its decision after rejecting Lizzo's application last year.

An examining attorney previously argued that the phrase is "a message of self-confidence and female empowerment," which fans "may associate" with Lizzo, but "does not entitle the applicant as a singer-songwriter to appropriate for itself exclusive use of the phrase.""

Who Owns Bob Woodward's Trump Interview Recordings?; Law360, February 1, 2023

 Hannah Albaraz, Law360 ; Who Owns Bob Woodward's Trump Interview Recordings?

""Best practice," Reid said, "is to get a release or transfer [of] rights at the outset. The complaint suggests this didn't happen."

Reid, who co-chairs UNC Chapel Hill's Center for Media Law and Policy, said the complaint doesn't paint a full picture of what exactly the parties agreed to before the interviews. She said she is interested to see how Woodward and his publishers respond to Trump's claim seeking declaratory relief regarding ownership of copyrights.

Trump's complaint cites no legal precedent, but it does reference the Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices, which states that if an interviewer or an interviewee seeks to register a copyright for an interview, the individual must have the other person transfer over his or her ownership rights.

The complaint doesn't suggest that either Woodward or Trump did so.

It may be that the U.S. Copyright Office would consider both Trump and Woodward the owners of their respective parts of the interview, and if so, a court may find that Woodward owes Trump some portion of the proceeds from the audiobook.

However, there is at least one case dealing with the ownership of interviews in which a court has held that the interviewer is the copyright owner of an interview."