Trademark Center—a new way to apply to register your trademark; United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), December 18, 2024

David S. Gooder , United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO); Trademark Center—a new way to apply to register your trademark

"We recently shared that on January 18, 2025, Trademark Center will become the only way to apply for a trademark registration. While you can still submit applications in the Trademark Electronic Application System (TEAS) until then, I invite you to join the thousands of customers who have already tried Trademark Center. I think you’ll appreciate some of the updates and new capabilities as you get familiar with the system.

Modernizing our systems has been a key focus at the USPTO, and it’s one of the goals of our 2022-26 strategic plan to ensure all trademark applicants and owners have the best experience possible when doing business with our agency. One way we're doing this is through our open beta rollout of Trademark Center, which was launched this past summer. You can now draft and file your trademark application in this new system at trademarkcenter.uspto.gov, and we’ve recently added some exciting new features. Over the next few years, it will become the single platform for not only your trademark registration needs but searching and other trademark services."

Tuskegee University Alumna Helps Push Through Patent and Trademark Resource Center Designation; Tuskegee University, December 19, 2024

Thonnia Lee , Tuskegee University; Tuskegee University Alumna Helps Push Through Patent and Trademark Resource Center Designation

"Thanks to the dedication of Tuskegee University alumna Charesse Evans, Tuskegee University Libraries received official designation as a Patent and Trademark Resource Center (PTRC) by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the federal agency responsible for protecting inventions, creative designs, and other innovations.

This means Tuskegee University can now provide trademark and patent assistance through our library staff.

“As a patent attorney and intellectual property professional with over two decades of experience, I am incredibly proud to have played a role in helping Tuskegee University achieve official designation as a Patent and Trademark Resource Center (PTRC),” said Evans, a Senior Advisor to Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO. “This designation holds particular significance for me, both personally and professionally. Throughout my career, I have collaborated with numerous institutions across the country to support and protect intellectual property. It is an absolute honor to witness my alma mater become an integral part of this essential ecosystem that nurtures the brilliant minds being shaped at the university and within the surrounding community.”...

The Tuskegee University PTRC will support residents who want to patent an invention or register a trademark. The university team is trained to help inventors and small businesses find the information they need to protect their intellectual property."

Conclusion of Copyright Office’s Report on Artificial Intelligence Delayed Until 2025; The National Law Review, December 19, 2024

Daniel J. Lass of Robinson & Cole LLP , The National Law Review; Conclusion of Copyright Office’s Report on Artificial Intelligence Delayed Until 2025

"This week, Director Shira Perlmutter indicated that the publication of part two of the U.S. Copyright Office’s three-part report on copyright issues raised by artificial intelligence (AI) would be further delayed. In her letter to the ranking members of the Senate Subcommittee on Intellectual Property and the House Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet, Director Perlmutter indicated that although substantial progress had been made, the Office will not publish part two by the end of 2024 and now expects publication to occur in early 2025.

Part two of the report will describe the copyrightability of generative AI outputs and will build on part one of the report on digital replicas. Following the publication of part two, Director Perlmutter indicated that the third and final part would be published in the first quarter of 2025. Part three will relate to “analyzing the legal issues related to the ingestion of copyrighted works to train AI models, including licensing considerations and the allocation of potential liability.”"

Indigenous knowledge with science forms an early warning system for ciguatera fish poisoning outbreak in Vanuatu; Communications Earth & Environment, December 13, 2024

Allan Rarai, Eberhard Weber, 

John Ruben & 

Meg Parsons 

, Communications Earth & Environment 

volume

; Indigenous knowledge with science forms an early warning system for ciguatera fish poisoning outbreak in Vanuatu

volum

"Abstract

Indigenous and traditional knowledge of the natural environment is crucial for policymakers and community leaders in Vanuatu. Here, we employ a mixed-methods approach to collect data from East, North, and West Area councils in Ambae Island, Vanuatu, and investigate the integration of science and local indicators to predict the presence of ciguatera fish poisoning to enhance community responses to health risk management. We found fourteen local indicators for the ciguatera outbreak. We also identified uses of scientific information from various sources to verify their Indigenous and Traditional Knowledge before making decisions. This led to the development of ‘The Gigila Framework’ to integrate Indigenous and Traditional Knowledge with science. We also found that both community and government agencies recognize the importance of incorporating community roles into the overall early warning system for ciguatera fish poisoning in Vanuatu. Our study highlights the need for government agencies to collaborate with local communities to evaluate and develop the best practices that enable the integration of Indigenous and Traditional Knowledge with science to improve community responses to health risk management in Vanuatu."

Weaving "Indigenous knowledge" with science crucial for coral; Oceanographic, December 12, 2024

WORDS BY ROB HUTCHINS; PHOTOGRAPHY BY AIMS/PHIL SCHOUTETEN; ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY BY AIMS/ MARIE ROMAN, Oceanographic; Weaving "Indigenous knowledge" with science crucial for coral

"In a programme that will “weave the knowledge of Australia’s Traditional Owners” with the western sciences, the Institute has since embarked on a new partnership programme that will both empower and inform Traditional Owners and members of Indigenous communities with the practical science behind coral reef management and restoration, while learning about cultural and spiritual connections to these environments in return.

“Australia’s Traditional Owners are the first scientists, farmers, engineers, innovators, and conservationists,” said Anna Marsden, Great Barrier Reef Foundation managing director. “They have successfully nurtured and protected their environment through changing seasons and climates, guided by Traditional Knowledge and customs passed down through generations.

“Weaving this knowledge with western science will help overcome key challenges to protecting our Reef – scaling reef restoration efforts.”"

Smiley Face Cookie Company, served with cease and desist letter, fights to keep its name and design; KSDK, December 18, 2024

Tracy Hinson (KSDK), Hunter Bassler, Kelsi Anderson, KSDK; Smiley Face Cookie Company, served with cease and desist letter, fights to keep its name and design

"The bakery received a cease and desist letter from Pennsylvania in early 2016, but it was disregarded. A smiley face cookie they started baking in the 70s became the icon for the bakery's adults with disabilities job program in 2021.

"We pretty much kind of ignored that letter and just thought, 'Hey, we have precedence, so we can keep making these cookies,'" Rinaberger said. "We received a second one in 2022, never heard from the trademark owners until recently when we received an email following up from their attorneys asking what our action plans were to stop calling them smiley cookies."

In a statement to 5 On Your Side, Pennsylvania's Eat'nPark management said they own the federally registered trademarks for Smiley as it relates to cookies, and for the iconic Smiley Face design they've been using on cookies since the 1980s.

What the St. Louis company is worried about most is losing the recognition of seeing Smiley Face Cookie Company in local stores.

"One of the areas that we think we have precedence, besides us doing it before they had their trademark, is it's becoming quite generic and there are hundreds of bakeries around the United States making smile cookies and calling them either smiley face cookies or smile cookies," Rinaberger said.

And for those reasons, they aren't going to let Smiley Face Cookie Company crumble. There is a GoFundMe set up to help with the Smiley Face Cookie Company's legal expenses.

An Eat'nPark spokesperson sent the following statement to 5 On Your Side:

"McArthur’s Bakery is doing important and meaningful work, and we respect their mission. For some time, however, we had reached out to McArthur’s Bakery to engage in a conversation about our trademarks. Unfortunately, they ignored our outreach and our efforts to initiate good-faith conversations."

Getty Images Wants $1.7 Billion From its Lawsuit With Stability AI; PetaPixel, December 19, 2024

MATT GROWCOOT, PetaPixel; Getty Images Wants $1.7 Billion From its Lawsuit With Stability AI

"Getty, one of the world’s largest photo agencies, launched its lawsuit in January 2023. Getty suspects that Stability AI may have used as many as 12 million of its copyrighted photos to train the AI image generator Stable Diffusion. Getty is seeking $150,000 per infringement and 12 million photos equates to a staggering $1.8 trillion.

However, according to Stability AI’s latest company accounts as reported by Sifted, Getty is seeking damages for 11,383 works at $150,000 per infringement which comes to a total of $1.7 billion. Stability AI has previously reported that Getty was seeking damages for 7,300 images so that number has increased. But Stability AI says Getty hasn’t given an exact number it wants for the lawsuit to be settled, according to Sifted."

To Whom Does the World Belong? The battle over copyright in the age of ChatGPT.; Boston Review, December 10, 2024

  Alexander Hartley, Boston Review; To Whom Does the World Belong? The battle over copyright in the age of ChatGPT

"Who, if anyone, owns the copyright to a paragraph produced by a chatbot? As I write, nobody knows."

Grinch-themed holiday photos may be copyright infringement. What to know.; USA Today, December 9, 2024

Max HauptmanMary Walrath-Holdridge, USA Today; Grinch-themed holiday photos may be copyright infringement. What to know.

"As the holidays approach, family photographers should keep in mind one fact − copyright laws do exist, and they can be enforced.

Last year, a photographer in Knoxville, Tennessee, took to social media to note that holiday-themed photo shoots using popular pop culture icons like The Grinch of Dr. Seuss fame could be subject to violations of copyright laws.

"Friendly reminder that shooting Grinch-themed photo sessions FOR A PROFIT (that’s the important part… if you’re not charging a fee you’re good) is federal trademark infringement," Tennessee photographer Anna Smith wrote in a since-deleted Facebook post."

Paul McCartney warns AI ‘could take over’ as UK debates copyright laws; The Guardian, December 10, 2024

 Robert Booth UK technology editor, The Guardian; Paul McCartney warns AI ‘could take over’ as UK debates copyright laws

"Paul McCartney has backed calls for laws to stop mass copyright theft by companies building generative artificial intelligence, warning AI “could just take over”.

The former Beatle said it would be “a very sad thing indeed” if young composers and writers could not protect their intellectual property from the rise of algorithmic models, which so far have learned by digesting mountains of copyrighted material.

He spoke out amid growing concern that the rise of AI is threatening income streams for music, news and book publishers. Next week the UK parliament will debate amendments to the data bill that could allow creators to decide whether or not their copyrighted work can be used to train generative AI models."

OpenAI makes AI video generator Sora publicly available in US; The Guardian, December 9, 2024

 Dara Kerr , The Guardian; OpenAI makes AI video generator Sora publicly available in US

"Anyone in the US can now use OpenAI’s artificial intelligence video generator, Sora, which the company announced on Monday would become publicly available. OpenAI first presented Sora in February, but it was only accessible to select artists, film-makers and safety testers. At multiple points on Monday, though, OpenAI’s website did not allow for new sign-ups for Sora, citing heavy traffic...

While generative AI has improved considerably over the past year, it is still prone to hallucinations, or incorrect responses, and plagiarism. AI image generators also often produce unrealistic images, such as people with several arms or misplaced facial features.

Critics warn that this type of AI video technology could be misused by bad actors for disinformation, scams and deepfakes. There have already been deepfake videos of the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, supposedly calling for a ceasefire and of Kamala Harris supposedly describing herself as “the ultimate diversity hire”.

OpenAI said in its blogpost that it would initially limit uploads of specific people and that it will block content with nudity. The company said that it was additionally “blocking particularly damaging forms of abuse, such as child sexual abuse materials and sexual deepfakes”.

Sora will be available to users who already subscribe and pay for OpenAI’s tools. People in the US and “most countries internationally” will have access to the tool, but it will not be available in the UK or Europe."

KATHLEEN HANNA, TEGAN AND SARA, MORE BACK INTERNET ARCHIVE IN $621 MILLION COPYRIGHT FIGHT; Rolling Stone, December 9, 2024

 JON BLISTEIN, Rolling Stone; KATHLEEN HANNA, TEGAN AND SARA, MORE BACK INTERNET ARCHIVE IN $621 MILLION COPYRIGHT FIGHT

"Kathleen Hanna, Tegan and Sara, and Amanda Palmer are among the 300-plus musicians who have signed an open letter supporting the Internet Archive as it faces a $621 million copyright infringement lawsuit over its efforts to preserve 78 rpm records...

The lawsuit was brought last year by several major music rights holders, led by Universal Music Group and Sony Music. They claimed the Internet Archive’s Great 78 Project — an unprecedented effort to digitize hundreds of thousands of obsolete shellac discs produced between the 1890s and early 1950s — constituted the “wholesale theft of generations of music,” with “preservation and research” used as a “smokescreen.” (The Archive has denied the claims.)

While more than 400,000 recordings have been digitized and made available to listen to on the Great 78 Project, the lawsuit focuses on about 4,000, most by recognizable legacy acts like Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, and Ella Fitzgerald. With the maximum penalty for statutory damages at $150,000 per infringing incident, the lawsuit has a potential price tag of over $621 million. A broad enough judgement could end the Internet Archive.

Supporters of the suit — including the estates of many of the legacy artists whose recordings are involved — claim the Archive is doing nothing more than reproducing and distributing copyrighted works, making it a clear-cut case of infringement. The Archive, meanwhile, has always billed itself as a research library (albeit a digital one), and its supporters see the suit (as well as a similar one brought by book publishers) as an attack on preservation efforts, as well as public access to the cultural record."

Google CEO: AI development is finally slowing down—‘the low-hanging fruit is gone’; CNBC, December 8, 2024

Megan Sauer , CNBC; Google CEO: AI development is finally slowing down—‘the low-hanging fruit is gone’;

"Now, with the industry’s competitive landscape somewhat established — multiple big tech companies, including Google, have competing models — it’ll take time for another technological breakthrough to shock the AI industry into hyper-speed development again, Pichai said at the New York Times’ DealBook Summit last week.

“I think the progress is going to get harder. When I look at [2025], the low-hanging fruit is gone,” said Pichai, adding: “The hill is steeper ... You’re definitely going to need deeper breakthroughs as we get to the next stage.”...

Some tech CEOs, like Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, agree with Pichai. “Seventy years of the Industrial Revolution, there wasn’t much industry growth, and then it took off ... it’s never going to be linear,” Nadella saidat the Fast Company Innovation Festival 2024 in October.

Others disagree, at least publicly. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, for example, posted “there is no wall” on social media platform X in November — a response to reports that the recently released ChatGPT-4 was only moderately better than previous models."

Intellectual Property In Horticulture: A Guide To Plant Patents And Trademarks; Forbes, December 4, 2024

Tammy Sons, Forbes ; Intellectual Property In Horticulture: A Guide To Plant Patents And Trademarks

"The Role Of Patents In Horticulture

Patents play an important role in horticulture:

• Encouraging innovation: Creating new varieties of plants involves investing a lot in research. Plant patents encourage breeders to keep on creating different plant varieties.

• Market share protection: After breeders develop a particular variety of plant, they decide on its production and sale. No competitor has the right to propagate the variety for sale without special permission; hence, this privilege gives the breeder a competitive edge.

A way to gain income: Patents can enable breeders to license their varieties to other growers or nurseries. These licenses enable those breeders to make sales. Popular varieties' profits may come from the licensing agreement...

The Place Of Trademarks In The Horticulture Industry

Trademarks can give the following advantages to horticulture businesses:

• Brand differentiation: A good trademark will enable a firm to set itself apart from its competitors and build consumer loyalty. In horticulture, for instance, a nursery firm might have dozens of items similar to those of other nurseries; hence, recognition by trademark can make quite a difference in attracting and retaining customers.

• Legal protection: USPTO registration protects against infringement of any kind. If another company tries to sell using a similar brand name, logo or product name, a trademark holder can sue that company for creating confusion in the market."

In Wisconsin, Professors Worry AI Could Replace Them; Inside Higher Ed, December 6, 2024

 Kathryn Palmer, Inside Higher Ed; In Wisconsin, Professors Worry AI Could Replace Them

"Faculty at the cash-strapped Universities of Wisconsin System are pushing back against a proposed copyright policy they believe would cheapen the relationship between students and their professors and potentially allow artificial intelligence bots to replace faculty members...

The policy proposal is not yet final and is open for public comment through Dec. 13. ..

Natalia Taft, an associate professor of biological sciences at the University of Wisconsin–Parkside who signed the open letter, told Inside Higher Ed that she believes the policy proposal “is part of the trend of the corporatization of academia.”...

Jane Ginsburg, a professor of literary and artistic property law at Columbia University School of Law, said the university has the law on its side. 

Under the 1976 Copyright Act, “course material prepared by employees, including professors, as part of their jobs comes within the definition of a ‘work made for hire,’ whose copyright vests initially in the employer (the University), not the employee (the professor).”"

Can You Copyright a Vibe?; The New York Times, December 5, 2024

Sandra E. Garcia , The New York Times; Can You Copyright a Vibe?

"Ms. Gifford claims that Ms. Sheil, 21, not only started to mimic her online persona but also appropriated her entire look. And now she is suing.

Ms. Gifford had copyrighted several of her social media posts in January, after noticing the similarity between Ms. Sheil’s posts and her own. Several photos were submitted as evidence in the lawsuit Ms. Gifford filed this year in a federal court in Texas accusing Ms. Sheil of copyright infringement. But in the carefully curated world of social media, Ms. Gifford has leveled a perhaps more severe charge against her: stealing her vibe...

In several interviews beginning in August, experts said influencers have to navigate a blurry landscape in which assigning credit to who created what can be daunting and, in some cases, impossible.

“There really is a sense that you’re both a creator and a borrower,” said Jeanne Fromer, a professor of intellectual property law at New York University. “Fashion is built on that. All the creative industries — painting, music, movies — they’re all built on borrowing in certain ways from the past and also ideally trying to bring your own spin to something. I don’t know that anyone wants to go too far as a result.""

There’s No Longer Any Doubt That Hollywood Writing Is Powering AI; The Atlantic, November 18, 2024

Alex Reisner , The Atlantic; There’s No Longer Any Doubt That Hollywood Writing Is Powering AI

"Editor’s note: This analysis is part of The Atlantic’s investigation into the OpenSubtitles data set. You can access the search tool directly here. Find The Atlantic's search tool for books used to train AI here.

For as long as generative-AI chatbots have been on the internet, Hollywood writers have wondered if their work has been used to train them. The chatbots are remarkably fluent with movie references, and companies seem to be training them on all available sources. One screenwriter recently told me he’s seen generative AI reproduce close imitations of The Godfather and the 1980s TV show Alf, but he had no way to prove that a program had been trained on such material.

I can now say with absolute confidence that many AI systems have been trained on TV and film writers’ work. Not just on The Godfather and Alf, but on more than 53,000 other movies and 85,000 other TV episodes: Dialogue from all of it is included in an AI-training data set that has been used by Apple, Anthropic, Meta, Nvidia, Salesforce, Bloomberg, and other companies. I recently downloaded this data set, which I saw referenced in papers about the development of various large language models (or LLMs). It includes writing from every film nominated for Best Picture from 1950 to 2016, at least 616 episodes of The Simpsons, 170 episodes of Seinfeld, 45 episodes of Twin Peaks, and every episode of The Wire, The Sopranos, and Breaking Bad. It even includes prewritten “live” dialogue from Golden Globes and Academy Awards broadcasts."

The Copyrighted Material Being Used to Train AI; The Bulwark, December 7, 2024

 SONNY BUNCH, The Bulwark; The Copyrighted Material Being Used to Train AI

"On this week’s episode, I talked to Alex Reisner about his pieces in the Atlantic highlighting the copyrighted material being hoovered into large language models to help AI chatbots simulate human speech. If you’re a screenwriter and would like to see which of your work has been appropriated to aid in the effort, click here; he has assembled a searchable database of nearly 140,000 movie and TV scripts that have been used without permission. (And you should read his other stories about copyright law reaching its breaking point and “the memorization problem.”) In this episode, we also got into the metaphysics of art and asked what sort of questions need to be asked as we hurtle toward the future. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend!"

Rekindling Indigenous Knowledge; U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, November 29, 2024

Jalyn Williams, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service; Rekindling Indigenous Knowledge

"Following a painful period of westward removals, the Delaware Tribe and Delaware Nation resettled in Oklahoma, and the Stockbridge-Munsee Community resettled in Wisconsin. They are the three federally recognized Lenape Tribal Nations in the United States. 

Partnering to find solutions

Together, the three Tribes resolved to create a fellowship program to provide opportunities for Tribal citizens, particularly young adults, to discover new facets of their heritage by visiting the places their ancestors lived and taking part in immersive educational programming focusing on the ecology and cultural resource management of the Lënapehòkink."

At a routine meeting with agency staff in 2022, Lenape representatives remarked on the difficulty of providing Traditional Ecological Knowledge about land they were removed from generations ago. While a grant from the National Park Service had funded trips for Lenape to visit their ancestral homeland in the Delaware Watershed, that program had been discontinued. 

The Tribes would have to seek a different route to Lënapehòkink...

Fortunately, Ryder directed the Tribes to a new funding source that could help – the America the Beautiful Challenge grant. Administered by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation in conjunction with the U.S. Department of the Interior and other agency partners, the program encourages applicants to develop diverse, landscape-level projects that showcase cumulative benefits to fish and wildlife, engage with and benefit underserved communities, and connect people with nature.

Ryder and her team provided technical assistance to help the Tribes apply for the grant and in November 2022, they received $723,200 in funding. The grant’s match requirement was covered by a contribution from Native Americans in Philanthropy, a network of Native and non-Native nonprofits, Tribal communities, foundations and community leaders committed to sharing resources in the Native tradition of reciprocity.

Together, the three Tribes resolved to create a fellowship program to provide opportunities for Tribal citizens, particularly young adults, to discover new facets of their heritage by visiting the places their ancestors lived and taking part in immersive educational programming focusing on the ecology and cultural resource management of the Lënapehòkink."

BREAKING THE GLASS; Science, December 5, 2024

SOFIA MOUTINHO , Science; BREAKING THE GLASS

In the end he got the waiver, but the experience turned him away from commercial journals published in the Global North and toward a model that has flourished in Latin America: nonprofit open-access journals. These publications, usually run by academic institutions or scientific societies, charge relatively low APCs, in what’s known as the gold model, or nothing at all, known as the diamond model. Science analyzed nearly 20,000 journals listed in a repository of open-access journals between 2019 and 2023, and found that one in four diamond model journals is published in Latin America. Most—83%—are noncommercial, based at universities.

Latin America is also a global pioneer in trying to overcome a long-standing challenge for noncommercial journals in the Global South: invisibility. Most are published in languages other than English, the lingua franca of science, and only a small fraction of them are indexed in international citation and index systems. “I know that my papers will probably not be read on the same scale as if I published in a high-impact journal,” says Oliveira, whose first published paper appeared in Nature. That lack of visibility adds to the inequities facing scientists in the Global South who seek alternatives to commercial publishers, with their high fees or subscription paywalls.

So Latin American academics have developed platforms that gather in one place papers that would otherwise be scattered across individual journal websites and university libraries, boosting their visibility. The upstart platforms are a model for the rest of the world, says Johan Rooryck, executive director of Coalition S. The United Nations, for instance, highlighted the Latin American model during a summit last year aimed at expanding the diamond model of publishing. By continually promoting affordable open access, Latin American platforms “show us the way on how to achieve an equitable publishing model at a larger scale than just a local scale,” Rooryck says."

What's in a Name Anyway? Trademark Basics for Community Associations; The National Law Review, December 6, 2024

Erica B. E. Rogers of Ward and Smith, P.A. , The National Law Review; What's in a Name Anyway? Trademark Basics for Community Associations

"This article explores the essentials of trademark rights, their relevance for community associations, and the balance between protecting these trademarks versus respecting the free speech of homeowners...

IV. VALUE PROPOSITION FOR COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION

Trademark rights are crucial for protecting the identity and reputation of a community association. They help prevent confusion among property owners and prospective residents by ensuring that the association's name and symbols remain distinct. However, while trademarks are valuable tools for community associations to deter unauthorized use, they cannot be used to silence opinions or criticisms. Understanding this balance is essential for effectively managing and enforcing trademark rights in a manner that respects both legal protections and fundamental freedoms of the property owners."

All these iconic artworks and characters lose copyright in 2025; Creative Bloq, December 7, 2024

Joe Foley , Creative Bloq; All these iconic artworks and characters lose copyright in 2025

"You may have been lucky enough to avoid the gruesome Winnie the Pooh horror movies of the last couple of years, but there are more such irreverent delights to come as more intellectual property loses copyright protection in 2025. A host of famous artworks and much-loved characters will enter the public realm next year, making them fair game for all kinds of adaptations.

Last year, Mickey Mouse was the biggest star to come out of copyright (with a few caveats). So what's coming in 2025? A gruesome Popeye the Sailor for starters (that looks set to be almost as controversial as the Snow White remake)."

Malawi is First to Ratify WIPO Treaty on IP, Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge; WIPO, December 5, 2024

WIPO; Malawi is First to Ratify WIPO Treaty on IP, Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge

"Malawi has become the first nation to ratify the WIPO Treaty on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge, the first WIPO Treaty to address the interface between intellectual property, genetic resources and traditional knowledge.

So far, 38 WIPO member states have signed the Treaty , which was adopted on May 24, 2024 at a diplomatic conference organized by WIPO in Geneva. Signing a treaty shows the intent to pursue ratification. Signing alone does not make the treaty legally binding. Ratification is the process by which a country formally consents to be bound by the Treaty. Upon ratification, the treaty becomes legally binding for the country that ratifies it, provided that it has entered into force.

The Treaty will take effect after 15 instruments of ratification or accession are presented to WIPO. Following a decision to become bound by a treaty, a State deposits an instrument of ratification or accession with the depositary (in this case the Director General of WIPO) and, if necessary, takes steps to enact legislation to implement the Treaty. Malawi was first to ratify the WIPO Treaty on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge through the deposit of an instrument of ratification."

Internet Archive Copyright Case Ends Without Supreme Court Review; Publishers Weekly, December 5, 2024

 Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weekly; Internet Archive Copyright Case Ends Without Supreme Court Review

"After more than four years of litigation, a closely watched copyright case over the Internet Archive’s scanning and lending of library books is finally over after Internet Archive officials decided against exercising their last option, an appeal to the Supreme Court. The deadline to file an appeal was December 3.

With a consent judgment already entered to settle claims in the case, the official end of the litigation now triggers an undisclosed monetary payment to the plaintiff publishers, which, according to the Association of American Publishers, will “substantially” cover the publishers’ attorney fees and costs in the litigation."

Read the cease-and-desist letter UC sent to middle school about logo, Bearcats name; Cincinnati Enquirer, December 2, 2024

 Kaycee Sloan, Cincinnati Enquirer; Read the cease-and-desist letter UC sent to middle school about logo, Bearcats name

"With Cheatham on the hunt for a new name, another Cincinnati university offered up its mascot free of charge.

Anthony Breen, the CEO of Synergistic, a marketing agency in Cincinnati that works with Xavier, said the company, along with Xavier, had pledged to rebrand and redesign Cheatham's logo, mascot and wordmark. They will also provide other needed marketing support.

But it all comes with one caveat: The middle school must agree to become "Musketeers."...

Musketeer Gear, a nonprofit founded by Xavier alumni in 2022, also released a new white T-shirt that features the outline of Tennessee with "Cheatham Musketeers" written in navy blue letters. The shirts are priced at $35 and all proceeds will go directly to the middle school...

Jeff Hobbs, athletic director for Cheatham County School District, said Nov. 25 that Xavier University itself had not yet reached out to the school, and that "Musketeers" is among the names currently being considered."

OpenAI Must Hand Over Execs' Social Media DMs in Copyright Suits; Bloomberg Law, December 3, 2024

Aruni Soni

 , Bloomberg Law; OpenAI Must Hand Over Execs' Social Media DMs in Copyright Suits

"OpenAI Inc. failed to convince a federal magistrate judge that California labor law precludes it from turning over executives’ social media messages to New York Times Co. and an authors group suing the company for copyright infringement."

Buc-ee's is suing this Missouri-based liquor store for trademark infringement; Springfield News-Leader, December 3, 2024

Marta Mieze, Springfield News-Leader; Buc-ee's is suing this Missouri-based liquor store for trademark infringement

"In the lawsuit, Buc-ee's accuses Duckees of violating company's rights protected by the trademarks by adopting an allegedly similar logo and using it on clothing and retail store services featuring convenience store items. The Duckees logo includes a cartoon sunglasses-wearing duck in a green shirt and red bowtie inside of a yellow circle that appears to be printed on a bottle cap. Buc-ee's claims this logo uses "the most important aspects of the iconic Buc-ee's logo" by including a cartoon animal, a yellow circle as the background and prominent black edges for the mascot."

Getty Images CEO Calls AI Training Models ‘Pure Theft’; PetaPixel, December 3, 2024

MATT GROWCOOT , PetaPixel; Getty Images CEO Calls AI Training Models ‘Pure Theft’

"The CEO of Getty Images has penned a column in which he calls the practice of scraping photos and other content from the open web by AI companies “pure theft”.

Writing for Fortune, Craig Peters argues that fair use rules must be respected and that AI training practices are in contravention of those rules...

“I am responsible for an organization that employs over 1,700 individuals and represents the work of more than 600,000 journalists and creators worldwide,” writes Peters. “Copyright is at the very core of our business and the livelihood of those we employ and represent.”"

UW System's copyright policy: What it means for professors; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, December 2, 2024

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; UW System's copyright policy: What it means for professors

"The University of Wisconsin System's proposed copyright policy aims to transfer ownership of faculty teaching materials to the university."

From exploitation to empowerment: how researchers can protect Indigenous peoples’ rights to own and control their data; Nature, November 27, 2024

Cassandra Sedran-Price, Nature; From exploitation to empowerment: how researchers can protect Indigenous peoples’ rights to own and control their data

"So, what can be done? Indigenous Data Sovereignty, which refers to Indigenous peoples’ rights to own and control Indigenous data, can and should be protected through research practices, including how contracts are written and teams are structured. This right, supported by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), emphasizes the fact that Indigenous peoples should be in the driver’s seat for research that affects us. We should be the decision-makers from the point of conceptualization — from setting the research priorities through to dissemination of the data and ongoing data management, including how they are stored, accessed and used. It is through Indigenous peoples’ involvement that systemic injustices can be broken down, and equity, shared benefits and data protection can be realized.

Researchers and institutions must take the lead in understanding how to develop and implement mechanisms to enact Indigenous data sovereignty, known as Indigenous data governance. An important first step is aligning policies and practices with national and international frameworks and treaties for the protection of Indigenous knowledge and data. The CARE Principles for Indigenous data governance (the acronym stands for Collective benefit, Authority to control, Responsibility and Ethics) for example, were designed to strengthen and uphold Indigenous rights to data, while refocusing data governance to prioritize value-based relationships5.

In Western society, intellectual property (IP) laws offer a means of protection for knowledge and data. These laws can establish ownership and authorship of IP in the form of copyright, trademarks and patents. But they do not fully recognize our lore and experiences as Indigenous peoples, nor the specific forms of Indigenous knowledge and data that may be accessed and shared. This is where research-related agreements, such as contracts and data-sharing agreements, can create greater equity and opportunities to prioritize and support shared power, shared resources, mutual understanding and respect for our cultural protocols."