General News

U.S. Court of Appeals Addresses Contributory Trademark Infringement

The prohibitions around trademark infringement, and the penalties for these violations, are codified in the federal trademark statute known as the Lanham Act. This Act also prohibits an individual or entity from providing products to a third party if they...
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Hollywood Strikes Conclude as Writers’ and Actors’ Unions Secure New Contracts

In the fall of 2023, the widely publicized writers’ and actors’ union strikes that halted the film and television industry for much of the year finally ended. The Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike, which represented 11,500 screenwriters, was the...
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Chinese Counterfeiters Sentenced for Scheme Involving Fake Rolex Watches

A consortium of counterfeiters faced charges and convictions in China recently for its sophisticated production, assembly, and marketing of fake Rolex watches. The scheme ran from July 2015 to April 2021, and involved about 300,000,000 RMB (Chinese Yuan Renminbi), the...
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Supreme Court Will Hear a Case Concerning Music Copyright Law

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review an appeals court decision and answer the question of whether the circuit court discovery accrual rule or the Copyright Act’s statute of limitations (17 U.S.C. § 507(b)) should govern whether a music...
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Twitter’s “X” Rebrand May Run Afoul of IP Law

X’s billionaire owner, Elon Musk, who rebranded the social media company Twitter to the single letter, could face intellectual property legal challenges since others like Microsoft and Meta previously claimed rights to the letter. Additionally, France's Agence France-Presse (AFP), an...
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Prominent Authors Look to Protect Copyrights From AI Companies

More than 15,000 authors, including Dan Brown, Margaret Atwood, and James Patterson, and their supporters have signed an open letter drafted by the Authors Guild to AI companies, imploring them to get writers’ permission before using copyrighted material to enhance...
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CureVac Expands Its mRNA Patent Lawsuit Over Pfizer

CureVac NV punched back against Pfizer Inc. and its German partner BioNTech recently by expanding its three claims of patent infringement to nine claims over the mRNA technology used in the companies’ COVID-19 vaccine. CureVac also disclosed that a U.S....
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Copyright Expiration Opens the Door for Winnie-the-Pooh Horror Film

The Winnie-the-Pooh copyright expired in January of 2022, making the characters from that beloved book series available for use by the public. United States copyright laws protect ownership rights for 70 years after the creator's death or 95 years after...
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Jazz Composer Claims YouTube Protects Only the Most Powerful Copyright Holders

The 2020 copyright infringement lawsuit that jazz composer Maria Schneider filed against YouTube highlights the crucial role that well-crafted entertainment contracts play when accusations continue to fly, and parties ask for summary judgment. California U.S. District Court Judge James Donato...
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Game Company Violated Child Privacy Laws

The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) enlists parents in controlling what information companies collect from children online with assistance from the Federal Trade Commission’s enacted regulations. COPPA is codified as 15 United States Code §§ 6501-6506. The Better Business...
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