In a decision with potentially far-reaching implications for copyright transactions, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that statutory termination rights under the U.S. Copyright Act can revest worldwide copyright interests, not merely U.S. rights, when the terminated grant arises under U.S. law.
Congress enacted termination rights to address the unequa [ ... ]
The Creators Coalition on AI (CCAI) was born out of the tension between the enormous potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the threat it poses, without robust oversight, to replace the human element of the creative process. Founded by a group of activists in late 2025 (shortly after Disney announced a billion-dollar equity investment in OpenAI), CCAI is an advocacy group [ ... ]
Michael Chisena applied to register the trademarks “All Rise,” “Here Comes The Judge” and a design mark depicting the scales of justice over a baseball field for clothing in International Class (IC) 25. The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) refused registration based on likelihood of confusion, false suggestion of a connection and use of a particular living individua [ ... ]
Insights & News
Age-based content restrictions are not novel. Courts have held that restrictions imposed to protect minors can be constitutional, as states have the power to shield children from inappropriate material. One well-known example is the Motion Picture Association’s movie ratings based on the age of viewers (i.e., Rated R or PG-13). The modern age allowance dilemma is how to address th [ ... ]
Joe’s Crab restaurants are all across the United States; some are casual seaside shacks and others are high-end establishments. But how can so many restaurants share the same or similar name? Under U.S. trademark law, if there is no federal registration, the rights to a mark are local and depend on who first used the mark in good faith. That means that multiple restaurants with th [ ... ]
In 2023, “Heart on My Sleeve,” a song with Drake and The Weeknd’s voices, began racking up views on Spotify. The problem was that neither Drake nor The Weeknd released or performed the song. It was artificially generated based on hours of their music.
An industry turned on its headWhile the music world has been familiar with AI for some time, generative AI’s ab [ ... ]