On March 4, 2019, the Supreme Court decided Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.com, LLC, settling a long-standing dispute over the Copyright Act’s registration requirement. Under the Copyright Act, a copyright owner generally may not institute a copyright infringement action until the work at issue has been registered in accordance with 17 U.S.C. § […]
Read moreCategory: Insights
The Public Domain Landscape 2019
For the first time in over 20 years, on January 1, 2019, US copyrighted works entered the public domain due to the expiration of their copyright term. Going forward, more works will now enter the public domain annually. The expiration of copyright for works published in 1923 means that everyone may use these materials, for […]
Read moreAlphabet Soup: WHOIS, GDPR (European Union General Data Protection Regulation), and CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act)
The European Union (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) became effective on May 25, 2018. In light of this sweeping new law, the WHOIS global database of domain name registrants has ceased to be a key resource for intellectual property stakeholders seeking to protect their rights online. Registries will now need to have a good […]
Read moreClash of the Titans – European Union Copyright Holders Versus Technology Giants
On September 12, 2018, the European Parliament took a first, but crucial, step in adopting sweeping changes to copyright law on the Internet in the European Union. The vote on this copyright directive pitted media companies who hold the copyright to music and news content against technology platforms such as Google, Apple, Amazon and Facebook. […]
Read moreCultural Appropriation & the Lack of Legal Protection for Indigenous Australian Art
Note: “Marking the Infinite,” a stunning exhibit of works by contemporary women artists from Aboriginal Australia is on view until September 9, 2018 at the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC. In spring 2018, a Utah high-school student named Keziah Daum caused a controversy when she tweeted out some prom pictures in which she was wearing […]
Read moreDi-Stink–tive Trade Dress: Play-Doh Registers Its Scent with the USPTO
On May 18, 2018, Hasbro announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) approved its application to register the scent of its well-known Play-Doh clay. 1 Barring a successful legal challenge to the registration, this development means that Hasbro will be able to prevent its competitors from using confusingly similar scents for their […]
Read moreLove It or Hate It: The U.S. Supreme Court Gave a Green Light to Disparaging Trademarks
On June 19, 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled in Matal v. Tam that the Disparagement Clause of the Lanham Act violates the First Amendment’s Free Speech Clause and constitutes viewpoint discrimination.[1] The trademark at issue in Tam was THE SLANTS for live music performances. By using this mark, an Asian-American rock band, The […]
Read moreThe DMCA Subpoena Process: An Underutilized Tool for Identifying Anonymous Infringers
Typically, for a copyright owner to identify and pursue an anonymous infringer on the Internet, he or she must initiate a copyright infringement lawsuit against a “John Doe” and use the discovery process to unmask the defendant’s identity. Although commencing a “John Doe” litigation is appropriate in certain circumstances, it can be an expensive and […]
Read moreBrexit and Your Trademark Rights in the UK
In light of Britain’s vote last week to leave the European Union, we can expect intellectual property rights in the UK to undergo changes in the coming years. These changes aren’t imminent, as it will take time for the UK to negotiate the terms of its withdrawal from the EU. The major IP impact will […]
Read moreChoudhury v. Evolation Yoga: Is Copyright Law Flexible Enough to Encompass Yoga Poses?
For more than a century, courts have been grappling with the issue of what types of work are eligible for copyright protection. New mediums of expression present challenges to the traditional analyses, and the law continues to evolve on this issue. In the case of Choudhury v. Evolation Yoga[1], the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals […]
Read more