The launch of ChatGPT 3.5 in November 2022 set up 2023 as a year for rapid growth and early adoption of this transformative technology. It reached 100 million users within 2 months of launch – setting a record for the fastest...more
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not just a technological innovation; it’s a transformative force that has permeated multiple sectors, from healthcare to finance. As AI startups and companies creating AI tools (“AI...more
On May 18, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in favor of the respondent copyright holder in Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. v. Lynn Goldsmith et al., No. 21-869, analyzing the Copyright Act’s first fair...more
On March 28, 2022, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in Andy Warhol Foundation v. Goldsmith, a case concerning whether Andy Warhol’s use of Lynn Goldsmith’s photograph of Prince (the musician) to create illustrations in...more
The Second Circuit recently held that artist Andy Warhol’s use of Lynn Goldsmith’s photograph of the musician Prince (the “Goldsmith Photograph”) to create fifteen new unauthorized silkscreen and pencil artworks (the “Prince...more
For those of you who may read my past ILN posts, you will not be surprised that I subscribe to the Tucker Max approach: Make the title attention-grabbing, memorable and searchable, informative, easy and not embarrassing to...more
An important decision by the Second Circuit in The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. v. Goldsmith, Case No. 19-2420-cv (2d Cir. Mar. 26, 2021), has, in important respects, upended how the defense of fair use is...more
Lenwood Hamilton, also known as Hard Rock Hamilton, claimed that Gears of War character Augustus Cole infringed his publicity rights because the video game character had a number of features he felt were identified with him....more
The Federal Circuit’s recent decision in Apple, Inc. v. Ameranth, Inc. highlights the potential impact of characterization of recited features as conventional, routine, generic, or known in the field without further...more
On December 5, 2016 the USPTO will hold its second Patent Subject Matter Eligibility Roundtable to discuss issues in patent eligibility. The USPTO published a list of eighteen questions in anticipation of the event, dealing...more
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York recently found that Gossip Cop, a website that rates celebrity gossip on a scale of “real” to “rumor,” infringed the copyrights in three photographs of famous...more
Judge Leval Illuminates Google Books Fair Use Issues - Second Circuit Affirms Summary Judgment for Defendant in Massive Copying Case - Based on the defense of fair use, the Second Circuit affirmed summary judgment...more
On January 6, 2015, Electronic Arts, Inc. (“EA”), maker of Madden NFL video games, lost its appeal to dismiss claims by approximately 6,000 retired professional football players in Michael Davis, et. al v. Electronic Arts,...more
Kienitz v. Sconnie Nation LLC - The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed the district court’s grant of summary judgment based on fair use, but cited different grounds than the district court and...more
Citing the Supreme Court of the United States’ Spring 2014 decision in Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed itself and concluded that a claimed method for distributing online...more
While the 7th Circuit, in Kienitz v. Sconnie Nation LLC, 766 F.3d 756 (2014), affirmed a finding of fair use, the court’s analysis expresses skepticism about the approach used in Prince v. Cariou, 714 F.3d 694 (2013) and may...more
Manuel Noriega v. Activision Blizzard, Inc., No. BC 551747 (Cal Super. Ct. filed October 27, 2014) - In recent years, federal and state courts have wrestled with how to assess right of publicity claims in the video...more
TVEyes is a media-monitoring subscription service that “records the entire content of television and radio broadcasts and creates a searchable database of that content.” This service allows subscribers to search keywords or...more
On September 15, 2014, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit issued a notable opinion on the relevance and importance of "transformative use" on the copyright fair use analysis. (Kienitz v. Sconnie Nation LLC, No....more
In 1969, while a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Paul Soglin was arrested at the first Mifflin Street Block Party, a student protest of the Vietnam War. Over forty years later when that same Paul Soglin (now...more
The right of publicity continues to emerge as a significant intellectual property right of which businesses must be aware—not only in the context of advertising and marketing, but in the context of a company’s product itself....more
Round one of the long-fought Google Books case has ended in a summary judgment victory for defendant Google. The Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York held yesterday that Google’s copying, use,...more
Last month, photographer Peter Cariou petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn the Second Circuit ruling in Cariou v. Prince, 714 F.3d 694 (2d Cir. 2013), a copyright infringement case, in which the Second Circuit held that...more
Facebook Changes Its Promotion Guidelines - Sponsors can rejoice. Effective August 27, 2013, Facebook no longer requires that sweepstakes and contests be conducted on third party apps. By dispensing the apps...more
There are so many fun things you can do with celebrities. In addition to the traditional things like writing books about them, you can also use their catchphrases to make greeting cards; make movies about them using puppets;...more