Along with January’s hot activity in the race for the Republican Presidential nomination, we also saw the emergence of two more stories about the intersection of intellectual property and political ads.

One issue is “déjà vu all over again”: political fair use. We are once again confronted with the question of to what extent the fair use doctrine (http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html) allows for the use of copyrighted news clips in political advertisements. We’ve previously written about this issue here, here, and here. (Please see link below.)

This time, it’s Mitt v. NBC. On-again off-again front runner Mitt Romney has issued an attack ad against latest rival Newt Gingrich. The ad, entitled “History Lesson”, is little more than a short clip of a 1997 episode of NBC’s Nightly News, reporting that Gingrich was found guilty of ethics violations. Along the bottom, just under Tom Brokaw’s tie, are the words “Paid for by Romney for President, Inc. Approved by Mitt Romney.”