When most of us think about figure skating at the Winter Olympic Games, we picture elite athletes, dramatic performances, and unforgettable routines. However, in recent years, an important issue has emerged: complex copyright disputes. For decades, copyright music licensing was rarely an issue in competitive skating. This is because the International Skating Union (ISU) prohibited … Read more
More and more, I hear some version of the same question from business owners: “We made something valuable with the help of AI. Can we protect it?” Sometimes the “something” is obvious, like marketing copy, a logo, a photo, a product description, a training guide, or software code. Sometimes it is less obvious but more … Read more
I’ve been thinking about the clash between generative AI and copyright law, particularly in light of OpenAI’s claim that restricting access to copyrighted material could end the AI race altogether. It’s a provocative statement. But it’s also a false binary. Because we’ve been here before – at the edge of a new medium, a new … Read more
Copyright law can be a bit convoluted, but occasionally, the legislature does things that actually simplify life. One thing they did was to make all the copyrights expire on December 31 rather than throughout the year. The 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act gave works published or registered before 1978 a 95-year term, expiring on January … Read more
As a firm of trademark and alcohol attorneys, it’s always a thrill when those two topics collide, especially on a major stage. We had one of those great moments of serendipity last week. The story begins with Diageo, the company that owns Bulleit Frontier Whiskey, a brand of whiskey that might be familiar to our … Read more
Can trademarks and sports mix? To address this question, I wanted to dive in with several case studies: Of course, this Cheesehead cannot help but talk about the Green Bay Packers! The Packers’ notable trademark is it’s original one where it claims the services of “entertainment services in the form of professional football games and … Read more
Today’s post revisits something discussed several years ago on this blog: fair use. If you are looking for background or further reading, check out Erin’s posts here, here, and here, as well as Collin’s post here. As a quick TL;DR to those previous posts, fair use is a defense to copyright infringement claims for a … Read more
Are you a musical artist looking to protect your work? If you’ve ever sought copyright protection of your songs before 2021, you may remember feeling the burn of paying to register each song individually. However, there was news early last year from the Copyright Office which can help ease the financial burden of protecting your … Read more
Below is an actual question that I have seen on Reddit, received on Facebook, and chosen not to answer on forums. But now is the time to unravel some copyright questions. I found a crochet pattern, and I hate it. I had to re write it in different terms to understand it. How much would … Read more
For creative people, copyright is a powerful concept. US law gives authors of fixed works with some element of creativity rights over their own creations, be they literary works, works of visual art, etc. This right allows the authors of these works to decide who is allowed to copy their work, and how, amongst … Read more