Under the Copyright Act, anyone who violates any of the exclusive rights of the copyright owner is an infringer of the copyright. On top of that, the Supreme Court has also recognized two categories of secondary liability. Secondary liability happens when a party is liable for the copyright infringement of another. Those two categories are “contributory” … Read more
Most of the public conversation about AI still focuses on the technology itself. Is it safe? Is it biased? Which company is building the most powerful model? Those questions matter. But when the government uses AI to help make decisions that shape people’s lives, a different question comes into view. This strikes me as more … Read more
There is a common assumption in the business world: If you paid for it, you own it. As laid out in one of Erin’s earlier posts, that is not always a case with IP. To quickly summarize, the default under copyright law is that whoever creates the thing owns the copyright, even if someone else paid to have it created. The exception to this is a “work made for … Read more
Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly becoming a part of the tools we use every day. AI can be found on our computers, our phones, our cars, and beyond. As AI systems grow more advanced, it becomes increasingly appealing to rely on them to generate content, ideas, and even finished works with little to no human … Read more
The Delaware Franchise Tax and Annual Report deadline was March 1st! If you didn’t know that, your report is late! For a lot of clients with Delaware corporations, franchise tax season seems straightforward: file the annual report, pay the tax, and move on. But, the Delaware Secretary of State does sometimes follow up requesting more … Read more
A trademark (or service mark) is something (really, anything) that helps your customers find you for what you sell. It helps them refer you to their friends so they find you, too. That means it has be able to be remembered and identified later as that. The fancy term is that it is “an indicator … Read more
A drag queen environmentalist builds a public identity that echoes one of the most recognized outdoor brands in the world. The names rhyme, the values overlap, the audiences intersect. Now both parties have to figure out what to do about it. To me, this feels less like an infringement story and more like a relationship … Read more
Font isn’t something people always think about when it comes to trademark. For many businesses, the words of their trademark are the words, and the form of the text is chosen because it “looks nice,” matches a vibe, or pairs well with the products or services. In actuality, stylized words are a form of logo mark in trademark, and they can be a big deal. Think of a particular stylized white cursive script against … Read more
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
If your practice includes residential real estate transactions where the buyer is an entity or a trust and the deal is not financed through a traditional lender, an important new federal reporting requirement starts March 1, 2026. Read on for more information. What is changing, in plain English Beginning March 1, 2026, certain people (including … Read more