On July 16, retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens passed away at 99. He served on the high court almost 35 years. He regarded himself as a judicial conservative, but he gained a reputation over time for opinions viewed as liberal.According to Above...
Year: 2019
Collectively scrambling to contain the damage from deepfakes
You may not know the word for it, but you, like many people, probably saw the recently doctored video of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The “deepfake” made it look like she was slurring her words, perhaps implying that she was under the influence of alcohol. The...
Songwriters say “Game On” in copyright infringement lawsuit
On June 19, songwriter Heidi Merrill and three other cowriters filed a copyright infringement suit in U.S. District Court in New York against singer Carrie Underwood, the National Football League, NBCUniversal Media, LLC, and several related defendants. The complaint...
Copyright: Court finds Andy Warhol’s use of Prince photo was fair
The New York federal judge in a high-profile copyright infringement lawsuit found on July 1 that painter Andy Warhol did not infringe on Lynn Goldsmith’s copyrighted photograph of Prince when he based a series of portraits on it. The court concluded that Warhol...
Default judgment in Kardashian trademark, right of publicity suit
Kim Kardashian is in the intellectual property news again. We shared information just last week about her controversial choice of the word “kimono” for branding her new line of lingerie.On July 2, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of...
Another step in the ‘Stairway to Heaven’ copyright trial
In October, we told readers about the high-profile copyright litigation in which the trustee of a trust containing a deceased musician’s copyright interests had sued the iconic band Led Zeppelin. Trustee Michael Skidmore alleged in U.S. District Court in California...
Cultural appropriation and trademark
Kim Kardashian has announced her choice of "kimono" for branding her new line of intimate wear. The choice of kimono has caused some social media stir because of the deep cultural role of the traditional robe called a kimono in Japanese culture. Kimono is culturally...
Rejecting immoral or scandalous trademarks is unconstitutional
On June 24, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down part of federal trademark law in the Lanham Act, finding that its prohibition on registration of immoral or scandalous trademarks violated the right to free speech and expression that the First Amendment to the U.S....
Part 2: Vigorous disputes over Frida Kahlo intellectual property
In our last post, we talked about disputes over the right to use Mexican artist Frida Kahlo’s persona, image and name in 65 years after her untimely death. We introduced the parties involved and the dispute between Kahlo’s surviving relatives and the Frida...
Part 1: Commercial rights to name and image of artist Frida Kahlo
Her image is unmistakable. Black hair usually pulled away from her face. Dark, thick eyebrows. Serious, unsmiling expression. Iconic Mexican painter Frida Kahlo lived with disability and controversy throughout her short, but dramatic, life. She died at 47 in 1954,...