Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

The Hollywood Circuit’S Protection Of The Batmobile Provides An Uncertain Future For First Amendment Protections, Nicole Geiser

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

This Comment analyzes the potentially damaging impact the Ninth Circuit’s decision in Towle could have on modern copyright law and the First Amendment. Part I will provide an overview of modern copyright law, challenges faced when deciding the level of protection that should be afforded to characters, and the important difference between literary characters and visually depicted characters and how it can affect the degree of protection allowed. Part II will discuss the history of character copyright, specifically, the different tests adopted by circuit courts and the impact each one has on the protection of characters. Part III will analyze …

Taking Exception To Assessments Of American Exceptionalism: Why The United States Isn’T Such An Outlier On Free Speech, Evelyn Mary Aswad

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

One of the most significant challenges to human freedom in the digital age involves the sheer power of private companies over speech and the fact that power is untethered to existing free speech principles. Heated debates are ongoing about what standards social media companies should adopt to regulate speech on their platforms. Some have argued that global social media companies, such as Facebook and Twitter, should align their speech codes with the international human rights law standards of the United Nations (“U.N.”). Others have countered that U.S.-based companies should apply First Amendment standards. Much of this debate is premised on …

Protecting The First Amendment Rights Of Video Games From Lanham Act And Right Of Publicity Claims, Yen-Shyang Tseng

Pepperdine Law Review

In 2013 and 2015, the Ninth Circuit decided two nearly identical cases in which professional football players alleged a video game publisher used their likenesses without authorization in a game that simulates real football games. One plaintiff brought a false endorsement claim under the Lanham Act, while others brought state law right of publicity claims. That made all the difference. The Ninth Circuit found the First Amendment protected the game against the false endorsement claim, but not against the right of publicity claims. These contradictory results stem from court’s application of the Rogers v. Grimaldi test to Lanham Act claims …

Courts, Trademarks, And The Icann Gold Rush: No Free Speech In Top Level Domains, Jerome O'Callaghan, Paula O'Callaghan

Loyola of Los Angeles Entertainment Law Review

In recent years, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) expanded top-level domains, such as .com, .net, and .org, to include a very wide variety of new terms. One of the new options is .sucks. This Article examines the potential for conflict when trademark holders seek to protect their mark in the context of the .sucks domain. There is a temptation to see this issue in terms of consumers’ free speech rights pitted against corporate interests. However, the recent privatization of ICANN does not bode well for promoting consumers’ First Amendment rights in domain name battles.

Harmonizing The Tension Between The First Amendment And Publicity Rights And Finding The Right Balance: Discerning How Much Freedom Is Warranted And What Needs Protection, William Buchsbaum

The University of Cincinnati Intellectual Property and Computer Law Journal

This paper examines the tension between the First Amendment and Publicity Rights considering why and how friction is emerging, the legal underpinnings and theories behind the development of publicity rights and how to reconcile this with values raised in support of the First Amendment. This collision course of rights occurs where property interests have vested in human identity itself which brings us face to face with the outer limits of free speech and expression under the First Amendment and evens tests the notion of how we define speech. The paper takes a dive into some of the currently arising issues …

Disentangling The Right Of Publicity, Eric E. Johnson

Northwestern University Law Review

Despite the increasing importance attached to the right of publicity, its doctrinal scope has yet to be clearly articulated. The right of publicity supposedly allows a cause of action for the commercial exploitation of a person’s name, voice, or image. The inconvenient reality, however, is that only a tiny fraction of such instances are truly actionable. This Article tackles the mismatch between the blackletter doctrine and the shape of the case law, and it aims to elucidate, in straightforward terms, what the right of publicity actually is.

This Article explains how, in the absence of a clear enunciation of its …

The Wrong Of Publicity, Albert Vetere

Pace Intellectual Property, Sports & Entertainment Law Forum

The right of publicity has been, since at least 1977, a recognized concept. It was used, much like the other areas of intellectual property law to protect what a person had worked hard to create, in this case the concept of themselves. Their creativity in making themselves known and in having an "act" was worth protecting. However, the right of publicity has drastically changed since its conception. What is has become in the past almost forty years is a strange amalgamation of concepts, protected by laws that were never meant to be used to protect it in the first place. …

Taking A Bite Out Of Michael Vick's Publicity Rights: An Analysis Of How Teh Right Of Publicity Should Be Treated After A Celebrity Is Convicted Of A Crime, Stephen Reginald Fowler

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

A New Test To Reconcile The Right Of Publicity With Core First Amendment Values, Mark Joseph Stern, Nat Stern

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

To Speak, Perchance To Have A Dream: The Malicious Author And Orator Estate As A Critique Of The Digital Millennium Copyright Act's Subversion Of The First Amendment In The Era Of Notice And Takedown, Michael Bradford Patterson

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

A Descendible Right Of Publicity: Has The Time Finally Come For A National Standard?, J. Steven Bingman

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Cease-And-Desist: Tarnishment’S Blunt Sword In Its Battle Against The Unseemly, The Unwholesome, And The Unsavory, Regina Schaffer-Goldman

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Consumer Gripe Sites, Intellectual Property Law, And The Use Of Cease-And-Desist Letters To Chill Protected Speech On The Internet. , Rachael Braswell

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Judith Miller Case And The Relationship Between Reporter And Source: Competing Visions Of The Media's Role And Function, Daniel Joyce

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The First Amendment Versus Operational Security: Where Should The Milblogging Balance Lie?, Katherine C. Den Bleyker

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Post No Bills: Can The Nba Prohibit Its Players From Wearing Tattoo Advertisements?, John Vukelj

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Rolling The Dice: Are Online Gambling Advertisers "Aiding And Abetting" Criminal Activity Or Exercising First Amendment-Protected Commercial Speech?, Megan E. Frese

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Rolling The Dice: Are Online Gambling Advertisers "Aiding And Abetting" Criminal Activity Or Exercising First Amendment-Protected Commercial Speech?, Megan E. Frese

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Panel I: Defamation In Sports, Gerald Eskenazi, Stephen Henniger, Gary Huckaby, Gary Belsky

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Panel I: Defamation In Sports, Gerald Eskenazi, Stephen Henniger, Gary Huckaby, Gary Belsky

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Blogging: A Journal Need Not A Journalist Make, Anne Flanagan

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Post No Bills: Can The Nba Prohibit Its Players From Wearing Tattoo Advertisements?, John Vukelj

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Filled Milk, Footnote Four & The First Amendment: An Analysis Of The Preferred Position Of Speech After The Carolene Products Decision, Elizabeth Wallmeyer

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Prior Restraints And Intellectual Property: The Clash Between Intellectual Property And The First Amendment From An Economic Perspective, Andrew Beckerman-Rodau

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Cross-Ownershipís Last Stand? The Federal Communication Commissionís Proposal Concerning The Repeal Of The Newspaper/Broadcast Cross- Ownership Rule , Judith C. Aarons

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Privacy Versus The First Amendment: A Skeptical Approach, Solveig Singleton

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Panel I: The Conflict Between Commercial Speech And Legislation Governing The Commercialization Of Public Sector Data, Robert Sherman, Paul Schwartz, Deirdre Mulligan, Steven Emmert

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Panel Ii: The Conflict Between Commercial Speech And Legislation Governing The Commercialization Of Private Sector Data, Jennifer Barrett, Evan Hendricks, Solveig Singleton, David Sobel

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Introduction To Keynote Address, John D. Feerick

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Panel Ii: The Economic And Regulatory Issues Of Convergence, William Baer, Lawrence Grossman, Jeffrey Lanning, Robert Joffe

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.