Law Commons^™

Rage Against The Machine: Copyright Infringement In Ai-Generated Music, Joseph Will

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

AI-generated music has garnered significant attention, with many raising concerns about the new technology’s potential impact on both the music industry and human creativity. Others, including some musicians, have expressed excitement about AI and its potential for furthering creativity. Much focus has been placed on “deepfakes” of famous musicians, but there is also the issue of the use of copyrighted songs as training inputs for AI music generators. Some have argued that this machine learning process constitutes widespread copyright infringement, though it is not clear how courts will address this novel phenomenon. This Note examines AI-generated music through the lens …

A Patent Pool-Party: Changing The Current Use Of Patent Pools For Treatment Innovation In Public Health Emergencies, Emma Whitmore

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

Intellectual property laws have been in tension with the creation of innovation for the public good since their inception. Many intellectual property concepts such as patents create an opportunity for ownership of invention, which in the general market and in typical life circumstances, has the power to aid innovation and work successfully in the market. However, in times of emergency, intellectual property can create a roadblock that costs human life. As highlighted in the current COVID-19 pandemic, intellectual property laws have the power to act as a hinderance to the innovation of lifesaving treatments by not allowing information to be …

Guilty Pleasures: The Copyright And Labor Of Reality Television, Emily Tracy

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

The Writers Guild of America’s 2023 strike forced audiences to reckon with Hollywood’s labor issues and the powerhouse unions that seek to solve them. Television networks responded with “strike-proof” fall schedules that highlighted a gap in the entertainment industry’s union membership: reality television. This Note examines and questions that gap, focusing on the labor of reality story producers and the important role it plays in creating a copyrightable product. Although copyright doctrine offers story producers little to no protection against exploitation, copyright case law implicitly recognizes story producers as, essentially, writers. This Note uses that case law to argue that …

Navigating The Trademark Parody Paradigm: Assessing The Impact Of The ‘Bad Spaniels’ Decision On Ip Owners, Creatives, And Self-Parody In The Post-Jack Daniel’S Era, Allison Richards

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

This Note explores the blurred lines that now exist at the intersection of safeguarding trademark owners’ rights and protecting the public interest in freedom of expression, with a specific focus on the recent and unprecedented Supreme Court ruling in the ‘Bad Spaniels’ dog chew-toy trademark infringement case. The Supreme Court’s June 2023 decision in Jack Daniel’s v. VIP Products prompts a critical analysis of the once-dominant Rogers v. Grimaldi test, questioning its applicability in determining fair use and parody within the realm of trademark infringement. In examining what lies ahead for the evolving world of trademark law post-‘Bad Spaniels’, this …

Slowing Down Fast Fashion: How Improved Intellectual Property Law Can Protect Designers And Promote Sustainability, Julia Krzeminski

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

Fast fashion, characterized as clothing made quickly and cheaply, can be seen as a solution for consumers who want to participate in current fashion trends at price points they can afford. While creating a solution for consumers, fast fashion creates even greater problems for both the environment and the designers responsible for creating the clothing everyone wants to wear.

In order to keep up with consumer demand for low-cost, trendy items, many fast fashion retailers look to the work of other designers to determine what to create and sell. In doing so, the line between inspiration and imitation may be …

Commerciality & Originality: Andy Warhol’S Impact On Analyzing Fair Use On Social Media, Bob Anderson

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

This Note creates a three-bucket commerciality approach for noncommercial content, advertisements, and monetized content to answer how copyright’s fair use protects social media content. To demonstrate its application, the bucket approach is applied to current discussions surrounding social media including video thumbnails, memes, reaction and commentary videos, music in videos, and news reporting. While there is no definitive answer to fair use, this Note attempts to provide clearer guidance using Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. v. Goldsmith’s lessons.

With the amount of social media content growing exponentially, copying of original content has become rampant. Though many …

Eliminating Ghostwriters: How A Federal Right Of Publicity Can Save The Music Industry From Generative Artificial Intelligence, Ikram Ali Mohammed

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

Copyright law is currently incapable of resolving challenges introduced by the use of generative artificial intelligence, or generative AI, in the music industry. This technology is being adopted by both copyright holders and licensees, as well as independent artists and third-party applications. In 2023, online producer Ghostwriter created a song (Heart on My Sleeve) directly influenced by copyrighted materials from global artists Drake and The Weeknd using AI technology. The composition garnered millions of listeners across social media and streaming platforms. However, neither the original artists nor their music group (i.e., Universal Music Group) provided Ghostwriter a license …

Another Round For Petrella V. Mgm, Laches, And Raging Bull: Resolving The Circuit Split Over Copyright’S Statute Of Limitations, David E. Shipley

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

There is a split between the Second Circuit and the Ninth and Eleventh Circuits over the interpretation and application of the Copyright Act’s three-year statute of limitations. The disagreement is about whether it bars a copyright infringement plaintiff from recovering for infringing acts occurring outside the statute’s three-year window. The Second Circuit stated in 2020 in Sohm v. Scholastic that the U.S. Supreme Court explicitly delimited damages to the three years prior to the commencement of an infringement action. However, the Ninth Circuit in Starz Entertainment in 2022 and the Eleventh Circuit Nealy v. Warner Chappell Music in 2023 both …

Table Of Contents, Hunter Payne

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

Jurisdictional Issues For Cross-Border Copyright Infringement: A Study On Fansite Products, Naura Nabila Ikhsani Aulia Wibowo

Journal of Private International Law Studies

Korean pop (K-Pop) and its fandom culture have penetrated Indonesia, resulting in a flourishing K-pop product sector. Fansite goods, fan-made merchandise originating in Korea, are one of the most popular merchandise among fans. However, because Indonesian fans' purchasing power is still restricted, many of them resort to copyright infringement of fansite goods in order to either own or gain profit from the merchandise. This article will explain whether fansite goods are protected by copyright from which country, and if so, which jurisdiction and law is applicable to rule on a dispute of fansite goods copyright infringement perpetrated by an Indonesian …

Secrets Of Successful Women Inventors: How They Swam With The Sharks And Hundreds Of Other Ways To Commercialize Your Own Inventions. Edith G. Tolchin, Square One Publishers, 2024., Suzanne Reinman

Journal of the Patent and Trademark Resource Center Association

No abstract provided.

Rights In Conflict: Examining Investment Treaty Arbitration And Intellectual Property Rights In The Wake Of Russia’S Invasion Of Ukraine, Grace Klutke

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

This article examines how the armed Ukraine-Russia conflict opened a doorway for a wave of international arbitration via corporate actions against Russia for violating BIT obligations. To provide context for the suggested BIT arbitration against Russia, this article begins with a brief discussion of the historical background of this conflict and investor-state treaty arbitration. This article next pivots to analyze the applicability of investor-state treaty arbitration to compensate lost IP investments in three parts. Part I considers how investor-state treaty arbitration function with ongoing armed conflict and which investors may initiate investor-state treaty claims. Next, Part II reports on the …

Authorship In The Age Of Algorithms: Adapting Copyright Law For Ai-Generated Content, Sydney Thomas

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

In the age of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the relationship between technological advancement and legal protection for human creators has become increasingly critical. From Stephen Hawking's admonition of the potential risks of unregulated AI to Sam Altman's advocacy for proactive regulation, this paper navigates the evolving landscape of AI innovation and copyright law. By examining the challenges posed by AI-generated content, including issues of intellectual property infringement and privacy concerns, it highlights the need for adaptive legal frameworks. Strategic enhancements to copyright law must be developed, such as bolstering fair use doctrine and expanding creator rights, to ensure the protection of …

Running From Blanket Licensing: How Fitness Platforms Do Not Sync With Current Music Licensing Procedure, Kathryn Defranco

Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law

Online Fitness Platforms, like Peloton, have become ubiquitous in a modern post-Covid world. Fitness classes are catered to the musical interests of their users, increasing user satisfaction. Although technology has advanced to accommodate the remote fitness industry, the legal structures in place for synchronization licenses have not. Such platforms have a unique need to clear music on a quick and consistent basis that does not break the bank. Downtown Music Publishing LLC v. Peloton Interactive, Inc., highlights the necessity for a federal statutory scheme similar to those used for other music licenses. A solution that protects competition but does not …

Examining Patent Eligibility, Charles Duan

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

A firestorm of debate has surrounded the Supreme Court of the United States’s 2014 decision Alice Corp. Pty. Ltd. v. CLS Bank International on the doctrine of patentable subject matter eligibility under 35 U.S.C. § 101. As the Court’s leading articulation of doctrine, which generally excludes from patenting abstract ideas, laws of nature, and natural phenomena, Alice has been criticized as unpredictably vague and overly constrictive of patentability, with the effect of “decimating” patents, innovation, technological investment, and even the United States’ competitiveness against other nations. To support these criticisms and calls for reform, scholars and practitioners have frequently …

When Ai Remembers Too Much: Reinventing The Right To Be Forgotten For The Generative Age, Cheng-Chi Chang

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

The emergence of generative artificial intelligence (AI) systems poses novel challenges for the right to be forgotten. While this right gained prominence following the 2014 Google Spain v. Gonzalez case, generative AI’s limitless memory and ability to reproduce identifiable data from fragments threaten traditional conceptions of forgetting. This Article traces the evolution of the right to be forgotten from its privacy law origins towards an independent entitlement grounded in self-determination for personal information. However, it contends the inherent limitations of using current anonymization, deletion, and geographical blocking mechanisms to prevent AI models from retaining personal data render forgetting infeasible. Moreover, …

Google Searching For The Truth: Examining The Admissibility Of Internet Search History, Chisup Kim

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

The internet has become more ubiquitously available than ever before, with search engines serving as the portals to an unparalleled amount of information. As a byproduct of this phenomenon, a vast amount of internet search history has also begun to enter legal proceedings as evidence. The most intimate questions that defendants have asked their search engines have begun to be examined under the scope of the Federal Rules of Evidence or a state equivalent. This Comment examines the admissibility of internet search history and provides a general legal framework based on the Federal Rules of Evidence. Drawing upon six cases, …

Everybody Wants To Rule The World: Central Bank Digital Currencies In The Era Of Decoupling The World’S Two Largest Economies, James M. Cooper

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

Some 130 central banks around the world are experimenting with various levels of a central bank digital currency (“CBDC”), a digitized form of a sovereign-backed, national currency that is a liability of that country’s central bank. Unlike fiat currency, CBDCs are trackable and potentially subject to interference and even freezing by government authorities. CBDCs will affect citizens’ control over commerce, payments, and savings, and impact their privacy rights. The Chinese government has piloted, refined, and rolled out its own CBDC called the Digital Currency/Electronic Payment initiative (“DC/EP”), also known as the digital yuan or e-CNY. The Chinese government is far …

The Need For An International Ai Research Initiative: How To Create And Sustain A Virtuous Research-Regulation Cycle To Govern Ai, Kevin Frazier

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

This paper explains the need for an international AI research initiative. The current focus of lawmakers at the subnational, national, and international level on regulation over research has created an imbalance, neglecting the critical role of continuous, informed research in developing laws that keep pace with rapid technological advancements in AI.

The proposed international AI research initiative would serve as a central hub for comprehensive AI risk analysis, modeled on successful precedents like CERN and the IPCC. CERN exemplifies a collaborative research environment with pooled resources from member states, leading to significant advancements in particle physics. Similarly, the IPCC has …

Dol Fiduciary Rule 3.0 Strikeout, Base Knock, Or Home Run?, Antolin Reiber

DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Money Is Morphing - Cryptocurrency Can Morph To Be An Environmentally And Financially Sustainable Alternative To Traditional Banking, Clovia Hamilton

DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Survey Evidence In Trademark Actions, Ioana Vasiu And Lucian Vasiu

DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Corporate Governance And Compelled Speech: Do State-Imposed Board Diversity Mandates Violate Free Speech?, Salar Ghahramani

DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Real Persons Are The Corporations We Made Along The Way, Leonard Brahin

DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Branding Beyond Boundaries: The Future Of Trademarks And Advertising In Augmented Reality, Maddi Gambone

The University of Cincinnati Intellectual Property and Computer Law Journal

No abstract provided.

A Right To Republish: Redesigning Copyright Law For Research Works, Faith O. Majekolagbe

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

Research works occupy a unique place in the knowledge economy. They are foundational to human development, and they expand our existing knowledge base and catalyze entirely new fields of study. Creators of research works have a significant interest in the public accessibility of their works at the earliest opportunity with no expectation of financial returns from sales and distribution. As such, they constitute a different category of works and facilitate distinct considerations than other creative goods governed by copyright. Copyright law is organized around the provision of economic incentives to facilitate the continued production and distribution of authorial works for …

Bridging The Paradigmatic Crevasse Between Lawyers And Scientists: The Need For New Institutional Models, Stanley P. Kowalski

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

The professions of science and law have traditionally been siloed paradigms, operating often in tandem with each other but rarely intersecting in the interdisciplinary pasture which separates them, a pasture from which an abundance of synergistic collaboration and ensuing creative concepts might sprout. However, the erstwhile never the twain shall meet situation is neither realistic nor even tenable in the current century, a century increasingly dominated by science, technology, invention, innovation, and intellectual property. Simply put, whereas lawyers are risk averse and build constructed realities to argue points and serve clients, scientists seek an objective assessment of truth and accept …

Connecting The Dots: Sharing Hidden Histories Of Regional Inventors’ Patents, John Schlipp, Kris Kallies

Journal of the Patent and Trademark Resource Center Association

Patent and Trademark Resource Centers (PTRCs) support inventors, entrepreneurs, and researchers with patent and trademark information. Some PTRCs share regional patent history as part of their community outreach. This article focuses on PTRCs that have developed online databases and published works documenting regional patents, thereby providing hidden historical insights for historians, genealogists, and students. It spotlights the development of Georgiavation, a historic patent database developed by the PTRC at Georgia Southern University. Finally, this article offers guidance for libraries, museums, and other institutions interested in documenting their state or regional patent histories. This can result in a more inclusive narrative …

If You Wanna Use My Lyrics: Copyright Preemption Of Browsewrap Contracts After Ml Genius Holdings Llc V. Google Llc, Joseph Sotile

The University of Cincinnati Intellectual Property and Computer Law Journal

The Copyright Act of 1976 aimed to streamline the United States’ copyright system, replacing dual federal and state protections using an express statutory preemption clause, § 301. Despite the Act’s uniformity objective, challenges persist in the consistent application of copyright preemption, particularly concerning breach of contract claims. A circuit split has emerged, with one group arguing for copyright preemption of contracts involving copyrightable material, while another asserts that most contracts that involve copyrightable material are not preempted and can be enforced. This split was underscored and expanded by the 2022 case ML Genius Holdings LLC v. Google LLC, where the …