Law Commons^™

Intellectual Property Law – What Happens After The “Vote-From-Home” Election?, Ryan Baal

AELJ Blog

If Biden were to carry on with the Obama administration’s approach to intellectual property law, the America Invents Act of 2013 (AIA) would be the best place to start in analyzing how the president-elect might influence IP law over the coming years. At its core, the AIA transitioned the United States to a first-to-file system and modified the bars to patentability under the patent law statutes.

This post was originally published on the Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal website on November 23, 2020. The original post can be accessed via the Archived Link button above.

Broadway: Adapting And Overcoming Post-Covid, Emily Feldman

AELJ Blog

On Wednesday, March 11, 2020, a Broadway usher tested positive for COVID-19. A day later, on March 12, 2020, one of New York’s most significant cultural institutions, and a symbol of the city itself, entered an indiscernibly long hiatus when The Broadway League, an organization representing Broadway theater owners and producers, announced that Broadway would be shutting down. What was initially meant to be a short break for Broadway’s 41 theatres quickly evolved to an extended one. Although the theatres intended to reopen in June 2020, this deadline was moved first to January 2021, and subsequently to May 2021. While …

The Washington Redskins Abandon Their Historically Controversial Team Name Amidst A Push For Socially Conscious Branding, Shelby Epstein

AELJ Blog

On July 13, 2020, following a review of the team’s name, the National Football League’s (“NFL”) Washington Redskins announced they would be retiring both their team name and logo. “The decision [came] amid the Black Lives Matter movement — which . . . sparked a cultural awakening — and after decades of debate over its name and logo, which many say are offensive towards Native Americans.” Dan Synder, owner of the Washington Football Team, said the decision was made “in light of recent events around our country and feedback from our community.”

This post was originally published on the Cardozo …

Public Forums And Section 230—Should They Work Together?, Jack Madeb

AELJ Blog

The First Amendment of the United States Constitution states, “Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech.” The right to freedom of speech allows individuals to express themselves without government interference or regulation. However, the level of protection speech receives depends on the forum in which that speech takes place. Some public forums may discriminate against certain classes of speakers or types of speech from being presented within that forum.

This post was originally published on the Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal website on November 9, 2020. The original post can be accessed via …

Obscene Trademarks: What Will Iancu Allow?, Carter Hall

AELJ Blog

In recent years, the Supreme Court has made clear that the First Amendment applies to trademarks. In Matal v. Tam, the Supreme Court held that the statutory bar on “trademarks that may ‘disparage … or bring … into contemp[t] or disrepute’ any ‘persons, living or dead’” violates the First Amendment. In Iancu v. Brunetti the court struck down a bar on “the registration of ‘immoral[ ] or scandalous’ trademarks”, again on First Amendment grounds, determining that the term FUCT could be trademarked. In several concurrences in Iancu, justices argued that obscene trademarks can still be barred, due to the traditional …

Ninth Circuit Reversed And Remanded District Court’S Ruling That Immigration Detainers Issued Based On Unreliable Databases Violates The Fourth Amendment, Mal Helgadottir

AELJ Blog

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) issues immigration detainers “to advise another law enforcement agency that the Department seeks custody of an [individual] presently in the custody of that agency, for the purpose of arresting and removing the [individual].” The immigration detainer requests that local law enforcement notify ICE “prior to the release of the [individual], in order for the Department to arrange to assume custody.” Immigration detainers have been subject to litigation arising out of Fourth Amendment concerns because detainers are not reviewed by detached neutral judicial officials. To issue an immigration detainer, an ICE officer simply needs to …

Loots Of Their Labor: Analyzing Wage & Hour Challenges In Gaming’S “Crunch Culture”, Matt Vernace

AELJ Blog

Several industries rely on high volumes of creative input from their labor forces; the legal, accounting, medical, and financial fields are infamous for time demands placed on employees. Tech professionals also confront similar high-volume work periods, typically before a big product release. Yet an underexplored industry featuring this demanding work culture lies within interactive entertainment space: video game development. While most of the listed industries offer long-term benefits like equity, job security, or financial stability, game development studios often do not have the same carrots-and-sticks available to sweeten the pot for overworked employees.

This post was originally published on the …

Just How Epic Is The Fortnite-Apple Lawsuit?, Justin Weinblatt

AELJ Blog

Epic Games is known for its over-the-top and bombastic video games such as the smash hit, Fortnite. It turns out Epic Games’ approach to legal disputes is just as bombastic as its approach to game development. On August 13, 2020, Epic filed a lawsuit against Apple, alleging antitrust violations. Instead of merely filing a lawsuit and a press release, Epic has turned this legal challenge into a media blitz with a parody of Apple’s famous 1984 ad and even an in–game event. Epic’s marketing campaign has been successful, prompting CNN to wonder if Fortnite has killed the App Store as …

The First Amendment’S Greatest Protector: The Nba, Hayden Farmer

AELJ Blog

The 2019-2020 NBA season has come to an end with the Los Angeles Lakers winning their 17th championship. This accomplishment proves all the worthier when the tumultuous season is put in perspective. The COVID-19 pandemic caused the season to be suspended indefinitely in March and be moved to the Orlando Disney World campus. Basketball legend Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, along with seven others, died in a tragic helicopter crash in February. As the NBA season resumed, racial injustice across the nation took center stage and led to several reforms within the league. Hidden amidst these tragedies are the …

Emotions, My Dear Watson: Dissecting Copyright/Trademark Infringement In Netflix’S Portrayal Of Sherlock Holmes, Dionissia Siozios

AELJ Blog

On September 23, 2020, Netflix released the “Enola Holmes” movie despite being embroiled in a lawsuit for alleged copyright and trademark infringement brought by the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (the author of the Sherlock Holmes novels). “Enola Holmes” is a film based on a book about the life of Sherlock Holmes’ younger sister. The movie stars actress Millie Bobby Brown as Enola, and Henry Cavill as Sherlock Holmes. In the complaint, the estate argues that although most of the Holmes novels are in the public domain, Doyle only began to give Holmes true human emotion in the last …

Ucla V. Under Armour: Invoking The Force Majeure Clause, Reid Zank

AELJ Blog

Under Armour was hoping its logo would quietly disappear from the players’ uniforms and the athletic facilities at the University of California, Los Angeles (“UCLA”), after informing UCLA this past June that they were discontinuing their partnership with the school.1 However, UCLA is not taking this lying down. On August 26, 2020, UCLA filed a lawsuit against Under Armour in a California federal court for attempting to end its 15-year, record-setting sponsorship deal valued at $280 million after only 3 years.

This post was originally published on the Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal website on October 19, 2020. The …

Epic Games V. Apple: Fortnite And Tros, Michael Levi

AELJ Blog

Apple created an App Store to give customers a wide range of apps they can use form their iPhone. Apple takes a 30% standard fee of all in app purchases, in exchange for allowing developers access to the App Store. Epic Games, the creator of the popular Fortnite app, circumvented this 30% fee by offering discounts for Fortnite purchases made directly through their app.1 In response, Apple banned Fortnite from their App Store.2 Epic Games then filed an anti-trust lawsuit against Apple for monopolizing the App Store, thus prompting Apple to completely cut off Epic Games access to the App …

The Dance Between The Nba Players And Their First Amendment Rights, Victor Wang

AELJ Blog

“With great power comes great responsibility.” This popular quote comes with a simple meaning: If you have the ability to do something, make sure that you do it for the good of others. The sports world is not a stranger to the Constitution. From when former heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali refused army induction and spoke out against the draft of civilians to fight in the Vietnam War to Colin Kaepernick deciding to indefinitely kneel and refusing to stand for the national anthem, athletes have been exercising their First Amendment right of freedom of expression as citizens of the United …

Do Virtual Classrooms Encroach On Family Privacy Rights?, Jonathan Shkedy

AELJ Blog

On August 27, a 12-year-old boy in Colorado flashed a toy gun, emblazoned with the words “Zombie Hunter,” across the screen during his virtual art class.1 The school’s vice principal later called the boy’s mother to inform her that a police officer was on the way to her house.2 The boy was suspended from school for a week, and now has a record with the El Paso County Sherriff’s Office and a mark on his school paperwork saying that he brought a “facsimile of a firearm to school.”3 The boy’s mother, in an interview with The Washington Post, noted that …

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal Congratulates The Vol. 39 Editorial Board And Welcomes New Staff Editors!, Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

AELJ Blog

This post was originally published on the Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal website on July 29, 2020. The original post can be accessed via the Archived Link button above.

35 U.S.C. § 101: Current Subject Matter Eligibility Law Interprets “Abstract Ideas” With Abstract Definitions, Kaylan Geiger

AELJ Blog

Subject matter eligibility, defined by 35 U.S.C. § 101, requires a claimed invention to fall within “one of the four categories of invention . . . i.e., process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter.” While the general understanding has been that Congress has intended the patent laws to be understood expansively, the Supreme Court has explained the inherent limitations on patentable subject matter. These judicial exceptions include abstract ideas, laws of nature, and natural phenomena. By prohibiting the grant of patents on judicial exceptions, the Court intended to prevent inhibiting “further discovery by improperly tying up the future use of …

Nba 2k Must Pay To Play: How America’S Copyright Regime Can Better Protect Tattoo Artists From Losing Control Over The Reproduction Of Their Work In Video Games, Ethan Ruby

AELJ Blog

Squaring tattoo art and copyright law initially begs the question, to whom does a tattoo and the rights that attach to this form of artistic expression belong to? Initially, the two options that make the most logical sense are that the rights belong to either the tattoo artist or to the individual actually set to wear the ink for the rest of their life. The fundamental principle supporting the proposition that tattoo artists own their designs, is captured within the foundations of intellectual property and copyright law more broadly.

This post was originally published on the Cardozo Arts & Entertainment …

Public Safety Versus Privacy In Light Of Coronavirus: When Contact Tracing Can Become A Search Under The 4th Amendment, Eric Delgado

AELJ Blog

There are many concerns regarding the current Coronavirus pandemic. We’re concerned with our health and the health of our friends, family, and neighbors. We’re concerned with the current state of the economy and the future economic outlook given the pandemic. The virus has flipped our lives upside-down. However, we are now beginning to envision ways to put our lives back in place by controlling the virus. Experts believe the best way to do this is via more testing and tracking/tracing those who have tested positive. However, a strategy involving tracing of individuals may be considered a search or seizure under …

Zooming In On Big Tech’S Deceptive Privacy Practices And Why We Should All Be Paying More Attention, Samuel Friedman

AELJ Blog

By now, you’re more than likely familiar with the first prompt—it’s the text that appears when you first open Zoom, and by enabling this function you can join a meeting using your computer’s microphone. Zoom is the video conferencing app that has recently surged in popularity due to the coronavirus pandemic. Zoom allows users to work or learn remotely, all from a safe social distance in the relative privacy of their own homes. While the company responsible for the app, Zoom Video Communications, hasn’t given concrete numbers regarding the size of its userbase, Zoom’s mobile platform was so popular towards …

Norwegian Cruise Line (Ncl): Will It Sink Or Will It Swim Amidst Recent Covid-19 Class Action Lawsuit And Stock Volatility?, Alkesandr Tsatskin

AELJ Blog

During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (“COVID-19”), the cruise industry has seen a sharp decline in demand, resulting in financial hardships. Throughout COVID-19, several cruise ships were stranded at sea, with confirmed COVID-19 cases on board. In addition, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”) announced a “no sail order” as a means to suppress and control COVID-19. As a result, ideas commenced about a potential need to provide economic relief for the cruise line industry. However, many believe that the cruises are not an essential industry for which economic relief should be provided. For example, Alexander Holt of the …

At&T V. United States: Vertical Mergers In The Telecommunications Market, Samantha Kocharov

AELJ Blog

In November of 2017, the United States Department of Justice brought its first vertical merger challenge in several decades. Considered one of the largest acquisitions in history, this merger represents a regular pattern of cable and media companies to consolidate in the name of cost efficiencies. Be it good or bad, there is no question that the consolidation of telecommunication and media companies affects our lives on a daily basis. The more content producers a single distributor owns, the more content that distributor’s customers get to enjoy. Take Disney+ for example, where Disney’s ownership of National Geographic, ESPN, Marvel, and …

Going To The Movies, From The Comfort Of Your Own Home, Evan Goldberg

AELJ Blog

While the fight between movie studios and theater chains over the exclusivity period has been ongoing, who would have thought it would take a pandemic taking place for this issue to come to a head. We are living in a crazy time. Businesses are closed, including movie theaters, the general public is confined to their respective houses, schools are all online. In light of this, a number of studios have sought to bring some level of entertainment, and even distraction, to everyone stuck at home. Some of the biggest studios in Hollywood are taking part in this, such as Disney, …

Your Body Owns The Tattoo!, Habeeb Sheikh

AELJ Blog

Put yourself in the shoes of someone who receives a new tattoo. Eager to share the design with friends, you start snapping pictures of the fresh body art. You send a text alongside the pictures saying, “Check out my new tattoo!” Ordinarily, one may not question your ownership here. But legal questions may arise in a situation where a videogame company profits off the videogame avatar of a tattooed celebrity like LeBron James. The issue becomes whether the tattoo artist has copyright protections over the art, or does it belong to the individual whose body bears the ink. There is …

Does Copyright Law Apply To States?: Analyzing Sovereign Immunity And Copyright Infringement, Daniel Cohen

AELJ Blog

The premise that copyright holders can sue those who infringe on their property seems like a fundamental truth of our legal system. If one person or entity uses another’s copyrighted material against their wishes, they can sue for possible damages and for an injunction to take it down. But what if the infringing party is not a regular entity, but a sovereign? If a State infringes on your copyright, does their sovereign immunity bar a suit? The Supreme Court is poised to decide later this year.

This post was originally published on the Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal website …

The Coronavirus’S Cyber Implications, Johnny Nguyen

AELJ Blog

On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of a respiratory disease named “SARS-CoV-2” a “public health emergency of international concern.” The disease, also known as the “coronavirus,” is believed to have originated in Wuhan, China, and has now been labeled an international pandemic, or a global outbreak of disease. As of March 15, 2020, there have been a total of over 3,000 confirmed cases in the United States, with at least 61 of them resulting in deaths. Several countries have declared a state of emergency, and the United States has recently followed suit. New York City …

Who’S Going To Pay? Where The Fine Print Matters, Andrea Wrisley

AELJ Blog

These past couple of weeks have changed life in the U.S. and around the world drastically: major league sports all over the world have ceased, the State Department placed a Level 4 warning on a record number of countries, most major educational institutions closed their campuses and sent students home. Most significantly, “one in four Americans will soon be under orders to stay mostly indoors” as state governments urge their citizens to practice social distancing in an effort to slow the spread of the virus and save lives. The COVID-19 pandemic and preventative measure are creating an economic blow to …

The True Reality Of Reality Television, Stephanie Rimberg

AELJ Blog

The recent popularity of reality television has generated a new category of talent. Reality television stars like Snooki, Kelly Clarkson, and Kim Kardashian have become famous merely because of their appearance on reality television. This new definition of “talent” has not only shaped the reality television genre but has also influenced some of the provisions drafted into reality show participants’ contracts. Producers and networks are claiming that they deserve a cut of the stars’ revenues, as they essentially created their fame. This is seen with Bethenny Frankel, the Real Housewives of New York City star who became famous on the …

Graffiti Gains Recognized Stature In Multi-Million Dollar Victory For Artists, Libby Merritt

AELJ Blog

In 2002, developer Jerry Wolkoff invited aerosol artists to transform a series of dilapidated warehouse buildings that he owned in Long Island City, New York. Among those was distinguished aerosol artist Jonathan Cohen, enlisted as the curator to turn the warehouse into an exhibition space for artists and fill the walls with aerosol art. The site became known as “5Pointz,” to represent the confluence of the five NYC boroughs and attracted global attention for aerosol art, drawing thousands of daily visitors and significant media coverage.

This post was originally published on the Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal website on …

Oracle V. Google: A Look At The Future Of The Tech Industry, Stefano Moutafidis

AELJ Blog

The Supreme Court has granted certiorari to review the merits of the case, Google, Inc. v. Oracle America, Inc. and will be hearing arguments this upcoming March. This case has been followed closely by the tech industry (as well as other industries that deal mainly with intellectual property such as the film industry) as the Supreme Court’s decision will have enormous ramifications on the future of the tech industry and creative licensing in general. The Supreme Court will be ruling on the scope of the merger doctrine and fair use analysis as it pertains to software technology.

This post was …

Tik Tok: Time Is Up On Kesha Lawsuit, Anastasia Noll

AELJ Blog

In 2014, Kesha filed a lawsuit against her producer Lukasz Gottwald attempting to void her contracts and accusing him of sexual assault and emotional abuse. After this lawsuit was filed, Gottwald then countersued her for defamation and breach of contract arguing she falsely accused him of rape in an attempt to get out of her contract. Gottwald specifically alleges that Kesha falsely accused him of raping her and Katy Perry in text messages sent to Lady Gaga. On February 9th, New York Supreme Court Judge Jennifer G. Schecter made a ruling on this case that had been 4 years in …