Sports Blackout Rules in the Age of Cord-Cutting
Watching sports on television used to be a simple proposition. You had a basic cable package that let you to watch your local team on its television partner’s channel and…
Capitol Records, LLC v. ReDigi Inc. and the Future of Digital Resale
In 2013, the Southern District of New York decided a case, Capitol Records, LLC v. ReDigi Inc., that effectively eliminated a consumer’s ability to resell lawfully owned digital goods. Now…
Disparaging Trademarks and Free Speech – Will the Supreme Court Strike Down the Disparagement Clause?
15 U.S.C. 1052(a) and its validity was examined in Lee v. Tam. The question is, will the Supreme Court strike it down? The statute in question is the “disparagement provision” of…
Artists Urging Reforms of the DMCA Safe Harbor: ‘Our Culture Is At Stake’
Last month, T Bone Burnett, a legendary musician, songwriter, and record producer, submitted a five-minute video to the U.S. Copyright Office calling for reforms in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act…
Stephanie Lenz, the Dancing Baby, and the Changing Landscape of Fair Use on YouTube
Last month marked the 10-year anniversary of the day that Stephanie Lenz uploaded a twenty-nine second clip of her one-year-old dancing to YouTube. The seemingly innocent video picked up very…
Trademark Litigation in the Shadow of B&B Hardware
In 2015, the Supreme Court decided a trademark dispute, B&B Hardware, Inc. v. Hargis, Indus. However, in the light of more public trademark cases, such as the Washington Redskins trademark…
Still Better to be an Inventor than an Author – Comparing Copyright and Patent for Software Algorithms
With the 2014 decision in Alice, SCOTUS reiterated the two-step Mayo framework applied to method and software patents. A patent application is deemed unpatentable under 35 U.S.C. §101 if (1)…
Courts Split Over Fourth Circuit’s New False Advertising Standard
This blog post discusses the impact of the Fourth Circuit’s ruling regarding “literally false” advertising claims. The case is In re GNC Corp., 789 F.3d 505 (2015). An earlier blog…
Welcoming the Marrakesh Treaty into a Consequentialist Framework
Curing the Book Famine The Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works by Visually Impaired Persons and Persons with Print Disabilities is widely lauded as a miracle. The…
From the Mailroom to the Courtroom: Glatt v. Fox Searchlight Pictures and its Effects on Entertainment Industry Internships
Unquestionably, the entertainment industry has engendered an almost-mythical culture surrounding unpaid internships. Though highly romanticized, the journey from unpaid intern to Hollywood executive is well-known and has spawned some of…