Is My Guitar Pedal a Klone or a Counterfeit? — No Infringement Intended Podcast
(Podcast) The Briefing: The Wrong Argument – Why Authors Lost Against Meta and What Comes Next
The Briefing: The Wrong Argument – Why Authors Lost Against Meta and What Comes Next
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Trending Now: An IP Podcast - Cease and Desist Letters: Protecting Your Intellectual Property the Right Way
PODCAST: PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Trending Now: An IP Podcast - Cease and Desist Letters: Protecting Your Intellectual Property the Right Way
The Briefing: Anthropic, Copyright, and the Fair Use Divide
Will I Get Sued if I Create Another Hospital Drama? — No Infringement Intended Podcast
The Briefing: The Supreme Court Dodges the Discovery Rule Question—What That Means for Copyright Enforcement
(Podcast) The Briefing: Who Owns WallStreetBets? Trademark Use in Commerce and the Reddit Battle
The Briefing: Who Owns WallStreetBets? Trademark Use in Commerce and the Reddit Battle
(Podcast) The Briefing: Sinking the Rogers Test? What Pepperdine’s Lawsuit Could Mean for Hollywood
The Briefing: Sinking the Rogers Test? What Pepperdine’s Lawsuit Could Mean for Hollywood
(Podcast) The Briefing: The Ninth Circuit Puts the Brakes on Eleanor’s Copyright Claim
The Briefing: The Ninth Circuit Puts the Brakes on Eleanor’s Copyright Claim
Unexpected Paths to IP Law with Dan Young and Colin White
Why Can't I Clean the Graffiti Off My Walls? — No Infringement Intended Podcast
(Podcast) The Briefing: Who Owns Jack Nicklaus? Lessons for The Creator Economy From a Brand Battle
The Briefing: Who Owns Jack Nicklaus? Lessons for The Creator Economy From a Brand Battle
(Podcast) The Briefing: Trademark Smoked: The Fall of General Cigar’s COHIBA Registration
The Briefing: Trademark Smoked: The Fall of General Cigar’s COHIBA Registration
On 6 August 2025, the Federal Court of Australia (the Court) ordered that Projector Films Pty Ltd and director David Ngo (the Respondents) be stopped from promoting, causing to promote or authorising the Melbourne...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed a district court’s denial of attorneys’ fees to the defendant after it prevailed at trial in a copyright infringement suit, concluding that the district court adequately...more
In action over competing live stage rights to Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Second Circuit affirms district court’s ruling that “derivative works exception” to Copyright Act’s termination provision does not perpetuate...more
In a major win for Meta, a federal court recently dismissed a lawsuit brought by prominent authors who claimed their books were illegally used to train the company’s Llama models. But the ruling doesn’t give AI companies a...more
On July 17, 2025, US District Court Judge William Alsup approved a class certification against Anthropic for copyright infringement. According to Judge Alsup, it will be straightforward for the entire class to prove harm...more
On June 11, 2025, Disney and several affiliated production companies filed a federal lawsuit against Midjourney, Inc., a leading artificial intelligence (AI) image-generation platform. The suit alleges “calculated and...more
The Walt Disney Company and Universal City Studios Productions are among the latest plaintiffs to bring a lawsuit against an artificial intelligence (AI) developer....more
The Copyright Act does not expressly address the protection of individual characters in expressive works, but courts have long recognized that certain characters, particularly those with strong visual or narrative identities,...more
Some of the largest movie studios have entered the fray of GenAI copyright litigation. Disney, Marvel, Lucasfilm, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal Pictures, and DreamWorks sued the image-GenAI company Midjourney, Inc. in the...more
In this episode, Austin Padgett and Rusty Close discuss the legal implications of Mike Tyson's face tattoo in the context of intellectual property law. They explore the copyright infringement lawsuit filed by tattoo artist S....more
No matter what type of business you are in, trademark and copyright law can have significant effects on success and growth of your business. Both of these areas of law provide important rights over the intellectual property...more
Elliot McGucken v. Valnet, Inc., No. 24-1040 (U.S. filed Mar. 28, 2025) - Introduction - In the Magician’s Nephew, C.S. Lewis wrote that “[w]hat you see… depends a good deal on where you are standing….,” but is the...more
Given that litigation in the United States can take years from start to finish, we rarely see a conclusion to the cases we follow. In a prior blog post, we looked at the potential recusal requirements of the U.S. Supreme...more
The DC Circuit has reaffirmed and reinforced longstanding Copyright Office policy that only humans can be authors....more
The recent decision in Thaler v. Perlmutter et al., No. 23-5233 (D.C. Cir. 2025) offers continued guidance on whether “authorship” can be attributed to AI systems (i.e., non-humans) under Copyright Law. The D.C. Circuit...more
If your handle is on this list, give us a call to discuss. Do not panic; Vondran Legal® can defend you and help you achieve an early settlement without expensive litigation to follow. We have helped many in your situation....more
On March 6, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York confirmed that historical events are not subject to copyright protection....more
On March 18, 2025 the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Stephen Thaler v. Shira Perlmutter et al., confirming that U.S. law requires human authorship. Specifically, the question presented to the Court was “can a...more
Eight NBA teams recently filed an amicus curiae brief supporting a petition that asks the Supreme Court to reject application of the discovery rule to copyright cases. The discovery rule starts the clock for bringing a...more
Here is a case from the opposite coast of the United States. This case may be looked at as persuasive authority in cases filed in the 9th circuit...more
Flava Works used to file a good number of file-sharing lawsuits. I have not seen alot lately. However, they have just filed a mass Doe Defendant lawsuit in Illinois Federal Court (Northern District) alleging copyright and...more
Online shopping has become increasingly popular in recent years. E-commerce sales surpassed $6.5 trillion in 2023 and are expected to total over $8.1 trillion by 2026. Convenience of product variety and online competition...more
A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in a copyright infringement case could have far-reaching implications by allowing plaintiffs to seek damages under the Copyright Act for greater periods of time of infringement....more
Warner Chappell Music v. Nealy, No. 22-1078, 601 U.S. (2024) - On May 9, 2024, the Supreme Court held that copyright owners may obtain damages beyond the three-year statute of limitations under the Copyright Act. As this...more
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on May 9th, 2024, in the case of Warner Chappell Music, Inc., et al., v. Nealy, et al., that plaintiffs in a copyright ownership dispute can recover damages beyond the three-year statute of...more