Over 2700 additional copyright infringement lawsuits were filed in U.S. federal courts in 2018 compared to 2017. That increase was due in large part to cases that pornography studios, Strike 3 Holdings and Malibu Media, filed against John Doe internet downloaders alleging illegal downloading of the studios’ videos over file-sharing services like BitTorrent. BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer file-sharing protocol that allows users to exchange large amounts of data in short periods of time. Unlike other…

On June 3rd, the New Jersey Department of Health (DOH) announced will be seeking applicants for 108 additional medical marijuana licenses across the state. License applications will be available online July 1st and must be submitted by August 15th. The expansion of medical cannabis facilities intends to accommodate the 30,000 new patients now qualified for medical marijuana under Opioid Use Disorder, Tourette’s syndrome, migraine, anxiety, and chronic pain conditions. New Jersey now has more than…

With businesses engaging in increasingly more commerce over the internet, it is crucial to understand the consequences of displaying, using, and transferring another entity’s works online. Enter The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998, which was signed into law by President Clinton to keep pace with the new realities of internet technology and commerce. The Act sought to protect intellectual property rights while simultaneously advancing the growth and development of e-commerce.…

Although New Jersey lawmakers cancelled a vote on an adult-use recreational cannabis bill recently, medical cannabis use gained some support following a ruling from the Appellate Division of the Superior Court of New Jersey that an employer’s failure to accommodate medical marijuana use by an employee constituted a valid basis for an employment discrimination claim.…

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) issued an opinion earlier this year lending support to those interested in seeking patents related to cannabis. GW Pharmaceuticals, a U.K. company focused on therapeutic cannabinoids, walked away with a partial win concerning a patent that involved the use of cannabinoids to treat epilepsy.…

On March 4, 2019, the United States Supreme Court resolved a longstanding split among the circuit courts concerning what exactly the copyright registration prerequisite to filing a copyright lawsuit means – whether an application to register is sufficient or an actual issued registration is required. The Supreme Court chose the latter holding that a copyright owner must first obtain a copyright registration certificate from the Copyright Office before filing a copyright infringement suit.…

The United States Copyright Office has denied a copyright submission over the “Carlton dance,” which was a routine first popularized on the hit 90s show, “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.” Alfonso Ribeiro, the actor who played Carlton on the show, submitted three copyright applications over his dance routine to the U.S. Copyright Office. So far, two of the applications have been rejected and one is still under consideration.…