The Input Question in AI Copyright Law
by Thomas James, Minnesota attorney
In a previous blog post, I discussed the question whether AI-generated creations are protected by copyright. This could be called the “output question” in the artificial
Latest from Cokato Copyright Attorney: The Law Blog of Thomas James
Newly Public Domain Works 2023
Thousands of books, movies, songs and other creative works enter the public domain in the United States this year. Here is a partial list. (Click here for last year’s list).
Sherlock Holmes
Last year, it was Winnie the Pooh.
The Top Copyright Cases of 2022
My selections for the top copyright cases of the year.
“Dark Horse”
Marcus Gray had sued Katy Perry for copyright infringement, claiming that her “Dark Horse” song unlawfully copied portions of his song, “Joyful Noise.” The district court held that
New TM Office Action Deadlines
by Thomas B. James (“The Cokato Copyright Attorney”)
Effective December 3, 2022 the deadline for responding to a U.S. Trademark Office Action is shortened from 6 months to 3 months. Here is what that means in practice.
Historically, applicants for
Court agrees to hear parody goods case
In my last blog post (“MSCHF Testing the Limits of Free Speech“) I wrote about the Wavy Baby Shoes case in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Now, in a different case raising similar issues, the United States
MSCHF Testing the Limits of Free Speech
The owner of a trademark has the exclusive right to use it in commerce. The scope of the right is geographically limited, but if it is registered with the USPTO, then the owner’s exclusive right extends throughout the entire United
The Philosophy of Copyright
The Internet has created an existential crisis for copyrights. Well, not really. It has impelled some people to consider, for the first time, the rationale for copyrights and the legal protection of them. That sounds a lot less dramatic and
Photographers’ Rights: Warhol Case Tests the Limits of Transformative Use
In a previous post, I identified the Second Circuit’s decision in Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts v. Goldsmith as one of the three top copyright cases of 2021. It has since been appealed to the United States
The Internet Archive Lawsuit
Thomas James (“The Cokato Copyright Attorney”) explains how Hachette Book Group et al. v. Internet Archive, filed in the federal district court for the Southern District of New York on June 1, 2020, tests the limits of authors’ and
“The” A Registered Trademark Now
It happened. “The” is a registered trademark now. The USPTO issued a registration certificate for the word “The” to Ohio State University (Sorry; the Ohio State University) on June 21, 2022. How did this happen, and what does it mean?