March, 2025

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How AI Can Destroy Local Journalism

Hugh Stephens Blog

Image: Shutterstock.com We all know that local journalism is under extreme pressure. Long established regional newspapers are closing or are being turned into little more than franchise operations where a bare bones local newsroom contributes a modicum of local news to a newspaper fleshed out with filler from national wire services or mother publications.

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Copyright, Yearbooks and the Internet

Plagiarism Today

A school photographer has filed a pair of claims with the Copyright Claims Board over alleged infringement of his yearbook photos. The post Copyright, Yearbooks and the Internet appeared first on Plagiarism Today.

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Sign my petition: Encourage US Agencies to do more to combat trademark scams

Erik K Pelton

I recently created a petition to gather support to encourage the USPTO and other agencies to do more to fight trademark scams. The scams are a scourge on our trademark system, and they are getting worse and worse. Every year, many individuals and businesses fall victim to trademark scams. Fraudulent entities send deceptive notices and make scam telephone calls demanding unnecessary fees or posing as official government agencies, preying on trademark applicants and registrants.

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Meta’s BitTorrent Uploads of ‘Pirate Library’ Data Equaled 30% of Downloads, Expert Says

TorrentFreak

Over the past two years, rightsholders of all kinds have filed lawsuits against companies that develop AI models. Most of these cases allege that AI developers used copyrighted works to train LLMs without first obtaining authorization. Meta is among a long list of companies now being sued for this allegedly-infringing activity, including a class action lawsuit filed by authors Richard Kadrey, Sarah Silverman, and Christopher Golden.

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Software Composition Analysis: The New Armor for Your Cybersecurity

Speaker: Blackberry, OSS Consultants, & Revenera

Software is complex, which makes threats to the software supply chain more real every day. 64% of organizations have been impacted by a software supply chain attack and 60% of data breaches are due to unpatched software vulnerabilities. In the U.S. alone, cyber losses totaled $10.3 billion in 2022. All of these stats beg the question, “Do you know what’s in your software?

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Commerce Secretary Disbands PPAC and TPAC

IP Watchdog

IPWatchdog has learned that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has decided to end all current appointments to both the Patent Public Advisory Committee (PPAC) and Trademark Public Advisory Committee (TPAC), effective immediately. Secretary Lutnick is expected to appoint new members to both public advisory committees (PAC) and move forward with public meetings for both committees in May 2025, as originally scheduled.

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Federal Circuit Confirms Deductibility of Hatch-Waxman Litigation Expenses

JD Supra Law

On March 21, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held in a precedential opinion that legal fees incurred by generic drug companies in defending against patent infringement suits brought under the Hatch-Waxman Act constitute ordinary and necessary business expenses that may be deducted in the year in which they are incurred, and do not need to be capitalized over a period of years.

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Plagiarism in Pop Culture: The Bernie Mac Show

Plagiarism Today

The Bernie Mac Show was based heavily on the legendary comedian's life. So it's no surprise that it tackled joke theft with grace and nuance. The post Plagiarism in Pop Culture: The Bernie Mac Show appeared first on Plagiarism Today.

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25 Key Trademark Terms

Erik K Pelton

The following is an edited transcript of my video 25 Key Trademark Terms. Here are twenty-five terms that are critical to know about in the world of trademark and trademark protection and registration. Generic Arbitrary Coined Descriptive Suggestive Office action Principal register Supplemental register USPTO Function Madrid Protocol International filing World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Class or classification Identification of goods and services Acquired distinctiveness Ornamenta

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Early Pirate Bay Backer Carl Lundström Dies in Plane Crash

TorrentFreak

Yesterday, Carl Lundstrm stepped into his Mooney M20 propeller-driven plane, heading from Zagreb to Zurich in a solo flight. Not long after takeoff, the plane reportedly crashed into a mountain cabin located in the Slovenian Big Pasture Plateau. Lundstrm, who was 64 years old, did not survive. The crash of Lundstrm’s plane was picked up by both Slovenian and Swedish media.

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Sheet Music v. Sound Waves: When Old Copyright Law Meets Modern Music

Patently-O

The copyright dispute over Ed Sheeran's song "Thinking Out Loud" has made its way to the Supreme Court's doorstep. The petition raises questions about judicial deference to administrative interpretations and the scope of copyright protection for musical compositions under the 1909 Copyright Act. In the case, the Second Circuit had sided with Sheeran -- affirming dismissal of the infringement claim based largely on a technical limitation of pre-1976 copyright law.

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IPO Diversity in Innovation Toolkit

Women and diverse employees have the technical skill and knowledge, yet their contributions are not patented at the same rate as those of their male counterparts.This toolkit can help organizations move the needle on achieving gender parity in innovation.

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Six Essential Tips for Understanding Intellectual Property Rights Under Government Contracts

JD Supra Law

In celebration of the release of the 6th Edition of the Government Contracts Compliance Handbook, we are sharing six essential tips for understanding intellectual property (IP) rights in government contracts. Contractors navigating federal procurement must understand how IP is created, owned, and licensed under government agreements. The failure to properly manage IP rights can lead to the unintended loss of ownership, competitive disadvantages, or disputes with the government over licensing.

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Striking the Right Chord: How the New MoU and Proposed Standard Agreement Aim to Give Screenwriters, Lyricists, and Composers Their Due Credit

SpicyIP

Images from here and here [This post has been co-authored with SpicyIP Intern Suhani Chhaperwal. Suhani is a third year law student at NLSIU who loves to write on IP and tech issues.] The recently signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Screen Writers Association (SWA) and the Music Composer Association of India (MCAI), along with the talks of a standardised agreement for screenwriters give a huge impetus to the cause of due recognition and fair remuneration to these authors.

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Pirate Bay Doc Director Files Takedowns Against YouTube Copies

Plagiarism Today

Simon Klose, the director of the Pirate Bay documentary TPB-AFK, filed takedowns against copies on YouTube. Irony is just the first problem. The post Pirate Bay Doc Director Files Takedowns Against YouTube Copies appeared first on Plagiarism Today.

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25 Ways to Use Your Trademark

Erik K Pelton

The following is an edited transcript of my video 25 Ways to Use Your Trademark. There are so many ways one can use their brand’s trademark. Here are 25 common ways to use one: Website Letterhead Business cards Note cards Refrigerator magnets Email signature Building sign or awning Lighting Stickers or temporary tattoos Trade show banners / displays Product placements in TV and film Opening scene of a video Social media profiles Domain name registrations App icon Shirts Coffee mugs Pens an

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Authors Put a Spotlight on Meta’s BitTorrent Leeching Activity

TorrentFreak

In the race to build the most capable LLM models, several tech companies sourced copyrighted content for use as training data, without obtaining permission from content owners. Meta is among a long list of companies now being sued for this allegedly infringing activity, including a class action lawsuit filed by authors including Richard Kadrey, Sarah Silverman, and Christopher Golden.

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D.C. Circuit Upholds Human Authorship Requirement in Thaler v. Perlmutter

IP Watchdog

Last Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued an opinion in Thaler v. Perlmutter affirming the denial of a copyright application filed by artificial intelligence (AI) developer Dr. Stephen Thaler to an image created by one of Thalers generative AI systems. Although the appellate court did not categorically reject registrability of all AI-generated works, the D.C.

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[Video] Hilary Preston, Vice Chair at Vinson & Elkins, Discusses Energy Innovation: Protecting Your Intellectual Property Portfolio

JD Supra Law

As energy reshapes industries and economies, the race for innovationand the intellectual property behind ithas never been more competitive. Hilary Preston, Vice Chair at Vinson & Elkins unpacks the high-stakes intersection of breakthrough energy solutions, IP strategy, and global market leadership. Learn how forward-thinking companies are safeguarding game-changing ideas and driving the future of energy. ??

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[Part II] Assessing DHC’s Finding on Piercing the Corporate Veil and Damages in the Amazon Case

SpicyIP

Image from here [ This post is authored by Khushi Jain and Vishno Sudheendra. Khushi is a third-year B.A., LL.B (Hons) student at the National Law University Delhi with a keen interest in the intersection of law and policy. Vishno is a third-year B.A., LL.B (Hons) student at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore with a keen interest in various aspects of IPR and technology law. ] In Part I , we examined the Delhi HCs method of imposing liability on Amazon Technologies, Inc.

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Does AI Cause Students to Plagiarize?

Plagiarism Today

A new study from the University of the Basque Country examines whether student usage of AI leads to plagiarism. The post Does AI Cause Students to Plagiarize? appeared first on Plagiarism Today.

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Oy, my aching blog

Likelihood of Confusion

Originally posted 2013-08-15 15:06:08. Republished by Blog Post PromoterI’m back. The blog was offline for the better part of this week because of technical problems — the accumulated effects of database stuff, scars from old hacks and, it seems, wounds from new ones — and, of course, the evil wishes of my many and diverse […] The post Oy, my aching blog appeared first on LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION.

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Police Shut Down Pirate Streaming Network That Cost Broadcaster ‘Millions’

TorrentFreak

For what appears to be operational reasons, police in Germany have only just revealed details of a massive law enforcement operation carried out against a pirate streaming operation last month. In a joint statement on Monday, the Police Headquarters of Upper Franconia and the Central Office for Cybercrime Bavaria, revealed the culmination of a two-year investigation into what is being described as an ‘illegal streaming network’ In June 2023, a major pay-TV broadcaster filed a crimina

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DC Circuit Affirms Human Authorship Required for Copyright

The Illusion of More

In a decision that is unsurprising but important, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that authors, as defined in U.S. Copyright Act, are human beings and not machines that can autonomously generate works. I say unsurprising because nothing in history or statute should have led the court to any other conclusion, and indeed the […] The post DC Circuit Affirms Human Authorship Required for Copyright appeared first on The Illusion of More.

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D.C. Circuit Denies Copyright to AI Artwork - What Humans Have and Artificial Intelligence Does Not

JD Supra Law

Can a non-human machine be an author under the Copyright Act of 1976? In a March 18, 2025 precedential opinion, a D.C. Circuit panel affirmed prior determinations from the D.C. District Court and the Copyright Office that an original artwork created solely by artificial intelligence (AI) is not eligible for copyright registration, because human authorship is required for copyright protection.

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[Part I] Safe Harbor in Jeopardy? Why the Delhi HC’s Amazon Verdict Raises Red Flags

SpicyIP

[ This post is authored by Khushi Jain and Vishno Sudheendra. Khushi is a third-year B.A., LL.B (Hons) student at the National Law University Delhi with a keen interest in the intersection of law and policy. Vishno is a third-year B.A., LL.B (Hons) student at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore with a keen interest in various aspects of IPR and technology law. ] In a recent judgment on February 25, 2025, the Delhi High Court (DHC) in Lifestyle Equities CV & Anr. v.

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Marvel Snap Accused of Plagiarizing Fan Art

Plagiarism Today

Fans are claiming that artwork from the game Marvel Snap plagiarized fan creations. How serious are the allegations and do they matter? The post Marvel Snap Accused of Plagiarizing Fan Art appeared first on Plagiarism Today.

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Choosing the Right Intellectual Property Protection

IIPRD

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) are like different keys for different locks. Just like every lock has its matching key, each type of IP serves a specific purpose. With so many IPs available trademarks, patents, copyrights, and more – how can you choose the right one for your work, product, or business? For that, first let us understand what are IP and IPR.

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Pirate Streaming Site Malware Campaign Infected One Million Devices

TorrentFreak

Public pirate sites accessible by anyone with an internet browser have been under financial pressure for years. Rightsholder-led campaigns urged mainstream advertisers to boycott the platforms to cut off their revenue streams. This was supposed to put sites out of business but in many cases that simply meant the deployment of lower quality ads from any entity still prepared to place them.

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Federal Circuit Affirms Partial Win for Patent Owner Against Apple

IP Watchdog

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) today in a precedential decision upheld a mixed Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) ruling that found some claims of Gesture Technologys patent on camera sensing technology for handheld gaming and other devices to be unpatentable, but others not proven unpatentable. The inter partes review (IPR) was brought by Apple, Inc., which appealed the Boards partial finding of unpatentability.

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Can U.S. Trademark Registrations Be Cancelled for Genericness?

JD Supra Law

Suppose that you have obtained a U.S. trademark registration for your trademark on goods or services for your business. Can your trademark registration be cancelled with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office based on genericness? If so, what is the appropriate time period for assessing whether a trademark is generic? Is the appropriate time period at the time of registration or subsequent to the date of registration?

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Analysing Digital Currency Bill from the US Perspective

IP and Legal Filings

The Digital Currency Bill 2021 would be the legislative attempt for India to present a wholesome framework of regulating cryptocurrencies and addressing all the complex challenges issued by digital assets. At this moment, the bill emerges in a world where governments grapple throughout the world to provide a balance in unleashing innovation in the financial technologies sector with the imperatives of financial stability and security.

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Turnitin Announces Clarity, Aim to Make Student Writing More Transparent

Plagiarism Today

Turnitin has announced Clarity, a new writing environment aimed at helping detect and prevent AI misuse. So why does it come with AI tools? The post Turnitin Announces Clarity, Aim to Make Student Writing More Transparent appeared first on Plagiarism Today.

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G 2/21 applied to software inventions (T 0687/22)

The IPKat

The EPO Board of Appeal decision in T 0687/22 confirms beyond doubt the relevance of G 2/21 to software inventions. The decision in T 0687/22 links the case law from G 1/19 and G 2/21 to highlight t he importance of establishing a credible technical effect of software invention. The Patentee in the case made several attempts to formulate an objective technical problem solved by the invention based on several suggested technical effects.

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Anthropic Scores Preliminary Victory in AI-Copyright Clash Against Music Companies

TorrentFreak

Over the past few years, AI technology has progressed at a rapid pace. This includes large language models, which are typically trained on a broad datasets of texts; the more, the better. When AI hit the mainstream, it became apparent that rightsholders were not always pleased that their works had been used to train AI. This applies to photographers, artists, music companies, journalists, and authors, some of whom formed groups to file copyright infringement lawsuits to protect their rights.

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Why There are Currently Two Preliminary Injunction Regimes at the UPC

IP Watchdog

In the European IP system, and thus also in the European patent system, the concept of injunction is central. This also applies to the Unified Patent Court (UPC); here, there are even two ways to obtain an injunction, one with a normal regular action on the merits and one by means of a preliminary injunction. Through the end of February 2025, 56 applications for preliminary injunctions were filed with the UPC compared to 270 actions on the merits.

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A Looming En Banc Decision with Potentially Damaging Consequences – EcoFactor v. Google

JD Supra Law

For anyone following the evolving admissibility standards for expert opinions relating to patent damages, the EcoFactor v. Google case is one to watch. In December 2024, the Federal Circuit granted Googles petition for rehearing en banc to address the effect of amended Federal Rule of Evidence 702 and Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals as they relate to admissibility of damages expert testimonyparticularly when a per-unit royalty rate is derived from three allegedly comparable lump-sum.

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