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.

Copyright 200
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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.

Trademark 130
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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.

Reporting 117
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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.

Trademark 114
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Navigating User Lawfulness in European Copyright Law: From Lawful Use to Lawful Access

Kluwer Copyright Blog

Image created by AI The concept of lawfulness in relation to user status or user acts has been gradually established in EU digital copyright law as a condition for the enjoyment of certain copyright exceptions. However, the concept has proliferated inconsistently, lacking a clear normative content and shape. There is variant terminology: lawful acquirer of a computer program or a person having a right to use a computer program ( Directive 2009/24 ), lawful user of a database ( Directive 96/9 ),

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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 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

Trademark 130
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Anna’s Archive Scraping: Court Defers Key Questions to State Supreme Court

TorrentFreak

Annas Archive is a meta-search engine for shadow libraries that allows users to find pirated books and other related sources. The site launched in the fall of 2022 , just days after Z-Library was targeted in a U.S. criminal crackdown, to ensure continued availability of ‘free’ books and articles to the broader public. In late 2023, Anna’s Archive expanded its offering by making information from OCLC’s proprietary WorldCat database available online.

Contracts 100
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Right to Health and the Issue of Compulsory Licensing for Exorbitantly Priced Risdiplam

SpicyIP

The Supreme Court recently stayed a Kerala High Court DB order directing the Central Government to bear the expenses of one months treatment of an SMA patient. Remarkably this is the second such order by the Supreme Court wherein it has stayed a High Court decision asking the government to take positive steps to ensure accessibility of a treatment to patients suffering from rare diseases.

Licensing 105
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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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Open Source Artificial Intelligence Definition 1.0 – A “take it or leave it” approach for open source AI systems?

Kluwer Copyright Blog

Photo by Luke Southern from Unsplash Background This blog post follows a previous post that discussed what constitutes open source AI, in particular in light of the EU AI Act. This post continues the discussion, in particular in light of the revision of the Open Source AI Definition (OSAID) released at the end of 2024, a welcome step in clarifying and unifying this definition.

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Copyright, Cultural Issues and Canada’s General Election, 2025

Hugh Stephens Blog

Image: Shutterstock (AI generated) As we complete the first few days in what is the shortest election campaign in Canadian history, the minimum 37 days required by law, where do the copyright and cultural industries stand with respect to electoral platforms and public consciousness?

Copyright 154
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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.

Copying 282
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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

Trademark 130
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Europol Predicts Drop in Online Piracy, Contrary to New Data

TorrentFreak

Europol published its latest Serious and Organized Crime Threat Assessment ( SOCTA ) this week. The report provides a detailed overview of the threats posed by serious and organized crime in Europe, and includes a section dedicated to digital content piracy. Europol is no stranger to piracy and online copyright infringement. The EU agency has led and assisted in many enforcement efforts over the years and has been particularly active in dismantling criminal IPTV operations across several member

Reporting 106
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Part I- Applying Natural Intelligence (NI) to Artificial Intelligence (AI): Understanding ‘Why’ Training ChatGPT Transcends the Contours of Copyright

SpicyIP

In a fantastic 2 part post teasing apart how Large Language Models actually work, Shivam Kaushik gets down and dirty with the technical details of the algorithmic training process and explains why there are copyright implications beyond the ‘obvious’ In this first part, Shivam explains each part of the “G” “P” T” in ChatGPT actually does, and then takes forward why this is relevant.

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Safeguarding Access to Culture in the Digital Era in European Copyright law

Kluwer Copyright Blog

Image created using AI Digitalization has transformed the way in which we obtain access to copyright-protected content and for how long we can preserve access. Traditionally, the purchase of the tangible copy of a work afforded the buyer or every lawful acquirer of the tangible copy the possibility to enjoy the work as long as the physical object incorporating the work exists.

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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.

Music 93
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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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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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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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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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Has green-and-orange combination acquired distinctiveness for agricultural machines? No, says the EUIPO

The IPKat

Earlier this month, the Fifth Board of Appeal (BoA) of the EUIPO, refused the registration of a colour combination for agricultural machines and implements, namely field sprayers in Class 7 of the Nice Classification due to the absence of sufficient evidence demonstrating acquired distinctiveness through use under Article 7(3) EU Trade Mark Regulation (EUTMR).

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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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The Mark Carney Plagiarism Scandal

Plagiarism Today

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is facing allegations of plagiarism in his 1995 dissertation from Oxford. Here's how serious they are. The post The Mark Carney Plagiarism Scandal appeared first on Plagiarism Today.

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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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Torrent Site Uploader and Member of ‘The Scene’ Sentenced to Prison in Denmark

TorrentFreak

In Denmark, law enforcement authorities and rightsholders have worked hard to shut down the thriving local torrent tracker scene over the past five years. These efforts targeted private torrent trackers including DanishBits, NordicBits, Superbits, Asgaard and ShareUniversity. More than two dozen uploaders and admins connected to these sites were convicted as a result.

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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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Deepfakes and Personality Rights: The Need for codifying Personality Rights.

IP and Legal Filings

The proliferation of deepfake technology has posed significant challenges to the protection of individual identity and reputation and the recent incidents of INDIA TV and Medanta hospitals trademark infringement and deepfaked potrayals have once again re-surfaced this issue. Deepfakes, capable of mimicking a person’s likeness and voice with near-perfect accuracy, have transcended their initial novelty to become potent tools for misinformation, deception, and exploitation.

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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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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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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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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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[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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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.