Intellectual Property
September 15, 2025
In 1989, Luther Campbell (stage name Luke Skyywalker), a member of the rap group 2 Live Crew, wrote a song titled "Pretty Woman". His song satirized the popular 1964 song "Oh, Pretty Woman" written by Roy Orbison and William Dees and owned by Acuff-Rose Music, Inc. "Pretty Woman" begins with the highly recognizable hook of "Oh, Pretty Woman" playing over a record scratching, hip-hop beat. It also uses lyrical elements and a similar cadence to the chorus of "Oh, Pretty Woman" – though the content, style, and overall musicality of "Pretty Woman" clearly distinguish it from the source material. Campbell, before releasing the song to the public, had asked Acuff-Rose for a license to "Oh Pretty Woman" – meaning that Acuff-Rose as the copyright owner of the song, could have granted Campbell formal allowance to use elements of their creative property without infringing on their property rights.
September 15, 2025
This past July, Dannon's parent company filed a lawsuit against its competitor, Chobani. The lawsuit focuses on an alleged trademark infringement and it is when someone uses a trademark without permission, violating the trademark owner's exclusive rights. In this lawsuit, Dannon, the French parent company, claims that Chobani copied Dannon's trademarked slogan, "Bright & Mellow," and its distinctive yellow-and-black packaging. Dannon argues that Chobani engaged in trademark infringement by replicating its distinctive product designs in Chobani's La Colombe cold brew coffee, a product that directly competes with Dannon's SToK coffee. This lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District for the Southern District of New York, marks the third legal dispute between Dannon and Chobani in the past decade.
August 15, 2025
The Aunt Jemima brand became the center of legal controversy when D.W. Hunter and Larnell Evans Jr., the great-grandchildren of Anna Short Harrington, filed a $2 billion class action lawsuit against PepsiCo Inc., Quaker Oats Company, and Pinnacle Foods on behalf of their family. The lawsuit, a civil legal action against a defendant for compensation, was carried out because Harrington, who was an inspiration for the image of Aunt Jemima, was alleged to have contributed recipes and served as the face of the brand for decades without receiving proper recognition or compensation.
August 15, 2025
Erno Rubik, in the year 1974, became the mastermind behind the Rubik's Cube—a famous toy puzzle among children and adults worldwide. On July 9th, 2025, Spin Master Toys UK, a Canadian children's entertainment company that took ownership in 2021 of the Rubik's Cube, lost a legal dispute against a Greek rival called Verdes Innovations SA concerning trademark infringement. Trademark infringement arises when someone uses an identical or similar trademark without authorization from the trademark owner, which may lead to confusion among potential consumers. Verdes Innovations is a company under V-CUBE that makes puzzle cubes, which signifies its direct competition with Spin Master and accentuates the competitive landscape concerning puzzles. This legal battle began in 2013 after Verdes Innovations filed a request with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) to contest the legality of Rubik's Cube trademarks registered between 2008 and 2012 by Spin Master's predecessor. EUIPO is an agency within the European Union that is responsible for overseeing intellectual property rights of individuals and businesses in order to promote innovation and creativity.
July 15, 2025
In 1981, Lynn Goldsmith captured a black-and-white portrait of the musician Prince, and in 1984, Vanity Fair licensed one of Goldsmith's photos for one-time use as an artist reference. The Vanity Fair License was a one-time agreement allowing only one use of Goldsmith's photo for reference in a single magazine issue. It did not give Warhol or his foundation the right to reuse or sell new artworks based on that photo. Andy Warhol, using this license, created an orange silkscreen portrait of Prince for the magazine. However, without Goldsmith's knowledge or additional licensing, Warhol went on to create 15 more works (known as the "Prince Series") based on the same photo. After Prince died in 2016, the Andy Warhol Foundation (AWF) licensed one of these works to Condé Nast without compensating Goldsmith.
July 15, 2025
Asus has attracted legal attention from Lenovo, the world's largest PC maker in the past couple years. November 2023, the civil case formally known as Lenovo (United States) v. Asustek Computer, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, No. 5:23-cv-05892, Lenovo sued Asus, claiming that Asus has infringed (an infringement is a violation, a breach, or an unauthorized act) on Lenovo's patent. Specifically, their technology patents, an exclusive right granted for an invention, such as wireless communications, diagonal touchpad scrolling, and a hinge that allows a laptop to convert to a tablet configuration in Asus's Zenbook Pro and Zenbook Flip 14 laptops. Asus is seeking an unspecified amount of money for damages relating to loss in profits and royalties.
June 15, 2025
On March 25, 2025, U.S. District Judge Eumi K. Lee for the Northern District of California rejected a preliminary injunction put forth by Universal Music Group (UMG) and other music publishers to prevent Anthropic, an artificial intelligence company, from using their copyrighted song lyrics to train its AI-powered chatbot, Claude. Essentially, a preliminary injunction is a type of court order granted before or during a lawsuit. The main purpose of a preliminary injunction is to stop the actions of one party from further taking actions that could harm the other party before a lawsuit or while it's ongoing. As such, the preliminary injunction request by the music publishers aimed at stopping Anthropic from further using the music publishers' copyrighted song lyrics to train Claude before a court decision is made.
June 15, 2025
At the forefront of world changing events, AI has brought in a new era of not only daily living and technology, but also legal conversations. The emergence of Artificial Intelligence softwares, such as ChatGPT by OpenAi or Gemini by Google, has caused questions to arise, such as who owns the rights to AI produced works? Is the data being inputted into these models being gathered, used, and stored ethically? Who's rights might be infringed on when using AI? In this article, we will use a viral example that took the internet by storm: Barbie themed AI.
May 15, 2025
In February 2025, Pepperdine University filed a lawsuit against entertainment giants Netflix and Warner Bros. over Trademark Infringement, using a trademark without permission, within a new Netflix series called Running Point. The issue arises when a basketball team within the show known as the "Waves" had the same colors as Pepperdine's Logo, to which the University claims could confuse and harm its brand. The show also has elements that go against the University's Christian values, such as inappropriate jokes and sexual references.
April 15, 2025
On February 3, 2022, Nike (Plaintiff) filed a complaint against StockX (Defendant) for unauthorized and infringing use of Nike's famous marks in connection with StockX's entry into the Non-Fungible Token (NFT) market. NFTs are blockchain-based virtual products for collecting, selling, and trading, offering brands unique ways to engage consumers. Nike claimed these NFTs, which featured images of Nike-branded sneakers, infringe on its trademarks and cause consumer confusion. In March 2023, StockX contended that its NFT offerings for tracking physical goods ownership do not infringe Nike's trademark rights.
March 15, 2025
Lerner & Rowe was founded in 2005 and is the largest of the two firms, with nineteen offices throughout the state. It has spent $100 million promoting its brand and trademarks in Arizona and owns the trademark for its name. A trademark is a sign that differentiates the goods or services of one business from those of others and is protected by intellectual property rights. The firm sued defendant Brown, Engstrand & Shely, LLC, which is also known as The Accident Law Group (ALG) since they specialize in personal injury law.
January 15, 2025
The Big Three record labels-Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and Warner Music Group, filed a lawsuit against AI music platforms Suno and Udio, alleging copyright infringement. In the mid-2024 case, the Big Three alleged that the platforms had used thousands of copyrighted songs without permission to train AI models to be capable of generating music from text prompts. The record labels that own the copyrighted music argue that this use of its copyrighted works is illegal and uncompensated. They are seeking damages worth as much as $150,000 per infringed work, totaling in billions of dollars in compensation.