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A Not Quite Cinematic Lawsuit: Disney and Universal Studios File a Complaint Against Midjourney
By C. Blair Barbieri, Partner Disney and Universal Studios filed a complaint against Midjourney on June 11, 2025, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District…
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Supreme Court Rules Profit Disgorgement is Limited to Named Defendants in Trademark Infringement Litigation
by Lauren Byrne March 10, 2025 4 min readOn February 26, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in Dewberry Group, Inc. v. Dewberry Engineers Inc., which clarified the scope of…
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Human Creativity Matters: Copyright Office Gives Green Light to Some AI-Generated Content
by Hovey Williams February 18, 2025 4 min readWritten by Dianne M. Smith-Misemer The U.S. Copyright Office has released a series of highly anticipated reports that address the copyrightability of AI-generated content. The…
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FTC Ban on Non-Compete Agreements Blocked Nationwide
by Hovey Williams August 23, 2024 2 min readby Jaclyn Alcantara The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Final Rule banning most non-compete agreements between employers and employees was blocked nationwide on Tuesday, August 20,…
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Supreme Court Rejects “TRUMP TOO SMALL” Trademark
by Hovey Williams June 19, 2024 3 min readIn a unanimous decision in Vidal v. Elster, 22-704, 06-13-2024, ___ U.S. ___, 2024 WL 1234567 (U.S. June 13, 2024), the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Lanham Act’s names clause — which prohibits the registration of a mark that “[c]onsists of or comprises a name … identifying a particular living individual except by his
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New Court Precedent makes Design Patents Harder to Obtain, Easier to Challenge
by Hovey Williams May 23, 2024 4 min readOn Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) overruled the Rosen-Durling test, long used to assess nonobviousness of design patents, and replaced it with a new flexible approach already used to assess utility patents. This precedential decision in LKQ Corp. v. GM Global Tech. Operations LLC, No. 21-2348, slip op.
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FTC Attempts to Ban Non-Compete Agreements: A Step Towards Greater Worker Mobility or a Threat to Businesses?
by Hovey Williams April 25, 2024 2 min readIn a landmark move, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) voted this week to ban most non-compete agreements. Many employee advocates consider this a significant step towards ensuring worker mobility and fair competition in the job market, whereas many employers consider this a setback to protecting valuable company intellectual property. The new rule is set to
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USPTO Provides Guidance for Inventorship Determination of AI-Assisted Inventions
by Hovey Williams February 27, 2024 3 min readThe United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) incentivizes the creation and protection of valuable new technologies by awarding limited monopolies to inventors via patents. Some inventors are now taking advantage of the enormous potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to assist with their creations. This raises questions as to who (and what) can be
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Working from …Home? How to Respond to the Trademark Office’s Domicile Address Requirement
by Hovey Williams February 5, 2024 6 min readThis article highlights the updated guidance provided by the USPTO regarding the domicile address requirement and provides an overview of possible response options for trademark owners.
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Copyright Law Meets Artificial Intelligence: The New York Times Sues OpenAI and Microsoft
by Hovey Williams January 19, 2024 3 min readOpenAI and Microsoft employ advanced AI to assist rapidly growing user bases across diverse tasks. However, the New York Times recently took legal action to challenge OpenAI and Microsoft’s sources of training data based on the NYT’s protections under copyright law.
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Client Alert: Beware of Trademark Scam Solicitations
by Hovey Williams January 2, 2024 4 min readRecently, there has been a rise in trademark scam solicitations sent from private companies targeting new trademark applicants. This article provides an overview of recent trends that we are seeing in trademark scam solicitations and provides helpful tips to avoid becoming a victim of these sophisticated scams.
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