Value Implications for AI-Derived Works
Last month, the U.S. Copyright Office revoked copyright protection for AI-generated images used by Kris Kashtanova in their comic book Zarya of the Dawn. The Copyright Office claims that upon review, the fact that the images were not made by a human renders them inadmissible for copyright protection. Yet, despite…
Is Intellectual Property Being Used to Break Up Unions?
In the wake of the pandemic, organized labor has grabbed headlines. Workers at high profile companies such as Starbucks, Amazon, and Chipotle have attempted (with varying degrees of success) to unionize over the past two years. The National Labor Relations Board, in its 2022 semi-annual report covering October 2021 through…
Repost: INTA Features
NFTs, Brands and the Metaverse – Coauthored by Weston Anson NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, were one of the biggest digital trends of 2021. They continue to shake up the entire intellectual property (IP) community as more brand owners attempt to understand how to use them and the metaverse to engage…
Are Photographic Copyrights Protected? Fair Use Examined
Sedlik v. Von Drachenberg Does tattooing copyrighted photographs amount to infringement? It will be up to a jury to make that determination in the upcoming trial Sedlik v. Von Drachenberg. The plaintiff, Mr. Jeffrey Sedlik, claims that celebrity tattoo artist Ms. Katherine Von Drachenberg, professionally known as Kat Von D,…
ABA – IPL Fall Conference Interview Series: Weston Anson
Weston Anson, Chairman of CONSOR IP Experts, recently participated as a keynote speaker for the ABA – IP Law Fall 2021 Conference. Ahead of the conference, Mr. Anson was interviewed by two law students, Bernell J. Alexander III and John Pierce, on the topic of NFTs and the role…
The Resilience of Copyrights
The experts at CONSOR have integrated data from the most reputable sources in the intellectual property industry to bring together four decades of royalty rate metrics. The accompanying graph combines sources such as Royalty Stat, Licensing Executives Society, Licensing International, Licensing Economics Review, and CONSOR’s own proprietary database to…
Texas Froze: Necessity is the Mother of Invention
Over the past week large parts of the country have been devastated by an unprecedented cold front. In Texas, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio all faced single digit temperatures, the lowest reached in 30 years.[1] At the same time, power grid failures left millions without electricity.[2] ERCOT, the Electric Reliability…
Shift in Coffee Consumption Trends
Coffee is a primary driver of worker productivity. However, in wake of COVID-19 and work from home ordinances, many individuals were cut off from their daily caffeinated beverage of choice at the office. As individuals working from home seek their daily dose of coffee to boost productivity, we expect…
Blockchain Enables Increased Profits for Trademark Holders
Blockchain can enable companies to control their brands and make their TM/trademark products more attractive and valuable — particularly in consumer facing industries such as pharmaceuticals, fashion and apparel, retail, automotive and consumer electronics. In this swiftly changing retail and distribution environment, blockchain in brand management becomes imperative. With…