Articles

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…

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,…

Cannabis is essentially an undifferentiated commodity product. If competitive cannabis businesses want to create any amount of sustainable market share, they will need to differentiate their products via branding, brand extension, and licensing of all their IP. As cannabis is legalized across the country, the black and gray markets of…

Intellectual property valuation methodologies are constantly changing and adapting to the fast pace of technology. An increased level of scrutiny has recently been placed on intellectual property portfolios. The need for increased professionalism in valuation, oversight, and security continues to grow. As the court system, especially the Supreme Court, has…

Nostalgia is defined as a wistful or excessively sentimental yearning for or return to some past period. What groups drive licensing sales? Millennials: a large consumer group composed of those born between the early 1980s and the early 2000s; Generation X: those born right before the millennials, between 1965 and…

Licensing trends reflect society’s cultural preferences, and are phenomena that continue to grow. Especially in today’s digital world with the exponential rate in the growth of information sharing, the expansion in consumers’ awareness of brand personalities and their licensed products is sure to continue to skyrocket. Brand personalities include those…

The right of publicity happens everywhere you look. Yet when you mention the term, most people will give you a quizzical look. What is Right of publicity you ask? And how does it fit into the licensing industry? Basically it’s a person’s inherent right to make money out of his…

If you could look into a crystal ball and see into the future, you’d be a very rich man or woman. Why? The LIMA Annual Global Licensing Study announced last year that global retail sales of branded licensed goods reached more than $240 billion. However, Amazon’s net revenue in 2015…

As the global economy has become reinvigorated, the international housewares market has steadily grown to be a $350 billion business with North America and Europe emerging as the world’s strongest markets. Within the housewares segment cookware & bakeware, kitchen tools & accessories, kitchen electrics and tabletop continue to dominate and…

Sepp Blatter’s days are numbered. And that number may not be a big one. After 17 years atop sport’s most lucrative, powerful and seemingly corrupt organization, FIFA’s anachronistic president was dealt a major blow this week when the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed a 47-count indictment that painted soccer’s global…