Features

First Circuit Defines 'Featured Artist' for Purpose of Right to Sound-Recording Royalties from Digital Transmissions
To the public, a band typically is defined as its performing members, not a business entity that may control the music group. But when it comes to royalty rights, are the performers or the business entity entitled to "featured artist" statutory royalties from digital transmissions of the band's sound recordings?
Features

Blockchain Domains: New Developments for Brand Owners
Blockchain domain names offer decentralized alternatives to traditional DNS-based domain names, promising enhanced security, privacy and censorship resistance. However, these benefits come with significant challenges, particularly for brand owners seeking to protect their trademarks in these new digital spaces.
Features

Putting a Face (and a Voice) to Your Brand
Tips for Preparing a Spokesperson An organization's brand is among its most valuable assets. Just as we aim for consistent use of logos or taglines, maintaining control of messaging is an important component of brand management. To that end, it's helpful to establish a spokesperson for media outreach, interviews and more.
Features

NY High Court Sides With Other State Courts: COVID-19 Business Interruption Not Enough to State Claim Under Commercial Property Insurance
Many businesses have sought to recover their pandemic losses under commercial property insurance policies, only to be denied coverage. A significant number of policyholders have filed lawsuits challenging these disclaimers, primarily in state courts. But to the dismay of the insureds, a growing majority of high state courts have sided with the insurers in these disputes.
Features

Major Labels File Lawsuits Over AI Companies' Alleged Copying of 'World's Most Popular' Recordings
Major record labels including Capitol Records and Sony Music Entertainment sued two music-focused generative artificial intelligence companies, accusing them of "willful copyright infringement on an almost unimaginable scale."
Features

Appellate Courts Skeptical About Bankruptcy Court Sanctions
Recent appellate decisions reflect a distaste for appeals from bankruptcy court sanction orders. A split Fourth Circuit even refused to hear such an appeal. Other courts tend to limit sanctions or, alternatively, accept a bankruptcy judge's findings under a stringent "abuse of discretion" standard.
Features

DOJ's Cyber Fraud Initiative: A Wake-up Call That Keeps Ringing
DOJ's Cyber Fraud Initiative has been a wake-up call for companies to prioritize cybersecurity and adhere to stringent standards. By leveraging the FCA, DOJ has used a powerful enforcement tool to target a wide range of cybersecurity failures and misrepresentations. The increasing focus on cybersecurity by enforcement agencies means that robust cybersecurity practices are becoming a standard expectation, not just a best practice.
Features

AI Can Facilitate Innovation, But It Can Also Become a Potent Patent Killer
When is an inventor not an inventor? It's when the inventor isn't human. So, if a non-human inventor can't, in the eyes of patent law, be an inventor, what role can the non-human inventor have in the patent system? The answer is straightforward. Even though it can't create, it can destroy.
Features

Landlord Liable for Retaliating Against Maker of False Discrimination Claim
What responses are available to a landlord after a false claim of discrimination? The Court of Appeals faced that issue and held that a landlord may not seek to recover the damages it has suffered as a result of a false discrimination claim, so long as the claim was made in good faith.
Features

Supreme Court's Rejection of Purdue Pharma Settlement Redefines Releases In Chapter 11
The U.S. Supreme Court has issued its most anticipated bankruptcy decision in recent memory. In a 5-4 decision entered June 27, the Supreme Court struck down the nonconsensual third-party releases. Writing for the Court, Justice Neil Gorsuch ruled that nothing in the Bankruptcy Code authorized the nonconsensual release or discharge of claims of opioid victims against the Sacklers, who were not debtors themselves.
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- Trying to Determine Rights in Pre-1972 Sound RecordingsAudio recordings of speech, musical instruments or any other sounds created before Feb. 15, 1972, are treated very differently from other recorded sounds under U.S. law. Each of the 50 states is free to apply its own rules to the protection of audio sound recordings made before Feb. 15, 1972, and may continue to do so for the next 54 years. As a consequence, the scope of protection for pre-1972 sound recordings is inconsistent from state to state, often vague and sometimes difficult to discern.Read More ›