By: Evan Mason How important are the contracts you enter into as a minor? For most, these might include agreements for mobile phone applications or licensing a computer for school. For a fifteen-year-old Taylor Swift, it was signing on to the Big Machine Records for six studio albums, all of which would become multimillion sellers.… Read More Mastermind in Copyright Law (Taylor’s Version)
By: Kelsey Shaughnessy Crayola’s Chief Executive Officer Pete Ruggiero recognized the significance of the peculiar, yet memory-inducing smell of Crayola crayons when he obtained a scent trademark from the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in July 2024, after a six-year legal battle. Described as “slightly earthy soap with pungent, leather-like clay undertones,” Ruggiero envisions… Read More A Scent of Hesitation: Navigating Ambiguity With Scent Trademarks
Nicholas Tagg In March of 2023, Utah took a significant step toward preventing minors from accessing adult content by passing one of the first few age verification laws for adult content websites in the United States. In response, Aylo, a prominent player in the adult entertainment industry, blocked access to all of their subsidiary sites… Read More Utah’s Age Verification Law: The Balance Between Privacy and Protection
By: Sofi Shlepakov After over a year in litigation, District Court Judge, Judge Amit Mehta, declared a judgment against Alphabet’s Google search engine, stating that it was an illegal monopoly and violated section two of the Sherman Act. On September 6, 2024, there was a secondary judgment that gave the Justice Department until December to… Read More Antitrust in Search Engines
By: Anamaria Pananas Last year, Target was reported to lose $500 million from retail theft. This year, in an effort to increase surveillance at self-checkout machines, Target adopted a new technology called “TruScan”, which uses cameras to detect items and alert the customer of items that have not been scanned. Self-checkout stations across the nation… Read More Target “Targets” Theft with New Surveillance Technology – Denies Allegations of Collecting its Customers’ Facial Recognition Data
By: Noah Plafker On July 19, 2024, the world was introduced to the “blue screen of death.” People would soon become accustomed to the upside down smiley face, because within a few hours most of the world would be turned upside down in what could be considered the biggest IT outage in history. CrowdStrike is… Read More The Blue Screen of Death: CrowdStrike’s Problematic Software Update Upends the Travel Industry
By: Samuel Scott The battle to protect the environment in a world of evolving technology is producing much legal debate over the transition to renewable energy. In recent years, New Jersey has highlighted this fact as the state is working in conjunction with the federal government to green light multiple coastal wind energy projects. However,… Read More NJ Wind Turbines: Approval is Anything but a Breeze
By: Henry Carrington Bungie Inc. has made significant waves for both video game developers and players alike with a recent ruling in their ongoing legal battle against cheat producer Phoenix Digital. The precedent established opens a new avenue for developers to crack down on cheating moving forward, making games a safer and more enjoyable space… Read More Cheat Software for Video Games Considered an Infringement of Copyright Protections After Historic Decision in Developer Bungie Inc.’s Lawsuit Against Phoenix Digital
By: Charlotte Golnik Recent studies show that the average American spent $552 on streaming subscriptions in 2023 with 44% facing cost increases. Many bypassed high costs, evidenced by the 141 billion visits to unauthorized streaming platforms (“pirate platforms”). Among those platforms is StreamEast, which promises users “hassle-free and completely free” access to nearly all live… Read More StreamEast Domain Seizures: A Not-So-Cautionary Tale to Live Sports Pirate Platforms
By: Connor Green “Polka Face”, “Party in the CIA”, “White and Nerdy” are all parody songs written by “Weird Al” Yankovic, based on the popular songs “Poker Face”, “Party in the USA” and “Ridin’”. “Weird Al” has made millions by writing songs that are heavily based on other artists’ work through the doctrine of fair use.… Read More AI Music: Fair Use or Theft?
By: Gor Bagumyan Data scraping is a tool that companies have used for years in order to better develop their Artificial Intelligence (AI) programs and software. In its most basic form, it is the extraction of data from one source to another. This was originally done manually until 2024, where years of development have led… Read More Data Scraping and its Crucial Role in Developing Artificial Intelligence
By: Meg Apostolides Elon Musk, a co-founder of OpenAI, has ignited a legal firestorm with his recent lawsuit against OpenAI and Sam Altman. The lawsuit centers on accusations of a fundamental shift within OpenAI, raising critical questions about the ethics, transparency, and ultimately, the future direction of artificial intelligence (“AI”) development. OpenAI was founded… Read More OpenAI Under Fire: Musk Files Lawsuit, Igniting Debate on AI’s Ethical Trajectory
By: Grayson Barlow The year 2024 is shaping up to be a remarkable moment for the autonomous trucking industry. Major players—Aurora Innovation, Kodiak Robotics, and Gatik AI—are gearing up to make it the “year of driverless,” as each company has announced plans to deploy driverless trucks without a human onboard by the end of the… Read More Navigating the Legal Landscape of Autonomous Trucking: Safety, Regulation, and Labor Implications
By: John Garrasi Earlier this month, Apple was fined almost two billion dollars by the European Commission over restrictions placed on App Store access to third parties. At the same time, an U.S. judge ruled that Alphabet’s Google would not be saved from having to face claims of monopolization in the online ad business.… Read More Finally: Antitrust’s Unstoppable Force Meets Big Tech’s Immovable Object
By: Kate Donovan Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the fastest growing technological trends that is being used to improve the efficiency and accuracy of daily tasks in people’s lives. Recently, it has been implemented in the work force and is used as a tool for companies and organizations to make hiring decisions. This technology… Read More Can AI Replicate the Human Component of Hiring?
By: Jennifer Gomes In this booming age of artificial intelligence (AI), laypeople and inventors alike are using AI across many different sectors. The lines have begun to blur for inventors who have used AI to create their inventions. While this technology has propelled innovation forward, it also poses issues for inventors who seek a patent… Read More IP in the Age of Algorithms: The USPTO’s new Guidelines for AI-Assisted Inventions
By: Meg Cotter Mojo Vision’s smart contact lenses are not your typical vision correction aids. They are equipped with cutting-edge technology, including sensors, wireless connectivity, and data processing capabilities, turning your eyeballs into augmented reality (AR) displays. Through their use, people may access a wealth of information in real-time, from navigation assistance to biometric… Read More Seeing Differently: The Legal Landscape of Mojo Vision’s Smart Contact Lenses
By: Bryan Sicard As Russia’s most recent invasion of Ukraine enters its third year, war crimes ranging from murdering civilians and sexual violence to routine attacks on charitable institutions like hospitals and churches have plagued Ukrainians. But the war crime that has perhaps generated the most Western attention has been the forced transfer of civilians,… Read More Can Facial Recognition Technology Save Ukraine’s Children? One Company’s Strides Tracking the Perpetrators and Victims of War Crimes
By: Paul Coste Imagine the advantage a lawyer would have if they could read a judge’s mind. If a lawyer knew what a particular judge was thinking and how they made decisions, they could craft the perfect argument for every motion. While not the ability to read minds exactly, that is the same type… Read More Bench IQ: Revolutionizing Legal Strategy with AI Insights into Judicial Decision-Making
By: Adrienne Viarengo Photographs and videos are often used as proof that an event occurred in a certain way, and images or videos accompanying news seemed to be innately more trustworthy. Now, artificial intelligence’s (“AI”) capability to generate false media jeopardizes reliance on photos and videos to corroborate news stories. Without some process of labeling… Read More Combatting Distrust of AI-Generated Images