That title riffs on the term of art in trademark law known as “likelihood of confusion.” It refers to a foundational test, which asks whether the average consumer will confuse a particular mark (words, design, or both) with a product or service that is not produced or distributed by the company associated with a known mark. Thus, beware the Rollex, ...
Today is World Radio Day, and when most of us think of radio, we think of music. That’s why today, Congress received a letter signed by about 300 performing artists asking lawmakers to pass the long-overdue American Music Fairness Act (AMFA) this session. “Each year, AM/FM radio stations play nearly a billion songs. And each year, giant radio corporations rake in ...
It has already caught the attention of most copyright watchers that Judge Bibas of the District Court for the District of Delaware (3rd Circuit) reversed his own 2023 summary judgment ruling in the copyright AI case Thomson Reuters v. Ross Intelligence. Thompson, which owns the legal research database Westlaw, sued Ross for copyright infringement after the latter built its competitive ...
Two bills are back in motion in the U.S. Congress—the AM Radio in Every Vehicle Act, and the American Music Fairness Act (AMFA). As I argued in a post for The Hill last May, if the first bill is to become law, then the second bill should also become law. While the AM radio provision arguably has some public-serving benefits, ...
The so-called “copyright war” began years before I joined the fight, arguably in 1999, when defenders of the P2P platform Napster equated music piracy with liberty. Thus, rather than a rational discussion about the interdependence of creators and technology, Big Tech cultivated a syncretic foundation from which to sell the paradox that devaluing individual rights was somehow good for democracy. ...