By Georgina Hey & Jerome Messiha Content developers and creatives are generators of ideas and concepts. The point at which any concept transforms into a copyright protected work is often a vexed issue in the creative (and other) spaces. A recent Australian case, Duncan v ABC [2023] FedFamC2G 993, has again demonstrated the limitations of copyright protection in the world of creative content ideas generation. ‘Buster, the Brave Little Wooden Boat’ In 2009, Ms Duncan submitted a script proposal for a children’s animated show titled ‘Buster the Brave Little Wooden Boat’ to the ABC. Set in an ..read more

** Drew Engel, a Summer Associate in NRF’s Minneapolis office, assisted with this article. Drew is supervised by attorneys who are licensed in the state of Texas.** The Tenth Circuit’s recent decision in Hetronic Int’l Inc. v. Hetronic Germany GmbH is the latest in the Abitron v. Hetronic trademark conflict. Abitron was a licensed distributor of Hetronic’s radio remote controls for heavy duty construction equipment. However, after the distribution agreement ended, Abitron reverse engineered Hectronic’s products and used Hetronic’s marks on the products it sold outside of the United States, bel ..read more

** Logan Woodward, a Summer Associate in NRF’s Minneapolis Office, assisted with this article. Logan is supervised by attorneys who are licensed in the State of Texas. ** In June 2024, the Supreme Court held in Vidal v. Elster that § 1052(c) of the Lanham Act—prohibiting registration of a mark that “consists of or comprises a name, portrait, or signature identifying a particular living individual except by his written consent”—does not violate the First Amendment. Vidal v. Elster, 602 U. S. ____ (2024). Steve Elster, a California-based labor lawyer, attempted to register the trademark “TRUMP T ..read more

** This article was drafted by Logan Woodward, a Summer Associate in NRF’s Minneapolis Office.  Logan is supervised by attorneys who are licensed in the State of Texas. The MetaBirkin dispute continues before the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit with arguments on the horizon later this year. We have reported on the dispute between Hermès of Paris, Inc. (“Hermès”) and Mason Rothschild over Rothschild’s “MetaBirkin” non-fungible token (“NFT”) collection and the promotion of the same previously, here. In November 2021, Mason Rothschild, whose real name is Sonny Estival ..read more

The Copyright Act provides that a copyright owner must bring an infringement claim within three years of its accrual. See 17 U. S. C. §507(b). In Warner Chappell Music, Inc., et al., Petitioners v. Sherman Nealy, et al., 601 U.S. ___ (2024) the United States Supreme Court considered whether a copyright plaintiff could recover damages for acts of infringement that occurred more than three years prior to filing of suit. In its analysis the Court’s majority assumed, without deciding, that a claim for copyright infringement is timely filed if the claim is brought within three years of when the pla ..read more

In April, the Ninth Circuit issued a precedential decision, BBK Tobacco & Foods LLP , in that could change the course of a trademark applicant’s ability to register a mark. BBK Tobacco & Foods LLP v. Central Agriculture Inc., 97 F.4th 668 (9th Cir. 2024). Read the Ani Hovanesian Galoyan legal analysis on the Norton Rose Fulbright web site ..read more

In our previous newsletter here, we reported a decision from the Beijing Internet Court ruling that the copyright of a portrait generated by an artificial intelligence (“AI”) program is owned by the user who “controlled meticulously” the parameters for creating the image. This time, the Guangzhou Internet court had to tackle a different intellectual property issue relating to generative AI – liability for infringing work output from an AI program. The plaintiff in this case was Shanghai Xinchuanghua Cultural Development Co., Ltd, being the exclusive licensee of the cartoon character Ultraman i ..read more

On January 17, 2024, the Supreme People’s Court of China (“SPC”) published its decision upholding a ruling in favor of Sennics Chemical Technology Co., Ltd. (“Sennics”), granting them an award of RMB 201.54 million (around USD 27.86m) in a case against Chen Yonggang (“Chen”) and Yuncheng Jinteng Chemical Technology Co., Ltd. (“Jinteng”). This is currently the largest trade secret theft award to have been made in Mainland China. Sennics, a leading producer of RT Pace and 4020 antioxidants developed the “Nitrobenzene Synthesis of RT Base Technology” ( the “RT Base Technology”) and the “Utilizati ..read more

In a decision earlier this year, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“Board”) dismissed as moot a cancellation proceeding filed by Men’s Wearhouse, LLC against WKND NYC LLC for the mark (hereinafter, “MW MRWKND”) because Men’s Wearhouse filed the cancellation proceeding after MW MRWKND was already cancelled by operation of law for lack of a Section 8 declaration. Men’s Wearhouse, LLC v. WKND NYC LLC, 2024 TTAB LEXIS 9 (TTAB Jan. 16, 2024). The registration for MW MRWKND issued on March 14, 2017. A Section 8 declaration is due “[w]ithin the 1-year period immediately preceding the expiration ..read more

We reported in 2020 on PRC’s fourth amendment to the Patent Law (link to our blog post here). More than three years later, the PRC State Council has finally approved and promulgated the amended Patent Implementation Regulations (“Regulations”) to align various patent practices with the changes made under the Patent Law. The amended Regulations came into effect on 20 January 2024. An important change brought about by the Regulations that may affect every PRC patent practitioner is the abandonment of the 15-day postal rule. Back in the era of mostly paper filing, notices from the patent office w ..read more