When confronted with instability, investors smartly flock to stable assets that can withstand the winds of economic change. Although these assets tend to be stable financial instruments like treasury bills or commodities like gold, money has recently been flowing into an even older, more human, asset that we can all appreciate: music (or more specifically, music rights).  Recently, it was announced that Bob Dylan sold his entire songwriting catalog to Universal Music Publishing Group, just a week after the world learned that Stevie Nicks sold a majority stake (80%) of her own catalog to P ..read more

On December 22, 2020, Senator Thom Tillis released the first discussion draft of the Digital Copyright Act of 2021 (“DCA” or the “Act”): an amendment to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”). Senator Tillis also provided a one-page summary of the background of the Act and its significant revisions to the DMCA. It is important to note that the discussion draft is just that, a platform for discussion. Senator Tillis’ significant revisions include a major change to the DMCA’s safe harbor provision in three parts. First, “lowering the specificity with which copyright owners must identify i ..read more

The Second and Ninth Circuits have consistently led the way in establishing the scope of American copyright law. In the past few years, the Second Circuit in particular has had the difficult task of reconciling copyright law with appropriation art, an artistic style predicated on the intentional use of preexisting images and objects. The user alters the original works to create a new aesthetic experience and/or meaning.  While a popular and respected form of art, appropriation art’s essence – the purposeful use of preexisting works – makes it especially susceptible to claim ..read more

From its inception, Bitcoin was developed as a means to eliminate the middleman and decentralize financial transactions from government regulation. In fact, digital currencies can address the critical issue of the fungibility of money. For example, in the case Crawfurd v. Royal Bank (1749), there was a dispute over the rightful owner of banknotes that were mailed by the defendant with the intention of paying a debt. Instead, the money was found and intercepted by another patron, at which point the question became: Who was entitled to the money? Should it go to the original owner whose destinat ..read more

What do the Pokémon Go craze of the late 2010s, an Ariana Grande concert, and Microsoft’s acquisition of a video game company all have in common? The answer is the metaverse—specifically, that they can be seen as indicia of and contributors to the recent past, buzzword present, and hazy future of the metaverse. Interest and conversation surrounding the metaverse have increased dramatically in the past year or so (understandably, as the pandemic pushed us to move numerous aspects of our lives online in unprecedented ways), entering mainstream discourse and prompting a flood of private actors to ..read more

In the playpen that is nonverbal marks, the game is all about whether registrants can jump the hurdle between two opposing classifications—product packaging and product configuration. Conceived to decide whether nonverbal marks merit trademark protection, nonverbal marks fall into three categories: product packaging (also known as trade dress) which is capable of inherent distinctiveness; product configuration (also known as product design) which is capable of acquired distinctiveness; and tertium quid. In doing so, courts have tried to create a framework that keeps sellers from being able to ..read more

The announcement of Facebook’s plans to rebrand to Meta and launch its metaverse has come with many questions about the use of trademarked fashion in this new virtual world. The metaverse, which can be defined as a virtual-reality space in which users can interact with a computer-generated environment and other users, has created new avenues for revenue for fashion retailers. For example, brands seeking to promote their trademarks in the metaverse may be able to do so through a variety of means, including virtual billboards, hosting sponsored events, and even in virtual “malls” where consumers ..read more

New York City’s restaurant industry is a bedrock of this city’s cultural, social, and economic capital. However, the relationship between this industry and its customer-base is increasingly mediated by out-of-state, third-party companies: delivery apps. The Covid-19 pandemic has led restaurants to depend heavily on these third-party delivery apps, which employ exploitative business practices in their dealings with restaurants and workers. Significantly, this dynamic has led to information asymmetry between the companies that hold and control the information (the Silicon-Valley-based delivery a ..read more

Today’s digital world is evolving constantly and at extraordinary speeds. Along with these evolutions in the digital space, forms of investment and ownership are also advancing to make use of these technologies. The adoption and use of blockchain technology is spreading rapidly across various industries and the sports industry is no exception. The collection of sports cards is nothing new and to the sports enthusiast, there may not be anything more special than owning a rare, valuable collectible card–except maybe now having the ability to not only “own” a card or a still but also special “mom ..read more

Research and investment in psychedelic drugs have exploded in recent years. Clinical trials have shown promising results using long-stigmatized drugs like psilocybin (found in magic mushrooms), LSD, and MDMA to treat various mental-health conditions. Dozens of newly launched companies have started to patent these compounds and rapidly advance them toward FDA approval and commercialization. Because psychedelics are often derived from natural products that have been used in Indigenous communities for centuries, the known compounds themselves are unpatentable. However, it ..read more