Copyright Law news and archive

Appeals court gives the slip to functionality doctrines in banana suit infringements case

When the average person thinks of a banana, he or she typically imagines a yellow, crescent-shaped fruit, curving upwards towards tapered ends with dark colored tips at each end. So when the question of whether one could claim copyright protection for an adult banana costume embodying these very common features came before the Third Circuit...

BusinessFeatured

Copycat-eye? Copyright protection in the beauty industry

Over the past couple of years there have been several important conversations regarding intellectual property issues in the beauty industry. This industry faces a persistent issue of copycat beauty looks that are not credited to the original inspiration. For example, earlier this year Instagram account Diet Prada called out two editorial beauty...

Fashion Featured

Memes, Tweets, and Copyrights: Recent U.S. Federal Court Findings on Copyrighted Images

We’ve seen it all—from the Ryan Gosling “Hey Girl” meme on t-shirts to celebrity tweets that are copied and republished on cable news. While such images and messages are easy to cut-and-paste, recent U.S. court decisions make clear that one should exercise caution when using images found online. Stop that Tweet Last month, a federal court in the...

BusinessFeatured

Don’t Duck* the Law: Busting Three Common U.S. Copyright Law Myths

When it comes to designing, the designers have it. Their eye for creativity and artistry are what draws in consumers and have them coming back. But as companies support their designers, they also need to make sure that their designers don’t run afoul of any intellectual property (IP) rights of others. As we have seen over the years, trampling on...