Alt Legal IP News – Issue # 159
Bri Van Til | October 08, 2019
2020 Presidential Candidates
– Elizabeth Warren has proposed reviving the Office of Technology Assessment to give lawmakers a place to go so that they can be more informed when writing IP and technology policy.
– Pete Buttigieg has proposed seizing patent rights from drug manufacturers who won’t negotiate on drug pricing.
– President Trump’s tweet criticizing Joe Biden was removed from Twitter for using a copyrighted Nickelback song without the band’s permission.
– The tweet isn’t the only copyright violation stemming from political campaigns.
Copyrights in the 21st Century
– The US Copyright Office—often noted for its antiquated technology—may be modernizing.
– The copyright termination provision, which allows authors to regain rights after a few decades, is threatening film franchises like Die Hard, Predator, and (fittingly) The Terminator.
– What’s next for the music industry a year after the Music Modernization Act?
International IP
– The FBI is reaching out to universities to inquire about Chinese IP theft, but many Chinese American scholars are denouncing the racial profiling.
– Vietnam is joining the Hague Agreement.
– The owners of the famous CN Tower in Toronto are claiming that any photograph or other piece of art depicting the tower is infringing on their trademark.
Odds and Ends
– Recently Tesla has patented a new charging connector, new windshield wipers, and heated and cooled seats.
– Updates: The USPTO faces a class action lawsuit for its controversial SAWS program, and French President Emmanuel Macron says Google will need to pay publishers fees for displaying their content in search results.
– The USPTO is going to the Supreme Court to defend its rule that applicants pay for the government’s attorneys’ fees in patent proceedings, regardless of the outcome of the patent litigation.
– Upset that photographs of his street art were sold on greeting cards, Banksy has opened a homewares shop to protect his IP.