Tag Archives: right of publicity

court of appeals refuses to create right of publicity for houses, over dissent

Posted on November 26, 2025 by rtushnet

Dihno v. Netflix, Inc., 2025 WL 3280834, B335652 (Cal. Ct. App. Nov. 25, 2025) Over a partial dissent, the court of appeals affirms the rejection of various claims, including CLRA and FAL claims, against Netflix based on its use of … Continue reading →

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New article: History and Tradition in First Amendment Intellectual Property Cases: A Critique

Posted on August 11, 2025 by rtushnet

 Preprint available here. Abstract There are indications that the “history and tradition” approach the Supreme Court applied to gun rights and abortion restrictions may be coming for First Amendment doctrine. In intellectual property cases, it already has, with the Court using historical … Continue reading →

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IPSC: Closing plenary: DOGE; the First Amendment (me!); and the 50th anniversary of the Copyright Act

Posted on August 8, 2025 by rtushnet

David Schwartz (Northwestern Pritzker School of Law), Christopher Cotropia (The George Washington University Law School), DOGE Days at the USPTO? Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Administrative Reform PTO provides some employees w/union protections and others not. As soon as … Continue reading →

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AI voice cloning opinion narrows claims to ROP, rejecting TM and (most) copyright theories

Posted on July 21, 2025 by rtushnet

Lehrman v. Lovo, Inc., — F.Supp.3d —-, 2025 WL 1902547, 24-CV-3770 (JPO) (S.D.N.Y. Jul. 10, 2025) Plaintiffs alleged that Lovo misled them about its use of their voices, using AI to synthesize and sell unauthorized “clones” of their voices. They … Continue reading →

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National Republican Senatorial Committee loses ROP/Lanham Act/UCL claims against alleged “Scam PAC”

Posted on March 20, 2025 by rtushnet

National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Red Senate, 2025 WL 819711, No. 8:24-cv-02301-JVS-KES (C.D. Cal. Jan. 14, 2025) NRSC sued Red State, alleging that it was exploiting Senator Rick Scott’s “name, image, and likeness without his consent to deceive and scam … Continue reading →

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LinkedIn connection supports right of publicity claim for otherwise generic word

Posted on February 14, 2025 by rtushnet

Joel E. Cape, PLC v. Cape Law PC, — F.Supp.3d —-, 2024 WL 4839370, NO. 5:24-CV-5104 (W.D. Ark. Nov. 20, 2024) The right of publicity claim in this case seems to hang on a LinkedIn connection. Joel Cape opened his … Continue reading →

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delay bars ROP/Lanham Act claims when Facebook use was open and plaintiffs were aware of lots of unauthorized use

Posted on February 14, 2025 by rtushnet

Davalos v. Baywaych Inc., 2024 WL 5344434, — F.Supp.3d —-, No. 21-11075-NMG (D. Mass. Sept. 30, 2024) The caption seems to be a typo, but it’s one of the many right of publicity etc. cases by models against adult clubs … Continue reading →

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Right of publicity question of the day, Duolingo edition

Posted on December 6, 2024 by rtushnet

 Should Rogers apply to this language learning app? What about the transformative use test?  Duolingo screenshot showing response to perfect lesson: “Are you Beyonce? You made 0 mistakes. You’re flawless.” from Blogger http://tushnet.blogspot.com/2024/12/right-of-publicity-question-of-day.html

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Another ROP amicus

Posted on October 29, 2024 by rtushnet

Nolen v. PeopleConnect, arguing that ROP laws applied to noncommercial speech like reprinting high school yearbooks are generally unconstitutional.  from Blogger http://tushnet.blogspot.com/2024/10/another-rop-amicus.html

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IPSC: IP in the Aftermath of the Supreme Court and some TM

Posted on August 8, 2024 by rtushnet

Mark Bartholomew, Publicity Rights After Warhol Risk that courts will apply Warhol to ROP cases, but transformativeness is the only element in the ROP defense as defined by the California SCt rather than a multifactor fair use test. This could … Continue reading →

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