Tag Archives: right of publicity

court finds ROP claim preempted where model initially consented to being in ad

Posted on August 25, 2026 by rtushnet

Delacruz v. Roc Nation LLC, No. 2:25-cv-11864-AH-(SSCx), 2026 WL 2455107 (C.D. Cal. Jul. 28, 2026) Should copyright preemption apply to a right of publicity claim where the original, consented-to use of the work was created for advertising? The court here … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

insurer can’t use “promotional event” exclusion to avoid coverage for recurring club nights

Posted on August 11, 2026 by rtushnet

Acosta v. Clear Blue Specialty Ins. Co., 2026 WL 2093910, No. CV-24-03681-PHX-DJH (D. Ariz. Jul. 21, 2026) Plaintiffs are models trying to recover for claims resolved by consent judgment in their underlying lawsuit, one of the many against adult clubs … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Reminder: Penn/NYU/Harvard Trademark and Unfair Competition Scholarship Roundtable 2026: submit by June 1

Posted on May 26, 2026 by rtushnet

Penn/NYU/Harvard Trademark and Unfair Competition Scholarship Roundtable 2026 The Trademark and Unfair Competition Scholarship Roundtable co-hosted by Harvard, NYU, and the University of Pennsylvania will take place this year at NYU. Now in its fifth year, the Roundtable is designed … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

the continuing merger of TM and the right of publicity: court can’t tell the defenses apart

Posted on April 8, 2026 by rtushnet

Upper Deck Co. v. Pixels.com LLC, No. 3:24-cv-00923-BAS-DEB, 2026 WL 776227 (S.D. Cal. March 19, 2026) Eric Goldman’s discussion. Upper Deck makes sports memorabilia (including sports player trading cards), and has exclusive licensing agreements with various athletes, including famous basketball … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

WIPIP Panel 3: Deepfakes, Celebrities, and Movies

Posted on February 27, 2026 by rtushnet

A Digital Right of Publicity for the AI World (Emma Perot) Prehistory: ROP covers lookalikes, soundalikes, video game avatars (at least for realism). Persona as training data. Theories of personality: users informed about use; many social media companies do not … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Santa Clara IP Conference: Where Do We Go From Here?

Posted on January 31, 2026 by rtushnet

Moderator: Edward Lee, Santa Clara Law BJ Ard (copyright), University of Wisconsin Law School © is often displaced by contract and other regimes in sectors—scaling it up or down would produce minimal impact. Consumer copying for example is often solved … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

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 →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

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 →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

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 →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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 →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment