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Here’s What Happened:Our blog post of 7/8/2025 covered the Bartz v. Anthropic decision. The court had decided Anthropic’s use of purchased works to train its large language model (LLM) for artificial intelligence was fair use. But, Anthropic’s use of pirated works would not be fair use. The court continued the matter for trial in December […]

Here’s What Happened: We know that courts are grappling with whether training of large language models (LLMs) results in copyright infringement. But what about patents? Recentive Analytics Inc. obtained patents for two types of machine learning models in the entertainment industry. The patents involve a method of scheduling live events and refining “network maps” for […]

Here’s What Happened: Another court has weighed in on whether copyrighted works can be used to train AI. In our last post, we discussed how a court ruled that Anthropic PBC’s use of works it had purchased to train AI was fair use. But use of pirated works was not fair use. Like Antrhopic, Meta […]

Consider Dave, the CFO at a medium sized company with a Section 401(k) retirement plan. Like many employers, the assets of the 401(k) plan are the largest pool of funds the employer has responsibility for. Because of the employer’s understandable concern about the management of these funds, the employer appoints Dave to run a company […]

Here’s What Happened: Anthropic PBC wanted to create an AI assistant named “Claude” to compete with other chatbots like ChatGPT. Anthropic wanted Claude to be a step above other chatbots by basing its training on well curated facts, well organized analyses and captivating fictional narratives. Like other chatbots, Anthropic had to find works for training […]

Here’s What Happened: In 1917, as part of the US’ WWI recruitment effort, James Montgomery designed the “Uncle Sam Wants You” character. With his long white hair and US flag inspired garb, Uncle Sam has become a symbol of US patriotism. A German sporting goods retailer, Uncle Sam GmbH, applied for an International Registration, designating […]

Here’s What Happened: Denice Halicki, widow of Gone in 60 Seconds creator H.B. Halicki, sued Carroll Shelby Licensing and others for allegedly infringing her claimed copyright in Eleanor, the car. In many of the Gone in 60 Seconds movies, a car named Eleanor would appear. In the original 1974 film, Eleanor was a customized 1971 Ford Mustang […]

Here’s What Happened: In the 1976 San Francisco Pride Parade, a group of LGBTQ+ women rode motorcycles. Over the years, more and more women bike riders showed up at the annual parade. In the late 1980s, a number of women riders created a group known Women’s Motorcycle Contingent. The group’s community grew with opening a […]

Here’s What Happened: In 2008, Heritage Alliance started publishing an online voter guide using the trademarks “iVoterGuide” and “iVoterGuide.com” (the “VoterGuide Marks”). Heritage Alliance did not seek federal registration of its VoterGuide Marks. In 2010, American Policy Roundtable created an online publication for political campaign information using the trademarks “IVOTERS” and “IVOTERS.COM” (the “Voters Marks”).  […]