JTIP Blog

Introduction   In April 2022, someone paid $130,000 for a pair of Nike Dunks. Here’s the kicker – it was for a pair of virtual sneakers. Shelling out five to six figures for a pair of exclusive shoes is not rare in the sneaker world, but paying that much for a pair of virtual kicks is […]

In January 2022, after nearly one hundred years of copyright protection, Winnie-the-Pooh entered the public domain. This blog post will discuss copyright law’s grounding in the Constitution, the story of Winnie-the-Pooh’s copyright, and how the changing landscape of U.S. copyright law has affected this beloved story and the characters contained within it. Congress’ Power to […]

Introduction The Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization granted state legislatures the authority to regulate abortion. The Court’s decision quickly led states, such as Texas and Arkansas, to enact trigger bans for the procedure. Prior to the Court’s ruling, data brokers had already begun selling location data for individuals visiting abortion […]

In August 2022, over two and a half years after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, Moderna sued Pfizer and BioNTech for patent infringement. Specifically, Moderna claimed that Pfizer and BioNTech used its patented mRNA technology to develop their Covid-19 vaccine. Covid’s swift, widespread, and devastating effects and the urgent need for a vaccine accelerated […]

Within the past decade, companies outside of the traditional financial services firms have disrupted the financial industry due to technology shifts. Gaming companies now offer in-game currencies creating virtual economies and technology companies like Venmo and Zelle have disrupted the digital wallet space. With the creation of new virtual economies comes additional risk for consumers. […]

INTRODUCTION “Zombies” may be pure fiction in Hollywood movies, but they are a very real concern in an area where most individuals would least expect – trademark law. A long-established doctrine in U.S. trademark law deems a mark to be considered abandoned when its use has been discontinued and where the trademark owner has no […]

In August 2020, Marlene Stollings, the head coach of Texas Tech Women’s Basketball Team, allegedly forced her players to wear heart rate monitors during practice and games. Stollings would subsequently view the player data and reprimand each player who did not achieve their target heart rates. It could be argued that Stollings was simply pushing […]

Introduction News headlines about facial recognition technology primarily focus on the government’s use and misuse of the technology. Likewise, technology companies and legislators frequently advocate against the government’s use of facial recognition tools to conduct mass surveillance or generate leads in investigations. For example, following widespread claims of the technology’s racial bias, Amazon, IBM, and […]

I. Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the issues of personal privacy and biometric data to the forefront of the American legal landscape. In an increasingly digital world, privacy laws are more important than ever. This reality is especially true in the context of remote workplaces, where employers have facilitated a digital migration through a […]

The development of AI systems has reached a point at which these systems can create and invent new products and processes just as humans can. There are several features of these AI systems that allow them to create and invent. For example, the AI systems imitate intelligent human behavior, as they can perceive data from […]

If nothing else, Facebook’s recent announcement that it plans to change its name to “Meta” is a sign that the metaverse is coming and that our legal system must be prepared for it. As the metaverse, the concept of a virtual version of the physical world, gains increased popularity, individuals will engage in more transactions […]

When Meta’s services went down this past October, users were unable to access all of Meta’s applications, including Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp. This digital outage had physical consequences, as some Meta employees got locked out of their offices. The effects rippled outside of Meta’s own ecosystem, as some consumers soon discovered they were unable to […]