Legal Implications of Digital Economies in Gaming and E-Payments 

By: Kathleen Denise Arteficio | January 19, 2023
a hand hovering over a backlit keyboard

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. […]

DEAD OR ALIVE: ANALYZING THE IMPACT OF TRADEMARK RESIDUAL GOODWILL ON ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN FASHION

By: Rohun Reddy | January 19, 2023
shoes on a shoe rack

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 […]

Collecting Student Athlete Biometric Data

By: Anthony Vitucci | January 19, 2023

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 […]

Facial Recognition Technology in the Commercial Sector

By: Michael Willian | September 9, 2022

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 […]

Personal Privacy & Biometric Data in the COVID-19 Pandemic

By: Luke Shadley | September 9, 2022

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 […]

Patentability of AI-Generated Inventions in the U.S. and other jurisdictions

By: Jason Chen | September 9, 2022
A reflection of a person overlaid on a network graph

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 […]

Howey in the Axie-Era: Regulating NFTs in Gaming and Metaverse Economies

By: Rohun Reddy | September 9, 2022

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 […]

Who Are You: A Primer on Digital Identity

By: Henry Rittenberg | May 3, 2022

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 […]

Rethinking Mechanical Licenses and Copyright Protections for Arrangers

By: Michael Pranger | May 3, 2022

When a musician desires to record a cover version of a song (i.e., their own version of a song written or made famous by someone else), the process for obtaining the rights to do so is quite simple: they obtain a mechanical license—a compulsory license that can be obtained by paying the appropriate fee to […]

Plan [B]lockchain: A New and Improved Music Database

By: Jenny Kim | May 3, 2022

What’s The Issue? It seems logical that the creator of a work would own the rights to that work. This general idea imports easily into some industries but creates problems in the music industry. The reality is that the main rights holder of a creative musical work is often not the musicians but collective management […]

AI Stem Extraction: A Creative Tool or Facilitator of Mass Infringement?

By: Matthew Danaher | May 3, 2022

Introduction Throughout the past two years, AI-powered stem-splitting services have emerged online, allowing users to upload any audio file and access extracted, downloadable audio stems. A “stem” is an audio file that contains a mixture of a song’s similarly situated musical components. For example, if one records a mix of twenty harmonized vocal tracks, that […]

Copyright Bots Need a Tune-up

By: Isabella C. DiCarlo | March 5, 2022

What are Copyright Bots? Digital media handles like Instagram, YouTube, and Tik Tok are now the platforms of choice for creators, new and old, to showcase their work. The accessibility of these platforms opens an untapped market of creativity, allowing for anyone with a smartphone to disseminate their work. With great freedom, though, the potential […]