Arielle Flamenbaum – In 2021, digital designer Mason Rothschild produced and marketed 100 Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) he called “MetaBirkins,” which depicted digitally created Hermès Birkin handbags that looked like they were made of fur. By January 2022, Rothschild’s NFT series generated about $1.2 million in sales. In response, Hermès sued Rothschild. The French luxury design […]
Meryl R. Jimenez—Amidst the global pandemic of 2020, the SEC filed a complaint against Ripple Labs Inc. and two of its top executives, Chris Larsen and Bradley Garlinghouse, alleging that Ripple raised $1.38 billion through the sale of 14.3 billion units of unregistered securities. The SEC’s complaint resurfaces an old legal question, this time with […]
Alexander Plansky—Contrary to reports that Bruce Willis sold the rights to use his face to a deepfake company, representatives for both the actor and the company have denied those rumors. Willis’ recent aphasia diagnosis led to his retirement from acting after a decades-long Hollywood career. It was originally reported that by selling his image to […]
Aaron Ostler – On August 5, 2022, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals released Thaler v. Vidal, an important decision concerning patent law with implications for future research and development (R&D) practices. Stephen Thaler develops and runs artificial intelligence (AI) systems that generate patentable inventions. Thaler submitted a patent application to The United States Patent […]
