The Scope of Contributory Liability for Copyright Infringement Cox Communications, Inc. v. Sony Music Entertainment, 607 U.S. __ (2026) I didn’t list contributory liability for infringement as one of the enduring non-AI issues in copyright law, but this year’s decision in Cox Communications v. Sony Music Entertainment is a reminder that issues thought to have…

2023 was a big year for U.S. intellectual property law. Major developments occurred in every area. Here are the highlights
The post Top IP Cases appeared first on Cokato Copyright Attorney: The Law Blog of Thomas James.

As I mentioned in my last blog post, the USPTO’s new online Trademark Center now includes a feature that makes it much easier to conduct a trademark image search. This means that instead of scouring the Trademark Design Search Code Manual to try to identify the design attributes that a logo or proposed design possesses,…

With the 2026 additions, the Trademark Center changes everything from how you search to how much you pay.
The post The New, Improved Trademark Center appeared first on Cokato Copyright Attorney: The Law Blog of Thomas James.

It is one of the most common questions artists, entrepreneurs, and other content creators ask. It is also based on a fundamental misunderstanding of how intellectual property works. While both copyrights and trademarks give owners exclusive rights, they protect entirely different things for entirely different purposes.
The post Can You Copyright a Band Name? appeared…

Trademark law protects brand identifiers like names, logos, words, slogans, and other things, ensuring consumers aren’t deceived about the source of a product or service. It also protects businesses from unfair competition. Core concepts include use in commerce, distinctiveness and the likelihood of confusion, which dictate whether a mark can be registered and enforced. Whether…

With so much attention being given to the legal issues that AI-powered technologies are generating, it can be easy to overlook or underestimate the importance of long-standing legal issues having nothing to do with artificial intelligence. While it would be neither possible nor particularly useful to catalog all of them in a single blog post,…