- Understand the purpose of intellectual property law
- Understand different types of intellectual property
Copyright Infringement
When you own the copyright to a creative work, like a song or book that you wrote, other people who want to use your work for their own commercial purposes need to first get your permission in most cases. If they don’t get your permission, that’s stealing and it’s called copyright infringement. However, in limited situations called fair use, you don’t need the permission of the copyright holder.
You can view the transcript for “Fair Use” here (opens in new window).
Author’s Dilemma[1]
Jane Friedman is a journalist and author of books about the publishing industry aimed at aspiring writers. She found books on Amazon covering the same subject matter with her name listed as the author. Friedman speculated that the books were likely generated by artificial intelligence and compared them to pirated books. She complained to Amazon that the books were taking advantage of her name and reputation without her consent but Amazon initially denied her request to take down the offending books. Amazon asked for an itemized list of her concerns as well as the trademark registration for her name.
Do these suspected copycat books violate copyright laws?
Trademark Infringement
Protecting an Established Brand
Businesses work hard to establish their brands so that customers will recognize them and have positive feelings towards them. In this case, Jack Daniel’s, a whiskey manufacturer dating back to 1866,[2] sued VIP Products for making a humorous, squeaky dog toy that uses some of the design elements of the Jack Daniel’s whiskey bottle and label.[3]
Jack Daniel’s argued that the squeaky toys are tarnishing the Jack Daniel’s brand, violating its trademark. In response, VIP Products claimed the toy is a humorous parody, basically a joke, and deserves protection due to the First Amendment right of free expression.[4]
- Do you think the jokes on the dog toy tarnish the Jack Daniel’s brand? Would consumers be confused?
- Is there a danger that the dog toy will influence people, including children, to treat alcohol use as a joke?
You can view the transcript for “Jack Daniel’s vs. Bad Spaniels in the Supreme Court” here (opens in new window).
- Melendez, Pilar. “Famous Author Jane Friedman Finds AI Fakes Being Sold Under Her Name on Amazon.” Daily Beast, August 8, 2023. https://www.thedailybeast.com/author-jane-friedman-finds-ai-fakes-being-sold-under-her-name-on-amazon. ↵
- Jack Daniel’s. “Our Story.” Accessed December 5, 2022. https://www.jackdaniels.com/en-us/our-story. ↵
- Liptak, Adam. 2022. “May ‘Bad Spaniels’ Mock Jack Daniel’s? The Supreme Court Will Decide.” The New York Times, December 5, 2022. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/05/us/politics/bad-spaniels-jack-daniels-dog-toy.html. ↵
- Romoser, James. “Justices Fetch New Case on Trademark Law and Parody - SCOTUSblog.” SCOTUSblog, November 21, 2022. https://www.scotusblog.com/2022/11/justices-fetch-new-case-on-trademark-law-and-parody/. ↵
- Totenberg, Nina. “Supreme Court Sides with Jack Daniel’s in Trademark Dispute with Dog Toy Maker.” NPR, June 9, 2023. https://www.npr.org/2023/06/08/1181012952/supreme-court-jack-daniels-decision. ↵