I ♡ Trademarks NewsletterIssue #480
Bri Van Til | May 26, 2026
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Willy NIL-ly
Articles like this one and this one evaluate celebrities’ legal strategy of “trademarking yourself” to protect from AI imitations.
Thailand’s IP office is urging companies and celebrities to register sound marks to protect their jingles and catchphrases from AI deepfakes.
If you missed our webinar earlier this year about deepfakes and legal strategies to combat them, you can watch the recording.
YouTube is developing and exploring tools to help protect people’s NIL rights against deepfakes.
I Like What I See
This case about fair use, embedding, content size, and copyright infringement on social media will be one to watch as it makes its way through the courts.
TikTok is launching a program to help brand owners address counterfeit listings.
Using unlicensed music on social media is obviously a no-no, but here’s a client-focused discussion about some common misconceptions about licensing.
Sign up for this webinar this summer to hear about platform liability for alleged infringement and more.
Wow. Um. Okay.
Harley-Davidson’s trademark application for DEADWOOD is an interesting choice, given that vehicles being dead is typically not good and the television series that shares that name is set over a decade before the first motorcycle was invented.
I get that Cox v. Sony may have ripple effects for copyright law, but I wouldn’t recommend calling the gap a “Cox… sized hole.” I’m just sayin’.
A defendant in a copyright infringement claim tried to argue that the protected work “could have been generated using artificial intelligence.”
India’s newest political party has filed a trademark application for its name, the COCKROACH JANTA PARTY, named after comments made by one of the country’s Supreme Court justices.
Professional Concerns
If you get this job as a senior trademark paralegal at Red Bull, will they put you in charge of their trademark portfolio? Will you control all their matter-dors?
Word on the streets is that Microsoft is looking for a senior trademark paralegal. I bet you’d Excel at that!
I drug you all the way here to show you this listing for trademark counsel at Walgreens.
Fill your life with happy little trees as the senior legal coordinator for Car Freshener Corporation.
Have an open role on your team? Email us at [email protected], and we’ll try to get it in our next newsletter!
Odds & Ends
Sign up today for the TMAE Summit, our fabulous conference for paralegals and other trademark administrators. Early-bird tickets are less than $500 for two full days of content, networking, and fun. Use the code “IHTN” (case-sensitive) for an additional discount.
UCLA law professor Mark McKenna says LA mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt’s campaign hats are “probably just straight-up infringements” of Dodgers and Lakers logos.
Atari has filed a trademark application for 800XL, its computer model from the 1980s, which was endorsed by Mr. T (and also Alan Alda, but most importantly Mr. T).
Adidas stripes again: they’re alleging that counterfeit Real Madrid and Argentina jerseys are infringing since they sport the company’s trademark-protected three stripes. Perhaps INTA could form a committee to address Unreal Madrid.
President Trump is opposing a trademark application for 45 47 REPUBLICAN RED for wine, alleging the use suggested “false endorsement.”