Third Quarter 2022 Federal Circuit Update

The Board dismissed this petition for cancellation of Roman Atwood's registration for the mark SMILE MORE for various goods (stickers, backpacks, shirts) and for retail store service featuring clothing, denying petitioner's claim that the term fails to function as a mark.

Universal Music Group's lawsuit against DistroKid raises a critical question about AI disclosure in consumer markets: when does the use of artificial intelligence become material information that must be disclosed to consumers? The case centers on allegations that DistroKid distributed mass-generated AI music while creating the impression it was created by legitimate human artists, potentially violating existing consumer protection laws even without specific AI disclosure requirements.

On Oct. 7, 2026, at 18:00 UTC, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) will publish every new generic top-level domain (gTLD) application proceeding in the 2026 new gTLD Round, including who applied...

The U.S. Copyright Office recently released a report on the human authorship requirement for materials to qualify for copyright protection.

The U.S. government has filed a Statement of Interest of the United States of America under 28 U.S.C. § 517 in the Southern District of New York multidistrict litigation over OpenAI’s use of copyrighted works to train large language models. The filing appears to be the federal government’s first direct intervention in the wave of artificial intelligence (AI) training copyright cases, and it advises the court to treat model training (separate from use of AI to generate outputs) on copyrighted text standing alone as a highly transformative fair use under current law.

Is this AI-generated, or is it real? As generative AI tools have become increasingly capable of creating realistic images, videos, and audio, they have also made it easier to impersonate real people without their consent. In response, states are increasingly adopting laws that impose civil and criminal liability for certain AI-generated content that replicates an individual’s identity, likeness, voice, or other personal attributes.

A business decides to file a trademark. Someone on the team searches for a familiar online legal-services brand, clicks the first result, and lands on a site with a similar-sounding name, a polished design, five-star reviews, and a low flat fee. The application gets filed. Months later the business learns the “service” was not who they thought it was, the filing was signed by someone with no authority to sign it, and the USPTO has suspended the application along with hundreds or thousands of others from the same shop.

There was a significant ruling in the Doe v. Github case involving training of AI code generator models on open source. The United States Court of Appeals for The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court ruling dismissing part of an action brought under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) by programmers against GitHub, Inc., and other defendants. The issues centered on whether defendants removed copyright management information (CMI) from content used to train the AI code generator models.

In recent video game news, gaming giant Nintendo filed and settled a lawsuit against the developers of the popular Nintendo Switch emulator, Yuzu.

The Ninth Circuit held that GitHub Copilot's AI-generated code did not violate DMCA's copyright management information (CMI) removal provisions, even when output resembled source code, because the system generated new works through probabilistic patterns rather than retrieving and stripping information from existing copies. This decision establishes a critical distinction between AI systems that learn and generate versus those that retrieve and reproduce, with significant implications for how courts evaluat

President Trump has signed into law the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, dramatically expanding U.S. sanctions on Russia's financial and energy sectors while establishing unprecedented tariff authorities on Russian goods and imports from countries purchasing Russian energy.

The Senate's fiscal year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), passed on October 9, includes a provision to ensure that U.S. manufacturers have priority access to advanced semiconductors.

The U.S. artificial intelligence regulatory landscape in 2026 is defined by a complex and evolving patchwork of state laws in the absence of comprehensive federal AI legislation.

The CFTC has released an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking public comment on a comprehensive framework for retail crypto asset transactions, while the SEC advances parallel digital asset regulations through Regulation Crypto Assets and temporary exemptive relief for tokenized securities venues.

President Trump has signed three proclamations imposing 50 percent tariffs on Canadian goods under Section 338, citing discriminatory treatment of U.S. exports. Meanwhile, U.S.-Mexico trade negotiations continue in Mexico City as both countries work to revise USMCA provisions before the agreement's long-term viability is threatened.

On January 9, 2026, the United States Department of Justice ("DOJ") announced the creation of an Artificial Intelligence Litigation Task Force ("Task Force") through an internal memorandum.

The General Court of the European Union has upheld the European Commission's prohibition of Booking Holdings' acquisition of eTraveli Group, endorsing for the first time a 'reverse leveraging' theory of harm in conglomerate mergers. This landmark judgment establishes that dominant companies can be blocked from acquiring complementary businesses even when the target operates in a market where the acquirer lacks dominance, fundamentally reshaping merger control enforcement in digital and ecosystem-driven mark

A U.S. Court of International Trade ruling struck down President Trump's global 10% tariffs under Section 122, finding them unauthorized and unlawful. Meanwhile, the administration continues to threaten increased tariffs on European automobiles and initiates reviews of existing China tariff actions. This comprehensive tracker documents the complex landscape of implemented, pending, and proposed tariff measures across multiple countries and product categories.

Texas regulators have paused the ERCOT Batch Zero interconnection process for data centers following Governor Abbott's directive requiring comprehensive verification of all large load projects. The verification encompasses two distinct workstreams affecting projects based on size and type, with implications for energization timelines and regulatory compliance. Projects with near-term energization dates face particular uncertainty as ERCOT implements new audit requirements that could take several months to c

The Council of the European Union has approved targeted amendments to the EU AI Act, extending key compliance deadlines while introducing new prohibitions on AI-generated intimate content and child sexual abuse material. Organizations now have until December 2027 and August 2028 to prepare governance frameworks for high-risk AI systems, though enforcement remains firmly on track.