Professor @ChicagoKentLaw (formerly @UMontanaLaw & Visiting Research Fellow @Oxford_OIPRC) ❤️ copyright, art, cultural property law.
Missoula, Montana
Joined January 2010
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A copyrighting nature case is heading to the Seventh Circuit! Plaintiff claims copyright to a photo of natural marble design. District Court vacated preliminary injunction finding lack of record to support originality, and plaintiff appealed. #copyright #originality
the work owes its originality to nature and/or is an exact duplicate (or “slavish copy”) of a natural product, which does not meet copyright originality.
For a deep dive into these legal issues and similar cases check out "Copyrighting Nature": lnkd.in/gASYd5_c
The case is Zhang v. AnyDesign US, et al. Oral arguments will be held on October 30, 2025 at 9:30 am. (Many thanks to my fab colleague Sarah Fackrell for alerting me to this dispute, which was filed as a #ScheduleA case.)
Ok #Chicago, I understand that it’s important to be prepared, but couldn’t we have paused the monthly disaster sirens testing just for today?
Cathay (Cath-Ā) Smith🪻 retweeted
A story I never planned to write but needs to be told - pregnant at 50, facing life and death dictated by state lines. @Newsweek #AbortionIsHealthcare
Buckle up for a wild ride and a long thread 🧵 1/20
newsweek.com/pregnant-50-lif…
Cathay (Cath-Ā) Smith🪻 retweeted
We may have images but we are not @gettyimages (hi guys)...despite similar names. Sorry for any confusion.
Cathay (Cath-Ā) Smith🪻 retweeted
pretty soon she'll reach the age of majority & then she can make her own decisions
i argue in "of marks & minors," forthcoming in @houstonlrev, that it shouldn't be so easy for parents to consent on behalf of minor children to register their name marks
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.…
Cathay (Cath-Ā) Smith🪻 retweeted
As "Who Framed Mickey Mouse" approaches publication with @KansasLawReview, a short (~3k words) policy companion piece I wrote is looking for a home - it was originally written for a symposium but it doesn't quite fit: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.… - any journals interested?
As @andrew_gilden (@WillametteLaw) and I explain in @thehill, because of strong protections for political speech, claims against these unauthorized uses are difficult. Historically, the most successful claims have been brought under copyright law...
#copyrightlaw @ChicagoKentLaw
Quoted in this article re: legal remedies for trans people & drag performers placed in GOP ads w/o consent. @CathaySmith quoted too.
thehill.com/homenews/campaig…
But that requires copyright owners of the images to assert infringement, and individuals featured in photos don't always own the #copyright to photos of themselves.
Check out this Financial Times article discussing my @ChicagoKentLaw IP colleague @Jordi_Goodman's important research.
We should all be asking: is our society missing out on life-changing inventions or solutions due to systemic barriers in the patent system? #patent #equity #IP
What causes gender and race disparities in patenting? 🤔 Chicago-Kent College of Law Associate Professor Jordana Goodman discusses systemic barriers faced by underrepresented inventors and notes that tech like generative AI isn’t a cure-all for bias: on.ft.com/3RMYz90
Cathay (Cath-Ā) Smith🪻 retweeted
What causes gender and race disparities in patenting? 🤔 Chicago-Kent College of Law Associate Professor Jordana Goodman discusses systemic barriers faced by underrepresented inventors and notes that tech like generative AI isn’t a cure-all for bias: on.ft.com/3RMYz90
I was quoted in this Bloomberg News article about Elon Musk's use of copyrighted images from Blade Runner 2049 for his robotaxi presentation. news.bloomberglaw.com/ip-law… #copyright #bladerunner2049 @ChicagoKentLaw
As explained in the article, this isn't a fair use case. Instead...
Spotted! My incredible students from @ChicagoKentLaw's Intellectual & Cultural Property Law seminar visiting the @artinstitutechi to discuss legal issues of art as speech, copyright & appropriation art, & cultural property repatriation. #copyright #artlaw #culturalproperty
ALT a group of people posing in front of a gold sculpture titled "Golden Bird" by the artist Brancusi.