Companies are taking advantage of the new cryptocurrency trend to raise capital through a new kind of investment. Initial Coin Offerings, or ICOs, have allowed companies to raise almost $3.7 billion through investors, some at a breakneck pace such as the Useless Ethereum Token Project that raised more than $40,000 in just three days. The …
Intellectual property—a degree of ownership of knowledge or ideas—is, foremost, property. Patents are a kind of intellectual property where creators of new inventions receive a temporary monopoly over the use of those inventions. This may sound simple on its face, but lawmakers often struggle to define the scope of “new inventions.” Drawing out the boundaries …
The European Union is implementing a new law that is being heralded as “the biggest shake-up of personal data privacy rules since the birth of the internet.” The new law is titled the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and it is slated to take effect in May. The GDPR comes as companies in the United States …
Computers have entrenched themselves in American life. The United States Census Bureau confirmed this assumption in 2015 when it found that 78% of American households own a laptop or desktop computer. Americans also carry around portable computers every day in the form of either a smart phone, tablet, or other handheld wireless devices. Constantly having …
Radric Davis—better known as Gucci Mane—is one busy guy. In addition to putting out new music in 2017, he launched a line of shoes with Reebok® and his own clothing line. With his recent expansion into fashion, why isn’t he the subject of trademark dilution suit by fashion giant, Gucci? Generally, trademark dilution can be …
The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has ruled that profanity can be trademarked and that the provision §1052(a) of the United States Code forbidding the registration of such a trademark is an unconstitutional limitation on the freedom of speech. Section 2(a) prohibits the registration of trademarks that comprise of “immoral, deceptive, …
In a world with increasing reliance on technology, it is unsurprising that computer algorithms are now being used to predict crime. Many have seen the movie Minority Report, starring Tom Cruise, in which a futuristic society has abolished all murder due to its ability to harness individuals’ psychic powers to predict killings before they even …
In the wake of consequential 2016 election, during which artificial intelligence was used to potentially influence voters, deeper questions about AI present themselves—one of which is: can AI threaten human rights? The answer is most certainly a resounding yes, because it already has. To be clear, this is not a suggestion that robots are, on …
In 2016, retail giants such as Walmart, Lowes, Target, and Home Depot lost $200 million worth of stolen goods to organized crime in Tennessee alone. This amounted to $14 million in lost sales tax revenue for the state, so the legislature took notice. What they discovered was a network of criminals using gift cards to …
From the outside looking in, the music industry could not be doing any better. In 2017, the music industry: saw its first double digit growth in sales and revenue in almost twenty years, streaming services brought in $883.9 billion in royalties, and paid music subscriptions more than doubled, now accounting for at least 22.6 million …
