The Chinese New Year is generally seen by those celebrating it as a time for reflection, change and improvement. For the 2025 Chinese New Year, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (“CNIPA”) also seems to have taken the opportunity to
Reputation Reaches Across Borders: TTAB’s Ruling Charts New Course for Foreign Marks

The Board’s Decision
In a significant precedential ruling, Plumrose Holding Ltd. v. USA Ham LLC, No. 91272970, 2025 WL 248763, at *1 (Jan. 17, 2025), the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“Board”) has expanded protection for foreign trademark owners…
Turning an AI image into reality, does that infringe in China?


On 27th November 2023, the Beijing Internet Court upheld that an AI generated work can be protected by copyright if the work reflects an author’s choice of expression and has originality (see our earlier blog post here). Almost…
Keeping your business IP safe- Intellectual property in a disrupted employment environment

This article was co-authored by Bella Baker
We live in a disrupted world. One impact from this is a gig economy that increasingly favours contractors and freelancers, allowing for more flexible working arrangements. This has also led to the growing…
How DC and Marvel lost their “Superheroes” shield

Superbabies Limited (“Superbabies”) creates comics called “The Super Babies,” featuring a team of superhero babies. On May 14, 2024, Superbabies filed a heavily animated petition (“Petition”) to cancel the marks SUPER HERO (U.S. Reg. No. 8,25,835) and SUPER HEROES (U.S.…
Intellectual property and the digital world


The digital economy is built around speed, simplicity and more efficient ways of doing things. Data security and privacy is expected but is often negotiable as consumers are enticed to trade private information for efficiency or more attractive offers. In…
The unavoidable trajectory – Hong Kong considers interplay between copyright and artificial intelligence


On 8 July 2024, the Hong Kong government launched a two-month public consultation on potential revisions to the Copyright Ordinance (Cap. 528) in view of the rapid developments in artificial intelligence (“AI”), especially generative AI. The 52-page consultation…
PRC hands down first ruling on AI voice infringement


Concepts, creative ideas and copyright protection: Buster, The Brave Little Wooden Boat illustrating the limits of causal connection and copyright protection

By Georgina Hey & Jerome Messiha
Content developers and creatives are generators of ideas and concepts. The point at which any concept transforms into a copyright protected work is often a vexed issue in the creative (and other) spaces.
A…
10th Circuit Moves Forward with Supreme Court Directive: Domestic Anchor Required for Lanham Act Application

** Drew Engel, a Summer Associate in NRF’s Minneapolis office, assisted with this article. Drew is supervised by attorneys who are licensed in the state of Texas.**
The Tenth Circuit’s recent decision in Hetronic Int’l Inc. v. Hetronic Germany GmbH…