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Copyright

This Month

Lululemon, the luxury athletic clothing brand, is suing Costco in federal court in California, alleging that it illegally copied at least six patented clothing designs.

‘Duped’: Why the lululemon v Costco copycat fight is different

This battle stands out because it involves two large publicly listed companies and takes direct aim at the growing cultural phenomenon of duplications.

June

Canva co-founders Cliff Obrecht, Melanie Perkins and Cameron Adams.

Patent ‘trolls’ come for Canva as it prepares for share sales

The design software giant has confirmed it will allow staff and investors to offload stock, a transaction expected to give it a $57 billion valuation.

March

The power of rival AI platforms, and the data they use to get smarter is changing rapidly.

Be afraid: Google’s new AI assistant will remember your search history

The tech giant has unveiled updated artificial intelligence tools, including a feature that learns from your web browsing, while OpenAI says the US will lose to China if it can’t use copyrighted work.

November 2024

Actor Scarlett Johansson says she was “forced to hire legal counsel” to demand the removal of an artificial intelligence voice for OpenAI’s chatbot that sounded too much like her.

Force big tech to pay for AI training data: Senate committee

A Senate committee has recommended the government force tech companies to pay publishers, authors and artists for content used to train their bots.

July 2024

The use of AI in education has become controversial, with the need to prepare students to use the tools, balanced against the possibilities for cheating.

Teachers to get AI training under NSW proposals

Specific training about the use of artificial intelligence and greater protections for copyrighted works are among recommendations from a state inquiry.

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March 2024

Netflix star Valterri Bottas races under the Kick logo at the Melbourne Grand Prix in 2023.

Crypto casino Stake.com denies trademark claims

A cryptocurrency gambling company with the same name as a share trading platform says it rebranded the F1 team it sponsors at the Melbourne Grand Prix to avoid confusion.

January 2024

Origin offices in Melbourne, sporting the company’s logo.

Origin Energy ignored trademark breach, lawsuit alleges

Regional internet provider Origin Net is suing Origin Energy for trademark infringement on the giant gas company’s expanding internet services.

Where it all began: Mickey Mouse in Steamboat Willie.

Mickey Mouse isn’t the only icon out of copyright this year

From a Cole Porter classic and novels by Virginia Woolf and DH Lawrence to a film of Buster Keaton’s, many significant works are entering the public domain in 2024.

December 2023

The New York Times’ lawsuit against OpenAI alleges that the tech company’s tools copy its journalism.

AI companies face ‘model collapse’. They should pay to fix it

The New York Times has sued OpenAI, claiming mass copyright infringement, but that’s not likely to solve a more fundamental question.

Microsoft is OpenAI’s largest backer and has deployed the startup’s AI tools in several of its products.

Microsoft, OpenAI sued by New York Times for copyright infringement

OpenAI has faced criticism for scraping text widely from the web to train its popular chatbot; this is the first legal challenge to that practice.

Jimmy Stewart’s voice will read bedtime stories on a wellness app Calm, thanks to AI.

Recreating dead actors with AI does not make for a wonderful life

It may seem harmless to recreate Jimmy Stewart’s voice for a wellness app, but it is the start of a slippery slope that doesn’t end well for humanity.

November 2023

Generic or brand-specific? Stockland, which operates this 175-lot Halcyon-branded community in Melbourne’s outer south-eastern suburbs, is challenging the registered trademark of Victorian rival Lifestyle Communities.

Stockland hits back at Lifestyle Communities in trademark dispute

The growing importance of the land lease business in resolving Australia’s housing mismatch underpins the court fight between the two developers.

October 2023

Lifestyle Communities managing director James Kelly.

Lifestyle Communities sues Stockland to protect its name

The legal fight to stop the $9 billion developer from using a trademarked name hints at the value companies see in the growing market of affordable housing for downsizers.

March 2023

Sonia Amoroso is the founder of Freezeframe.

High Court victory for ‘Botox alternative’

A small Australian cosmetics company has won a six-year legal battle with the worldwide supplier of Botox.

Side-by-side comparison of Baby Bellies and Aldi’s competing product.

Australian brand sues Aldi over alleged copycat snacks

Little Bellies is suing the German supermarket giant over several organic fruit and vegetable snacks for babies.

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June 2022

Once clothes are made at scale, the law on fashion gets more complicated.

Who owns that bikini design? The answer isn’t as clear as you think

For Australian designers, the issue of copyright and ownership is a continuing – not to mention laborious and expensive – challenge.

March 2022

Ed Sheeran passionately denies he nicked a hook for his 2017 multibillion streaming hit Shape of You from an obscure 2015 track by a British rap singer.

Copyright lawsuits are ruining pop music – just ask Ed Sheeran

Cases against Ed Sheeran and Dua Lipa confirm the old adage, ‘where there’s a hit, there’s a writ’. Is it time to call an amnesty on songcraft?

January 2022

The majority of Bowie’s music is now owned not by his estate, but by one of the world’s largest entertainment conglomerates.

Why musicians are selling their song catalogues

The rights to the works of Bob Dylan, Stevie Nicks, Bruce Springsteen and David Bowie has joined that of other top-selling artists and is now in the hands of corporations.

Winnie the Pooh is among the literary treasures now freed of copyright restrictions.

Why you can now repurpose ‘Winnie-the-Pooh’ for free

A.A. Milne’s beloved children’s book and Ernest Hemingway’s classic novel The Sun Also Rises’, along with films starring Buster Keaton and Greta Garbo, are among the works from 1926 whose US copyrights expired on January 1.

Sharon Wee,  author of “Growing Up in a Nonya Kitchen”,  accused Elizabeth Haigh of taking her recipes and stories for her book  “Makan”.

The cookbook, the copycat and the plagiarism scandal

Recipes are passed down, and passed on, endlessly, and difficult to protect under copyright law. So who do they belong to, ultimately?

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/copyright-1ncb