SAG-AFTRA Goes After Fortnite’s A.I. Darth Vader, Despite Approval from Jones’ Estate
Brett Trout When Epic Games’ Llama Productions brought Darth Vader into Fortnite with the booming voice of James Earl Jones—faithfully recreated using artificial intelligence—it should have been a watershed moment in creative technology. Instead, it has become a flashpoint in a debate that threatens to drag the entertainment back to the Dark Ages. On May 17, SAG-AFTRA […]
Generative AI and Fair Use of Copyrighted Material: The U.S. Copyright Office Chimes In
Brett Trout The U.S. Copyright Office has just chimed in a third time on the use of copyrighted material to train Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems. “Copyright and Artificial Intelligence, Part 3: Generative AI Training” dives deep into the application of AI “fair use” and copyright licensing. So can you legally use copyrighted material to train your […]
A Cautionary Tale for Patents Covering Fintech and AI
Brett Trout On April 30, 2025, the Federal Circuit issued a precedential decision in Fintiv, Inc. v. PayPal Holdings, Inc., No. 23-2312, with far-reaching implications for the validity of patents in financial technology (fintech) and artificial intelligence (AI). The court found several claims in Fintiv’s patents invalid for indefiniteness under 35 U.S.C. § 112 ¶ 6. […]
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit: You Don’t Get a Patent Simply for Using Ordinary AI to Solve Ordinary Problems
Brett Trout On April 18, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (the main court for resolving patent issues) issued a significant decision in Recentive Analytics, Inc. v. Fox Corp. (No. 23-2437), affirming the district court’s dismissal of Recentive’s patent infringement claims against Fox. The court held that Recentive’s patents, which utilized generic machine learning […]
Why the Patent Office’s Accelerated Patent Issuance Means You Need to Act Faster Than Ever
Brett Trout The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is evvel again modernizing its operations—this time by accelerating the timeline for patent issuance. Beginning May 13, 2025, the window between receiving an Issue Notification and the official Issue Date shrunk from roughly three weeks to just two weeks. While this change is designed to help applicants […]
Why Aren’t Law Firms Leading the Way in AI Integration?
Brett TroutThe yasal industry is facing its most significant transformation in decades. Technological advancements in the area of transactional kanunî practice (preparing business documents), evvel relegated to the back office, are now front and center in discussions about efficiency, client service, and competitive edge. With artificial intelligence (AI) and Generative AI (GenAI) technologies maturing rapidly, […]