On June 30, 2025, the Supreme Court granted a petition for certiorari from Cox Communications Inc. and agreed to weigh in on one of the most consequential digital copyright cases in recent memory. The Court’s ruling could redefine the scope of liability for internet service providers (“ISP”) and clarify the standards for contributory infringement and willfulness in the digital age.

How We Got Here

In 2018, a coalition of more than 50 major record labels filed suit against Cox in the Eastern District of Virginia, alleging that Cox had turned a blind eye to massive copyright ...

            Until two weeks ago, no U.S. court had ruled on whether training generative AI models on copyrighted works could constitute a fair use, or if the simple act of training such models without a license would constitute copyright infringement. Two new summary judgment rulings out of the Northern District of California have now set the stage for how future courts may interpret fair use in the context of AI training—Richard Kadrey, et al., v. Meta Platforms, Inc. and Andrea Bartz, et al. v. Anthropic PBC. That stage poses significant dangers for technology companies.

            In both cases, the ...

Suno is a leading AI-powered music generation platform which transforms simple text prompts, images, videos, or audio clips into fully produced songs complete with vocals and instrumentation. Last week, renowned music producer Timbaland faced backlash after he shared a demo online which was created using Suno’s platform. Shortly after the video was posted, fans noticed that Timbaland’s demo bore a striking resemblance to a beat made by another producer, K Fresh Music. K Fresh’s audible signature tag was even retained in the AI track but no credit was ever given to K Fresh for ...

On June 11, 2025, Disney (including Lucasfilm, Marvel, and 20^th Century Studios) and Universal Pictures (including DreamWorks) filed a Complaint for direct and secondary copyright infringement in the Central District of California against artificial intelligence (“AI”) firm Midjourney for its alleged “calculated and willful copyright infringement”. This suit marks the first time major Hollywood studios have taken the enforcement of their copyrights into their own hands and directly gone after a generative AI company.

In the suit, the studios attack Midjourney for ...

On April 30, 2025, the Federal Circuit issued a decision in Fintiv, Inc. v. PayPal Holdings, Inc. (No. 23-2312), issued on April 30, 2025, upholding the invalidation of Finitiv Inc.’s (“Finitiv”) mobile wallet patents related to cloud-based transaction systems based on the Court’s finding that the patents were indefinite because they described the result of the invention instead of the process to achieve the result.

Fintiv sued PayPal for infringing U.S. Patent Nos. 9,892,386; 11,120,413; 9,208,488; and 10,438,196. The parties’ dispute centered on how the term ...

            On April 29, 2025, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals revived the copyright infringement case filed by Sound and Color, LLC against Sam Smith, Normani, and related parties (collectively, “Defendants”) concerning the hit song "Dancing with a Stranger" by reversing the District Court’s granting of summary judgment in favor of Defendants. In making its decision, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the importance of the jury’s role in assessing substantial similarity.

            Sound and Color initiated a copyright infringement case against Defendants based on its allegation that the ...

On May 17, 2021, California’s Secretary of Health and Human Services, Dr. Mark Ghaly, announced that California would begin following the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (the “CDC”)’s new guidelines regarding the lifting of mask restrictions for fully vaccinated individuals on June 15, 2021. These new guidelines provide that those who are fully vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus no longer need to wear masks outdoors or in most indoor settings.

After serving as one of the major epicenters for the COVID-19 virus in the United States in the beginning of this ...

During the first quarter of 2021, various federal bills were introduced which impact the food industry. This article provides a primer on some of these bills and their potential impact on the food industry.

The Food Allergy Safety, Treatment, Education and Research (FASTER) Act (S.578), introduced by Senator Tim Scott on March 3, 2021, later passed by both the Senate and House of Representatives, and signed into law by President Biden on April 26, 2021:

• The FASTER Act requires companies to declare the presence of sesame on food packaging labels by January 1, 2023 and was introduced and ...

On February 4, 2020, California State Senator Scott Weiner, who represents San Francisco and parts of San Mateo County, introduced Senate Bill 314, the Bar and Restaurant Recovery Act (the “Act”), to modernize the bar and restaurant industry and provide more flexibility to facilitate the economic recovery of the industry from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Act’s goal is to help the bar and restaurant industry bounce back from the pandemic by reducing the red tape, lengthy turnaround times and permit redundancies of the industry in order to provide more economic ...

Food manufacturers are playing a crucial role during the COVID-19 crisis by supporting various essential businesses and keeping products on the shelves for consumers. The pandemic has disrupted their day-to-day operations and required new protocols for sanitation, social distancing in the workplace, and the distribution of products that are high in demand. Additionally, food manufacturers are required to comply with strict labeling regulations designed to keep consumers fully informed about the contents of their food. These regulations required that manufacturers alter ...