The U.S. Supreme Court recently held that the provisions of the Lanham Act prohibiting trademark infringement and unfair competition are not extraterritorial and extend only to claims where the claimed infringing “use in commerce” occurs in the United States. The decision, Abitron Austria GmbH, et al. v. Hetronic International, Inc., is a major setback for...Read More

Generative AI is a type of artificial intelligence system that creates new data from patterns and structures learned from enormous amounts of training text and data such as books and websites, images, sound recordings and videos. In response to prompts, generative AI will produce realistic, human-like text and conversations, and some applications will create images,...Read More

The Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (VCDPA), a comprehensive privacy law that will affect many businesses either based in Virginia or doing business with or marketing to consumers in the Commonwealth next year, has been amended by the 2022 General Assembly. The amendments relate to consumer requests to delete personal data held by a business,...Read More

The U.S. Copyright Office issued final rules for how business entities can designate agents to receive Copyright Claims Board (CCB) claim notices and how libraries and archives can preemptively opt out of CCB claim proceedings. The CCB, which will eventually provide a voluntary alternative to federal court, is designed to be an efficient, cost-effective forum...Read More

Individuals involved in relatively small or specialized copyright infringement disputes now have an alternative to potentially costly and time-consuming lawsuits in federal district court. It is anticipated that by mid-2022, select disputed claims can be brought to the Copyright Claims Board (CCB), which was established by Congress through the Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement (CASE)...Read More

Signed into law earlier this year, the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (VCDPA) is a comprehensive privacy law that will affect many businesses either based in Virginia or doing business with or marketing to consumers in the Commonwealth. As the name suggests, the VCDPA is designed to provide protections to consumer data, allowing consumers to...Read More

Christian & Barton welcomes attorneys Steven W. Lippman and Robert D. Michaux to the firm. Lippman is an associate in the firm’s business law and health care practice groups. He received his law degree from the University of Richmond School of Law and his undergraduate degree from James Madison University. Michaux is counsel in the...Read More