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Can a car, a superhero, or even a cartoon sidekick be protected by copyright? In this episode of The Briefing, Scott Hervey and Matt Sugarman break down how fictional characters earn legal protection — and when they don’t.From DC Comics v. Towle (the “Batmobile” case) to Carroll Shelby Licensing v. Halicki (the “Eleanor” case), Scott and Matt explore the three-part test for character copyrightability, how trademark rights can extend protection, and what creators and studios can do to safeguard their most valuable IP assets.
Continue reading Protecting Fictional Characters: Copyright and Trademark Strategies
Former Congressman George Santos sued Jimmy Kimmel after the late-night host used Cameo videos in a comedy segment called “Will Santos Say It?” Santos claimed copyright infringement and fraud, but both the District Court and the Second Circuit said Kimmel’s use was fair use. In this episode of The Briefing, 
The Anthropic settlement shows just how costly copyright missteps can be in AI development. Anthropic has agreed to a $1.5B settlement after a court found that keeping a permanent library of pirated books was not fair use—even though training its AI model on those same works was.
Can you use a celebrity’s voice or image in your work? What about AI-generated versions? On this episode of The Briefing, 
Who owns the rights when you co-create something? It’s not always as simple as you think. On this episode of The Briefing, 
A federal judge has ruled that training Claude AI on copyrighted books—even without a license—was transformative and protected under fair use. But storing millions of pirated books in a permanent internal library? That crossed the line.
In this episode of The Briefing, 
The Supreme Court sidestepped a major copyright showdown—again. What does it mean when infringement claims surface decades later? In this episode of The Briefing, 
Can a car be a copyrightable character? In Carroll Shelby Licensing v. Halicki, the Ninth Circuit said no — ruling that “Eleanor,” the iconic Mustang from ‘Gone in 60 Seconds,’ lacks the distinctiveness and consistency required for copyright protection.
Warner Music Group just sued DSW for using 200+ hit songs in social media ads—without permission. Those TikToks could now cost $30M. On this episode of The Briefing, entertainment and IP attorneys 
On this episode of The Briefing,