BTO's Music & Creative Industries Team
In April this year, the internet went crazy for the song “Heart on my Sleeve” which was released on 4 April 2023 and subsequently pulled from major music streaming platforms on 15 April 2023. In the 11 days that the song was available, it amassed around 600,000 streams on Spotify. Those who have heard the …
“Heart on my Sleeve” – AI Generated Voices in MusicRead More
In January, stock photo provider Getty Images (“Getty”) announced that it had commenced legal proceedings in London against Stability AI, creators of popular artificial intelligence (“AI”) tool Stable Diffusion, a text-to-image diffusion model capable of generating photo-realistic images in response to text inputs. Getty, which sells the right to use images from a catalogue of …
Blockchain, cryptocurrency and NFTs can be divisive. For some they are a flash in the pan that haven’t quite lived up to the hype. For others, they are the future. Either way, there is no denying that recent sales of some NFTs (non-fungible tokens) have generated significant returns for sellers, but some confusion still remains …
After an 11-day High Court trial in London, Ed Sheeran has emerged victorious in the face of allegations that his 2017 hit Shape of You copied another artist’s song. The dispute The dispute arose when grime artist Sami Chokri (who performs under the name Sami Switch) notified the Performing Rights Society Limited (“PRS”) that he …
Hook, line and sinker – How Ed Sheeran won in court.Read More
Cofemel – Sociedade de Vestuário SA v G-Star Raw. Background Since the 1990’s G-Star has been the proprietor or exclusive licence holder of trade marks including G-STAR, G-STAR RAW, G-STAR DENIM RAW, GS-RAW and RAW with jeans, tops and other clothing known under the design name ARC and ROWDY. Cofemel similarly makes clothing and produces …
On 29th July 2019, the Court of Justice of the European Union issued a judgment (click here for full judgement) in response to a referral from the German national courts on the sampling of part of a 1977 Kraftwerk song, “Metall auf Metall”. In a long running claim by two members of Kraftwerk against German …
Sampling in the music industry – a hard Kraft to masterRead More
Our interaction with the internet is an all-time high and as consumers reliance on it for delivery of services and products and for income generation continues to increase. The monetisation of IP throughout internet usage has increased exponentially in recent times and so the protection required for consumers and creatives has undergone a much needed …
EU Copyright Directive – Is this the answer or will it leave creatives worse off?Read More
Paul Motion considers the new law on Unjustified Threats in relation to intellectual property actions. Threatening to sue for alleged infringements of trade marks, design rights and patents could spectacularly backfire. Under the old law any person who was “aggrieved by” an “Unjustified Threat” to bring such proceedings could themselves sue the person making that …
