Cathay (Cath-Ā) Smith🪻

Professor @ChicagoKentLaw (formerly @UMontanaLaw & Visiting Research Fellow @Oxford_OIPRC) ❤️ copyright, art, cultural property law.

[Cathay (Cath-Ā) Smith🪻 @CathaySmith]

The case is Zhang v. AnyDesign US, et al. Oral arguments will be held on October 30, 2025 at 9:30 am. (Many thanks to my fab colleague Sarah Fackrell for alerting me to this dispute, which was filed as a #ScheduleA case.)

[Cathay (Cath-Ā) Smith🪻 @CathaySmith]

A copyrighting nature case is heading to the Seventh Circuit! Plaintiff claims copyright to a photo of natural marble design. District Court vacated preliminary injunction finding lack of record to support originality, and plaintiff appealed. #copyright #originality

[Cathay (Cath-Ā) Smith🪻 @CathaySmith]

the work owes its originality to nature and/or is an exact duplicate (or “slavish copy”) of a natural product, which does not meet copyright originality.

For a deep dive into these legal issues and similar cases check out "Copyrighting Nature": https://t.co/bOuhEVyDxI

[Cathay (Cath-Ā) Smith🪻 @CathaySmith]

😬😰😅

[Cathay (Cath-Ā) Smith🪻 @CathaySmith]

Ok #Chicago, I understand that it’s important to be prepared, but couldn’t we have paused the monthly disaster sirens testing just for today?

[Professor Renee Knake Jefferson @reneeknake]

A story I never planned to write but needs to be told - pregnant at 50, facing life and death dictated by state lines. @Newsweek #AbortionIsHealthcare

Buckle up for a wild ride and a long thread 🧵 1/20

https://t.co/rNohfMdOxG

[Getty @GettyMuseum]

We may have images but we are not @gettyimages (hi guys)...despite similar names. Sorry for any confusion.

[alexandra j. roberts @lexlanham]

pretty soon she'll reach the age of majority & then she can make her own decisions

i argue in "of marks & minors," forthcoming in @houstonlrev, that it shouldn't be so easy for parents to consent on behalf of minor children to register their name marks

https://t.co/OmVy0ESfHC

[Zvi S. Rosen @zvisrosen]

As "Who Framed Mickey Mouse" approaches publication with @KansasLawReview, a short (~3k words) policy companion piece I wrote is looking for a home - it was originally written for a symposium but it doesn't quite fit: https://t.co/ml67UD9kqC - any journals interested?

[Brian L. Frye @brianlfrye]

@tiffanycli Be the copyright problem you wish to see.

[Tiffany C. Li @tiffanycli]

@brianlfrye Every problem is a copyright problem if you try hard enough

[Cathay (Cath-Ā) Smith🪻 @CathaySmith]

But that requires copyright owners of the images to assert infringement, and individuals featured in photos don't always own the #copyright to photos of themselves.

[Cathay (Cath-Ā) Smith🪻 @CathaySmith]

As @andrew_gilden (@WillametteLaw) and I explain in @thehill, because of strong protections for political speech, claims against these unauthorized uses are difficult. Historically, the most successful claims have been brought under copyright law...

#copyrightlaw @ChicagoKentLaw

[Andrew Gilden @andrew_gilden]

Quoted in this article re: legal remedies for trans people & drag performers placed in GOP ads w/o consent. @CathaySmith quoted too.

https://t.co/EPBuUyJU0z

[Cathay (Cath-Ā) Smith🪻 @CathaySmith]

Check out this Financial Times article discussing my @ChicagoKentLaw IP colleague @Jordi_Goodman's important research.

We should all be asking: is our society missing out on life-changing inventions or solutions due to systemic barriers in the patent system? #patent #equity #IP

[Chicago-Kent Law @ChicagoKentLaw]

What causes gender and race disparities in patenting? 🤔 Chicago-Kent College of Law Associate Professor Jordana Goodman discusses systemic barriers faced by underrepresented inventors and notes that tech like generative AI isn’t a cure-all for bias: https://t.co/jqlvmYF8LK

[Chicago-Kent Law @ChicagoKentLaw]

What causes gender and race disparities in patenting? 🤔 Chicago-Kent College of Law Associate Professor Jordana Goodman discusses systemic barriers faced by underrepresented inventors and notes that tech like generative AI isn’t a cure-all for bias: https://t.co/jqlvmYF8LK

[Cathay (Cath-Ā) Smith🪻 @CathaySmith]

the case will likely come down to whether the the image that Musk used copied enough protectable elements from BR2049 for the two to be substantially similar.

[Cathay (Cath-Ā) Smith🪻 @CathaySmith]

I was quoted in this Bloomberg News article about Elon Musk's use of copyrighted images from Blade Runner 2049 for his robotaxi presentation. https://t.co/tm2JhOkSKZ #copyright #bladerunner2049 @ChicagoKentLaw

As explained in the article, this isn't a fair use case. Instead...

[Cathay (Cath-Ā) Smith🪻 @CathaySmith]

🧐Brancusi's "Golden Bird" is in the background of the pic: part of the artist's Bird series that later developed into his "Bird in Space" sculptures. Bird in Space (Flight) was at the center of the 1928 Customs Court case Brancusi v. US that helped redefine "art" under U.S. law

[Cathay (Cath-Ā) Smith🪻 @CathaySmith]

Spotted! My incredible students from @ChicagoKentLaw's Intellectual & Cultural Property Law seminar visiting the @artinstitutechi to discuss legal issues of art as speech, copyright & appropriation art, & cultural property repatriation. #copyright #artlaw #culturalproperty