Important New Laws Will Have Ripple Effect For IP Owners, Practitioners

Intellectual property partners Lou Perry and Darren Cahr coauthored an article for the Indiana Lawyer titled, “Important new laws will have ripple effect for IP owners, practitioners,” that outlines three significant intellectual property measures included in the December COVID-19 relief negotiations.

Perry and Cahr detail how the new laws could fundamentally alter how intellectual property owners protect and enforce their rights. Two of the acts that the authors discuss are The Trademark Modernization Act of 2020, which includes other technical changes to the Lanham Act, and The Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement (CASE) Act. Additionally, Perry and Cahr note that the bill includes language that criminalizes the operation of a website that is “primarily” engaged in streaming unlicensed or pirated copyrighted works, which potentially allows the Justice Department to charge businesses with felonies.