Thomas B. James, Minnesota attorney in Cokato MN - copyright and trademark law
Thomas James (Thomas B James), Cokato Minnesota attorney. Education Cokato attorney Thomas B. James (less formally known as Tom James, or Thomas James) is a lawyer at the Law Office of Tom James in Cokato, Minnesota. He received his Juris Doctorate (J.D.) degree from Southwestern University in Los Angeles, California. He received his undergraduate (Bachelor of Arts) degree from the University of California – Berkeley. He has been practicing law full-time since 1995.
Attorney Thomas James has also completed training in arbitration, mediation, TESOL (Teaching English as a Second Language), TEYL (Teaching English to Young Learners), and TBE (Teaching Business English). Bar Admissions Although he is a Cokato attorney and Cokato is a very small rural town in greater Minnesota, attorney Thomas James is admitted to the bar of the United States Supreme Court. Pro Bono Work An attorney in private practice since 1995, Mr. Professional Memberships Minnesota attorney Thomas James is a member of the American Bar Association. Follow me on LinkedIn. Since 1995. Echion CLE - Attorney Tom James, Echion Cle.
“Ours is a learned profession, not a mere money-getting trade….” ABA Opinion 250 (1943) (quoting Canon 12 of the ABA Canons of Professional Ethics (1908)). Although the ABA deleted this provision when it replaced the Canons with the Model Code of Professional Responsibility, the Preamble to the Model Code still contains some precatory language to similar effect: "As a public citizen, a lawyer should seek improvement of the law, access to the legal system, the administration of justice and the quality of service rendered by the legal profession. As a member of a learned profession, a lawyer should . . . work to strengthen legal education. " Echion CLE is nothing more nor less than an earnest attempt to fulfill that obligation. History Echion CLE was originally organized as a limited liability company. Echion offered its first CLE course in 2021. The program deviated radically from the traditional CLE course format. A different kind of continuing education platform Academia Research Gate.
Thomas James - a Cokato, Minnesota (MN) Copyright Law Firm. Cokato Copyright Attorney: The Law Blog of Thomas James - Thomas James - Cokato Copyright Attorney: The Law Blog of Thomas James. Experience Business, copyright, and trademark attorney with over 25 years of experience. Thomas B. James (less formally known as Thomas James) is a Minnesota attorney at the Law Office of Tom James in Cokato. His practice is focused on copyright and trademark law, appeals and appellate practice. He also provides legal services to small businesses and nonprofit organizations, including securing tax-exempt status for nonprofit organizations. Founder of Echion, he has developed and presented continuing legal education courses on a variety of subjects. He has also been an adjunct professor for Minnesota State University.
In addition, Tom James has done a considerable amount of volunteer work. Tom James is a member of the American Bar Association’s Copyright and Emerging Technologies Committee. Education Tom James received his Bachelor of Arts degree (B.A.) from the University of California – Berkeley. Books Website Law (Echion, 2017) The History of Custody Law Tuber Tips and sweet potato recipes. Tom James, Attorney. Thomas (Tom) James, Cokato Minnesota lawyer (@TomBJames) / X. Something went wrong, but don’t fret — let’s give it another shot. Firefox’s Enhanced Tracking Protection (Strict Mode) is known to cause issues on x.com. Thomas James (@thomasbjamesminnesotaattorney) • Instagram photos and videos.
Thomas B. James - Nonfiction Authors Association. THOMAS JAMES - Updated May 2026 - Request Consultation - 10 Photos - 440 Broadway Ave N, Cokato, Minnesota - IP & Internet Law. Echion CLE - Attorney Tom James, Echion Cle. Thomas James (Thomas B James), Cokato Minnesota attorney. Tom James, Cokato Minnesota attorney | Thomas B James. Pearltrees Extension - Chrome Web Store. Pearltrees lets you organize all your interests. Pearltrees lets you organize everything effortlessly. Add your content, transform it with Pearltrees AI, and organize it into beautiful collections.
Discover and share millions of resources on your favorite topics. With Pearltrees, access all your interests anytime, anywhere! Thomas B. James, Cokato MN attorney | Practice Areas. 090065. Thomas B. James, Minnesota attorney: Disambiguation. Copyrights in AI-Generated Content - Cokato Copyright Attorney: The Law Blog of Thomas James. Copyright registrations are being issued for works created with generative-AI tools, subject to some important qualifications. Also, Internet Archves revisited (briefly) The U.S. Copyright Office has issued its long-awaited report on the copyrightability of works created using AI-generated output. The legality of using copyrighted works to train generative-AI systems is a topic for another day. Key takeaways: Copyright protects the elements of a work that are created by a human, but does not protect elements that were AI-generated (probably the key take-away from the Report) The Copyright Office believes existing law is adequate to deal with AI copyright issues; it does not believe any new legislation is needed Using AI to assist in the creative process does not affect copyrightability Prompts do not provide sufficient control over the output to be considered creative works.
Prompts How much control does a human need over the output-generation process to be considered an author? The U.S. Court of Appeals Affirms Registration Refusal for AI-Generated Output - Cokato Copyright Attorney: The Law Blog of Thomas James. In 2019, Stephen Thaler developed an AI system he called The Creativity Machine. He generated output he called A Recent Entrance to Paradise. When he applied to register a copyright claim in the output, he listed the machine as the author. He claimed ownership of the work as a work made for hire. In his application, he asserted that the work was autonomously created by a machine. The Copyright Office denied the claim on the basis that human authorship is a required element of a copyright claim.
On appeal, the United States district court affirmed the Copyright Office’s decision. The Court of Appeals Affirms Thaler sought review in the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The Court held that the question whether Thalercould claim authorship on the basis of the fact that he made and directed the operation of the Creativity Machine has not been preserved for appeal.
Like this: Like Loading... Author: Thomas James Formally known as Thomas B. Photographers' Rights - Cokato Copyright Attorney: The Law Blog of Thomas James. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a trial judge’s dismissal of a photographer’s copyright infringement complaint, holding that because “fair use” was not clearly established on the face of the complaint, the district court should not have dismissed the complaint sua sponte.
Romanova v. Amilus, Inc. Romanova v. Amilus, Inc., No. 23-828 (2nd Cir., May 23, 2025) The Second Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a trial judge’s dismissal of a photographer’s copyright infringement complaint, holding that because “fair use” was not clearly established on the face of the complaint, the district court should not have dismissed the complaint sua sponte. Photographer Jana Romanova created a photograph of a woman with a snake wrapped around her left hand and another snake crawling up her torso. The defendant allegedly did not appear or respond to the complaint, so Romanova moved for the entry of default judgment. Romanova appealed. Fair Use Romanova, supra. Sua Sponte Dismissal for “Fair Use” When Your Car Is a Character - Cokato Copyright Attorney: The Law Blog of Thomas James.
Carroll Shelby Licensing v. Halicki et al. If you’re like me, you’ve probably owned a car with character, or even several cars with character, at some time in your life. A used Volkswagen Jetta with a replacement alternator that was held in place with washers. An old Plymouth Duster with a floor and doors that rusted clean through before the slant-6 ever had a problem. A Honda Fit that . . . well, this is probably a good place to stop dredging up memories. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals had occasion to address this very question in Carroll Shelby Licensing et al. v. Gone in 60 Seconds and Sequela In the 1974 movie, Gone in 60 Seconds, the protagonist is tasked with stealing forty-eight types of cars.
Three movies incorporating elements of this one were made and released thereafter — The Junkman, Deadline Auto Theft, and a year 2000 remake of Gone in 60 Seconds. Shelby contracted with Classic Recreations to produce “GT-500CR” Mustangs. Character Copyrights 1. 2. 3. Quiz Like this: The Copyright Discovery Rule Stands - Cokato Copyright Attorney: The Law Blog of Thomas James. Last year, the United States Supreme Court held that as long as a claim is timely filed, damages may be recovered for any loss or injury, including losses incurred more than three years before the claim is filed (Warner Chappell Music. v.
Nealy). The Court expressed no opinion about whether the Copyright Act’s three-year limitation period begins to run when the infringing act occurs or when the victim discovers it, leaving that question for another day. “Another day” arrived, but the Court still declined to address it. What, if anything, can be made of that? Statute of Limitations for Copyright Infringement The Copyright Act imposes a 3-year limitations period for copyright infringement claims. No civil action shall be maintained under the provisions of this title unless it is commenced within three years after the claim accrued. 17 U.S.C. 507(b). But when does a claim accrue? According to the “incident of injury” rule, an infringement claim accrues when an infringing act occurs. The U.S. AI OK; Piracy Not: Bartz v. Anthropic - Cokato Copyright Attorney: The Law Blog of Thomas James. A federal judge has issued a landmark fair use decision in a generative-AI copyright infringement lawsuit.
In a previous blog post, I wrote about the fair use decision in Thomson Reuters v. ROSS. As I explained there, that case involved a search-and-retrieval AI system, so the holding was not determinative of fair use in the context of generative AI. Now we finally have a decision that addresses fair use in the generative-AI context. Bartz et al. v. Anthropic is an AI software firm founded by former OpenAI employees.
Adrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, and Kirk Wallace Johnson are book authors. Earlier this year, Anthropic filed a motion for summary judgment on the question of fair use. On June 23, 2025, Judge Alsup issued an Order granting summary judgment in part and denying it in part. The Order includes several key rulings. Digitization Anthropic acquired both pirated and lawfully purchased printed copies of copyright-protected works and digitized them to create a central e-library. Order. Court Rules AI Training is Fair Use - Cokato Copyright Attorney: The Law Blog of Thomas James. Just days after the first major fair use ruling in a generative-AI case, a second court has determined that using copyrighted works to train AI is fair use. Kadrey et al. v. Meta Platforms, No. 3:23-cv-03417-VC (N.D. Cal. June 25, 2025). The Kadrey v. I previously wrote about this lawsuit here and here. Meta Platforms owns and operates social media services including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
To train its AI, Meta obtained data from a wide variety of sources. Meta trained its AI models to prevent them from “memorizing” and outputting text from the training data, with the result that no more than 50 words and punctuation marks from any given work were reproduced in any given output. The plaintiffs named in the Complaint are thirteen book authors who have published novels, plays, short stories, memoirs, essays, and nonfiction books. Judge Chhabria’s Fair Use Analysis Judge Chhabria analyzed each of the four fair use factors. 3 Ways of Proving Adverse Market Effect Market Substitution. Voice Cloning - Cokato Copyright Attorney: The Law Blog of Thomas James. Lehrman v. Lovo, Inc. On July 10, 2025, the federal district court for the Southern District of New York issued an Order granting in part and denying in part a motion to dismiss a putative class action lawsuit that Paul Lehrman and Linnea Sage commenced against Lovo, Inc.
The lawsuit, Lehrman v. Lovo, Inc., alleges that Lovo used artificial intelligence to make and sell unauthorized “clones” of their voices. Specifically, the complaint alleges that the plaintiffs are voice-over actors. For a fee, they read and record scripts for their clients. This lawsuit ensued. The complaint sets out claims for: Copyright infringement Trademark infringement Breach of contract Fraud Conversion Unjust enrichment Unfair competition New York civil rights laws New York consumer protection laws. The defendant moved to dismiss the complaint for failure to state a claim.
The copyright claims Copyright protection in a sound recording extends only to the actual recording itself. The trademark claims False association. Excuse Me While I KIST the Sky - Cokato Copyright Attorney: The Law Blog of Thomas James. The Jimi Hendrix song, “Purple Haze” contains one of the most famous misheard lyrics of all time. Ever fixated on sex and sexuality, many people insist that when he sings, “Excuse me while I kiss the sky,” he is saying, “Excuse me while I kiss this guy.” Kiss the sky and kiss this guy are near-homophones, that is to say, they are phrases that nearly sound alike.
In the trademark world, homophones and near-homophones can create or contribute to a likelihood of confusion which, in turn, can result in a denial of registration to one of the marks and/or infringement liability. Jimi Hendrix also wrote a song called Love or Confusion, but that is a story for a different day. See In re Peace and Love World Live, LLC. Sunkist Growers v. Intrastate Distributors Intrastate Distributors, Inc. applied to register KIST, both as a standard character mark and as a stylized mark, for soft drinks.
On July 23, 2025, the U.S. The DuPont Factors Confusing Similarity Conclusion Like this: Like Loading... Excuse Me While I KIST the Sky - Cokato Copyright Attorney: The Law Blog of Thomas James. Smelly Trademarks - Cokato Copyright Attorney: The Law Blog of Thomas James. If you have a distinctive smell, you might be able to claim trademark rights in it. If it smells like a trademark and it functions like a trademark, it might be a trademark. Rose-Scented Tires Sumitomo Rubber Industries has successfully applied for the registration of an olfactory trademark in India. It is the smell of a rose, as applied to tires. India’s Trademark Registry has now accepted it for advertisement. This is not the first time Sumitomo has secured trademark protection for its smelly tires. In fact, the company’s rosy tire was the first smell mark registered in the United Kingdom, back in 1996. It’s a Smell World Since the U.K.’s venture into scent trademarks, smell trademarks have been approved in several other jurisdictions around the world.
In 1999, the European Union accepted an application to register the smell of freshly cut grass as a trademark for tennis balls. The non-functionality requirement is the biggest obstacle for scent trademarks in the United States. It worked. Trump's Executive Order on AI - Cokato Copyright Attorney: The Law Blog of Thomas James. Last Exit from Paradise. Can We Talk Here? – Trademark Speech Rights. The New Copyright Circumvention Rules | Cokato Copyright Attorney: The Law Blog of Thomas James. New Trademark Fees Coming | Cokato Copyright Attorney. Top Copyright Cases of 2024 | Thomas B James Cokato attorney.
Copyright Fair Use| Thomas James. Copyright owners prevail in Internet Archive lawsuit. Is Jazz Confusingly Similar to Music? | Thomas James. Trademark | Balancing the First Amendment on Whiskey and Dog Toys. Copyright owners prevail in Internet Archive lawsuit.