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  • Indian historian Vikram Sampath embroiled in plagiarism row

    Indian historian Vikram Sampath has been accused of plagiarism in an article written by him in 2017 as well as copying a passage in his two-volume biography on the Indian political leader Vinayak Damodar Savarkar.
    In the first instance, a trio of USA-based historians and academics Rohit Chopra, Ananya Chakravarti and Audrey Truschke, highlighted multiple sentences from Sampath’s 2017 article wh

  • Rip-off or not: Croatia coin design winner blamed for plagiarism

    The winner of Croatia’s coin logo competition is accused of copying the design from a 17-year-old photo taken by a Scottish photographer and has since withdrawn from the competition and returned the prize money.Croatia needs a new coin design for circulation as it is adopting the Euro currency in 2023. To achieve this goal, the country’s central bank had organized a competition for the best design

  • PitchMark is now on Medium.com too

    PitchMark is pleased to announce that our content is now available on the Medium platform as well.
    We are excited about engaging Medium’s community of creators and innovators, and will continue raising awareness of the importance of registering their valuable intellectual property before sharing it with the world.
    If you’re on Medium and want to help us get to know this new universe better,

  • Deepfake of Ukraine’s Zelenskyy shows that IP laws governing such tech is urgently needed

    Recently, a video featuring a deepfake version of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy appeared on social media, asking his troops to surrender in the ongoing war with Russia.
    The video was quickly identified as a fake, partly due to its poor quality. Zelenskyy also swiftly posted a video of himself exposing the deepfake, and Facebook, YouTube and Twitter announced they had removed the vide

  • IP Chit Chat with film producer Juan Foo

    Thanks to technological advancement, new platforms are being launched every other day, providing more opportunities for creators to share their stories with the world. However, that also means that protecting the intellectual property rights of these stories is more important than ever. In the first interview in our new IP Chit Chat series, we speak to veteran Singapore film producer Juan Foo abou

  • Rip-off or not: Bored Ape Yacht Club vs Bored Wukong


    Another day, another kerfuffle in the world of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) — and this time, the fuss is all about cartoon monkeys. 
    The Bored Ape Yacht Club is an NFT project that has attracted a lot of interest from celebrities. It comprises a collection of 10,000 illustrations of apes, and digital ownership of these gives buyers bragging rights, the ability to monetise their ape avatars v

  • How the war in Ukraine is changing IP laws in Russia and beyond

    Countries around the world have levied heavy sanctions on Russia ever since it invaded Ukraine. Some multinational companies have also halted their operations in the country. In turn, Russia has retaliated with a series of bans and even changed its intellectual property laws.Many movie studios in the West have refused to release new movies in Russia. Warner Bros had planned to release The Batman m

  • NFTs are the latest frontier in musicians’ long battle to gain control over their IP

    In the music business, the ownership of intellectual property has often been a controversial subject, and that’s all because of the lopsided balance of control. In short, record companies tend to seize most of the control. But that might change, if start-ups pushing ownership models based on non-fungible tokens (NFTs) take off.
    In the short amount of time that NFTs have become a trending topic

  • Who owns the IP rights to HK icon Anita Mui’s life and legacy?

    Anita, a biopic about Hong Kong pop icon Anita Mui, drew critical praise and achieved commercial success when it was released last year. However, the movie has also sparked litigation from the late entertainer’s brother, who claims that the film’s production company has infringed on his rights over two registered trademarks.
    According to the South China Morning Post, Peter Mui, Anita’s elder b

  • Rip-off or not: Makers of Russian movie Yolki 8 accused of copying "human Christmas tree" photo concept

    Social media is filled with photos and videos used by people who do not seek permission from the original creators. Most recently, for example, a Russian production house was pinpointed as having copied the original concept of a photographer without bothering to tweak the original concept even slightly.In December 2015, photographer Stig Havard Dirdal was hired by the Norwegian camera store Stavan

  • High Court dismisses claim for copyright infringement in pop song

    The following article by Rachel Alexander was first published here by Wiggin, a UK based firm focused on the practice of media, technology and intellectual property law. It is re-published here with Wiggin's permission.
    The claimant, Kelly-Marie Smith, is the composer and lyricist of a song, “Can You Tell Me”. The song was never released commercially, but in October 2007 Ms Smith performed a

  • High Court grants first website blocking order in relation to stream ripping sites

    The following article by Rachel Alexander was first published here by Wiggin, a UK based firm focused on the practice of media, technology and intellectual property law. It is re-published here with Wiggin's permission.
    The claimant record companies issued proceedings against the six main internet service providers in the UK seeking an order pursuant to s 97A of the Copyright, Designs and

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