Topics: Legal affairs

  • teamLab sues a museum for copying its immersive art, but can it really be protected when the artwork itself is ever-changing?

    Japanese art collective teamLab, founded in 2001 and known for creating 360-degree interactive software environments, has sued the Museum of Dream Space (MODS) for violating its copyrights.
    teamLab’s museums have become popular over the years. In fact, its museum installations and other players such as Yayoi Kusama’s “Infinity Mirrored Rooms” and the Color Factory are so successful that they ha

  • Australian designer Ambra Fossati accuses beauty influencer of copying a dress design

    Australian designer Ambra Fossati has accused a beauty influencer Shani Grimmond also hailing from Down Under, for allegedly copying her design.
    The dress in question is a crew-neck maxi with long sleeves and sheer stretch knit that Grimmond hinted at releasing under her Sylk Swim label on her Instagram account, which has a massive following of 1.4 million users.
    Fossati is a well-known desi

  • Ed Sheeran wins copyright battle over his 2017 hit "Shape of You"

    British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran has finally won a four-year copyright battle over his 2017 hit song Shape of You after a UK judge concluded that he had not plagiarized the work of another British artist.
    Sami Chokri - aka Sami Switch - and songwriter Ross O’Donoghue had blamed Ed Sheeran and two of his co-writers for plagiarizing part of a track.
    He claimed that the “Oh I” melodic hook

  • Did Swedish fashion house H&M copy textured knitwear design from a young designer?

    A young London-based Asian-American fashion designer Chet Lo has accused the Swedish clothing brand H&M of copying his signature highly textured knitwear.
    The allegation revolves around a pink knitwear dress included in H&M’s “Innovation Cherish Waste” collection that looks like Lo’s famous spiky design, which was featured in Doja Cat and SZA’s “Kiss Me More” music video.
    As soon as

  • Rip-off or not: Singaporean model accused Russian artist of using the likeness of her face on a topless body and exhibiting it for sale

    Singaporean model Duan Mei Yue has accused Russian artist Angelina Poveteva of painting the likeness of her face on a topless body, and then exhibiting the painting at a Moscow art fair and selling it without her consent.
    Duan published a two-minute video on social media to raise her concern along with the supporting evidence. She claimed that Poveteva had sold the painting to two buyers for US

  • Rip-off or not: Malaysians identify a copycat brand of Spanish frozen dessert brand ‘llaollao’ on the first day of its launch

    A newly open dessert store in Malaysia is being blamed for copying the whole concept of a frozen store franchise that operates in the country.
    II.Ia.Io, a Malaysian small business that specialises in frozen yogurt, recently opened its first outlet to compete with llaollao, a Spanish frozen yoghurt desert chain that operates in the nation.
    As soon as the new store opened its doors to customer

  • Did Asghar Farhadi plagiarise the idea for “A Hero” movie from his student?

    Oscar-winning Iranian director Asghar Farhadi has been accused of stealing the concept of his successful movie A Hero from his former student Azadeh Masihzadeh. 
    Masihzadeh had filed a case against Farhadi in a Tehran court for plagiarising the concept from her documentary All Winners All Losers, which was made for a workshop led by Farhadi in 2014. The movie was also shown at a film festival i

  • Designing the future - calling innovators, creators, designers and start-up founders! Webinar featuring leading legal IP experts on World Intellectual Property Day.

    Young people in the Asia Pacific number approximately 718 million aged 15-24 years. As future innovators and entrepreneurs finding creative solutions to the world’s problems, they would do well to arm themselves with knowledge and skills regarding the intellectual property (IP) they are creating.
    World Intellectual Property Day is an annual event that is celebrated on April 26. The theme of th

  • Dua Lipa’s hit song "Levitating" slapped with two copyright cases

    British pop star Dua Lipa is facing two copyright infringement cases relating to her smash hit song “Levitating” released during the pandemic. A US-based reggae band has accused her of copying a portion of their song, while two songwriters have accused her of ripping off their decade-old disco songs.
    The first claim was made by the US-based Artikal Sound System. It sued Dua Lipa and her label

  • 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: Nairobi’s Imaara Mall accused of stealing the work of a creative designer

    The Imaara retail mall in Nairobi has been accused of copying the work of a Nigerian graphic designer-cum-photographer based in the United States.
    The newly opened mall's external walls were painted with a style of art that closely resembles Temi Coker's designs on his Behance account.
    Temi began creating his own unique design styles shortly after leaving Adobe in 2019. Since then, his desig

  • Advertising agency accuses Coinbase of idea theft

    The US-based cryptocurrency exchange platform Coinbase’s 60-second super bowl ad was a massive hit, but it was accused of copying someone else’s idea without giving credit to the company that came up with the concept.
    In February, the exchange aired a simple colorful QR code that floated on the screen for a minute which could be scanned to redeem $15 worth of free Bitcoin and a chance to win US

  • 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

  • The important role of IP as Philippines aims to become Southeast Asia's top creative economy

    In September 2021, the Philippines’ House of Representatives passed a landmark bill known as the Philippine Creative Industries Development Act. It could soon become a law, and its goal is nothing less than to make the country Southeast Asia's top creative economy by 2030.
    Already, the Philippines’ creative sector is full of potential. In 2014, with little government support, the creative econo

  • 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

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