Cardozo AELJ’s Spring 2024 Symposium Explores the Implications of the Warhol and Bad Spaniels Decisions on Copyright and Trademark Law
Thank you to everyone who attended and participated in the Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal’s spring symposium, “Barking Up the Wrong Tree: An Exploration of Intellectual Property Law Protections Following Bad Spaniels and Andy Warhol.” AELJ is proud to have hosted such a successful event, highlighting a range of thoughtful and engaging scholarship.
Amy Adler kicked off the event with a captivating keynote address that provided an overview of the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. v. Goldsmith. Professor Adler highlighted that this decision underscores the broader issue of courts determining the meanings and messages of visual art, whether courts should discern such meaning, and if so, how courts should go about this.
The first panel, focusing on copyright law, discussed how the Warhol opinion should have been structured while also acknowledging the correctly decided elements of the decision. The panelists presented arguments for how antitrust law can better inform the transformative use assessment when determining fair use of copyright, how the Court incorrectly conflated commercial licensing with the fair use defense, and why its decision in Warhol was right to reject an application of patent law’s prospect theory to copyright’s derivative work right.
Turning our attention to trademark law, the second panel dove into the implications of the Supreme Court’s recent Jack Daniel’s Properties, Inc. v. VIP Products LLC decision. The panelists discussed the intersection of the Court’s Jack Daniel’s and Abitron decisions, the Rogers test’s now-limited applicability, and parody.
We extend our sincerest thanks and utmost gratitude to all our panelists and moderators: Amy Adler, Michael Carroll, Stacey Dogan, Christine Haight Farley, Peter Karol, Jacob Noti-Victor, Jessica Silbey, Christopher Sprigman, Rebecca Tushnet, and Felix Wu.
We look forward to seeing you all at next year’s symposium!
More information on “Barking Up the Wrong Tree: An Exploration of Intellectual Property Law Protections Following Bad Spaniels and Andy Warhol” can be found here.
