US-based photographer Stephanie Campbell has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Gannett Media Corp. and more than 220 Gannett news outlets for allegedly using a photo she shot without permission.
Campbell claims she owns the right to a photo she took of former National Football League coach Katie Sowers, which Gannett obtained through a screenshot to publish to their readers and sub
Greek clothing brand Devotion Twins has accused retailer Decjuba of copying their dress designs in its latest summer collection.
Devotion Twins claims Decjuba, which operates 140 stores in Australia and New Zealand, ripped off its popular trademark-registered Ella dress design that had become internationally recognized and worn by actors such as Catherine Zeta-Jones and socialite Kris Jenner.
The year 2022 was filled with many IP rip-off stories where young creators accused popular brands of stealing their ideas.
PitchMark covered many of the much-discussed stories about IP theft during the year, ranging from a joke at the Oscars to design rip-offs. Here’s a compilation of the best stories of 2022 from PitchMark.
These are the stories where you, our readers, have engaged with th
Riot Games has sued Chinese gaming company NetEase for allegedly copying its game Valorant despite requesting changes be made to the game.
The American game development and publishing company known for its popular League of Legends game claims that NetEase’s mobile game Hyper Front is a “copy of substantial parts of Valorant.”
It filed a 162-page lawsuit in various countries - United Kingdo
Singaporean photographer Jingna Zhang’s lawsuit against a Luxembourg-based art student Jeff Dieschburg accusing him of copying her work has been rejected by the district court in Luxembourg.
According to Luxembourg media outlet Delano, the court determined that Zhang's photograph did not meet the requirements to be covered by Luxembourg or European copyright law, asserting that “there was insuf
The discussion surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) art is developing quickly. In recent months, an AI-generated image took first prize at a fine art competition, an exhibition of DALL-E 2-produced artwork opened in a museum, and an artist registered a work she created using an AI generator with the US Copyright Office.
In September, New York-based artist Kris Kashtanova became the first pe
Renowned graffiti artist Banksy has accused fashion retailer GUESS of allegedly stealing his artwork and exploiting it for promotional purposes without giving proper credit or taking permission. GUESS has since clarified its position.
A GUESS store window on Regent Street displayed Banksy's most famous artwork, The Flower Thrower, Flower Bomber, Rage, or Love is in the Air.
It showed an imag
Mexico’s independent designers are facing a slew of design rip-offs by larger brands, and the indigenous designs are also not being spared. However, the Mexican government has now stepped up its efforts to protect the country’s independent and indigenous creations.
Designer Georgina Chávez is the latest victim of a rip-off. She alleged that her designs have been copied and sold on China’s onlin
The song Some Things Never Change from the Frozen II animated movie is the subject of a copyright infringement lawsuit against The Walt Disney Co. and songwriters Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez.
Musician Daniel Grigson accused the songwriters of stealing key melodic elements, chord progressions, and even portions of the words from his song That Girl which he wrote almost two decades ag
In response to accusations of copying a joke of comedian Ricky Gervais, James Corden has accepted that he said it but didn’t know it came from Gervais.
The anchor of The Late Late Show delivered a talk about Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter and included a joke that fans noticed was strikingly similar to one from Gervais's 2018 stand-up performance Humanity.
In the joke, Corden said: “When you
The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival's organizers have accused a cannabis business park in California of trademark infringement for adopting and using the term "Coachillin".
Coachillin Holdings and several associated entities have been accused of taking advantage of a common hashtag and expression associated with the music festival.
In the lawsuit, AEG’s Goldenvoice, the owner of the
Hit Indian movie Kantara has been accused of plagiarism by popular music band Thaikkudam Bridge, which has alleged that the song Varaha Roopam from the film is a copy of its song Navarasam with its identical melody and chords.
The band took to social media to express their frustration.
It shared the album cover of their music alongside the poster of Varaha Roopam on Instagram to inform thei
A new decision from the Singapore court highlights the nature of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and the applicability of existing laws to such relatively novel technologies.
The High Court of the Republic of Singapore has ultimately determined that NFTs may be considered property and thus "be the subject of a proprietary injunction”.
The order is in reference to an injunction from May inv
While Marvel's show Werewolf by Night has gained a lot of popularity amongst its viewers, it has been accused of copying its poster image of a werewolf with red eyes from a graphic designer.
Estonia-based Midiankai has accused Marvel of stealing his design that he had created six years ago as a T-shirt image for hardcore Dutch band Born from Pain.
Midiankai tweeted a photo of his design alon
H&M Home has been accused of plagiarism in their new line of homeware products.
Independent Swedish designer Mimmi Blomqvist blamed the company for copying her bowl designs and robbing her of only livelihood.
As soon as the launch event took place, Blomqvist’s fans sent her messages and pictures of products from the event that looked identical to her products.
On Instagram, Blomqvist
Innovators spend most of their time and energy in creating, and often miss out on protecting their ideas, or learning about different ways to deter third parties, with whom they might share their ideas, from copying them without due credit or compensation.
Nobody expects creators to become legal experts and that's precisely why PitchMark is building a Global Legal Network of law firms and lawye
Singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran will face a jury trial for plagiarizing Marvin Gaye’s 1973 hit Let’s Get It On to write his song 2014 song Thinking Out Loud, after he failed to dismiss the case.
The lawsuit alleges that Sheeran and his co-writer Amy Wadge "copied and exploited, without authorization or credit."
They are accused of using melodic, harmonic, rhythmic, instrumental, and dynamic ele
In a bid to protect copyright and stimulate creativity, the Chinese Government has intensified its efforts to monitor people who copy other creative works without their consent to create non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
The National Copyright Administration (NCA) will clamp down on offences such as the minting of NFTs based on other people’s works like art, cartoons, music, video games, etc without
Sisters vs. sisters. Media personalities Kylie Jenner and Kourtney Kardashian have come under fire for using marketing tactics for their brands Lemme and Kylie Skin from influencers Brooklyn and Bailey McKnight.
In August, twin sisters Brooklyn and Bailey launched ITK (“in the know”), a 15-piece skincare line available at Walmart, which has been marketed on all their social media accounts.
Belgian filmmaker Thierry Michel is being alleged of plagiarism in his movie Empire of Silence, but he thinks the motive to ban his film is something else.
Michel is being sued in the Democratic Republic of Congo by documentary makers Gilbert Balufu Mbaye and Balufu Bakupa-Kanyinda.
They have accused Michel of copying their 2015 film The Silence of Forgotten Crimes after he released his movi
