Blog Post: 2023 End of Year Recap

2023 End of Year Recap

As we close another successful year, we want to highlight some of the impact of your contributions for 2023:

The Nexus of Social Justice and Intellectual Property

  • Our monthly newsletters (https://iipsj.org/latest-news/) provided readers with timely and relevant recent developments in intellectual property law that have particular impacts on diverse communities and the concept of social justice, including:
    • The Supreme Court Decision in Gonzalez v. Google (https://iipsj.org/gonzalez-v-google/), which IIPSJ Founder and Director Lateef Mtima noted “implicitly acknowledges the complexity of the issues and interests impacted by Section 230, including the need to preserve venues through which marginalized and vulnerable voices and perspectives can be heard.”
    • The Supreme Court Decision in Warhol v. Goldsmith (https://iipsj.org/warhol-v-goldsmith/), which IIPSJ Founder and Director Lateef Mtima noted “ensures the vitality of the Fair Use doctrine while protecting artists, particularly marginalized and developing artists, from the distortion of the doctrine into a tool for the misappropriation of one artist’s work by another artist with greater fame and public recognition.”
    • Public Knowledge’s paper entitled Streaming in the Dark: Where Music Listeners’ Money Goes – and Doesn’t, which explained how billions in music subscription revenues “trickle up” into the pockets of “Rightsholding Middlemen,” leaving comparatively little for the artists themselves (https://publicknowledge.org/policy/streaming-in-the-dark-where-music-listeners-money-goes-and-doesnt/).
  • Working with our various academic partners, IIPSJ organized the ninth annual IP MOSAIC Conference, where we created a space for IP scholars, political activists, practicing attorneys, community organizers, and policy makers to discuss papers and collaborate on various topics of IP empowerment. (https://iipsj.org/programs/ip-mosaic/) The theme was IP Rights and Wrongs: Advancing Social Justice and Ethics.

Diversifying the Legal Field and the Intellectual Property Bar

  • For two decades, the IIPSJ IP and Social Justice CLE program (https://iipsj.org/2023-ip-social-justice-cle-recap/) has provided a venue through which to showcase minority and women IP attorneys. The 20th Annual IP & Social Justice CLE program (https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpjeDSnL4i4lEMJf0N-48iqiZYF-CBvSb) explored the latest developments in IP law, including the relevant social justice impacts, strategies, and opportunities for enhancing the social efficacy of the IP legal regime.
  • Working with our various academic partners and event sponsors, IIPSJ worked with Charlie Bingham to organize the 5th Annual HBCU IP & Tech Law Summit (https://iipsj.org/programs/hbcu-ip-tech-law-summit/), where the audience was treated to leading technology lawyers discussing Artificial Intelligence, Data Security and Privacy, Tech in Sports & Entertainment, Blockchain, Cybersecurity and more. 
  • In August, IIPSJ participated in the United States Intellectual Property Alliance (USIPA) Increasing Diversity in Innovation (IDII) (https://increasingdii.org/) 2nd Annual Conference, where companies, law firms, universities, the USPTO and the U.S.  Department of Commerce in the came together to discuss increasing diversity in the U.S. innovation ecosystem, and how they are working to transform it. IIPSJ Founder and Director Lateef Mtima shared his insight by speaking in the “What Can Universities Do?” panel. 
  • With the goal of highlighting minority IP attorneys to serve as role models to encourage the pursuit of careers in IP practice, IIPSJ continued our Attorneys of Color in IP interview series (https://iipsj.org/blog-post-ip-attorney-interviews/), which featured interviews with Professor Daryl Lim, and trademark and fashion attorney Mariessa Terrell. 

Advocacy for Participation in the Intellectual Property System

Community Outreach that Empowers Creators of Color to Share, Protect, and Monetize Their Work

by Victoria Fisher