Emojis Have Unsettled Grammar Rules (and Why Lawyers Should Care)
A new article by three Dutch researchers sheds some fascinating light on the grammar of emojis, or more precisely, the lack thereof. Their abstract concludes: “while emoji may follow tendencies in their interactions with grammatical structure in multimodal text-emoji productions,…
Copyright Protection for Banana Costumes Is, Uh, Bananas–Silvertop v. Kangaroo
The Third Circuit has held that a banana costume qualified for copyright protection (the blog reference to the district court opinion). The plaintiff’s design is on the left. The defendants’ designs are in the middle and on the right. The…
Ruling in Emoji Beach Ball IP Case Left Me Confused 😕–Kangaroo v. Amazon
This case involves the alleged counterfeiting of emoji beach balls on Amazon. It doesn’t get into emoji-specific IP issues and devolves into a garbled tangle over Amazon marketplace product catalog issues. Still, EMOJI LAW ALERT!!! 😲 The plaintiff makes emoji…
Two Examples of How Courts Interpret Emojis
As I’ve noted before, we haven’t gotten a U.S. court opinion thoroughly interpreting emojis. The most incisive emoji law opinion to date remains the Israeli small claims court opinion that includes the baffling chipmunk emoji. Nevertheless, some court opinions do…
More Kardashian Drama: A Legal Fight Over Ownership of the Kimoji Emoji Set–Liebensohn v. Kardashian (Guest Blog Post)
by guest blogger Gabriella Ziccarelli [Eric’s introductory note: I have made a personal life choice to ignore the entire Kardashian enterprise and their constant and often faux drama (except that I have occasionally mocked the Kardashians in my law school…
What’s New With Emoji Law? An Interview
I did an interview with Vanessa Blum of the Recorder about emoji law. It was first published here. The text: * * * Santa Clara University law professor Eric Goldman is an expert on internet speech. Lately, he’s been rather…
Emoji Law 2018 Year-in-Review
As I’ve mentioned before, I track every U.S. court opinion in Westlaw and Lexis that references “emoji” or “emoticon.” This is not a comprehensive census for several reasons, including my inability to set up alerts when a court displays the…
Everything You Wanted to Know About Emojis and the Law
For the past couple of years, I have invested significantly in all things emojis. This post rounds up everything I’ve done during that period. 1) Emojis and the Law Article I’m pleased to announce the final version of my paper,…
Swedish Court Misunderstands Memes (Guest Blog Post)
by guest blogger Stacey Lantagne Memes are everywhere. Part of the essential communicative fabric of social media, it’s hard to imagine Twitter or Instagram or even texting without them. They get used to react to matters of national debate, sports…
Copyright Office Won’t Register ‘Middle-Finger Pictogram’ As Literary Work–Ashton v. Copyright Office
Ashton created a coffee mug displaying the words “People Pleaser in Recovery” on the outside, the word “Refill” on the inside bottom, and a single-fingered salute on the outside bottom: Ashton applied for copyright registrations for 2D artwork and a…