Displaying Emoji Evidence in Judicial Opinions

This is another outtake from my Emojis and the Law paper. I’m nearly done with a massive rewrite of the paper, and this passage appears destined for the cutting-room floor. So I’m sharing it here: ___ Judicial opinions rarely provide…

Appropriation Artist Can't Win Fair Use Defense on Motion to Dismiss--Graham v. Prince

Appropriation Artist Can’t Win Fair Use Defense on Motion to Dismiss–Graham v. Prince

This is a lawsuit by plaintiff Donald Graham against well-known “appropriation artist” Richard Prince and his gallery for copyright infringement. As described by the court: Prince’s [work] is [an . . . ] inkjet print of a screenshot taken by…

Frequency of Courts' References to Emojis and Emoticons Over Time

Frequency of Courts’ References to Emojis and Emoticons Over Time

[This is another excerpt from my Emojis and the Law paper.] In preparing the article, I gathered a dataset of all cases I could find in Westlaw and Lexis containing the word “emoticon” or “emoji.” This dataset is subject to…

Trademark Registrations for Emojis

Trademark Registrations for Emojis

[This is another excerpt from my Emojis and the Law paper.] The Trademark Office has registered emoji trademarks. On January 20, 2017, I conducted a search in the TESS database for “emoji” and identified 385 records. At that time, most…

Copyright Registrations for Emoticons and Emojis

Copyright Registrations for Emoticons and Emojis

[This is the first of a series of excerpts from my Emojis and the Law paper. Note that I’ve created a new blog category for “Emojis”–the first new category in years!] In my Emojis and the Law paper, I analyzed…

How a Chipmunk Emoji Cost an Israeli Texter $2,200

How a Chipmunk Emoji Cost an Israeli Texter $2,200

by Gabriella Ziccarelli and Eric Goldman [Eric’s introduction: Gabriella is a star SCU Law alum and an associate at Blank Rome in DC. She is also a former Internet Law student of mine. As a teacher, it’s gratifying to have a former student…

New Draft Paper on Emojis and the Law

New Draft Paper on Emojis and the Law

I have posted a draft article, entitled Surveying the Law of Emojis, to SSRN. I will be posting excerpts from the article here over the next few weeks. I would gratefully appreciate your comments on the draft. I am also…