Intellectual Property Blog

How Athletes Can Protect Their NIL Online

A Practical Guide to Monitoring, Enforcement, and Brand Protection

For today’s athletes, visibility is both an opportunity and a risk. The same platforms that help build a personal brand also make it easy for others to misuse an athlete’s name, image, or likeness for their own gain. Many student‑athletes experience this when they stumble across a fake merch page, an impersonation account, or a video ad using their image without permission.

To respond effectively and quickly athletes need a structured notice‑and‑takedown strategy. Before diving into enforcement, it’s helpful to understand what NIL actually is and why the law treats it differently from other forms of intellectual property. More >

Who Owns the Moment? Rights in Sports Photos and Videos

One of the most addictive parts of sport is its ability to capture our imagination and create enduring memories. If we are lucky, we can capture visual depictions of those moments to relive the memories. Whether we are capturing the experience in person on our cameras or at home and watching the experience on our televisions or through social media, sports memories and video or photographic depictions of those memories go hand-in-hand. For me it was Kirk Gibson rounding the bases after his 1988 game winning homerun and Reggie Miller’s 8 points in 8.9 seconds (a/k/a the night he  directed a choke gesture to Spike Lee). For my son, by far the biggest sports fan I know, it is probably a tie between Omar Cooper’s toe-tap game-winning touchdown over Penn State or the Sports Illustrated cover-worthy diving touchdown by Indiana’s Heisman-winning quarterback that sealed Indiana’s improbable national championship. Many people reading this will know those images. But how? Not everyone watched those games. Those memories were captured and redisplayed. Many people claim rights in those redisplayed memories.   More >

Opening the Door to Maximum Brand Value in a Post-House World

An athlete’s name, image, and likeness (“NIL”) are part of his or her brand. An athlete’s name, image, and likeness are all valuable assets. Professional athletes often protect their NIL, and now, as a result of the House v. NCAA settlement, student athletes can do the same.   More >

When Knowledge Isn’t Enough: What Cox v. Sony Means for DMCA Agents

Can an online service provider be held liable for copyright infringement simply because it knows infringement is occurring and does not immediately terminate a user’s access? On March 25, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court answered that question with a decisive no, delivering a unanimous opinion. More >

From Barrel to Brand: When Legal Strategy Fuels Growth

Most distilleries think about law in terms of compliance.
Permits. Labels. Distribution. Avoiding risk. 

But when legal strategy becomes part of the business strategy, something powerful happens.

Instead of asking, “How do we stay out of trouble?”
The better question becomes: What becomes possible? 

Thinking of a strong legal strategy as a key ingredient to a winning recipe helps distilleries optimize intellectual property. When intellectual property counsel can work closely with a business from the start, counsel is able to learn more about the business and its goals. This collaboration can result in the  development of stronger, more enforceable marks, clear trademark and copyright portfolios, and robust intellectual property agreements protecting those intellectual property assets. 

Early collaboration between intellectual property counsel and business helps guide the business’s decision-making process in a way that is legally sound, reducing risk and increasing momentum for brand expansion. This may mean ensuring that client’s own all the intellectual property in work for hire agreements, crafting policies to protect company brands, and formulating terms and conditions governing the use of company marks or even website terms and conditions of use. Working closely with intellectual property counsel ensures that as your bourbon ages to perfection, so does your IP. More >

Claude Isn't Your Lawyer, and the Information You Share with It Isn't Privileged

Generative artificial intelligence (“AI”) tools like Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini are heavily relied on by people in everyday life. In a lot of ways, they have replaced Google or other general search engines. It is no surprise, therefore, that people now turn to these same tools to answer legal questions. Sometimes those questions are personal and contain facts and information that the person would not share with anyone but an attorney. They may be admissions of guilt or liability or even information that suggests future wrongdoing, and when shared with a person’s attorney, they are privileged. The other side in a legal proceeding does not have any rights to privileged information, but is that the case where the information is submitted to generative AI tools? An answer is beginning to emerge, and it should give all who use these tools pause: prompts and questions submitted to generative AI tools are not privileged. Other parties involved in future litigation and even the police or investigative bodies can likely read everything submitted to those online tools, which are quickly becoming a trap for the unwary.  More >

Design That Deserves a Toast: How IP Law Influences Alcohol Branding

In January, there is an official celebration day known as National Beer Can Appreciation Day. That’s really a thing; it occurs once a year to celebrate January 24, 1935, the historic day when beer was first sold in cans.

So that momentous occasion is inspiring us in the Intellectual Property Services Group here at McBRAYER to explain the types of intellectual property protections available to protect the appearance of beer cans.  More >

Kentucky’s Comprehensive Data Privacy Law: What Healthcare Providers Need to Know

Kentucky’s Consumer Data Protection Act (KCDPA) took effect January 1, 2026. As the state’s inaugural comprehensive data privacy law, joining 19 others, it will significantly impact businesses that handle consumer information. Specifically, any business that collects 100,000 or more consumer data points, or collects at least 25,000 and derives 50% of its revenue from selling that data, must comply. More >

Looking Ahead: Kentucky Data Privacy Law to Take Effect January 2026

To ring in the 2026 new year, Kentucky will join the 19 other states that have enacted comprehensive state data privacy laws. The Kentucky Consumer Data Protection Act (“the Act”), going into effect January 1, 2026, applies to any person conducting business in Kentucky or anyone producing goods/services that are targeted to Kentucky residents and meet specific thresholds. A whole new group of consumer rights takes effect with the new law and noncompliance can produce new liability for businesses that run afoul of these provisions, so now is the time for all business owners to familiarize themselves with the new law. More >

How the Government Shutdown Impacts Intellectual Property Owners

It has been a week since the United States government shut down. With no agreement between Congress on a funding bill for fiscal year 2026, the United States government ceased its non-essential operations at 12:01 am on October 1, 2025. More >