Issue No. 021
June 26, 2026
New York
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The IP Briefing · by ESCA Legal
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| Coach, Tapestry, and Quince filed a joint stipulation to dismiss Coach's Northern District of California trade dress and unfair competition claims without prejudice. |
| § | The case targeted Quince handbags that Coach alleged were too close to its Rogue and Soho Flap designs. | | § | The dismissal leaves each side to bear its own fees and costs, ending the case without a merits ruling. | | § | The dispute sat in the broader dupe-culture lane, where brands are testing how far product shape, stitching, silhouette, and hardware placement can operate as source-identifying trade dress. |
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| Continue reading → |
| § ESCA Takeaway |
| This issue tracks how familiar brands, public-facing communities, publishers, and venues are testing the boundaries of source identity, trade dress, and copyrighted works in everyday commerce. |
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| More IP Stories |
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| § Trademark · Filed |
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| John Dehlin and Open Stories Foundation filed a response to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' trademark and copyright lawsuit over the Mormon Stories podcast. |
| § | The response argues that no single entity controls use of the word Mormon and challenges the church's abandonment and source-confusion theories. | | § | The case also involves alleged copying of church logos, design motifs, images, colors, and other branding elements. | | § | The defendants say the podcast has operated for more than two decades and that its naming and branding do not suggest official church sponsorship. |
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Why it matters
The fight shows how trademark law can collide with commentary, religion, and community identity. For brand owners, the case is also a clean illustration of how enforcement gets more complicated when the disputed term has descriptive, cultural, and historical meaning beyond one organization.
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| § Copyright · Filed |
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| A coalition of local newspaper publishers filed a federal copyright lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft over alleged use of reporting from nearly 400 newspapers to train and operate AI products. |
| § | The complaint alleges unauthorized copying of local news reporting for ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot. | | § | The publishers also assert DMCA claims tied to alleged removal of copyright management information, including bylines and copyright notices. | | § | The case adds a large local-news coalition to the expanding wave of publisher and author copyright suits over generative AI training. |
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Why it matters
The case broadens the AI copyright fight beyond national media and book publishers. Local reporting is expensive to produce and often hard to replace, so the business stakes look different when the plaintiffs are community newspapers rather than only large media companies.
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QUICK HITS
| § Copyright | A federal magistrate awarded BMI and three music publishers more than $18,000 in damages and fees after Baltimore venue Ottobar conceded liability over unlicensed karaoke performances of three songs. [source] |
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This newsletter is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Published by ESCA Legal. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Attorney advertising; prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
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