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In an effort to provide its musical artists some protection from AI-generated deepfakes of their voices, the state of Tennessee recently enacted ELVIS seeking a cure. Specifically, Tennessee passed the Ensuring Likeness, Voice and Image Security (ELVIS) Act, which goes into effect July 1 of this year. The ELVIS Act replaced Tennessee’s existing rights law (the Personal Rights Protection Act, PRPA), which only protected a person’s name, photograph, or likeness and limited that protection to only barring use in advertising. PRPA also added postmortem rights in an effort to protect the state’s most famous resident, Mr. Presley himself. Interestingly, unique to Tennessee and two other states, the protected rights under the act are characterized as property rights as opposed to rights of publicity, which is more typical.Continue Reading ELVIS Adds (His) Voice to the Protection of Artists Against AI-Generated Deepfakes

With technological innovation continuing to transform how companies do business, more and more entities are looking to forge strategic alliances that leverage the commercial uses of intellectual property and other intangible assets. In this Q and A, Jim Nelson and Bill Russell, co-chairs of Venable’s Technology, Media, and Commercial (TMC) group, discuss their extensive experience facilitating such alliances; how innovation is impacting different industries; and some of the most exciting new developments in the field.

Q: What are strategic alliances and how do they work?

Bill:  There can be infinite variations, but in its simplest form a strategic alliance is where one company has a particular service or product, another company has a particular service or product, and they both recognize that if they were to collaborate and put elements of those together, they can differentiate themselves in the marketplace, improve their existing product or service offerings, or create something entirely new. That’s where people like Jim and me come in. We understand how these relationships are built, we have the experience to know what generally works and what doesn’t work, and we have the skill to guide the parties in achieving their objectives, both collectively and individually, and to structure these objectives into a deal.Continue Reading The Increasing Need for Strategic Alliances: A Conversation with Bill Russell and Jim Nelson