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This week IP Goes Pop! goes on a star-studded journey of celebrity inventors and patent holders.  This episode is dedicated to the music and memory of Eddie Van Halen, an innovator and inventor who changed rock music and the guitar as we know it. Eddie is a named inventor on multiple guitar patents. In this episode, host Michael Snyder strolls down Hollywood Boulevard and discusses some directors, actors, and musicians that have surprising and interesting patents. For full show notes please visit vklaw.com. You can also connect with us on Facebook, Linkedin or Twitter and Instagram using the handle @volpeandkoenig.

This week on IP Goes Pop!, Founding Shareholder of Volpe Koenig and intellectual property attorney Tony Volpe joins Michael Snyder to talk about the Right of Publicity. Whether it’s protecting your image or even your voice, how has the legal landscape changed in the age of technology and “going viral”? In this episode, Michael and Tony discuss how the Right of Publicity has manifested within different aspects of pop culture and key cases that have shaped the intellectual property rights protecting one’s likeness across mediums. For full show notes please visit vklaw.com. You can also connect with us on Facebook, Linkedin or Twitter and Instagram using the handle @volpeandkoenig.

BAM! POW! This week on IP Goes Pop! Volpe Koenig intellectual property attorney Joseph Gushue joins fellow intellectual property attorney and host Michael Snyder to talk about comic book characters! In this episode, Michael and Joseph go to the magazine rack of yesteryear to discuss comic book characters and how those characters may be protected by intellectual property. The wide-ranging discussion touches on, among other pop topics, superhero movie franchises, comic book trivia, and some comic characters that are interestingly close in costumes and abilities. For full show notes please visit vklaw.com. You can also connect with us on Facebook, Linkedin or Twitter and Instagram using the handle @volpeandkoenig.

This week IP Goes Pop! goes to the ballgame, as Host and Volpe Koenig Shareholder Michael Snyder and breaks down a pending lawsuit, THE PHILLIES v. HARRISON/ERICKSON INC. What’s at stake in the case? The future of the Phillies Phanatic mascot. Mostly in appearance. In this episode, Michael summarizes the ongoing case, and reviews the intellectual property issues and future implications of this case. Whether you're a Philadelphia sports fan or just a fan of sports mascots in general, this case of IP going pop should be a home run. For full show notes please visit vklaw.com. You can also connect with us on Facebook, Linkedin or Twitter and Instagram using the handle @volpeandkoenig.

This week on IP Goes Pop! Fellow Volpe Koenig Shareholder, Michael Berkowitz, joins Michael Snyder to talk about how people try to trademark phrases found in popular culture. In this episode, Michael Snyder and Michael Berkowitz discuss examples of when a famous celebrity (or athlete or politician or reality show star) blurts out a funny or interesting word or phrase that catches the public’s attention-- and the subsequent trademark madness that may follow. For full show notes please visit vklaw.com, you can also connect with us on Twitter and Instagram using the handle @volpeandkoenig.

This week on IP Goes Pop! Volpe Koenig Shareholder, Randy Huis, joins Michael Snyder to talk about inventions and technology in the cartoon world of “The Simpsons” television show. In this episode, Michael and Randy discuss whether and how it would be possible to protect intellectual property from the imaginary and always entertaining town of Springfield. For full show notes please visit vklaw.com, you can also connect with us on Twitter and Instagram using the handle @volpeandkoenig.

In this episode of IP Goes Pop!, Jay Halt, Shareholder at Volpe Koenig, and Ankit Aggarwal, Associate at Volpe Koenig, join Shareholder Michael Snyder to talk about Artificial Intelligence in pop culture. They discuss inventorship and how it can become even more complicated when Artificial Intelligence is added to the picture. For full show notes please visit vklaw.com, you can also connect with us on Twitter and Instagram using the handle @volpeandkoenig.  

This week on IP Goes Pop!, Joseph Gushue, Shareholder with Volpe Koenig, joins fellow Shareholder Michael Snyder to talk about IP “urban legends.” What is an IP urban legend? That would be misinformation circulating about patents, trademarks, copyrights, or trade secrets that sounds right, but is not quite right (certainly not from a legal standpoint). In this episode, Michael and Joe surveyed colleagues, friends, and family and collected their IP urban legends and questions. With the help of Joe’s encyclopedic knowledge of pop culture, Michael and Joe try to set the record straight. For full show notes please visit vklaw.com, you can also connect with us on Twitter and Instagram using the handle @volpeandkoenig.

This week IP Goes Pop! watches Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness, the extremely popular Netflix documentary series about self-titled Joe Exotic. Michael is joined this week will by fellow Volpe Koenig shareholder, John O’Malley, head of the firm’s Trademark Group.  In this episode they skip the well-traveled discussion of intrigue and innuendo and focus on the intellectual property issues that eventually led to Joe Exotic losing control of the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park (a.k.a. the G. W. Zoo).

Do movies, television and music really know what a patent, trademark or copyright is? Coming soon, from Volpe & Koenig Intellectual Property Law in Philadelphia, IP Goes Pop will be your bi-weekly source for entertaining analysis of pop culture as it relates to intellectual property.