Fair Use and IP Infringement on Social Media: Policing and Protecting Licenses, Copyright, and Trademark Rights

This CLE course will explain to counsel when fair use protects sharing content on social media sites and when it crosses the line into unauthorized infringement. The panel will outline steps for counsel to advise companies on monitoring and protecting against unauthorized use of their brands and social media content.

The number of active social media monthly users worldwide is staggering—Instagram (3 billion), YouTube (2.7 billion), Facebook (3.07 billion), WhatsApp (3 billion), and X (586 million)—and increasing. Social media users are sharing, tweeting, pinning, and posting a variety of intellectual property, including pictures, videos, articles, and more—usually without the owner's permission.

Counsel to IP owners must understand the legal implications of recent court decisions on online sharing of their intellectual property. When does fair use permit the posting of material on social media, and when is it just infringement?

Counsel must monitor and protect their IP and balance pursuing infringement against the value of leveraging viral marketing.

Listen as our authoritative panel of IP attorneys examines whether the use of trademarks and copyrights is fair use and the risk of infringement that companies face from social media, as well as offers strategies for protecting marks and copyrights and monitoring and minimizing the infringement risk.