Author Archives: John DiGiacomo

In May 2025, as part of a settlement of litigation involving college football, a new entity was created called the College Sports Commission (“CSC” or “Commission”). See news media reports here and here. Among many other purposes, the CSC will monitor and approve name, image, and likeness (“NIL”) agreements for college athletes. As the term […]

Trademarks are words, designs, symbols, logos, and other things that are used/associated with goods or services that identify the specific commercial source of the goods/services. COCA-COLA, APPLE, and GUCCI are just a few famous examples. If COCA-COLA is on the bottle, consumers know what to expect from the beverage in the bottle. The same for […]

Getting an endorsement deal as a social media influencer may be a seminal event financially and for the progress of your career. However, the question always has to be asked whether your endorsement deal is fair. In other words, are you getting paid what you are worth? There are a number of factors that can […]

The differences between trademarks and copyrights can be confusing. Both are similar in the following ways: However, understand that trademarks and copyrights are very different. The most important difference involves what they protect legally. Copyrights protect original works of authorship like books, movies, art, music, games, photographs, etc. Trademarks protect words, logos, designs, marks, and […]

“COPPA” is an acronym that stands for the “Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act,” which is a federal statute. Generally speaking, COPPA was enacted to protect the privacy of minors under the age of 13 from websites and online services that target children and that collect personal data about said children. COPPA applies to any business […]

In late June 2025, Connecticut lawmakers passed a statute making significant amendments to the Connecticut Data Privacy Act (“CTDPA”). The amendments strengthen the CTDPA and make it applicable to almost every business that collects and/or processes consumer personal data. Here are a couple of the notable changes. More businesses covered by the CTDPA In the […]

Trademarks are marks, designs, words, phrases, logos, and other things that distinguish a company or business as the commercial source for some particular goods and/or services. Once established, trademarks are valuable business assets. For example, famous trademarks like APPLE and its famous apple-shaped mark are generally considered to be worth millions of dollars — if […]

Neural data is a form of biometric data and is yet another type of information that can be used to uniquely identify a person. However, neural data has the potential to disclose intimate aspects of an individual involving ongoing and changing emotional and mental states. Consumer privacy advocates have been (and are) seeking to have […]

Despite the “doom and gloom” from some prognosticators, direct-to-consumer (“D2C”) businesses are still operating, still thriving, and still making money. Yes, there have been some spectacular failures. But the reasons for the failure of an individual business are often company-specific and do not reflect industry trends. Thus, there is still an enormous amount of merger […]

As many are aware, cars, trucks, and vehicles manufactured over the last 20-30 years contain various devices that collect data on vehicle use. The primary device is a “vehicle black box” similar to the device used on airplanes for decades. The device collects data on speed, braking, whether a seat belt is being used, the […]