Part One · Louis Vuitton · July 2026
The Cost of a Flower
A Chinese tea chain, a 130-year-old monogram and the question of who gets to draw a petal.
Read on Substack Podcast episode coming soonThe Archive
Articles
Everything published so far, grouped into collections. Each piece stands entirely on its own; the collections simply reward the reader who follows the thread.
Luxury & Brand Identity
Three pieces on how luxury houses are defending their brand identity across jurisdictions and legal doctrines. Podcast episodes for the Hermès and Louis Vuitton stories are in the edit and arrive soon.
Part Two · Chanel · July 2026
Someone Else's Buttons
Upcycled luxury, exhausted rights and the line between creative reuse and trademark infringement.
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Part Three · Hermès · July 2026
While Waiting for My Birkin
Parody bags, reputation and the question of whether humour is a defence to trademark infringement.
Read on Substack Podcast episode coming soonYour Face & Your Voice
Two pieces on a deceptively simple question: who owns your face, and who owns your voice?
Part One · June 2026
The Face on the Box
Copyright, celebrity likeness and the $15 million question of who said "yes".
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Part Two · July 2026
The Sound of Yourself
Trademark, deepfakes and the question of whether you can own your own voice.
Read on SubstackWho Owns AI?
Three standalone articles on what the law says about artificial intelligence, across copyright, patents and data rights.
Part One · May 2026
The Copyright Question
Thaler v Perlmutter, section 9(3) of the CDPA, and the question nobody at work is asking: if you used AI to write that report, who owns it?
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Part Two · May 2026
The Patent Question
Two UK Supreme Court decisions, two years apart, pulling in different directions on what a machine can invent.
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Part Three · May 2026
The Data Question
Getty Images against Stability AI, three jurisdictions at three different stages of resolution, and who controls data once it leaves the hands of the person it belongs to.
Read on SubstackTrade Dress & Dupe Culture
What happens when everyday objects, shapes and symbols end up in a courtroom.
Trade Dress · May 2026
Who Owns an Octagon?
How Audemars Piguet lost the legal right to its most famous design, and why a $400 pocket watch might be the smartest thing the brand has ever done about it.
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Dupe Culture · May 2026
Does It Matter If Nobody Is Fooled?
How dupe culture broke the one thing trademark law needs to work, and why the courts are struggling to keep up.
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Trademark · June 2026
Is a Cross Just a Cross?
Chrome Hearts, Nordstrom and the question of when a symbol that has been decorating things for two thousand years becomes somebody's trademark.
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Trade Dress · May 2026
Who Owns the Shape of a Sandwich?
A billion-dollar peanut butter and jelly empire, a Trader Joe's knockoff with suspiciously similar crimped edges, and whether you can trademark a lunchbox staple.
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Trade Dress · May 2026
Can You Own the Shape of a Moisturiser Jar?
How a $48 body cream, a Costco dupe and a federal judge's views on the practicality of roundness produced one of the most consequential trade dress rulings in years.
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Copyright · May 2026
The Real Price of a Valentine's Card
Pop-up greeting cards, three-dimensional paper sculptures, and what a copyright dispute reveals about the cost of making beautiful things.
Read on SubstackAI & Liability
AI & Liability · May 2026
Can ChatGPT Tell You What's Wrong?
A bank holiday, an eleven-year-old's phone call, two doctors arguing in a kitchen, and a wrongful death lawsuit that asks what happens when the only second opinion available is a chatbot.
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AI & Liability · June 2026
Who's Liable When the Chatbot Lies?
A bereavement fare, a chatbot that invented a refund policy, and the question the entire regulatory world is still trying to answer: when AI speaks for a company, whose words are they?
Read on SubstackCommentary
Commercial · June 2026
The Shoes That Outgrew the Shop
Selective distribution, surplus stock and what happens when a brand decides it no longer needs you.
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Public Law · June 2026
Who Gets to Be a Terrorist?
The Court of Appeal says Palestine Action is nothing like the suffragettes. The suffragettes might disagree.
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