When Rights Collide: Law at the Intersection of the First Amendment, IP, and AI with Judge John Holcomb and Mike Friedland

There has always been tension between intellectual property law and the First Amendment. Recently, the clashes between the two have become more frequent and more consequential. The Supreme Court has been forced to balance: long-established trademark rights against the First Amendment right to parody; the government’s statutory obligation to prevent the federal registration of trademarks that are “offensive” against the First Amendment right to viewpoint neutral regulation of expression; trademark registration against the right of third parties to communicate using commonly used political slogans; and copyright in photographs against the First Amendment right to create new artwork. 

Courts also face new questions: can copyright prevent another lawyer from copying a publicly filed legal brief? AI raises additional questions: Can anyone own a copyright or patent to AI-created works or inventions? Does the First Amendment permit an AI developer to use copyrighted works to train an AI system?

Judge John W. Holcomb of the Central District of California and Michael K. Friedland of Friedland Cianfrani LLP will lead a discussion on the leading recent Supreme Court and other cases and the implications for evolving technological developments.

When: Tuesday, May 14 at 11:30 a.m. (registration), 12:00 p.m. (lunch)

Where: First Floor Conference Room, 2040 Main Street, 1st Floor, Irvine, CA.
(Please get your parking ticket validated in the lobby before or after entering the venue.)

Cost: $30/members, $35/non-members, $20/students, for lunch and 1 hour of MCLE credit (the Federalist Society is a California State Bar approved provider of MCLE).

RSVP and Pay: To RSVP and pay by credit card, please visit the Federalist Society event page Does AI Have First Amendment Rights to Your IP? | The Federalist Society (fedsoc.org)

To pay by cash or check at the door, please send an RSVP to Tim Kowal at OCFedSocPresident@gmail.com and make checks payable to “The Federalist Society.”

*** Please email us if you have have any dietary concerns. ***

About Judge John W. Holcomb:

Holcomb was born in 1963 in Olean, New York. He attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology on a Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps scholarship, graduating in 1984 with a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering. He spent five years as an active duty military officer, then jointly attended Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School, receiving a JD–MBA in 1993. Holcomb received his Juris Doctor degree with cum laude honors.

Holcomb served in the United States Navy from 1980 to 1989, and he was on active duty as a commissioned officer from 1984 to 1989.[2] His service included time as a Surface Warfare Officer aboard the battleship USS New Jersey (BB-62).

After receiving his JD–MBA, Holcomb served as a law clerk to Judge Ronald Barliant of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois from 1993 to 1994. From 1994 to 1997, he was an associate with Irell & Manella. He practiced intellectual property law at Knobbe Martens from 1997 to 2018. In 2019 he was briefly a sole practitioner, before joining Greenberg Gross in Costa Mesa, California, where he focused on intellectual property and bankruptcy litigation. He left Greenberg Gross after becoming a federal judge.

On September 20, 2019, President Donald Trump announced his intent to nominate Holcomb to serve as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California. On November 21, 2019, his nomination was sent to the Senate. President Trump nominated Holcomb to the seat vacated by Judge Dean Pregerson, who assumed senior status on January 28, 2016. On January 3, 2020, his nomination was returned to the President under Rule XXXI, Paragraph 6 of the United States Senate.On February 13, 2020, his renomination was sent to the Senate. On June 17, 2020, a hearing on his nomination was held before the Senate Judiciary Committee. On July 23, 2020, his nomination was reported out of committee by a voice vote. On September 15, 2020, the Senate invoked cloture on his nomination by a 83–13 vote. His nomination was confirmed later that day by a 83–12 vote. He received his judicial commission on September 18, 2020.

About Michael K. Friedland:

Mike has three decades of IP enforcement experience. He has represented clients in more than 200 intellectual property cases in state and federal courts in California and 21 other states and before the Trademark Trials and Appeals Board. He received his undergraduate degree from U.C. Berkeley and his law degree from Harvard.

Mike’s practice includes patent, trademark, trade secret, and copyright cases. His cases have spanned a wide range of industries and technologies, including consumer products, semiconductors, tactical products, medical devices, computer software, apparel, restaurants, and financial services. He has represented brand-name companies including Oakley, Luxottica, Tesla, 5.11 Tactical, ITT, Makita, Pacific Life Insurance Company, Carl’s Jr., Microsemi, NASCAR, Daytona International Speedway, Game Show Network, Razor, Volcom, Specialized Bicycle, Mexicana Airlines, and SRS Labs, among others.

Mike was a partner at Knobbe Martens for more than two decades. At Knobbe, Mike served as co-chair of the Litigation Department. He had previously served as co-chair of the Trademark/Brand Protection group and the Consumer Products practice group. 

World Trademark Review 1000 has named Mike a “Leading Trademark Lawyer” every year since 2020. In the 2022 edition, WTR 1000 commended him for his “advanced state of preparedness,” and included a client remark that, “there’s nothing he hasn’t seen.”  The 2021 edition described him as a “backbone of the litigation practice,” and noted his ability to litigate “cases associated with all categories of IP rights.”  The 2020 edition described him as having been “on the cutting edge of enforcement for three decades.”  In that edition, a client said he was “a sophisticated and thoughtful professional who understands how to get things done.” In 2023, Legal 500 named Mike to its list of preeminent patent litigators. Thompson/Reuters has regularly named him a “Southern California Super Lawyer” in the category of IP litigation since 2004.

He frequently speaks on intellectual property litigation subjects, including to the AIPLA, OCBA, OCIPLA, LAIPLA, ABA, ACC, INTA, Harvard Law School Association, Harvard Business School Association, MIT Alumni Association, and the Federalist Society. Mike’s articles on IP subjects have been featured in publications including IP Watchdog, Law 360, The Trademark Lawyer, The Los Angeles Daily Journal, The Recorder, ABA Landslide, Orange County Business Journal, Engage, and Stanford Technology Review.

Mike has taught as an adjunct professor at Whittier School of Law and served as a JAG with the California State Military Reserve. For 16 years, he served as a Reserve Deputy with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, retiring as a Lieutenant.  He is a member of Law360's Intellectual Property Editorial Board, the Harvard Law School Association’s Senior Advisory Committee, a former member and former Secretary of the Harvard Law School Association's Executive Committee, and a former president of the Harvard Law School Association of Orange County.   Mike is a board member of the Federal Bar Association of Orange County and a member of the Executive Committee of the Federalist Society's Intellectual Property Practice Group.