Spontaneous viral trends on social media may become business opportunities but attaching IP rights to them can be complicated, as Marisa Woutersen discovers.
While social media trends can often appear as spontaneous and fun activities, the legal implications surrounding them can be complex.
These trends are videos, sounds, movements, words, or key topics that are replicated by a large number of people globally and create a buzz on social media, such as the Hot Girl Walk, TikTok’s ‘doop’ parody, cleaning vlogs, and the viral Stanley cup.
According to Josh Simmons, partner at Kirkland & Ellis, the core principle to remember when dealing with social media trends and IP is that it's essentially "the same rules, different wrapper".
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