BizTech Law Blog

What is the background on the Heppner decision?

On February 17, 2026, in the case of United States of America v. Bradley Heppner, No. 25 CR. 503 (JSR), 2026 WL 436479 (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 17, 2026), the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (the “Court”) held that documents generated by the defendant with generative artificial intelligence (“AI”) through a publicly-available AI platform were not protected by the attorney-client privilege or work product doctrine.

Whether, when an end-user prompts and communicates with a publicly available AI tool or ...

Introduction

The State of Michigan’s Department of Insurance and Financial Services (“DIFS”) has issued Bulletin 2026-03-BT/CF/CU, titled Use of Artificial Intelligence Systems by Financial Service Providers (the “Bulletin”).

The 10-page Bulletin reminds financial service providers regulated by DIFS that if analytical and computational technologies, including artificial intelligence (“AI”) systems, are used to make decisions that may impact consumers, such actions must comply with all applicable laws, rules, and regulations. Among other topics, the ...

Whether you are an influencer with a million followers or a thousand, if you endorse brands or products, you are required to abide by the Guidelines set forth by the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) when making recommendations to your viewership. The FTC’s Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising (“Guidelines”) addresses how advertisers and endorsers can remain legally compliant when promoting businesses, goods, or services (collectively, “Products”) without making “deceptive ads”. Failing to abide by the FTC’s ...

Though there remains no comprehensive nationwide, federal privacy law on the books, several states in the U.S. have passed their own privacy statues to fill in the gap. As of 2025, at least 17 states have enacted some form of general consumer privacy laws. These states include: (1) California; (2) Colorado; (3) Connecticut; (4) Delaware; (5) Florida; (6) Iowa; (7) Maryland; (8) Minnesota; (9) Montana; (10) Nebraska; (11) New Hampshire; (12) New Jersey; (13) Oregon; (14) Tennessee; (15) Texas; (16) Utah; and (17) Virginia.

At the start of the new year, three other states join the list as ...

The Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 (“CISA”) expired yesterday on September 30, 2025.

Though Congress discussed renewing the statute prior to its expiration, CISA was not officially reauthorized by the federal government.

CISA was designed to encourage private organizations to share cybersecurity information with other private sector entities and the federal government through the Department of Homeland Security, aiming to strengthen overall monitoring capabilities and bolster collective defense against cyber threats. In particular, the statute ...

Following Executive Order 14179 from January 23, 2025 titled Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence, President Donald Trump’s administration has unveiled its awaited artificial intelligence (“AI”) roadmap to cement the United States as a front runner in the “race to achieve global dominance in [AI]”.

The plan, titled American’s AI Action Plan (the “Plan”), is a 28-page document that outlines more than 90 federal policy actions under three strategic pillars: (1) accelerating innovation; (2) building American AI ...

See also Recommendations on AI and Copyrightability from the U.S. Copyright Office’s Latest Report

It is no surprise that generative artificial intelligence (“AI”) is changing the way companies all over the world operate. Some are embracing it with open arms and finding consistent opportunities to integrate AI into the workplace. Other businesses have found themselves at a standstill in terms of incorporating AI into their preexisting tools and technology, wondering whether embedding AI into their systems is a necessary step to stay relevant or one that may take them away ...

To hear more on this topic, business & IP attorney, Lindsey Mead, recently appeared on an episode of Expert Connexions to discuss the copyrightability of AI-generated content. See the interview here.

The United States Copyright Office (the “Office”) released the latest part in its Report on Copyright and Artificial Intelligence on January 29, 2025. Part 1, titled “Digital Replicas” was published on July 31, 2024 and discussed videos, images, and audio recordings that are manipulated to falsely depict individuals and information. This practice of creating ...

On January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump revoked former President Joe Biden’s executive order related to the utilization of artificial intelligence (“AI”).

The Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles are playing in Super Bowl LIX this Sunday, February 9. If the Chiefs win, this will be their third consecutive Super Bowl win, and, according to the Kansas City Star via reporter Blair Kerkhoff, the team can purportedly use Miami Heat team president and legendary NBA coach Pat Riley’s trademarked phrase “three-peat”.

Now is a busy time for businesses as they wrap things up before year-end. But the holiday season can be stressful for a different reason when the owner or some of the employees are responsible for the care of aging family members on top of working full-time.

With the rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and its various synthetic media outputs, deepfakes are just one of many new risks to businesses. Deepfakes pose considerable threats to companies, potentially damaging reputation, trust, and financial stability through malicious impersonation and manipulation of digital content.

Yesterday, on October 16, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) issued final amendments to the “Rule Concerning Recurring Subscriptions and Other Negative Option Programs”, also referred to as the “Click-to-Cancel” Rule (the “Rule”). See the following link from the FTC’s website for more information: Federal Trade Commission Announces Final “Click-to-Cancel” Rule Making It Easier for Consumers to End Recurring Subscriptions and Memberships | Federal Trade Commission (ftc.gov).

With the influx of generative artificial intelligence (“AI”) tools and applications becoming readily available online, it is increasingly important to assess whether AI-generated works can obtain intellectual property protection. Specifically, in light of AI apps being able to create paintings, photographs, and illustrations from minimal prompting from an end-user, the United States Copyright Office (the “Copyright Office”) has had to consider whether such works can be copyrighted and to what extent.

Many businesses are using Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools in a variety of innovative ways to improve productivity and to save time and money. According to a 2023 Forbes article (forbes.com/advisor/business/software/ai-in-business/), 1 in 3 businesses plan to use ChatGPT to write their website content while 97% of business owners believe it will help their business.

Through tactical litigation practices, copyright trolls rely on copyright law to allege infringement and threaten major statutory damages upon unsuspecting defendants. The term “copyright troll” is an unflattering nickname for someone who manipulates the intellectual property (“IP”) laws to force a “toll” by way of a settlement payout on market participants.

Given the ever-changing landscape and increasing popularity of remote work, the use of electronic signatures (“e-signatures”) is on the rise. Business in general is going virtual, causing electronic transactions and online interactions to become more common. To accommodate this new digital environment, legislators have passed laws to permit the use of e-signatures to bind individuals to electronic agreements. In addition to keeping up with the evolution of online business, providing your organization with a reliable e-signature policy is pivotal to ensure clear reliance on and expectations for e-signatures.