On the eve of the series finale of Stranger Things, Ben and Kirk talk about what made this series work, what's still working in season 5, and what isn't.

The Director of the USPTO has instituted a re-examination of the Nintendo Pokemon patents. But what does that mean?

Ben and Kirk dig into what made Stranger Things a cultural phenomenon and consider whether the 1980s might be the perfect decade for this kind of storytelling.

By popular demand, Kirk and Ben revisit the "Pokemon Patent" and talk about the challenges in finding relevant prior art.

Ben and Kirk tackle the new Nintendo patent on summoning in Pokemon.

Ben and Kirk talk about how spoof movies have changed over the years, and how the IP issues have changed with it.

Ben and Kirk do some theorycrafting in the IP of cosplay - what if you invented your own original character, prop, or vehicle/ship set in an existing universe?

Ben and Kirk go over the short but interesting dispute between the original Dragonlance authors and Wizards of the Coast at the height of COVID over the final trilogy of novels.

Ben and Kirk analyze the memes resulting from the famous "Coldplayed" incident and the impact on privacy.

Ben and Kirk dive into Skeleton Crew and two anthology series and provide their thoughts on why so much of the new Star Wars content is struggling to recapture the greatness of the original trilogy.

We go over the summary judgment rulings in the recent lawsuits against Anthropic and Meta for their LLMs, and then we zoom out and consider whether AI is the technology that will finally unravel copyright in a way that requires a complete institutional rethinking.

We talk about some of the weird and unique IP issues around movie trailers.

We talk about the recently-filed lawsuit against Midjourney by Disney and others alleging infringement of the copyright to iconic characters.

Ben and Kirk dive into different television content distribution models - binge watching vs. episodic. Why does it feel like some Disney+ shows mirror the narrative structure of syndicated television, but others are serialized?

Ben and Kirk break down some Star Wars content, mainly The Acolyte and season 1 of Andor. Originally recorded in Feb. of 2025.

Ben and Kirk go over their annual tradition of covering the new works entering the public domain this year.

In our season debut, we tackle trivia nights! Learn about all the weird IP issues that come up at your local bar trivia.

Kirk and Bed go over the 9th Circuit's holding in the dispute between a choreographer and Epic games over the use of popular dance moves as purchasable "emotes" in Fortnite. Other episodes referenced in this episode: Stairway to Heaven Episode: https://soundcloud.com/user-329223368/season-3-ep-11-the-edamame-episodes-part-3?si=316efde700464719ad52942ea937aae1&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing Google v. Oracle Episode:https://soundcloud.com/user-329223368/s04e05-google-v-oracle?si=e1ec05aa97994891a35debd892f44835&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

Ben and Kirk dissect the final season of The Bad Batch. What went right, what went wrong, and where is the future of Star Wars content going? Bad Batch logo courtesy of Disney Plus (https://press.disneyplus.com/media-kits/the-bad-batch).

Ben and Kirk discuss what the Supreme Court's recent ruling really means. Could you now get in trouble for that time in 1998 whenyou posted the lyrics to a LeAnn Rimes on your Angelfire page?