Gina Elliott Presents on Copyright Protection for Street Artists

Gina Elliott presented as part of a panel on Copyright in Graffiti and Street Art at the International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (AIPPI) World Congress in San Francisco on September 13, 2022. Suzanne Wilson, General Counsel of the U.S. Copyright Office, Stef Van Gompel of Vrije Unversiteit Amsterdam, and Sanna Wolk of AIPPI Sweden were also on the panel.

The AIPPI World Congress is an annual gathering of 2,000 intellectual property experts from the around the world. Participants discuss and vote on resolutions aimed at developing and improving the laws for the protection of intellectual property around the world. Gina presented on the interaction between the Visual Artists Rights Act (“VARA”), which protects the “moral rights” of artists in the United States, and graffiti/street art. She explained how VARA has been used in recent years to prevent the destruction of prominent street art and recent key cases. Gina also identified several questions that are underdeveloped in the caselaw and could affect the ability of street artists to protect their works going forward.