Justin E. Pierce

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Justin Pierce is a co-chair of Venable's Intellectual Property Division. Justin has significant experience advising companies and their executives on how best to acquire, develop, and apply their intellectual property to achieve their business objectives. He has guided clients through a wide range of matters involving patent litigation, trademark and brand protection, anti-counterfeiting initiatives, copyright, design rights, trade secrets, and licensing. Justin is also well versed in strategies for handling rights of publicity, domain name, and social media disputes. He routinely advises companies with respect to artificial intelligence and cutting-edge issues involving intellectual property.

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What Is RSL Media and Why Does the Human Consent Standard Matter?

On May 12, 2026, RSL Media launched as a public benefit nonprofit co-founded by CEO Nikki Hexum, Cate Blanchett, Doug Leeds, and Eckart Walther. Its mission is to make human consent machine-readable and discoverable to AI systems through the Human Consent Standard, which allows any individual to declare whether AI systems may use their creative works, identity, likeness, voice, characters, or marks. Endorsements from several famous actors and organizations, such as a major talent agency and the Music Artists Coalition, highlight this as one of the entertainment industry’s potential technological answers to unauthorized AI exploitation.

RSL Media builds on the Really Simple Licensing (RSL) standard, an open protocol launched in late 2025, enabling machine-readable AI usage terms for website content, now claiming support from over 1,500 publishers, brands, tech companies, and media organizations. While the original RSL addressed content at a specific URL, the Human Consent Standard applies to “the underlying work, identity, character, or mark itself, wherever it appears.”

Continue Reading A New Framework for AI Permissions in Entertainment: RSL Media’s Human Consent Standard

Join us as we spotlight select chapters of Venable’s popular Advertising Law Tool Kit, which helps marketing teams navigate their organization’s legal risk. Click here to download the entire Tool Kit, and tune in to the Ad Law Tool Kit Show podcast, to hear an author of this chapter dive deeper into copyright counseling and protection in this week’s episode.

A properly maintained copyright portfolio is essential to any successful brand owner. Copyright can extend to advertisement copy, manuals, visuals, art, photography, storyboards, scripts, film, video, online components, mobile apps, social media posts, websites, music, developed characters appearing in ads, and logos.

From the outset, it is vital to ensure that you will own the rights to the intellectual property (IP) being created. If any content is created by someone who is not an employee operating in the scope of employment, you need a written agreement in place to ensure ownership, through either a work-for-hire agreement or an assignment, with special nuances in some states, such as California.

Continue Reading Copyright Counseling and Protection: An Excerpt from the Advertising Law Tool Kit

Amazon has just announced Project Zero to potentially assist brand owners in combatting counterfeit goods by removing products likely to be fake from the online retailer’s platform. Project Zero would allow brand owners to designate product listings for removal, instead of undergoing Amazon’s prior reporting and removal process, which required brand owners to report counterfeit…

diamond ringsTiffany & Co., a world-renowned jeweler and specialty retailer, successfully won a judgment that Costco was appropriating its Tiffany® trademark. Federal Judge Laura T. Swain ordered Costco to pay Tiffany & Co. $19.4 million for trademark infringement and trademark counterfeiting under the Lanham Act, as well as unfair competition under New York state law, in the latest round in a long-running legal battle over the sale of engagement rings bearing the mark “Tiffany” as a standalone term. The decision reaffirms the strength of the Tiffany® trademark and will likely have a drastic effect on the way Costco and other wholesalers conduct business.

The world-famous Tiffany® mark has been used in commerce in the United States since 1868. In 1886, Tiffany & Co. introduced an engagement ring that highlights the diamonds by lifting the stone off the band. This famous ring was named the Tiffany®. This six-prong configuration has been called the “Tiffany setting” by other jewelers.Continue Reading Tiffany Setting the Standard

3D printing, also referred to as “additive manufacturing” or “rapid prototyping,” is the process of making three-dimensional objects from digital designs. Two of the most common types of printers are “disposition printers,” which deposit layers of materials until the 3D object is built, and “binding printers,” which build the object by binding, usually with adhesive or laser fusing, the underlying layers, to create a whole object at the end of the process.

Perhaps this seems pretty straightforward, but delving into the 3D printing of medical devices highlights the multiple aspects of this process, and underscores the potential challenges associated with the FDA’s current and future regulatory paradigm.

When it comes to printing medical devices, the first step involves developing a computer-aided design (“CAD”) file, or animation modeling software, which tells the printer what to make and how to make it.  After the finished design file is sent to the 3D printer, the user chooses a specific material.

3D-printed medical devices allow for a high degree of customization. Think of 3D-produced dental implants which fit perfectly the first time because they are manufactured for your mouth. Or a map of a highly delicate cardiovascular procedure sized precisely to your needs or, more importantly, those of your newborn. 
Continue Reading 3D Printing Series: 3D Printing of Medical Devices

Image via Inhabitat.Since we are now fully comfortable with “smart” everything, it should be no surprise that 3D printing has taken center stage in the tech world. It’s easy to imagine 3D-printed machine parts, prototype models, or even toys, but it might be harder to accept 3D-printed foods, implantable medical devices, cosmetics, drugs, and even human tissue.  Too futuristic? Not really. The technology to 3D-print, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”)-regulated products is, in large part, already here and rapidly progressing.

Yet, as technology continues to develop, questions arise as to whether, and how, the FDA regulatory framework will keep pace to impose the same safety, quality, and efficacy standards to 3D-printed foods, drugs, cosmetics, and medical devices that currently apply to traditionally manufactured goods. How FDA chooses to deal with 3D-printed products will significantly impact not only barriers to market-entry, but also post-marketing enforcement risks. Similarly, even assuming an FDA-regulated 3D-printed product is successfully brought to market in accordance with FDA standards, manufacturers must still assess options and potential challenges associated with protecting their intellectual property.Continue Reading 3D Printing Series: Be Right Down — Printing My Makeup

As expected, NASA recently successfully completed the first hot-fire tests on an advanced rocket engine thrust chamber assembly using copper alloy materials.  This was the first time a series of rigorous tests confirmed that 3D manufactured copper parts could withstand the heat and pressure required of combustion engines used in space launches. In all, 19 hot-fire tests on four injector and thrust chamber assembly configurations were conducted. These successful tests represent a milestone in NASA’s use of 3D printing.  However, NASA leaders have set their sights on many other uses of 3D printing, including the on-site preparation of meals.

3D printing, also referred to “additive manufacturing” or “rapid prototyping,” is the process of making three-dimensional objects from digital designs. Two of the most common types of printers are “disposition printers,” which deposit layers of materials until the 3D object is built, and “binding printers,” which build the object by binding, usually with adhesive or laser fusing, the underlying layers, to create a whole object at the end of the process.

Perhaps this seems pretty straightforward, but delving into 3D printing applied to the preparation of food ushers in images of the Jetsons eating on their supersonic armchairs. So it won’t require much of a leap to imagine real astronauts in real space vehicles preparing 3D foods to be consumed in space.Continue Reading 3D Printing Series: No One Goes into Space for the Food – Yet

We are entering a brave new world of food design and regulation brought to us through the mechanical development and visual artistry of 3D printing. As with any new medium, understanding what we confront and its regulation lag behind the medium’s implementation.

3D printing, also referred to as “additive manufacturing” or “rapid prototyping,” is the process of making three-dimensional objects from digital designs. Two of the most common types of printers are “disposition printers,” which deposit layers of materials until the 3D object is built, and “binding printers” which build the object by binding, usually with adhesive or laser fusing, the underlying layers, to create a whole object at the end of the process.

Continue Reading 3D Printing Series: Can You Put my Boyfriend’s Face Inside That Pizza?

3DPrinterWe agree – the Jetsons era has indeed arrived. Beyond the days of “smart” everything, now 3D printing has taken center stage in the tech world. While it is not so farfetched to imagine 3D-printed machine parts, prototype models, or even toys, it is might be harder to watch it printing foods, implantable medical devices, cosmetics, drugs and even human tissue. All too futuristic? Not really. The technology of 3D-print FDA-regulated products is, in large part, already here and rapidly progressing.

Yet, as technology continues to develop, questions arise as to whether, and how, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (“FDA”) regulatory framework will keep pace to impose the same safety, quality and efficacy standards to 3D-printed foods, drugs, cosmetics, and medical devices that currently apply to traditionally manufactured goods. How FDA chooses to deal with 3D-printed products will significantly impact not only barriers to market entry, but also post-marketing enforcement risks. Similarly, even assuming an FDA-regulated 3D-printed product is successfully brought to market in accordance with FDA standards, manufacturers must still assess options and potential challenges associated with protecting their intellectual property.

Through this multi-part blog series, we will explore these questions, considerations and challenges for 3D printing that are likely to be regulated by FDA, with particular focus on foods (consumed on earth and in space), cosmetics and medical devices. While, at this stage, FDA issues may raise more questions than clear answers, this blog series will explore and discuss the topics that are at the forefront of FDA’s agenda regarding 3D printing and, therefore, require careful consideration by any company that contemplates involvement in the 3D-printed foods, cosmetics or devices industries. 
Continue Reading 3D Printing Series: Before You Click “Print” On Your Pizza, Palette or Prosthetic: FDA and IP Considerations With 3D-Printed Foods, Cosmetics And Medical Devices

Many business people, from both start-ups and major multinational corporations, often question the value or reasoning behind the trademark advice they receive from their lawyers.  For instance, business people often ask “do we really need to do this?” – after being told that extensive trademark searching must be done to find a potential brand name…