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Full-Text Articles in Law
It’S My Mark, I Can Offend If I Want To! The Waning Of The Government’S Power To Protect Its Citizens From Widespread Discriminatory Marks, 16 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 505 (2017), Paul Sanders
UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law
There is an inherent tension between the First Amendment and trademark law. For over 100 years the United States Patent and Trademark Office has protected American citizens from Marks of ill repute. In the wake of the In re Tam decision, this may become more difficult if not impossible. This comment analyzes In re Tam, as well as explores the First Amendment guarantee of free speech and trademark law, and how each intersects with each other. Additionally, this comment proposes solutions that will allow the government to continue protecting its citizens from Marks that should have no place in commerce.
Allocation Of New Top-Level Domain Names And The Effect Upon Religious Freedom, 12 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 697 (2013), N. Cameron Russell
Allocation Of New Top-Level Domain Names And The Effect Upon Religious Freedom, 12 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 697 (2013), N. Cameron Russell
UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law
The monopoly provided when trademark protection is given to a religious name is in direct tension with an individual’s right to freedom of religion. One’s ability to freely use a particular religious name in spiritual practice, and to identify one’s belief system with the words that commonly describe it, are weakened when trademark law designates just one owner. This Article explores the impact of the impending issuance of brand new top-level domains utilizing religious names, and how the providing of an exclusive right for one entity to govern over a religious top-level domain, in addition to the existence of a …
Outspoken: Social Media And The Modern College Athlete, 12 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 509 (2013), Meg Penrose
Outspoken: Social Media And The Modern College Athlete, 12 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 509 (2013), Meg Penrose
UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution grants American citizens the right to free speech. However, in the case of college athletes, this right is not without limitation. In exchange for the privilege of participating in college level athletics, college athletes voluntarily agree to terms that restrict their abilities to speak freely, specifically in the context of social media platforms. This article details situations in which college athletes have made offensive statements via social media for which they later needed to delete, explain, and apologize. These examples support the notion that restrictions on college athletes’ speech are not only …
Cybersex: Protecting Sexual Content In The Digital Age, 11 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 815 (2012), Nicole Chaney
Cybersex: Protecting Sexual Content In The Digital Age, 11 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 815 (2012), Nicole Chaney
UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law
Advertisers employ bare-skinned models and sex appeal to seduce American consumers with every magazine, billboard, and television advertisement. The ubiquity of sexual gratification has reached a tangible quality in American culture, but sex is still somehow taboo in our legal system. Despite the vast market for online adult entertainment, obscenity laws have been used to strike down claims for adult content copyright owners. These content owners are producing creative sexual expression for the public benefit, but they are being denied the same economic incentives granted to their mainstream counterparts. Ironically, Playboy Co. is an outlier in the adult entertainment industry …
Fifteen Years Of Fame: The Declining Relevance Of Domain Names In The Enduring Conflict Between Trademark And Free Speech Rights, 11 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 1 (2011), Jude A. Thomas
UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law
Domain name disputes have been the subject of substantial litigation, legislative action, and scholarly debate over the course of the past fifteen years. Much of the debate is the product of disagreement concerning whether trademark rights naturally extend into the domain name space and to what extent those rights are limited by principles of free speech. Gripe sites are paradigmatic examples of this debate. Society’s investment in defining these rights continues to grow, even as the relevance of domain names may be declining, due to: (1) changes in the way users locate content on the Internet; (2) the growth of …
Golan V. Holder: Copyright In The Image Of The First Amendment, 11 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 83 (2011), David L. Lange, Risa J. Weaver, Shiveh Roxana Reed
Golan V. Holder: Copyright In The Image Of The First Amendment, 11 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 83 (2011), David L. Lange, Risa J. Weaver, Shiveh Roxana Reed
UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law
Does copyright violate the First Amendment? Professor Melville Nimmer asked this question forty years ago, and then answered it by concluding that copyright itself is affirmatively speech protective. Despite ample reason to doubt Nimmer’s response, the Supreme Court has avoided an independent, thoughtful, plenary review of the question. Copyright has come to enjoy an all-but-categorical immunity to First Amendment constraints. Now, however, the Court faces a new challenge to its back-of-the-hand treatment of this vital conflict. In Golan v. Holder the Tenth Circuit considered legislation (enacted pursuant to the Berne Convention and TRIPS) “restoring” copyright protection to millions of foreign …
An Immoral Fight: Shielding Moral Rights With First Amendment Jurisprudence When Fair Use Battles With Actual Malice, 8 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 190 (2008), Mark A. Petrolis
UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law
Moral rights give an artist personal rights to her work. Because an artist puts her personality, spirit, and soul into the creation of her work, her honor and reputation may be harmed if her works are mistreated. In 1990, the Visual Artists Rights Act incorporated moral rights into U.S. copyright law. However, fair use became an absolute defense to moral rights violations. This comment proposes that fair use should not be an absolute defense, and applies First Amendment jurisprudence developed from defamation law to both fair use and moral rights. Defamation shares similarities with both. Like moral rights, defamation law …
Recent Developments In Trademark Law: Confusion, Free Speech And The Question Of Use, 4 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 387 (2005), Chad J. Doellinger
Recent Developments In Trademark Law: Confusion, Free Speech And The Question Of Use, 4 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 387 (2005), Chad J. Doellinger
UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law
The Supreme Court’s continued trend of refining trademark rights combined with a new concern for free speech and expression brings current and unresolved trademark issues to light. The large amount of activity in the development of trademark law in 2004 has brought additional uncertainty to trademark law. This article discusses recent Supreme Court trademark jurisprudence refining trademark rights, the development of recent trademark dilution cases, the role of use in commerce as applied to internet search engines and keyword issues, and the emphasis on free speech and expression.