Law Commons^™

Trade Secrets, Trade, And Extraterritoriality, Elizabeth A. Rowe, Daniel M. Mahfood

Elizabeth A Rowe

When a foreign individual or company misappropriates the trade secrets of an American company, and the acts of misappropriation occur entirely outside of the United States, the trade secret law of the United States generally will not apply. This represents the principle of extraterritoriality, and identifies a major vulnerability for companies that choose to conduct operations or engage in other business abroad. In such situations, the substantive and procedural laws of another country are likely to define whether the allegedly misappropriated information is protected and has been misappropriated. Providing a domestic forum to prosecute extraterritorial infringement would substantially benefit domestic …

Section By Section Commentary On The Tpp Final Ip Chapter Published 5 November 2015 – Part 2 – Copyright, Kimberlee G. Weatherall

Kimberlee G Weatherall

This note comments on the TPP copyright provisions (final text). It also compares each provision to multilateral and bilateral treaties. The material here is necessarily preliminary and does not purport to be complete. It is published on the basis that it may assist others’ analysis and commentary

Section By Section Commentary On The Tpp Final Ip Chapter Published 6 November 2015 – Part 1 – General Provisions, Trade Mark, Gis, Designs, Kimberlee G. Weatherall

Kimberlee G Weatherall

This note comments on the TPP general provisions and rules on trade mark, GIs, and designs. It also compares each provision to multilateral and bilateral treaties. The material here is necessarily preliminary and does not purport to be complete. It is published on the basis that it may assist others’ analysis and commentary.

Section By Section Commentary On The Tpp Final Ip Chapter Published 5 November 2015 – Part 3 - Enforcement, Kimberlee G. Weatherall

Kimberlee G Weatherall

This note comments on the TPP IP enforcement provisions (final text). It also compares each provision to multilateral and bilateral treaties. The material here is necessarily preliminary and does not purport to be complete. It is published on the basis that it may assist others’ analysis and commentary. Note: version 0.1 adds fn 1 reference to Bridy on ISP safe harbors.

The Case Against Federalizing Trade Secrecy, Christopher B. Seaman

Christopher B. Seaman

Trade secrecy is unique among the major intellectual property (IP) doctrines because it is governed primarily by state law. Recently, however, a number of influential actors — including legislators, academics, and organizations representing IP attorneys and owners — have proposed creating a private civil cause of action for trade secret misappropriation under federal law. Proponents assert that federalizing trade secrecy would provide numerous benefits, including substantive uniformity, the availability of a federal forum for misappropriation litigation, and the creation of a unified national regime governing IP rights. This Article engages in the first systematic critique of the claim that federalizing …

The Supreme Assimilation Of Patent Law, Peter Lee

Peter Lee

Although tensions between universality and exceptionalism apply throughout law, they are particularly pronounced in patent law, a field that deals with highly technical subject matter. This Article explores these tensions by investigating an underappreciated descriptive theory of Supreme Court patent jurisprudence. Significantly extending previous scholarship, it argues that the Court’s recent decisions reflect a project of eliminating “patent exceptionalism” and assimilating patent doctrine to general legal principles (or, more precisely, to what the Court frames as general legal principles). Among other motivations, this trend responds to rather exceptional patent doctrine emanating from the Federal Circuit in areas as varied as …

From Pirates To Partners (Episode Ii): Protecting Intellectual Property In Post-Wto China, Peter K. Yu

Peter K. Yu

In From Pirates to Partners: Protecting Intellectual Property in China in the Twenty-First Century, I criticized the ineffectiveness and short-sightedness of the U.S.-China intellectual property policy. As I argued, the approach taken by the administration in the 1980s and early 1990s had created a cycle of futility in which China and the United States repeatedly threatened each other with trade wars only to back down in the eleventh hour with a compromise that did not provide sustainable improvements in intellectual property protection. Since I wrote that article five years ago, China has joined the WTO and undertook a complete overhaul …

A Trade Secret Approach To Protecting Traditional Knowledge, Deepa Varadarajan

Deepa Varadarajan

This Article argues that the doctrinal and normative divide between traditional knowledge protection and intellectual property law has been overemphasized, and that trade secret law can help narrow it. First, in terms of doctrinal fit, trade secret doctrine offers a viable model for protecting a subset of traditional knowledge that is not already publicly available. Broadly speaking, trade secret law imposes liability for the wrongful acquisition, use, or disclosure of valuable information that is the subject of reasonable secrecy efforts. Second, in addition to its practical import, the underlying justifications of trade secret law offer a useful normative guide for …

National Treatment, National Interest And The Public Domain, Margaret Ann Wilkinson

Margaret Ann Wilkinson

The concept of the "public domain" is a powerful rhetorical element in he policy debates involving intellectual property. But is it a stable and useful concept for analyzing information issues? Can the notion of the public domain and the concept of the information commons be separated? Is the notion of the public domain merely another way of expressing the public interest? This paper canvassed the literature, seeking a theoretically consistent definition for public domain that was equally applicable across the copyright, trademark and patent spheres. The analysis demonstrated that there is no such construct. The paper also reviews the findings …

Leveraging Knowledge Assets: Can Law Reform Help?, Margaret Ann Wilkinson, Mark Perry

Margaret Ann Wilkinson

No abstract provided.

Intellectual Property In Higher Life Forms: The Patent System And Controversial Technologies, Robert P. Merges

Robert P Merges

No abstract provided.

Nsfw: An Empirical Study Of Scandalous Trademarks, Megan M. Carpenter

Megan M Carpenter

This project is an empirical analysis of trademarks that have received rejections based on the judgment that they are “scandalous." It is the first of its kind. The Lanham Act bars registration for trademarks that are “scandalous” and “immoral.” While much has been written on the morality provisions in the Lanham Act generally, this piece is the first scholarly project that engages an empirical analysis of 2(a) rejections based on scandalousness; it contains a look behind the scenes at how the morality provisions are applied throughout the trademark registration process. We study which marks are being rejected, what evidence is …

Promoting “Academic Entrepreurship” In Europe And The United States: Creating An Intellectual Property Regime To Facilitate The Efficient Transfer Of Knowledge From The Lab To The Patient, Constance Bagley, Christina Tvarno

Constance E. Bagley

In 2014, the European Commission announced the launch of a study of knowledge transfer by public research organizations and other institutes of higher learning “to determine which additional measures might be needed to ensure an optimal flow of knowledge between the public research organisations and business thereby contributing to the development of the knowledge based economy.” As the European Commission has recognized, the EU needs to take action to “unlock the potential of IPRs [intellectual property rights] that lie dormant in universities, research institutes and companies.” This article builds on our earlier work on structuring efficient pharmaceutical public-private partnerships (PPPPs) …

Antitrust And Information Technologies, Herbert Hovenkamp

Herbert Hovenkamp

Technological change strongly affects the use of information to facilitate anticompetitive practices. The effects result mainly from digitization and the many products and processes that it enables. These technologies also account for a significant portion of the difficulties that antitrust law encounters when its addresses intellectual property rights. Changes in the technologies of information also affect the structures of certain products, in the process either increasing or decreasing the potential for competitive harm. For example, digital technology affects the way firms exercise market power, but it also imposes serious measurement difficulties. In purely digital markets intellectual property rights are crucial …

Do Patent Licensing Demands Mean Innovation?, Robin C. Feldman, Mark A. Lemley

Robin C Feldman

Corporate "Human Rights" To Intellectual Property Protection, J. Janewa Osei Tutu

J. Janewa Osei-Tutu

Trolls Or Toll-Takers: Do Intellectual Property Non-Practicing Entities Add Value To Society?, Samuel F. Ernst

Samuel F Ernst

There are few areas of patent law more contentious than the dispute over the social utility of “non-practicing entities,” or (if you will excuse the expression) “patent trolls.” Whether non-practicing entities add value to society is a topic of much debate, and the focus of the 2015 Chapman Law Review Symposium.