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Full-Text Articles in Law
Determining What’S Not Obvious: Should A Reasonable Expectation Of Success Invalidate Patent Applications?, Natalie Peters
Determining What’S Not Obvious: Should A Reasonable Expectation Of Success Invalidate Patent Applications?, Natalie Peters
University of Massachusetts Law Review
Patents are necessary to incentivize innovation because they grant owners the right to protect inventions. To be patentable, an invention must be useful, it must be novel, and it must not be obvious. But the judiciary has struggled to apply the latter requirement, non-obviousness, particularly for highly technical innovations subject to FDA regulations. For these innovations, the progression through the regulatory jungle can take ten to twenty years and millions of dollars (2.6 billion for a pharmaceutical drug). The complexities of the regulatory process can also render an innovation unprotected by patent rights because, by the end of the process, …
A Jukebox For Patents: Can Patent Licensing Of Incremental Inventions Be Controlled By Compulsory Licensing?, Ralph D. Clifford
A Jukebox For Patents: Can Patent Licensing Of Incremental Inventions Be Controlled By Compulsory Licensing?, Ralph D. Clifford
Faculty Publications
The patent system today no longer follows the classic understanding of how it is designed to work. In theory, to avoid infringement, a product developer searches the database of issued patents looking for those that might read onto the product being developed. If such patents are found, the developer can approach the patent holder for a license, can attempt to design around the claims, or can abandon the project. With many hundreds of thousands of patents being issued annually—a rate of issuance almost an order of magnitude larger than a hundred years ago—it is now a practical impossibility to search …
Computer Programs Under The United States Intellectual Property System: Sui Generis Legislation Is Needed, Joseph Francis Agnelli, Iii
Computer Programs Under The United States Intellectual Property System: Sui Generis Legislation Is Needed, Joseph Francis Agnelli, Iii
University of Massachusetts Law Review
Section I of this article explores the different avenues of intellectual property protection presently available for computer software here in the United States. Section II then discusses how the European Community has resolved the computer program crisis under European intellectual property law. Lastly, section III will illustrate why sui generis legislation would be the paramount way for Congress to attack the intricacy that is created by computer programs under American intellectual property law.
Intellectual Property Rights In An Attorney’S Work Product, Ralph D. Clifford
Intellectual Property Rights In An Attorney’S Work Product, Ralph D. Clifford
University of Massachusetts Law Review
This paper addresses the main intellectual property consequences of practicing law and whether attorneys can prevent others from using their work-product. The article does not assume that the reader is an expert in intellectual property law; instead, it is designed to answer the types of questions practitioners have about their rights. There is one primary legal code that impacts attorneys’ rights to their work-product: the copyright law. As a broad statement, copyright law protects how an author expresses ideas. It is the system that is used to prevent others from copying a book, a movie, a musical composition, or even …
Technology Drives The Law: A Foreword To Trends And Issues In Techology & The Law, Ralph D. Clifford
Technology Drives The Law: A Foreword To Trends And Issues In Techology & The Law, Ralph D. Clifford
University of Massachusetts Law Review
Technology has always been a motivating force of change in the law. The creation of new machines and development of novel methods of achieving goals force the law to adapt with new and responsive rules. This is particularly true whenever a new technology transforms society. Whether it is increasing industrialization or computerization, pre-existing legal concepts rarely survive the transition unaltered - new prescriptions are announced while old ones disappear.
Simultaneous Copyright And Trade Secret Claims: Can The Copyright Misuse Defense Prevent Constitutional Doublethink?, Ralph D. Clifford
Simultaneous Copyright And Trade Secret Claims: Can The Copyright Misuse Defense Prevent Constitutional Doublethink?, Ralph D. Clifford
Faculty Publications
As the Constitution authorizes Congress to grant copyrights, it subjects the power to a public purpose requirement. Any monopoly Congress grants must be for the purpose of “promot[ing] the progress of science and useful arts.” But one result of Congress enacting the 1976 Act is a potential conflict between the Act and this public purpose requirement. An owner of intellectual property may believe that both copyright law – which mandates disclosure – and trade secret law – which mandates secrecy – can be used simultaneously. To believe that disclosure and secrecy can coexist is doublethink as both cannot be true. …
The Federal Circuit’S Cruise To Uncharted Waters: How Patent Protection For Algorithms And Business Methods May Sink The Ucita And State Intellectual Property Protection, Ralph D. Clifford
The Federal Circuit’S Cruise To Uncharted Waters: How Patent Protection For Algorithms And Business Methods May Sink The Ucita And State Intellectual Property Protection, Ralph D. Clifford
Faculty Publications
The realm of intellectual property law now changes at an incredible pace, with the courts discarding venerable concepts rapidly. This is not surprising as the transition from a goods-based society to one based on information increases the importance of intellectual property law. Nowhere has this been more apparent than the Federal Circuit’s recent reworking of the scope of federal patent law. Today, it is difficult to imagine anything for which a patent cannot be sought and received. Furthermore, the expansion of the patent law’s scope has a corresponding impact on state powers. Because the patent law serves to implicitly preempt …