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Full-Text Articles in Law
Private Copyright Reform, Kristelia A. García
Private Copyright Reform, Kristelia A. García
Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review
The government is not the only player in copyright reform, and perhaps not even the most important. Left to free market negotiation, risk averse licensors and licensees are contracting around the statutory license for certain types of copyright-protected content, and achieving greater efficiency via private ordering. This emerging phenomenon, herein termed “private copyright reform,” presents both adverse selection and distributive justice concerns: first, circumvention of the statutory license goes against legislative intent by allowing for the reduction, and even elimination, of statutorily mandated royalties owed to non-parties. In addition, when presented without full term disclosure, privately determined royalty rates can …
The Accession Insight And Patent Infringement Remedies, Peter Lee
The Accession Insight And Patent Infringement Remedies, Peter Lee
Michigan Law Review
What is the appropriate allocation of rights and obligations when one party, without authorization, substantially improves the property of another? According to the doctrine of accession, a good faith improver may take title to such improved property, subject to compensating the original owner for the value of the source materials. While shifting title to a converter seems like a remarkable remedy, this outcome merely underscores the equitable nature of accession, which aims for fair allocation of property rights and compensation between two parties who both have plausible claims to an improved asset. This Article draws upon accession-a physical property doctrine …
Royalty Rate-Setting For Webcasters: A Royal(Ty) Mess, Amy Duvall
Royalty Rate-Setting For Webcasters: A Royal(Ty) Mess, Amy Duvall
Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review
The Internet is a haven for free expression. Not only are content-based restrictions disfavored, but "[the internet] provides relatively unlimited, low-cost capacity for communication of all kinds." Almost half of all Americans have listened to music online, whether rebroadcasts of terrestrial radio or to find niche music that terrestrial radio simply does not play, and 13 percent tune in regularly. Webcasters provide a unique outlet for new artists; however, if royalty rates are set too high for all but the largest webcasters to stay in business, the variety of music available will be severely restricted. Musical diversity stimulates the generation …
Compulsory Patent Licensing: Is It A Viable Solution In The United States, Carol M. Nielsen, Michael R. Samardzija
Compulsory Patent Licensing: Is It A Viable Solution In The United States, Carol M. Nielsen, Michael R. Samardzija
Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review
As technology continues to advance at a rapid pace, so do the number of patents that cover every aspect of making, using, and selling these innovations. In 1996, to compound the rapid change of technology, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed that business methods are also patentable. Hence in the current environment, scores of patents, assigned to many different parties, may cover a single electronic device or software--making it increasingly impossible to manufacture an electronic device without receiving a cease and desist letter or other notice from a patentee demanding a large royalty or threatening an injunction. Companies, particularly those in …
Total-Sales Royalties Under The Patent-Misuse Doctrine: A Critique Of Zenith, Michigan Law Review
Total-Sales Royalties Under The Patent-Misuse Doctrine: A Critique Of Zenith, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
This Note criticizes the Supreme Court's treatment of total-sales royalties. Part I outlines the scope of the patent-misuse doctrine, and Part II describes the development of the Zenith conditioning test. Part III analyzes that test; it suggests that the Zenith opinion is not internally consistent and that courts may not be able to apply the conditioning test satisfactorily. Finally, in response to Justice Harlan's dissenting opinion in Zenith, in which he notes the dearth of literature on the economic consequences of total-sales royalty provisions, 14 Part III undertakes an analysis of those consequences. The analysis demonstrates that total-sales royalty …
The Patentee's Gains From Royalty Differentiation Under Exclusive Territorial Licensing, William G. Snead
The Patentee's Gains From Royalty Differentiation Under Exclusive Territorial Licensing, William G. Snead
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Royalty differentiation under exclusive territorial grants is a device which a patent owner, given proper conditions, can use to maximize his profits from licensing the patent rights to an invention. The patentee creates exclusive territories by granting only one license per territory, and then sets different royalties for each territory in accordance with the differing price elasticities of demand for the patented end product. Commentators have taken various stands on how the interests of the patentee and the public should be balanced in determining the desirability of permitting such exclusive territorial grants. One analysis purports to show that permitting a …
Unreduced Royalty Arrangements And Packaged Patents: An Improper Extension Of The Patent Monopoly?, Michigan Law Review
Unreduced Royalty Arrangements And Packaged Patents: An Improper Extension Of The Patent Monopoly?, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
This Comment will examine the merits of Brulotte and the propriety of extending its rule to the package licensing context. In order to do this it is necessary to consider the Brulotte and Rocform decisions in somewhat greater detail.
Patents - Estoppel Of Licensee To Deny Validity - Restrictions On Licensee's Sale Prices
Patents - Estoppel Of Licensee To Deny Validity - Restrictions On Licensee's Sale Prices
Michigan Law Review
Plaintiff sued to recover royalties alleged to be due under a contract licensing defendant to manufacture articles covered by a patent owned by the plaintiff. The agreement provided that defendant licensee should not sell embodiments of the invention manufactured under the license at prices or under conditions more favorable to its customers than those prescribed by the licensor for its own customers. The defendant set up the defense that plaintiff "by reason of the price control provisions of the licensing contract and the invalidity of [the patent]" was not entitled to recover the royalties. The district court and the circuit …
The Validity Of Conditions In Patent Licenses, John Barker Waite
The Validity Of Conditions In Patent Licenses, John Barker Waite
Michigan Law Review
In discussing this subject one can still begin with the premise that in this country a patentee possesses the absolute right to preclude anyone, except the United States government, from making use of his invention.
Taxation-Federal Instrumentalities-Exemption From State Tax
Taxation-Federal Instrumentalities-Exemption From State Tax
Michigan Law Review
Appellant, a New York corporation which is engaged in Georgia in licensing copyrighted motion pictures, brought suit to restrain a Georgia tax upon the gross receipts of royalties. Appellant urged the invalidity of the tax upon the ground that copyrights are instrumentalities of the United States. The supreme court of Georgia ruled that the suit should be dismissed. On appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States it was held, in Fox Film Corporation v. Doyal, that a state tax on royalties derived from copyrights is valid.