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Something Borrowed, Something New: The Changing Role Of Novelty In Idea Protection Law, Mary Lafrance
Something Borrowed, Something New: The Changing Role Of Novelty In Idea Protection Law, Mary Lafrance
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Ideas that do not qualify for legal protection, it is well settled, are free to the world once they have been disclosed. Yet states vary considerably in the scope of, and prerequisites for, legal protection granted to ideas. Variations in state approaches to idea protection are well documented. The states most often highlighted for their contrasting approaches are New York and California. Idea protection doctrine in these two jurisdictions differs primarily in the role played by the concept of “novelty.” There is no one authoritative definition of novelty in this context; indeed, courts typically use the term without defining it. …
Innovations Palpitations: The Confusing Status Of Geographically Misdescriptive Trademarks, Mary Lafrance
Innovations Palpitations: The Confusing Status Of Geographically Misdescriptive Trademarks, Mary Lafrance
Scholarly Works
The United States' two major international trade agreements of the 1990s—the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)—included intellectual property provisions that led Congress to amend a number of federal intellectual property statutes, including, inter alia, the Lanham Act provisions dealing with federal registration of trademarks. Specifically, pursuant to Article 1712 of NAFTA, Congress revised the rules that determine whether, and under what circumstances, federal registration is permitted for trademarks that contain geographical indications of origin. In the decade since these enactments, it appeared that the courts had reached a reasonable interpretation …