Law Commons^™

Invalidated Patents And Associated Patent Examiners, Shine Tu

Law Faculty Scholarship

This study attempts to determine whether there are common

characteristics between examiners who issue invalidated patents. This

study uses two new patent databases that code for nearly 1.7 million

patents and approximately one thousand patents that were litigated to

a 'final" judgment between 2010 and 2011. This study finds that

approximately one-third of patents that are litigated to final judgment

are found invalid. Most invalidated patents are found in technology

centers 1600, 2600, and 2700, which correspond to biotechnology and

organic chemistry, communications, and computer science, respectively.

Most patents are invalidated on prior art-type novelty and obviousness

grounds. This study …

A Little Birdie Said, Seth C. Oranburg

Law Faculty Scholarship

Shareholders are organizing and mobilizing on new social media platforms like Twitter. This changes the dynamics of shareholder proxy contests in ways that favor shareholders over management. Disruptive technology may bring about a shareholder revolution, which may not be in shareholders’ best interests, at least from the perspective of shareholder wealth maximization, and it also has powerful implications for the future of corporate social responsibility.

Ip Basics: Advice On Ip Careers For Those Without Technical Backgrounds, Thomas G. Field Jr.

Law Faculty Scholarship

[Excerpt] If you can spend three more years in school, intellectual property offers a wide range of interesting and rewarding careers. Those without technical backgrounds, however, should not pursue an intellectual property career blindly. Unless your undergraduate degree is in a physical science or engineering -- or you have at least a masters (and probably some experience) in biotechnology, patent opportunities will be slim. As discussed in more detail below, people without technical training are more apt to deal with copyrights, trademarks and special contracts such as licenses or franchise agreements. Yet intellectual property law covering non-technical subjects is often …

Ip Basics: Avoiding Patent, Trademark And Copyright Problems, Thomas G. Field Jr.

Law Faculty Scholarship

Patents, copyrights and trademarks, as well as trade secrets and related rights, can be used to exclude free riders. These rights are collectively called "intellectual property" or IP.

Ip Basics: Managing Intellectual Property, Thomas G. Field Jr.

Law Faculty Scholarship

This provides an overview of the IP management process, including the key decisions to be made in the effort to make the most of intellectual property.

Ip Basics: Copyright On The Internet, Thomas G. Field Jr.

Law Faculty Scholarship

This discussion focuses on copyright issues most apt to concern those who post to or own email lists or those who have put up web pages. Such matters as the fundamental distinction between works that are and are not "for hire," registration, and issues to consider in transferring copyright interests are treated in other copyright discussions above.

Ip Basics: Advice On Ip Careers For Those With Technical Backgrounds, Thomas G. Field Jr.

Law Faculty Scholarship

[Excerpt] Full-time law school takes three years and culminates in the Juris Doctor. A J.D. from a school accredited by the American Bar Association qualifies a person to take the bar exam in any state. As mentioned above, college graduates need not pursue any particular line of study to be accepted into law school. At the University of New Hampshire School of Law, for example, over a third of our students have degrees in engineering or science, and many have had extensive experience or advanced degrees, including M.D.s and Ph.Ds. -- the last being particularly helpful for biotechnology patent careers.

Ip Basics: Patenting Your Idea, Thomas G. Field Jr.

Law Faculty Scholarship

This discussion addresses the relationship between patents and the market value of inventions, as well as the need to be skeptical of invention promoters and other matters of importance to first-time inventors. It also discusses the need for counsel in making outside submissions and the importance of getting prior art searches.

Ip Basics: Copyright In Written Work, Thomas G. Field Jr.

Law Faculty Scholarship

Written primarily for free-lance writers, this discussion addresses ownership and duration of copyrights, deposit and registration, notice, and remedies that are closely tied to prompt registration. It also discusses licensing and other matters of interest, as well as the need for counsel.

Ip Basics: Trademarks And Business Goodwill, Thomas G. Field Jr.

Law Faculty Scholarship

This is information all business owners need if they wish to preserve their hard-won goodwill. It discusses, for example, the important differences between strong and weak marks for products and services, the value of state and federal registrations and the importance of searches (to avoid wasting money).

Ip Basics: Seeking Cost-Effective Patents, Thomas G. Field Jr.

Law Faculty Scholarship

This discussion briefly explores the range of intellectual property options in view of the nature of inventions and their market value, particularly for entrepreneurs. Specific strategies for controlling ever-increasing patent costs in the face of market uncertainty. It does not recommend that inventors prosecute patent applications themselves, lest they get much less than they pay for.

Ip Basics: Copyright In Visual Arts, Thomas G. Field Jr.

Law Faculty Scholarship

This discussion focuses on the needs of free-lance artists, craftspeople, photographers, sculptors and the like.

Ip Basics: Copyright For Digital Authors, Thomas G. Field Jr.

Law Faculty Scholarship

Written for computer artists and programmers, this paper addresses the basics, as well as the registration of multiple works, difference between works that are and are not prepared "for hire," and other matters of interest to entrepreneurs as well as to free-lance programmers and artists.

Work Made For Hire – Analyzing The Multifactor Balancing Test, Ryan G. Vacca

Law Faculty Scholarship

Authorship, and hence, initial ownership of copyrighted works is oftentimes controlled by the 1976 Copyright Act’s work made for hire doctrine. This doctrine states that works created by employees within the scope of their employment result in the employer owning the copyright. One key determination in this analysis is whether the hired party is an employee or independent contractor. In 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court, in CCNV v. Reid, answered the question of how employees are distinguished from independent contractors by setting forth a list of factors courts should consider. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court did not give further guidance on …

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

Law Faculty Scholarship

This project is an empirical analysis of trademarks that have received rejections based on their “scandalous” nature. 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, this piece is the first scholarly project that engages an empirical analysis of the Section 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. This study analyzes which marks are being rejected, what evidence is being …

The Constitutional Limitation On Trademark Propertization, Peter J. Karol

Law Faculty Scholarship

The following article seeks to apply the retrenchment in constitutional Commerce Clause jurisprudence of the last few decades to the phenomenon of trademark propertization, the expansive and largely federal movement towards protecting trademarks as assets apart from any connection to referent goods and services. Trademark scholars have filled the trademarks literature with critiques of propertization that generally object, on policy and historical grounds, to the trend and offer constructions of the Lanham Act designed to check its progress. With the notable exception of an article published in 2000 by Professor Kenneth Port, however, the literature has largely avoided addressing the …

Professor Thomas G. Field, Jr.: Pioneer In Intellectual Property Education, Teacher, Mentor, And Scholar, Jon R. Cavicchi

Law Faculty Scholarship

It is almost an impossible endeavor to summarize the forty plus year career of Thomas G. Field, Jr. Regarding this inquiry, Field might say, "If you want to know what I have done, look at my C. V. on the web!" His ten page, single-spaced "Abbreviated Curriculum Vitae" only sets the factual stage for the incredible career that spanned the entire life of the University of New Hampshire School of Law ("UNH School of Law" or "UNH Law"). The real story is only told by Field himself, his contemporaries, colleagues, and the thousands of students whose life he touched. This …

A Restatement Of Copyright Law As More Independent And Stable Treatise, Ann Bartow

Law Faculty Scholarship

This article maps the problematic consequences of over reliance by judges, lawyers and policy makers on copyright law treatises, with a particular focus on the negative effects Nimmer on Copyright has had on the evolution of various copyright law doctrines. It proposes that an ALI Restatement of Copyright Law is needed to create a reference tool that is transparently authored and edited.

Making Do In Making Drugs: Innovation Policy And Pharmaceutical Manufacturing, W. Nicholson Price Ii

Law Faculty Scholarship

Despite increasing recalls, contamination events, and shortages, drug companies continue to rely on outdated manufacturing plants and processes. Drug manufacturing’s inefficiency and lack of innovation stand in stark contrast to drug discovery, which is the focus of a calibrated innovation policy that combines patents and FDA regulation. Pharmaceutical manufacturing lags far behind the innovative techniques found in other industries due to high regulatory barriers and ineffective intellectual property incentives. Among other challenges, although manufacturers tend to rely on trade secrecy because of the difficulty in enforcing patents on manufacturing processes, trade secrecy provides limited incentives for innovation. To increase those …

Overcoming India’S Food Security Challenges: The Role Of Intellectual Property Management And Technology Transfer Capacity Building, Stanley Kowalski, Aarushi Gupta, Ifica Mehra

Law Faculty Scholarship

The growth of the Indian economy after Independence has had little impact on the food security of the country. The paper analyses the development of advanced crop varieties through the use of agricultural technologies (hereinafter "agbiotech") within the technology transfer system, a framework which comprises of the interactions of intellectual property rights law and agricultural research and development in India. Through this, the author argues that agricultural innovation in India is failing due to the absence of connections within the technology transfer system and advocates for the creation of a national program aimed at advancing IP and tech-transfer capacity in …

Food For Thought: Genetically Modified Seeds As De Facto Standard Essential Patents, Benjamin M. Cole, Brent J. Horton, Ryan G. Vacca

Law Faculty Scholarship

For several years, courts have been improperly calculating damages in cases involving the unlicensed use of genetically-modified (GM) seed technology. In particular, when courts determine patent damages based on the hypothetical negotiation method, they err in exaggerating these damages to a point where no rational negotiator would agree. In response, we propose a limited affirmative defense of an implied license due to the patent’s status as a de facto standard essential patent. To be classified as a de facto standard essential patent, the farmer must prove three elements that reflect the peculiarities of GM seeds used in farming: (1) dominance, …

Function Over Form: Bringing The Fixation Requirement Into The Modern Era, Megan M. Carpenter, Steven Hetcher

Law Faculty Scholarship

This Article examines the ways that contemporary creativity challenges copyright’s fixation requirement. In this Article, we identify concrete problems with the fixation requirement, both practically and in light of the fundamental purpose and policy behind copyright law, and argue for a change that would amend the fixation requirement to better function in the modern era.

Specifically, we conclude that a fair appraisal of the justifications for the fixation requirement provides little, if any, rationale for fixation except to the extent that fixation helps to separate idea from expression in determining the “metes and bounds” of creative expression. Recent case law …

Patent Examiners And Litigation Outcomes, Shine Tu

Law Faculty Scholarship

Conventional wisdom argues that unnecessary litigation of low quality patents hinders innovation, and that the PTO could play a role with its high grant rates. Accordingly, it is important to answer these questions: (1) which patent examiners are issuing litigated patents, (2) are examiners who are "rubber stamping" patents issuing litigated patents at a disproportionately higher rate, and (3) are examiners with less experience issuing more litigated patents? In sum, do patent examiners who issue litigated patents have common characteristics? Intuition would argue that those examiners who issue the most patents (approximately one patent every three business days) would exhibit …

Using Valuation-Based Decision Making To Increase The Efficiency Of China's Patent Subsidy Strategies, William Murphy, John L. Orcutt

Law Faculty Scholarship

[Excerpt] “The Chinese government has grown concerned that its patent fee subsidy programs have not funded the most deserving patents, and thus they no longer wish to spend public resources to promote low-value patents. Instead, the government would prefer subsidy programs that encourage the most deserving patents. The Patent Strategy reflects this desire, as the fourth strategic focus of the Patent Strategy recognizes the need to “[o]ptimize [China’s] patent subsidy policy and further define the orientation to enhance patent quality.”19 This Article explains how a disciplined and transparent valuation-based decision making process can help the Chinese government design patent fee …

Patent Invalidity Versus Noninfringement, Roger Allen Ford

Law Faculty Scholarship

Most patent scholars agree that the Patent and Trademark Office grants too many invalid patents and that these patents impose a significant tax upon industry and technological innovation. Although policymakers and scholars have proposed various ways to address this problem, including better ex ante review by patent examiners and various forms of ex post administrative review, district courts invalidating patents in litigation remain a core defense against bad patents. This article analyzes a previously unidentified impediment to the use of district courts to invalidate patents. Nearly every patent lawsuit rises or falls on one of two defenses: invalidity or noninfringement. …

Intellectual Property And Opportunities For Food Security In The Philippines, Jane Payumo, Howard Grimes, Antonio Alfonso, Stanley P. Kowalski, Keith Jones, Karim Maredia, Rodolfo Estigoy

Law Faculty Scholarship

By 2050, the Philippine population is projected to increase by as much as 41 percent, from 99.9 million to nearly 153 million people. Producing enough food for such an expanding population and achieving food security remain a challenge for the Philippine government. This paper argued that intellectual property rights (IPR) can play a key role in achieving the nation’s current goal to be food-secure and provided examples to illustrate that the presence of sound intellectual property (IP) helps foster research, development, and deployment of agricultural innovations. This paper also offered key recommendations about how the IP system can be further …

Patent Landscape Of Helminth Vaccines And Related Technologies, Jon R. Cavicchi, Stanley P. Kowalski, John Schroeder, Rayna Burke, Jillian Michaud-King

Law Faculty Scholarship

Executive Summary This report focuses on patent landscape analysis of technologies related to vaccines targeting parasitic worms, also known as helminths. These technologies include methods of formulating vaccines, methods of producing of subunits, the composition of complete vaccines, and other technologies that have the potential to aid in a global response to this pathogen. The purpose of this patent landscape study was to search, identify, and categorize patent documents that are relevant to the development of vaccines that can efficiently promote the development of protective immunity against helminths. The search strategy used keywords which the team felt would be general …

Intellectual Property And Public Health – A White Paper, Ryan G. Vacca, James Ming Chen, Jay Dratler Jr., Thomas Folsom, Timothy S. Hall, Yaniv Heled, Frank A. Pasquale Iii, Elizabeth A. Reilly, Jeffrey Samuels, Katherine J. Strandburg, Kara W. Swanson, Andrew W. Torrance, Katharine A. Van Tassel

Law Faculty Scholarship

On October 26, 2012, the University of Akron School of Law’s Center for Intellectual Property and Technology hosted its Sixth Annual IP Scholars Forum. In attendance were thirteen legal scholars with expertise and an interest in IP and public health who met to discuss problems and potential solutions at the intersection of these fields. This report summarizes this discussion by describing the problems raised, areas of agreement and disagreement between the participants, suggestions and solutions made by participants and the subsequent evaluations of these suggestions and solutions. Led by the moderator, participants at the Forum focused generally on three broad …

Safe Harbor For The Innocent Infringer In The Digital Age, Tonya M. Evans

Law Faculty Scholarship

The primary goal of this Article is three-fold: (1) to explore the role of the innocent infringer archetype historically and in the digital age; (2) to highlight the tension between customary and generally accepted online uses and copyright law that compromise efficient use of technology and progress of the digital technologies, the Internet, and society at large; and (3) to offer a legislative fix in the form of safe harbor for direct innocent infringers. Such an exemption seems not only more efficient but also more just in the online environment where unwitting infringement for the average copyright consumer is far …

Affixing The Service Mark: Reconsidering The Rise Of An Oxymoron, Peter J. Karol

Law Faculty Scholarship

This article explores the deep and to date unacknowledged contradictions underlying service marks (trademarks used in connection with services rather than goods). Namely, the Lanham Act statutorily mandates treating trademarks the “same” as service marks; yet it simultaneously loosens requirements for proving service mark “use” by allowing mere advertising to substantiate service mark rights. This shortcut is not permitted with trademarks as such. As a result of this imbalance, sophisticated trademark practitioners may now quickly secure vast service mark rights for clients in ways not available for trademarks.

To better understand current service mark practice, and the above contradictions, the …