Law Commons^™

The Experimental Use Exception To Patent Infringement: Do Universities Deserve Special Treatment?, Elizabeth A. Rowe

Maine Law Review

Inventor Ivan owns a patent on a new Gizmo. He has spent a substantial portion of his time and resources to develop the Gizmo. He has also spent thousands of dollars on his patent attorneys to obtain the patent. Ivan had to wait over two years for the patent application to be processed and approved. But it was all worth it. Our patent laws grant Ivan a negative right-the right to exclude others from practicing his invention during the period of the patent. The local university is using Ivan's invention to further its own research. The university's research will allow …

Adoption Of The Bayh-Dolye Act In Developed Countries: Added Presure For A Broad Research Exemption In The United States?, Michael S. Mireles

Maine Law Review

Numerous developed countries, most if not all members of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), including Japan, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Spain, and Finland, have or are considering adopting legislation similar to the Bayh-Dole Act. These countries apparently believe that passage of legislation similar to the Bayh-Dole Act will lead to the transfer of government funded research results from the university laboratory to the marketplace and other economic activity. In the United States, the birthplace of the Bayh-Dole Act (the Act), it is not entirely clear whether its passage is the direct result …

3d Bioprinting Patentable Subject Matter Boundaries, Tabrez Y. Ebrahim

Seattle University Law Review

3D bioprinting combines emerging 3D printing technologies with synthetic biology. The promise of 3D bioprinting technology is to fabricate organs for transplantation, treat burn victims with in vivo skin repair, and create wearable microbiomes. 3D bioprinting can successively build, repair, or reproduce living human cells. This capability challenges eligible subject matter doctrine in U.S. patent law because the law has no brightline standard for patent eligibility for nature-based products. As 3D bioprinting technologies mature, U.S. patent law will need to respond to situations where living and nonliving worlds merge. This Article proposes a “Mixed-Scanned-Transformed” standard to supplement U.S. patent law’s …

The Copyright Box Model, Stephen T. Black

Seattle University Law Review

Intellectual property law is territorial in nature. That is why intellectual property assets have always been favorites among international tax planners. Rapid appreciation, even faster transfer times, and a somewhat vague standard for appraisal and valuation make for an interesting field of play. Transfer the assets to a low tax jurisdiction before the appreciation begins, and you find yourself with a large income stream that is taxed at a low rate. Miss the beat, and you have a large tax hit. For these reasons, many nations have followed the lead of Ireland in providing for so-called “patent box” schemes. These …

Exceeding Its Authority: The Uspto Prevents Federal Registration Of Medical Marijuana Trademarks, Stephanie Gambino

Seattle University Law Review

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) took concrete steps to reduce transaction costs to consumers purchasing medical marijuana products by creating a category for medical marijuana products within International Class 5. However, that decision was rescinded quickly. Then, the USPTO overreached its statutory authority by ordering a wholesale prohibition of federal registration for medical marijuana trademarks. This Comment argues that because the USPTO overreached its statutory authority in prohibiting federal registration for medical marijuana trademarks, it should reinstate the category for medical marijuana products and allow medical marijuana producers to seek federal registration of their trademarks. Part I …

Use Of Mediation To Recover Rights To Our Genes, Rachel Albert

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Trademark Boundaries And 3d Printing, Lucas S. Osborn

Akron Law Review

3D printing technology promises to disrupt trademark law at the same time that trademark law and policy sustain repeated criticism. The controversial growth of trademark law over the last century has yielded amorphous sponsorship and affiliation confusion issues and empirically fragile post-sale and initial-interest confusion theories, among others. Into this melee marches 3D printing technology, which dissociates the process of design from that of manufacturing and democratizes manufacturing. Rather than being embodied only in physical objects, design is embodied in digital CAD files that users can post and sell on the internet. The digitization of physical objects raises fundamental questions …

Reconsidering Experimental Use, Rochelle Cooper Dreyfuss

Akron Law Review

In the years since the Supreme Court began to narrow the scope of patentable subject matter, uncertainties in the law have had a deleterious impact on several important innovation sectors, including, in particular, the life sciences industry. There are now initiatives to expand patentable subject matter legislatively. In this article, I suggest that the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence is an outgrowth of the concern that patents on fundamental discoveries impede scientific research. To deal with that issue, any measure to expand the subject matter of patenting should be coupled with a parallel expansion of defenses to infringement liability, including the restoration …

Patent Submission Policies, Ryan T. Holte

Akron Law Review

This Article focuses on the early stage of commercialization communication when a third-party inventor owns an invention protected by a patent that a manufacturer-commercializer may profit from producing—long before any allegation of infringement or litigation. These submission-review communications by unaffiliated third parties are covered by corporate policies known as “patent submission policies.” They are the figurative “front doors” to a company for any third-party inventor, crucial to the commercialization of inventions generally. Unfortunately, patent submission policies have thus far remained unstudied in legal academic scholarship.

This Article collects and analyzes the current variations of patent submission policies adopted by the …

Patent Arbitration: The Underutilized Process For Resolving International Patent Disputes In The Pharmaceutical And Biotechnology Industries, Alessandra Emini

Arbitration Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Ieee-Sa Revised Patent Policy And Its Definition Of “Reasonable” Rates: A Transatlantic Antitrust Divide?, Nicolas Petit

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Standards Association’s (“IEEE-SA”) updated patent policy and a business review letter issued by the United States Department of Justice (“DOJ”) have caused much discussion in the United States. The purpose of this Article is to assess whether a similarly lenient antitrust approach to Standard Setting Organizations’ (“SSOs”) rate-setting policies would prevail under the European Union’s (“EU”) competition rules. Recent EU competition case law has promoted a very hard line in the area of coordinated conduct. Cases such as Dole Food Company, Inc. v. European Commission, T-Mobile Netherlands BV v. Raad van bestuur van …

Data-Generating Patents, Brenda M. Simon, Ted Sichelman

Northwestern University Law Review

Patents and trade secrets are often considered economic substitutes. Under this view, inventors can decide either to maintain an invention as a trade secret or to seek a patent and disclose to the public the details of the invention. However, a handful of scholars have recognized that because the patent disclosure requirements are not always rigorous, inventors may sometimes be able to keep certain aspects of an invention secret, yet still receive a patent to the invention as a whole. Here, we provide further insight into how trade secrets and patents may act as complements. Specifically, we introduce the concept …

The Big Patent Short: Hedge Fund Challenges To Pharmaceutical Patents And The Need For Financial Regulation, Ariel D. Multak

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

The enactment of the America Invents Act (AIA) in 2011 ushered in a new system for post-grant patent review. In the interest of enhancing the efficiency of the patent regime by invalidating “bad” patents, certain requirements were relaxed. For example, the AIA created an examination process called inter partes review, which allows a party without legal standing to challenge the validity of a patent in front of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. In the pharmaceutical patent context, it was expected that inter partes review would be utilized mostly by generic drug makers seeking to invalidate patents without incurring the …

Using Data Exclusivity Grants To Incentivize Cumulative Innovation Of Biologics' Manufacturing Processes, Eric Lawrence Levi

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Protecting Fashion Designs: Not Only "What?" But "Who?", Julie Zerbo

American University Business Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Patently Unexceptional Venue Statute, Paul R. Gugliuzza, Megan M. La Belle

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Private Or Public Right? Who Should Adjudicate Patentability Disputes And Is The Current Scheme Really Constitutional?, Jasmyne M. Baynard

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

“The patent bargain is the foundation upon which the patent system is built: in exchange for protections for an invention, the inventor agrees to make public their inventions so that others may build upon it.” The patent bargain creates a presumption of protection for the inventors, yet categorizing the patent a public right or a private right has diminished expectations for inventors and confusion for the masses. On October 11, 2016, the Supreme Court denied two petitions for writ of certiorari that challenged the constitutionality of Patent Trial and Review Board proceedings on the basis of the patent owner’s Seventh …

The Circular Logic Of Actavis, Joshua B. Fischman

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Redefining Reality: Why Design Patent Protection Should Expand To The Virtual World, John R. Boulé Iii

American University Law Review

Virtual reality (“VR”) and augmented reality (“AR”) technologies are rapidly maturing. Companies like Facebook and Microsoft are capitalizing on these technologies and actively releasing products to consumers. Both companies’ products blur the line between the real world and the virtual world. The blurring of this line presents novel questions regarding the protection of digital intellectual property that exists solely within the virtual world.

One such question is whether design patent protection will be available to three-dimensional digital models, models of real-world items that are digitally reproduced in the virtual world. To receive design patent protection, 35 U.S.C. § 171 requires, …

The Federal Circuit's Acquiescence (?), Timothy R. Holbrook

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Patently Insane For Patents: A Judge-By-Judge Analysis Of The Federal Circuit’S Post-Alice Patentable Subject Matter Eligibility Of Abstract Ideas Jurisprudence, Matthew B. Hershkowitz

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

The Information Age exposed the U.S. patent system to patentable subject matter that it had never considered before. In particular, software tested the courts’ understanding of patentable subject matter under section 101 of title 35 of the U.S. Code. The Supreme Court grappled with this issue in its Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International decision, which greatly affected the patentability of software. However, the Supreme Court did not define the precise contours of patentable subject matter in Alice, and as a result, the Federal Circuit has wrestled with its meaning ever since. This Note discusses the approaches Federal Circuit judges …

A Taste Of The Current Protection Offered By Intellectual Property Law To Molecular Gastronomy, Mary Grace Hyland

Cybaris®

No abstract provided.

Implications Of A Revitalized 28 U.S.C. 1400(B): Identifying The Regular And Established Place Of Business For Patent Venue In The Internet Age, Steven Pepe, Samuel Brenner

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Damages For Partial Product Design Patent Infringement, Patryk Oskar Rogowski

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Understanding The Role Of Prosecution History Through Linguistics, Zachary Herman

Cybaris®

No abstract provided.