Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Institution
- Keyword
-
- Copyright (9)
- Intellectual property (9)
- Copyright law (7)
- Patent (6)
- Patents (6)
-
- Public domain (5)
- Fair use (3)
- Infringement (3)
- Litigation (3)
- Patent infringement (3)
- Authorship (2)
- Columbia Journal of Law and the Arts (2)
- Columbia Law Review (2)
- Creative Commons (2)
- Free software (2)
- Human rights (2)
- Innovation (2)
- Inventions (2)
- Licensing (2)
- Parody (2)
- Patent and Trademark Office (2)
- Patent trolls (2)
- Privacy (2)
- R&D (2)
- ALRC (1)
- ANDA (1)
- Academia (1)
- Access (1)
- Administrative law (1)
- Advanced manufacturing (1)
Articles 1 - 30 of 54
Full-Text Articles in Law
Parody As Brand, Stacey Dogan, Mark Lemley
Parody As Brand, Stacey Dogan, Mark Lemley
Faculty Scholarship
Courts have struggled with the evaluation of parody under trademark law. While many trademark courts have protected parodies, there are a surprising number of cases that hold obvious parodies illegal. The problem is particularly severe with respect to parodies that are used to brand products, a growing category. The doctrinal tools that generally protect expressive parodies often don't apply to brand parodies. Our goal in this paper is to think about what circumstances (if any) should lead courts to find parody illegal. We conclude that, despite courts’ increasing attention to speech interests in recent years, the law’s treatment of parody …
Virotech Patents, Viropiracy, And Viral Sovereignty, Peter K. Yu
Virotech Patents, Viropiracy, And Viral Sovereignty, Peter K. Yu
Faculty Scholarship
Although there are many important intellectual property and public health developments in the United States, the domestic debate remains surprisingly disconnected from the international debate. To help bridge this disconnect, this Article discusses the interrelationship between intellectual property and public health in the context of communicable diseases. This type of disease is intentionally picked to highlight how developments abroad could easily affect what happens at home, and vice versa.
The first half of this Article recounts three distinct stories about viruses responsible for AIDS, SARS, and the avian influenza (H5N1). The first story focuses on the ongoing developments within the …
Do Npes Matter? Non-Practicing Entities And Patent Litigation Outcomes, Samantha Zyontz, Michael J. Mazzeo, Jonathan H. Ashtor
Do Npes Matter? Non-Practicing Entities And Patent Litigation Outcomes, Samantha Zyontz, Michael J. Mazzeo, Jonathan H. Ashtor
Faculty Scholarship
It is widely argued that so-called “patent trolls” are corrupting the U.S. patent system and endangering technology innovation and commercialization at large. For example, a recent White House report argued that “trolls” hurt firms of all sizes and advocated for specific policies aimed at curtailing practices thought to be particularly harmful. Yet the existence and extent of any systematic effects of so-called “troll-like” behavior, and the implications of modern patent assertion practices by Non-Practicing Entities (“NPEs”), remains unclear. This article develops novel empirical evidence to inform the debate over NPEs on patent litigation. Specifically, we conduct a large-scale empirical analysis …
Intellectual Property Defenses, Alex Stein, Gideon Parchomovsky
Intellectual Property Defenses, Alex Stein, Gideon Parchomovsky
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Reverse Payments, Perverse Incentives, Murat C. Mungan
Reverse Payments, Perverse Incentives, Murat C. Mungan
Faculty Scholarship
Issuing and enforcing prescription drug patents requires courts and legislatures to strike a delicate balance. A patent gives drug manufacturers a legal, if temporary, monopoly on sales of a drug; this encourages manufacturers to engage in costly research and development of new medicines. But not all patents issued by the Patent Office are ultimately deemed valid – generic drug manufacturers can infringe the patent, and, when sued, attack its validity in court on a variety of grounds, including obviousness. In recent years, patent holders have begun to settle these suits (which they initiated) by paying the alleged infringer. Not surprisingly, …
Explaining The ‘Unpredictable’: An Empirical Analysis Of U.S. Patent Infringement Awards, Samantha Zyontz, Michael J. Mazzeo, Jonathan Hillel
Explaining The ‘Unpredictable’: An Empirical Analysis Of U.S. Patent Infringement Awards, Samantha Zyontz, Michael J. Mazzeo, Jonathan Hillel
Faculty Scholarship
Patent infringement awards are commonly thought to be unpredictable, which raises concerns that patents can lead to unjust enrichment and impede the progress of innovation. We investigate the unpredictability of patent damages by conducting a large-scale econometric analysis of award values. We begin by analyzing the outcomes of 340 cases decided in US federal courts between 1995 and 2008 in which infringement was found and damages were awarded. Our data include the amount awarded, along with information about the litigants, case specifics and economic value of the patents-at-issue. Using these data, we construct an econometric model that explains over 75% …
Reclaiming Copyright From The Outside In: What The Downfall Hitler Meme Means For Transformative Works, Fair Use, And Parody, Aaron Schwabach
Reclaiming Copyright From The Outside In: What The Downfall Hitler Meme Means For Transformative Works, Fair Use, And Parody, Aaron Schwabach
Faculty Scholarship
¶Continuing advances in consumer information technology have made video editing, once difficult, into a relatively simple matter. The average consumer can easily create and edit videos, and post them online. Inevitably many of these posted videos incorporate existing copyrighted content, raising questions of infringement, derivative versus transformative use, fair use, and parody.¶ ¶This article looks at several such works, with its main focus on one category of examples: the Downfall Hitler meme. Downfall Hitler videos take as their starting point a particular sequence - Hitler's breakdown rant - from the 2004 German film Der Untergang [Downfall in the US]. The …
The Federal Circuit As A Federal Court, Paul Gugliuzza
The Federal Circuit As A Federal Court, Paul Gugliuzza
Faculty Scholarship
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has exclusive jurisdiction over patent appeals and, as a consequence, the last word on many legal issues important to innovation policy. This Article shows how the Federal Circuit augments its already significant power by impeding other government institutions from influencing the patent system. Specifically, the Federal Circuit has shaped patent-law doctrine, along with rules of jurisdiction, procedure, and administrative law, to preserve and expand the court’s power in four interinstitutional relationships: the court’s federalism relationship with state courts, its separation of powers relationship with the executive and legislative branches, its vertical …
Five Oft-Repeated Questions About China's Recent Rise As A Patent Power, Peter K. Yu
Five Oft-Repeated Questions About China's Recent Rise As A Patent Power, Peter K. Yu
Faculty Scholarship
Policymakers, industries, commentators and the media have widely criticized China for its failure to adequately protect intellectual property rights. In recent years, however, the discourse on intellectual property developments in China has slowly begun to change. Such a change is the most notable in the patent area. Today, China is already among the top five countries filing patent applications through the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). In 2011, the number of PCT applications increased by 33.4% to 16,406, earning China the fourth spot, behind only the United States, Japan and Germany. Among all the applicants, ZTE Corp. and Huawei Technologies had …
Just Undercompensation: The Idiosyncratic Premium N Eminent Domain, Brian A. Lee
Just Undercompensation: The Idiosyncratic Premium N Eminent Domain, Brian A. Lee
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Notice Failure And Notice Externalities, Michael J. Meurer, Peter Menell
Notice Failure And Notice Externalities, Michael J. Meurer, Peter Menell
Faculty Scholarship
Economic theory suggests that notice plays a critical role in resource development. Resource developers will be disinclined to make significant investments without reasonable confidence that their projects will not violate the rights of others. Land rights systems and institutions generally provide reliable notice at relatively modest cost, enabling exclusionary rights to encourage efficient real estate development. Property boundaries, right structures, and neighbors with whom resource developers might have to negotiate conflicts can usually be ascertained relatively easily. Furthermore, zoning institutions generally provide relatively prompt, low cost, and reliable dispute resolution before developers need to expend substantial resources. Therefore, land claims …
A Case For The Public Domain, Clark Asay
A Case For The Public Domain, Clark Asay
Faculty Scholarship
Over the past several decades open license movements have proven highly successful in the software and content worlds. Such movements rely in part on the belief that greater freedom of use triggers innovative activity that is superior to what a restrictive IP approach produces. Ironically, such open license movements also rely on IP rights to promote their vision of freedom and openness. They do so through IP licenses that, while granting significant freedoms, also impose certain conditions on users such as the “copyleft” requirement in the software world. Such movements rely on this IP-based approach due to fears that, without …
Of Smart Phone Wars And Software Patents, Stuart Graham, Saurabh Vishnubhakat
Of Smart Phone Wars And Software Patents, Stuart Graham, Saurabh Vishnubhakat
Faculty Scholarship
Among the main criticisms currently confronting the US Patent and Trademark Office are concerns about software patents and what role they play in the web of litigation now proceeding in the smart phone industry. We will examine the evidence on the litigation and the treatment by the Patent Office of patents that include software elements. We present specific empirical evidence regarding the examination by the Patent Office of software patents, their validity, and their role in the smart phone wars. More broadly, this article discusses the competing values at work in the patent system and how the system has dealt …
Patenting Nature: A Problem Of History, Christopher Beauchamp
Patenting Nature: A Problem Of History, Christopher Beauchamp
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
A Numerus Clausus Principle For Intellectual Property, Christina Mulligan
A Numerus Clausus Principle For Intellectual Property, Christina Mulligan
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Coping With The America Invents Act: Patent Challenges For Startup Companies, Patricia E. Campbell
Coping With The America Invents Act: Patent Challenges For Startup Companies, Patricia E. Campbell
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
The Tragedy Of The Anticommons: A Concise Introduction And Lexicon, Michael Heller
The Tragedy Of The Anticommons: A Concise Introduction And Lexicon, Michael Heller
Faculty Scholarship
This article gives a concise introduction to the ‘tragedy of the anticommons.’ The anticommons thesis is simple: when too many people own pieces of one thing, nobody can use it. Usually, private ownership creates wealth. But too much ownership has the opposite effect – it leads to wasteful underuse. This is a free market paradox that shows up all across the global economy. If too many owners control a single resource, cooperation breaks down, wealth disappears, and everybody loses. Conceptually, underuse in an anticommons mirrors the familiar problem of overuse in a ‘tragedy of the commons.’ The field of anticommons …
Biomedical Patents At The Supreme Court: A Path Forward, Arti K. Rai
Biomedical Patents At The Supreme Court: A Path Forward, Arti K. Rai
Faculty Scholarship
Although most would argue that software patents pose a bigger challenge, the U.S. Supreme Court has recently focused on biomedical patents. Two of the Court's recent decisions scaling back such patents, Mayo v. Prometheus and AMP v. Myriad, have provoked justifiable anxiety for those concerned about biomedical innovation, particularly in the area of personalized medicine. While acknowledging significant limitations in the Court's reasoning in both cases, this Essay sketches a reading that is consistent with the results and innovation-friendly.
What's A Name Worth?: Experimental Tests Of The Value Of Attribution In Intellectual Property, Christopher Jon Sprigman, Christopher Buccafusco, Zachary C. Burns
What's A Name Worth?: Experimental Tests Of The Value Of Attribution In Intellectual Property, Christopher Jon Sprigman, Christopher Buccafusco, Zachary C. Burns
Faculty Scholarship
Despite considerable research suggesting that creators value attribution – i.e., being named as the creator of a work – U.S. intellectual property (IP) law does not provide a right to attribution to the vast majority of creators. On the other side of the Atlantic, however, many European countries give creators, at least in their copyright laws, much stronger rights to attribution. At first blush it may seem that the U.S. has gotten it wrong, and the Europeans have made a better policy choice in providing to creators a right that they value. But for reasons we will explain in this …
Does Agency Funding Affect Decisionmaking?: An Empirical Assessment Of The Pto’S Granting Patterns, Michael D. Frakes, Melissa F. Wasserman
Does Agency Funding Affect Decisionmaking?: An Empirical Assessment Of The Pto’S Granting Patterns, Michael D. Frakes, Melissa F. Wasserman
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
The Nagoya Protocol And Synthetic Biology Research: A Look At The Potential Impacts, Margo A. Bagley, Arti K. Rai
The Nagoya Protocol And Synthetic Biology Research: A Look At The Potential Impacts, Margo A. Bagley, Arti K. Rai
Faculty Scholarship
This report, prepared for the Synthetic Biology Project at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, analyzes the 2010 Nagoya Protocol to the Convention on Biological Diversity and how it may affect U.S. researchers working in the field of synthetic biology. The objective of the Protocol is to provide a transparent framework for the acquisition and sharing of genetic resources on fair and equitable terms that facilitate the conservation of biological diversity and associated traditional knowledge. The report finds significant uncertainty surrounding the temporal scope of the Agreement as well as the types of genetic material that will be covered …
From Berne To Beijing: A Critical Perspective, David L. Lange
From Berne To Beijing: A Critical Perspective, David L. Lange
Faculty Scholarship
Remarking on the Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances at the Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law’s Symposium, From Berne to Beijing, Professor Lange expressed general misgivings about exercising the Treaty Power in ways that alter the nature of US copyright law and impinge on other constitutional rights. This edited version of those Remarks explains Professor Lange’s preference for legislation grounded squarely in the traditional jurisprudence of the Copyright Clause, the First Amendment, and the public domain, and his preference for contracting around established expectations rather than reworking default rules through treaties. It continues by exploring the particular costs associated …
Do Bad Things Happen When Works Enter The Public Domain?: Empirical Tests Of Copyright Term Extension, Christopher Buccafusco, Paul J. Heald
Do Bad Things Happen When Works Enter The Public Domain?: Empirical Tests Of Copyright Term Extension, Christopher Buccafusco, Paul J. Heald
Faculty Scholarship
According to the current copyright statute, copyrighted works of music, film, and literature will begin to transition into the public domain in 2018. While this will prove a boon for users and creators, it could be disastrous for the owners of these valuable copyrights. Therefore, the next few years will likely witness another round of aggressive lobbying by the film, music, and publishing industries to extend the terms of already-existing works. These industries, and a number of prominent scholars, claim that when works enter the public domain, bad things will happen to them. They worry that works in the public …
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, Elizabeth A. Reilly, Jeffery Samuels, Katherine J. Strandburg, Kara W. Swanson, Andrew W. Torrance, Katharine A. Van Tassel
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, Elizabeth A. Reilly, Jeffery Samuels, Katherine J. Strandburg, Kara W. Swanson, Andrew W. Torrance, Katharine A. Van Tassel
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 …
Kirtsaeng And The First-Sale Doctrine's Digital Problem, Clark D. Asay
Kirtsaeng And The First-Sale Doctrine's Digital Problem, Clark D. Asay
Faculty Scholarship
Many have lauded the United States Supreme Court's recent decision in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. as a significant victory for the first-sale doctrine under copyright law. However, in the digital context, the Kirtsaeng holding and the first-sale doctrine in general face extinction. This Essay argues for the first-sale doctrine's survival in the digital context.
Adjustments, Extensions, Disclaimers, And Continuations: When Do Patent Term Adjustments Make Sense?, Stephanie Plamondon Bair
Adjustments, Extensions, Disclaimers, And Continuations: When Do Patent Term Adjustments Make Sense?, Stephanie Plamondon Bair
Faculty Scholarship
The United States patent system represents a measured trade-off between two competing policy considerations: providing sufficient incentives to encourage the innovation and development of new and socially useful inventions; and ensuring that such inventions are readily available to the public at an affordable price. Although the default patent term is now twenty years from filing, various features of, and changes to, the patent system over the years have allowed patent owners to extend the duration of their patent monopolies, sometimes for several years. Such extensions, though seemingly insignificant when compared to the full patent term, have an enormous impact on …
The Patent Litigation Explosion, James Bessen, Michael J. Meurer
The Patent Litigation Explosion, James Bessen, Michael J. Meurer
Faculty Scholarship
This Article provides the first look at patent litigation hazards for public firms during the 1980s and 1990s. Litigation is more likely when prospective plaintiffs acquire more patents, when firms are larger and technologically close and when prospective defendants spend more on research and development ("R&D"). The latter suggests inadvertent infringement may be more important than piracy. Public firms face dramatically increased hazards of litigation as plaintiffs and even more rapidly increasing hazards as defendants, especially for small public firms. The increase cannot be explained by patenting rates, R&D, firm value or industry composition. Legal changes are the most likely …
Dissemination Must Serve Authors: How The U.S. Supreme Court Erred, Wendy J. Gordon
Dissemination Must Serve Authors: How The U.S. Supreme Court Erred, Wendy J. Gordon
Faculty Scholarship
The US Congress has enacted expansions of copyright which arguably impose high social costs and generate little incentives for authorial creativity. When the two most expansive statutes were challenged as unconstitutional, the US Supreme Court rebuffed the challenges, partly on the supposed ground that copyright law could legitimately seek to promote nonauthorial interests; apparently, Congress could enact provisions aiming to support noncreative disseminative activities such as publishing, or restoring and distributing old film stock, even if authorial incentives were not served. Such an error might have arisen because of three phenomena (in economics, history, and law, respectively) that might easily …
The Concept Of 'Harm' In Copyright, Wendy J. Gordon
The Concept Of 'Harm' In Copyright, Wendy J. Gordon
Faculty Scholarship
This essay examines the tort of copyright infringement. It argues that the ideas of "harm" and "fault" already play a role in the tort’s functioning, and that an ideally reformulated version of the tort should perhaps give a more significant role to “harm.” The essay therefore examines what “harm” can or should mean, reviewing four candidates for cognizable harm in copyright law (rivalry-based losses, foregone fees, loss of exclusivity, and subjective distress) and canvassing three philosophical conceptions of "harm" (counterfactual, historical-worsening, and noncomparative). The essay identifies the appropriateness vel non of employing, in the copyright context, each harm-candidate and each …
Make The Patent “Polluters” Pay: Using Pigovian Fees To Curb Patent Abuse, James Bessen, Brian Love
Make The Patent “Polluters” Pay: Using Pigovian Fees To Curb Patent Abuse, James Bessen, Brian Love
Faculty Scholarship
On the heels of a widely reported uptick in egregious patent enforcement, six patent reform bills have been introduced in the last six months. All six bills aim to curb nuisance-value patent litigation, a phenomenon popularly referred to as “patent trolling,” by reducing the cost of defending these suits. In this essay, we argue that these bills, while admirable, treat the symptoms of our patent system’s ills, rather than the disease itself: a growing glut of unused high-tech patents that have little practical value apart from use as vehicles for nuisance-value litigation. Accordingly, we urge Congress to consider one additional …