Law Commons^™

Copyright And Federalism: Why State Waiver Of Sovereign Immunity Is The Best Remedy For State Copyright Infringement, Leroy J. Ellis V

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

When a photographer intentionally takes a picture of a subject, or a writer puts a story to paper, the resulting works are protected by copyright. That protection is bolstered after the authors register their works with the Copyright Office. All private parties, from individuals to corporations, can be sued for infringing on the work should they use it without pay or permission.

However, what happens when the infringer is not a private party? What happens when the state or a state entity is the infringer? What happens when a public university decides to use a copyright owner’s work without pay …

Rethinking Equitable Estoppel In Patent Law, Joshua J. Lustig

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

In almost every context, the Federal Circuit has used estoppel doctrines to provide protection to parties from some sort of injustice. Yet recently, with equitable estoppel, the Federal Circuit has decided to infuse concepts of Article III justiciability to justify limiting the doctrine as only applicable to issued patents. In doing so, the Federal Circuit has ignored the long history behind equitable estoppel in favor of a rule that is improperly rationalized by the Constitution. This note argues that Federal Circuit's recent equitable estoppel jurisprudence is inconsistent with equity's goal of fairness and presents a new theory of equitable estoppel …

Countering Personalized Speech, Leon G. Ho

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

Social media platforms use personalization algorithms to make content curation decisions for each end user. These personalized recommendation decisions are essentially speech conveying a platform's predictions on content relevance for each end user. Yet, they are causing some of the worst problems on the internet. First, they facilitate the precipitous spread of mis- and disinformation by exploiting the very same biases and insecurities that drive end user engagement with such content. Second, they exacerbate social media addiction and related mental health harms by leveraging users' affective needs to drive engagement to greater and greater heights. Lastly, they erode end user …

Muddy Waters: Fair Use Implications Of Google Llc V. Oracle America, Inc., Gary Myers

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

Ooh

In the muddy water we’re falling

Ooh In the muddy water we’re crawling

Holds me down

Hold me now

Sold me out

In the muddy waters we’re falling

— Laura Pergolizzi (LP) - “Muddy Waters,” Lost On You (Vagrant Records 2016)

The United States Supreme Court ruling in Google LLC v. Oracle America, Inc. ended a long-running dispute between two giant technology companies. The case, which first began in 2010, has received considerable attention and commentary with regard to the scope of copyright protection for software and then about the contours of the fair use defense. The Court ultimately …

A Musical Cue For Fashion: How Compulsory Licenses And Sampling Can Shape Fashion Design Copyright, Caroline Olivier

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

The fashion industry is the Wild West of intellectual property law. Fashion design protection is essentially non-existent, and designers take what they want when they want in the form of inspiration or complete copying. As technology advances and enables fashion designs to disseminate at high-tech speeds, there is no longer room for an apathetic approach to fashion intellectual property. If the law is a means for protecting the hard work of up-and-coming artists and providing incentives for innovation, changes must be made.

This note demonstrates how the fashion industry can adopt a copyright and licensing scheme similar to that of …

Maximizing Social Welfare Through The Tailoring Of Patent Duration And Using Algorithms To Calculate Optimal Patent Duration, Alvaro Cure Dominguez

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

Patents are legal devices granted by the government that confer inventors exclusive rights to their invention for a limited time. In exchange, the U.S. government requires the inventors to publicly disclose their invention to allow individuals to recreate it upon expiration of the exclusivity period. Previously, academics regarded patents as a necessary means to overcome the free-rider dilemma (“FRD”), and they assumed that, without patents, society would be deprived of many potentially valuable innovations. This model has come under criticism. Researchers point to cases where inventors would have innovated regardless of a patent grant. They also highlight instances where patent …