Law Commons^™

Wipo Good Practice Toolkit For Collective Management Organisations 2021: Suggestions For Possible Amendment, Desmond Oriakhogba

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

Drawing examples from national and international legal instruments, and based on existing studies, this comment makes suggestions for possible amendment of the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Good Practice Toolkit for Collective Management Organisations 2021 (CMO Toolkit). The suggestions are for inclusion of good practices in the CMO Toolkit that can inform the regulation of CMOs to prevent them from constituting obstacles to open access non-commercial licensing and L&Es-enabled access for education and research. The suggestion also covers good practices that will prevent CMOs from impeding the smooth and effective development of artificial intelligence systems. Recommendations include protecting rightholders' ability to …

Briefing Note: 45th Meeting Of The Wipo Standing Committee On Copyright And Related Rights, Sean Flynn

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

This analysis provides a historical and legal overview of the principle agenda items to be discussed at the 45th meeting of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights.

Research Exceptions In Comparative Copyright, Sean Flynn, Luca Schirru, Michael Palmedo, Andrés Izquierdo

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

This Article categorizes the world’s copyright laws according to the degree to which they provide exceptions to copyright exclusivity for research uses. We classify countries based on the degree to which they have a research exception in their law that is sufficiently open to be able to permit reproduction and communications of copyrighted work needed for academic (i.e. non-commercial) text and data mining (TDM) research. We show that nearly every copyright law has at least one exception that promotes uses for research purposes. We find six different approaches to the provision of research exceptions that implicate application to TDM. Notably, …

Comment: On Patents And Appropriations—And Tragedies, David O. Taylor

Washington and Lee Law Review

I write to provide a few remarks concerning Sasha Hoyt’s illuminating work published in the pages of this journal. In it, Hoyt addresses the impact of the Supreme Court’s patent eligibility decisions on private investment in the development of medical diagnostic technologies. As an initial matter, I want to congratulate Hoyt for tackling an important topic. As Hoyt discusses, medical diagnostic technologies enable the diagnosis of diseases and other medical conditions such as genetic disorders, and early and accurate diagnosis may lead to early treatments and, ultimately, at least in some cases, saved lives. But the creation of medical diagnostic …

Patent Eligibility And Cancer Therapy, Christopher B. Seaman

Washington and Lee Law Review

As an empirical legal scholar, I am pleased to report that Sasha Hoyt has done what very few law students—and even many law professors—could achieve. She successfully conducted a novel empirical study to assess the real-world impact of a U.S. Supreme Court decision, Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories, Inc., on venture capital (VC) investment in startups and other companies that develop medical diagnostic technology.

As Ms. Hoyt notes, patent protection is particularly important for startup companies, as it can help protect their innovations from unauthorized use, attract funding and other investments, and foster collaboration with third parties. In …

The Impact Of Uncertainty Regarding Patent Eligible Subject Matter For Investment In U.S. Medical Diagnostic Technologies, A. Sasha Hoyt

Washington and Lee Law Review

Historically, 35 U.S.C. § 101, the statute governing patent eligible subject matter, has been construed broadly—with its legislative history indicating that it should cover “anything under the sun that is made by man.” The Supreme Court crafted three exceptions to § 101: (1) abstract ideas, (2) laws of nature, and (3) natural phenomena. In recent years, the Supreme Court’s eligibility jurisprudence has further narrowed § 101 to effectively exclude meritorious medical diagnostic methods. Indeed, since the Court’s decision in Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories, Inc., the Federal Circuit has held every single diagnostic method claim brought before it …

Covid-19 And Its Impact(S) On Innovation, Clark Asay, Stephanie Plamondon Bair

Utah Law Review

In previous work, we explored how certain characteristics of adversity are often more conducive to innovation than others. In this Article, prepared as part of the Lee E. Teitelbaum Utah Law Review Symposium—The Law & Ethics of Medical Research, we review some of that work and apply it specifically to the COVID-19 context. We conclude by assessing certain policy implications in light of how the COVID-19 pandemic has both spurred and hindered innovation.

Non-Patent Intellectual Property Barriers To Covid-19 Vaccines, Treatment And Containment, Sean Flynn, Erica Nkrumah, Luca Schirru

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

As the World Trade Organization considers a proposal to waive or otherwise address intellectual property barriers to the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, most of the attention given by scholars and policy makers has been focused on patents. The original proposals by South Africa and India, as well as the groundbreaking support of the United States, however, explicitly applied to all forms of intellectual property. This paper documents many instances where non-patent forms of intellectual property create barriers to the global scale up of access to vaccines, treatments, and the ability to contain the virus through social distancing. Addressing …

Noncompetes And Other Post-Employment Restraints On Competition: Empirical Evidence From Trade Secret Litigation, Christopher B. Seaman

Scholarly Articles

Noncompete clauses in employment agreements are both common and controversial. An estimated twenty-eight million Americans—nearly twenty percent of the U.S. workforce—are currently bound by a noncompete. The traditional view that noncompete agreements can facilitate increased productivity by encouraging employers to invest in employee training has been challenged by numerous legal and economics scholars in recent years, who contend noncompetes hinder employment options for skilled workers and limit information spillovers, which are both vital drivers of innovation. Based on these claims, several states have recently limited the enforcement of noncompetes, and legislation is pending at the federal level to effectively ban …

Research And Repair: Expanding Exceptions To Patent Infringement In Response To A Pandemic, Jorge L. Contreras

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

The doctrinal areas on which this essay focuses are two longstanding but narrow exemptions from patent infringement: one that permits scientific research, and one that permits the owner of a patented device to repair it. Though distinct at first glance, both of these doctrines act to permit activity that would otherwise be considered patent infringement. They are exceptions to the exclusivity that the law grants to patent holders – particularly the right to “make” a patented article and, to a lesser degree, to “use” it, and for this reason they are particularly salient when patents may impact critical lifesaving technologies. …

Implementing User Rights For Research In The Field Of Artificial Intelligence: A Call For International Action, Sean Flynn, Christophe Geiger, Joao Pedro Quintais, Thomas Margoni, Matthew Sag, Lucie Guibault, Michael W. Carroll

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Last year, before the onset of a global pandemic highlighted the critical and urgent need for technology-enabled scientific research, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) launched an inquiry into issues at the intersection of intellectual property (IP) and artificial intelligence (AI). We contributed comments to that inquiry, with a focus on the application of copyright to the use of text and data mining (TDM) technology. This article describes some of the most salient points of our submission and concludes by stressing the need for international leadership on this important topic. WIPO could help fill the current gap on international leadership, …

Implementing User Rights For Research In The Field Of Artificial Intelligence: A Call For International Action, Sean Flynn, Michael W. Carroll

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Last year, before the onset of a global pandemic highlighted the critical and urgent need for technology-enabled scientific research, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) launched an inquiry into issues at the intersection of intellectual property (IP) and artificial intelligence (AI). We contributed comments to that inquiry, with a focus on the application of copyright to the use of text and data mining (TDM) technology. This article describes some of the most salient points of our submission and concludes by stressing the need for international leadership on this important topic. WIPO could help fill the current gap on international leadership, …

Internet (Re)Search By Judges, Jurors, And Lawyers, H. Albert Liou, Jasper L. Tran

IP Theory

How can Internet research be used properly and reliably in law? This paper analyzes several key and very different issues affecting judges, jurors, and lawyers. With respect to judges, this paper discusses the rules of judicial conduct and how they guide the appropriate use of the Internet for research; the standards for judicial notice; and whether judges can consider a third category of non-adversarially presented, non-judicially noticed factual evidence. With respect to jurors, this paper discusses causes of and deterrents to jurors conducting Internet research during trials; and the recourse available to parties who are adversely impacted by such behavior. …

The Federal Circuit As An Institution, Ryan G. Vacca

Law Faculty Scholarship

The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit is a unique institution. Unlike other circuit courts, the Federal Circuit’s jurisdiction is bound by subject area rather than geography, and it was created to address a unique set of problems specific to patent law. These characteristics have affected its institutional development and made the court one of the most frequently studied appellate courts. This chapter examines this development and describes the evolving qualities that have helped the Federal Circuit distinguish itself, for better or worse, as an institution.

This chapter begins with an overview of the concerns existing before creation of …

Law School News: New Faculty For Fall '18 (04-12-2018), Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Pursuit Of Profit Poisons Collaboration, Jacob S. Sherkow

Other Publications

The CRISPR–Cas9 patent battle demonstrates how overzealous efforts to commercialize technology can damage science.

Pursuit Of Profit Poisons Collaboration, Jacob S. Sherkow

Other Publications

The CRISPR–Cas9 patent battle demonstrates how overzealous efforts to commercialize technology can damage science.

Creative Copyright: Tailoring Intellectual Property Policies And Business Strategies For Creative Content Industries In The Digital Age, Bhamati Viswanathan

SJD Dissertations

My dissertation explores intellectual property rights in three fields: fashion, music and education. I examine the varying degrees of IP rights in those fields, and ask whether the differing levels of rights are appropriate to keep these industries creative, innovative and robust. I further examine the salient characteristics of those rights and ask whether such an understanding might help to determine optimal levels of IP protection in other creative industries.

Patents, Genetically Modified Foods, And Ip Overreaching, Elizabeth A. Rowe

Elizabeth A Rowe

Genetically engineered plants and animals have become and will continue to constitute a large part of the food we consume. The United States is the world's largest producer of genetically modified foods, making American consumers the most exposed population to these products. Agricultural biotechnology patents spur and support innovation. Accordingly, patent law is one of the main contributors to this phenomenon that has changed not only the kinds of food we eat, but the nature of the agri-business industry that produces these foods. This Article takes on an area of concern involving the patenting of food that has remained unexplored: …

Translating Intellectual Property Into Economic Outcomes, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Many nations are struggling with the same challenge – how to convert their upstream R&D investments into growth elements of their national economies.

Innovation, Inequality, And The Commercialization Of Academic Research, Walter Valdivia

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

Patent policy is rarely debated in relation to its distributive consequences. In particular, the Bayh-Dole Act has been discussed in terms of its effects on the pace of innovation or the organization of science. However, this lecture re-assesses this policy from the perspective of a fair distribution of resources, both those committed to and those created by research-based innovation. Specifically, examining the management of university’s intellectual property, Valdivia will identify the institutional arrangements that reinforce a very asymmetric distribution of political and economic resources among universities and then characterize subtle but important links between these inequalities and the social distribution …

A Discourse On The Public Nature Of Research In Contemporary Life Science: A Law-Policy Proposal To Promote The Public Nature Of Science In An Era Of Academia-Industry Integration, Michael J. Malinowski

Michael J. Malinowski

This article addresses the impact of integration of academia, industry, and government on the public nature of research. The article concludes that, while the integration has benefited science immensely, regulatory measures should be taken to restore the public nature of research in an age of integration.

Protecting Intangible Cultural Resources: Alternatives To Intellectual Property Law, Gerald Carr

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

Cultural resources can be defined as "the tangible and intangible effects of an individual or group of people that define their existence, and place them temporally and geographically in relation to their belief systems and their familial and political groups, providing meaning to their lives." The field of cultural resources includes tangible items, such as land, sacred sites, and religious and finerary objects. The field also includes intangible knowledge and customs, such as tribal names, symbols, stories, and ecological, ethnopharmacological, religious, or other traditional knowledge. The tangible cultural resources of tribes can fall under the protection of statutes such as …

Technology Transfer Laws Governing Federally Funded Research And Development, James V. Lacy, Bradford C. Brown, Michael R. Rubin

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Accountability In Patenting Of Federally Funded Research, Arti K. Rai, Bhaven N. Sampat

Faculty Scholarship

Bayh-Dole allows academic grantees to patent federally-funded research for purposes of promoting the commercialization of this research. To ensure commercialization goals are achieved, the Act requires grantees to report to funding agencies not only the existence of federally-funded patents but also utilization efforts they and their licensees/assignees are making.

Although reporting is a cornerstone of accountability under Bayh-Dole, information about grantee compliance with reporting requirements is incomplete and dated. In fact, the last significant study of the question dates back to the late 1990s and analyzes only 633 patents. Since that time, concerns have emerged that federally-funded university patents are …

Taxing Facebook Code: Debugging The Tax Code And Software, Xuan-Thao Nguyen, Jeffrey A. Maine

Articles

This article sets out to analyze both intellectual property laws and tax systems as applied to computer software. It analyzes software within intellectual property's established doctrinal framework, a difficult task due to the fact that software can encompass some combination of the traits of copyrights, trade dress, patents, and trade secrets. It then examines both the federal and state tax systems governing software. It shows that fitting software within current tax schemes presents unique challenges, as software contains both tangible and intangible elements, is subject to varying intellectual property protections, and can be delivered through various media. The article argues …

When Copyright Law And Science Collide: Empowering Digitally Integrated Research Methods On A Global Scale, Jerome H. Reichman, Ruth L. Okediji

Faculty Scholarship

Automated knowledge discovery tools have become central to the scientific enterprise in a growing number of fields and are widely employed in the humanities as well. New scientific methods, and the evolution of entirely new fields of scientific inquiry, have emerged from the integration of digital technologies into scientific research processes that ingest vast amounts of published data and literature. The Article demonstrates that intellectual property laws have not kept pace with these phenomena.

Copyright law and science co-existed for much of their respective histories, with a benign tradition of the former giving way to the needs of the latter. …

Owning Omega-3: Monsanto And The Invention Of Meat, Matthew Rimmer

Matthew Rimmer

In August of 2010, Anna Salleh of the Science Unit of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation broke a story about Monsanto seeking to patent the enhancement of meat, including omega-3 fatty acids:‘Enhanced port is sparking debate over the ethics of placing patents on food. Patent applications covering the enhancement of meat, including pork with omega-3 fatty acids, are stimulating debate over the ethics and legalities of claiming intellectual property over food. Monsanto has filed patents that cover the feeding of animals soybeans, which have been genetically modified by the company to contain stearidonic acid (SDA), a plant-derived omega-3 fatty acid... Omega-3s …

A Compensatory Liability Regime To Promote The Exchange Of Microbial Genetic Resources For Research And Benefit Sharing, Jerome H. Reichman

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Researcher Rat's Culture And Ease Of Access To The Publication Lever: Implications For The Patentability Of University Scientific Research, Joshua R. Nightingale

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.