Law Commons^™

From Kafka To Kafta: Intellectual Property, And The Korea-Australia Free Trade Agreement, Matthew Rimmer

Matthew Rimmer

The Korea-Australia Free Trade Agreement 2014 (KAFTA) is a Kafkaesque agreement – with its secret texts, speculative claims, and shadowy tribunals. Australia and South Korea have signed a new free trade agreement - the Korea-Australia Free Trade Agreement2014 (KAFTA). Is it a fair trade fairytale? Or is it a dirty deal done dirt cheap? Or somewhere in between? It is hard to tell, given the initial secrecy of the negotiations, and the complexity of the texts of the agreement. There has been much debate in the Australian Parliament over the transparency of the trade agreement; the scope of market access …

Trademark Law And The Prickly Ambivalence Of Post-Parodies, Charles E. Colman

Charles E. Colman

This Essay examines what I call "post-parodies" in apparel. This emerging genre of do-it-yourself fashion is characterized by the appropriation and modification of third-party trademarks — not for the sake of dismissively mocking or zealously glorifying luxury fashion, but rather to engage in more complex forms of expression. I examine the cultural circumstances and psychological factors giving rise to post-parodic fashion, and conclude that the sensibility causing its proliferation is one grounded in ambivalence. Unfortunately, current doctrine governing trademark parodies cannot begin to make sense of post-parodic goods; among other shortcomings, that doctrine suffers from crude analytical tools and a …

Submission On The Ip Chapter Of The Korea-Australia Free Trade Agreement, Kimberlee G. Weatherall

Kimberlee G Weatherall

Friend Or Faux: The Trademark Counterfeiting Act's Inability To Stop The Sale Of Counterfeit Sporting Goods, Jennifer Riso

Jennifer Riso

The demand for counterfeit sporting goods, such as jerseys and other apparel, is on the rise as the prices of authentic goods continue to increase. The Trademark Counterfeiting Act of 1984 criminalizes the import and sale of counterfeit goods, but is ineffective at addressing the demand side of counterfeit goods. This paper analyzes the history behind the Act and recommends ways to ensure that the act will stay relevant as technology makes it easier to purchase counterfeit goods.

Is "Dumb Starbucks" Legal? Mark Mckenna Talks To Business Insider, February 10, 2014., Mark Mckenna

Mark P. McKenna

Mark McKenna was quoted in the Business insider article by Erin Fuchs. "This is a fairly bold use of the Starbucks logo," Notre Dame law professor Mark McKennatold me. "What they've done is they've taken that word 'dumb' and they have basically copied everything." Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/is-dumb-starbucks-legal-2014-2#ixzz2sxEeHa00

The Anti-Economy Of Fashion: An Openwork Approach To Intellectual Property Protection, Amy L. Landers

Amy L Landers

Fashion’s cultural connections provide the groundwork for a theory to resolve the critical questions of protection for works that draw strongly on exogenous inputs. This article proposes that narrow protection for fashion is both economically justified, theoretically sound, and beneficial to the field because it facilitates spillovers in a manner that allows others to create the endless variations that are the lifeblood of this vibrant industry. Such protection relies on a theory of openworks, which applies to designs that have a high level of input from outside of the creator’s realm of activity. In fashion, inspiration that derives from the …

Aesthetic Functionality And Genericism, Charles E. Colman

Charles E. Colman

This presentation, the basis for a working article, begins by positing that U.S. trademark law's denial of exclusive rights in "generic" words and phrases is, in essence, a proxy for what might be called "linguistic functionality." In other words, the doctrine of genericism is simply one iteration of trademark law's general principle that no one may claim exclusive rights where recognition of such rights would produce anticompetitive results. Unfortunately, when it comes to non-word marks -- and perhaps most notably, product-design "trade dress" -- courts have neglected to establish a uniform, coherent, and fully theorized test for evaluating "genericism." The …

The Anti-Economy Of Fashion: An Openwork Approach To Intellectual Property Protection, Amy L. Landers

Amy L. Landers

Fashion’s cultural connections provide the groundwork for a theory to resolve the critical questions of protection for works that draw strongly on exogenous inputs. This article proposes that narrow protection for fashion is both economically justified, theoretically sound, and beneficial to the field because it facilitates spillovers in a manner that allows others to create the endless variations that are the lifeblood of this vibrant industry. Such protection relies on a theory of openworks, which applies to designs that have a high level of input from outside of the creator’s realm of activity. In fashion, inspiration that derives from the …