Law Commons^™

Privacy Vs. Piracy, Sonia K. Katyal

Sonia Katyal

A few years ago, it was fanciful to imagine a world where intellectual property owners - such as record companies, soft ware owners, and publishers - were capable of invading the most sacred areas of the home in order to track, deter, and control uses of their products. Yet, today, strategies of copyright enforcement have rapidly multiplied, each strategy more invasive than the last. This new surveillance exposes the paradoxical nature of the Internet: It offers both the consumer and creator a seemingly endless capacity for human expression - a virtual marketplace of ideas- alongside an insurmountable array of capacities …

Complex Value Choices At The Environment-Energy Interface, Hari M. Osofsky

Hari Osofsky

During the 2001–02 academic year, I lived in China, teaching U.S. civil rights law and helping to start a labor law clinic. My first day of teaching the fall civil rights course was the day of the September 11 attacks, and that event and reactions to it played a dominant role in my experience of that year. However, it was also a particularly interesting year to be in China from an environmental-energy perspective because the Three Gorges Dam was in the process of being built and brought onlie. At that point, the area was partially flooded and it was one …

Three Hundred Nos: An Empirical Analysis Of The First 300+ Denials Of Institution For Inter Partes And Covered Business Method Patent Reviews Prior To In Re Cuozzo Speed Technologies, Llc, 14 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 112 (2015), Jarrad Wood, Jonathan Stroud

Jonathan R. K. Stroud

Tasked in 2011 with creating powerful new patent review trial regimes, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office—through the efforts of their freshly empowered quasi-judicial body, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board—set to creating a fast-paced trial with limited discovery and concentrated efficiency. For two years, the proceedings have proved potent, holding unpatentable many of the claims that reached decisions on the merits. Yet a small subsection of petitions never make it past the starting gate, resulting in wasted time and effort on the parts of petitioners—and likely sighs of relief from the rights-holders. The AIA exempted institution decisions from appellate …

The Forensic Community Can Educate Lawyers, Judges, Robert M. Sanger

Robert M. Sanger

Small Cells, Big Problems: The Increasing Precision Of Cell Site Location Information And The Need For Fourth Amendment Protections, Robert M. Bloom, William T. Clark

Robert M. Bloom

The past fifty years has witnessed an evolution in technology advancement in police surveillance. Today, one of the essential tools of police surveillance is something most Americans carry with them in their pockets every day, the cell phone. Cell phones not only contain a huge repository of personal data, they also provide continuous surveillance of a person’s movement known as cell site location information (CSLI). In 1986, Congress sought to provide some privacy protections to CSLI in the Stored Communication Act. Although this solution may have struck the proper balance in an age when cell phones were a mere novelty …

Restoring Rogers: Video Games, False Association Claims, And The “Explicitly Misleading” Use Of Trademarks, 16 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 306 (2017), William K. Ford

William K. Ford

Courts have long struggled with how to balance false association claims brought under the Lanham Act with the protections for speech under the First Amendment. The leading approach is the Rogers test, but this test comes in multiple forms with varying degrees of protection for speech. A substantial portion of the litigation raising this issue now involves video games, a medium that more so than others, likely needs the benefit of a clear rule that protects speech. The original version of the test is the simplest and the one most protective of speech. In 2013, the Ninth Circuit endorsed the …

Removing The Troll From The Thicket: The Case For Enhancing Patent Maintenance Fees In Relation To The Size Of A Patent Owner's Patent Portfolio, David S. Olson

David S. Olson

This Article proposes a novel solution to part of the problem that large patent portfolios can cause. Both so-called "patent trolls" and firms that commercialize the patents that they own can accumulate and then abuse large patent portfolios, even if most of the patents in the portfolio are of little value. Instead of suggesting reforms to better determine the value and boundaries of individual patents, as many others have already done, this Article proposes that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) multiply the amount owed to keep a patent in force (patent maintenance fees) based on the size of …

Appetite For Destruction: Symbolic And Structural Facets Of The Right To Destroy Digital Property, Joshua A.T. Fairfield

Joshua A.T. Fairfield

No abstract provided.

Beyond The Destruction Of Syria: Considering A Future In Syria And The Protection Of The Right To Culture, 15 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 522 (2016), Sarah Dávila-Ruhaak

Sarah Dávila-Ruhaak

Although the right to culture has been widely recognized under international human rights, its reach and practical application has been limited in cultural preservation efforts. Individuals and communities that attempt to be part of the decision-making process in preservation efforts often face barriers to access in that process. The need to re-conceptualize the right to culture is vital for its protection and preservation. This article proposes that the right to self-determination must be utilized as a core fundamental principle that enables a disenfranchised individual or community to have ownership in preservation efforts and decide how to shape their identity. It …