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Full-Text Articles in Law

The Accession Insight And Patent Infringement Remedies, Peter Lee Nov 2011

The Accession Insight And Patent Infringement Remedies, Peter Lee

Michigan Law Review

What is the appropriate allocation of rights and obligations when one party, without authorization, substantially improves the property of another? According to the doctrine of accession, a good faith improver may take title to such improved property, subject to compensating the original owner for the value of the source materials. While shifting title to a converter seems like a remarkable remedy, this outcome merely underscores the equitable nature of accession, which aims for fair allocation of property rights and compensation between two parties who both have plausible claims to an improved asset. This Article draws upon accession-a physical property doctrine …


Total-Sales Royalties Under The Patent-Misuse Doctrine: A Critique Of Zenith, Michigan Law Review Jun 1978

Total-Sales Royalties Under The Patent-Misuse Doctrine: A Critique Of Zenith, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This Note criticizes the Supreme Court's treatment of total-sales royalties. Part I outlines the scope of the patent-misuse doctrine, and Part II describes the development of the Zenith conditioning test. Part III analyzes that test; it suggests that the Zenith opinion is not internally consistent and that courts may not be able to apply the conditioning test satisfactorily. Finally, in response to Justice Harlan's dissenting opinion in Zenith, in which he notes the dearth of literature on the economic consequences of total-sales royalty provisions, 14 Part III undertakes an analysis of those consequences. The analysis demonstrates that total-sales royalty …


Unreduced Royalty Arrangements And Packaged Patents: An Improper Extension Of The Patent Monopoly?, Michigan Law Review Apr 1968

Unreduced Royalty Arrangements And Packaged Patents: An Improper Extension Of The Patent Monopoly?, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This Comment will examine the merits of Brulotte and the propriety of extending its rule to the package licensing context. In order to do this it is necessary to consider the Brulotte and Rocform decisions in somewhat greater detail.


Taxation-Income Tax-Depletion-Lessor's Share In Net Income As Subject To Depletion, William H. Buchanan S.Ed. Apr 1946

Taxation-Income Tax-Depletion-Lessor's Share In Net Income As Subject To Depletion, William H. Buchanan S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Taxpayer which owned certain lands leased the same to companies for production of oil and other minerals for a cash bonus, a royalty in the usual form, and an agreement that lessor should receive a percentage of the net money profits realized by the lessees from their operation under the lease. Lessor claimed a right to deduct depletion allowance from the receipts which were a percentage of the net income arising from operating the properties. Held, lessor had a right to depletion deduction in respect to the percentage of net income because it had an "economic interest" in the …


Patents - Estoppel Of Licensee To Deny Validity - Restrictions On Licensee's Sale Prices Apr 1943

Patents - Estoppel Of Licensee To Deny Validity - Restrictions On Licensee's Sale Prices

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff sued to recover royalties alleged to be due under a contract licensing defendant to manufacture articles covered by a patent owned by the plaintiff. The agreement provided that defendant licensee should not sell embodiments of the invention manufactured under the license at prices or under conditions more favorable to its customers than those prescribed by the licensor for its own customers. The defendant set up the defense that plaintiff "by reason of the price control provisions of the licensing contract and the invalidity of [the patent]" was not entitled to recover the royalties. The district court and the circuit …


The Validity Of Conditions In Patent Licenses, John Barker Waite Dec 1942

The Validity Of Conditions In Patent Licenses, John Barker Waite

Michigan Law Review

In discussing this subject one can still begin with the premise that in this country a patentee possesses the absolute right to preclude anyone, except the United States government, from making use of his invention.


Principal And Surety - Discharge Of Surety For A Lessee By Assignment Of The Lease, H. Martin Peckover Apr 1941

Principal And Surety - Discharge Of Surety For A Lessee By Assignment Of The Lease, H. Martin Peckover

Michigan Law Review

Lands set aside by statute as common property of the Chickasaw and Choctaw Indian tribes were, pursuant to an act of Congress, leased to one Gunther by mining trustees of the tribes. The lease contained covenants to pay "stipulated annual advance royalties," and also provided that no assignment should be made without the consent of the trustees "subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Interior." Defendant surety company executed a bond for the faithful performance of the terms of the lease, and the same was duly approved. Then Gunther, with the consent of the trustees, but not the …


Life Estates - Oil And Gas -Effect Of Lease By Life Tenant May 1933

Life Estates - Oil And Gas -Effect Of Lease By Life Tenant

Michigan Law Review

The plaintiff, a remainderman, granted an "oil and gas lease to X, subject to the rights of the tenant by curtesy, Anderson. Anderson, seven years later, granted an "oil and gas lease" in the same premises to Y. Eventually both leases were acquired by the defendant who entered upon the land and drilled for oil. Anderson contended that he was entitled not only to the royalty stipulated in the lease made by him, but also to receive for his lifetime the income from the proceeds of the sale of the royalty for which the remainderman stipulated. The defendant …


Taxation-Federal Instrumentalities-Exemption From State Tax Nov 1932

Taxation-Federal Instrumentalities-Exemption From State Tax

Michigan Law Review

Appellant, a New York corporation which is engaged in Georgia in licensing copyrighted motion pictures, brought suit to restrain a Georgia tax upon the gross receipts of royalties. Appellant urged the invalidity of the tax upon the ground that copyrights are instrumentalities of the United States. The supreme court of Georgia ruled that the suit should be dismissed. On appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States it was held, in Fox Film Corporation v. Doyal, that a state tax on royalties derived from copyrights is valid.


Taxation-Exemption Of Sovereign Instrumentality-Effect Of Imposing Tax Nov 1930

Taxation-Exemption Of Sovereign Instrumentality-Effect Of Imposing Tax

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff corporation brought suit against the collector of internal revenue for federal income taxes paid under protest. The taxes were assessed upon the net income derived from the sale of oil and gas produced on lands which the plaintiff held under lease from the state of Texas. A legislative act provided for the leasing of the lands to further the development of their natural resources, the lessees paying a royalty on oil and gas. The statutory leases had been previously held to constitute a sale of the minerals. Theisen v. Robison, 117 Tex. 489, 8 S.W. (2d) 646. The statute …