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The Time And Place For "Technology-Shifting" Rights, Max Stul Oppenheimer

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

Intellectual property policy requires balance between the goal of motivating innovation and the need to prevent that motivation from stifling further innovation. The constitutional grant of congressional power to motivate innovation by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries is qualified by the requirement that congressional enactments under the Intellectual Property Clause promote progress. The Supreme Court has already recognized a time-shifting exception to the intellectual property rights of innovators and lower courts have recognized a place-shifting exception. It is now the time and place for a general technology-shifting exception …