Law Commons^™

Building A Text And Data Mining Limitation: The Brazilian Case, Luca Schirru, Allan Rocha De Souza, Claudia Chamas

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

In recent years, there has been a growing body of legal regulation of

TDM. Since 2018, Japan, the European Union, Singapore and others have

promoted changes to their copyright law and included specific limitations and

exceptions for TDM. These changes have been slow in the Global South and

the developing world, even though they are urgently needed there. This report

aims to present the Brazilian copyright legal framework and the policy

documents related to Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence and

innovation influencing political and public debate. This set of policies and

legislative texts provides the grounds for the discussion on the …

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.

Erasmian Perspectives On Copyright: Justifying A Right To Research, Tania Cheng-Davies

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

The right to research exists in many jurisdictions as an exception to copyright infringement but unharmonized and inconsistent in its application, with no universal understanding or acceptance of how such a right should be framed. Researchers face unknown and uncertain obstacles in accessing research and scholarly works, which in turn frustrates their own research and development. While copyright law has increasingly strengthened in scope and duration over time, there has been a reactive backlash to this in the form of calls for a more balanced copyright regime, including the recognition of a clear right to research. The keys to understanding …

Limitations And Exceptions In International Copyright And Related Rights Treaties, Sean Flynn

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

Copyright limitations and exceptions have been an integral part of international copyright and related rights treaties since the original text of the Berne Convention in 1886, which protected the ability to adopt exceptions for uses for “educational” and “scientific” uses. Since that instrument, there has been great -- if uneven -- development of norms on limitations and exceptions. Currently, the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights is considering limitations and exceptions in the draft text for a treaty on broadcast organizations as well as a proposal from the African Group for a work programme on …

Ftas' Contribution Towards A More Flexible Copyright Space: Possibilities And Limits, Maria Vasquez Callo-Muller

American University International Law Review

Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) have often been considered instruments for heightened intellectual property rights protection, thereby in detriment of a more flexible copyright space. However, since the adoption of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, some FTAs have been incorporating a clause on the “Balance in Copyright and Related Rights Systems.” Among these, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement and, more recently, the 2021 Australia-U.K. FTA contain such a clause. In addition, more discrete FTAs, such as the AustraliaPeru FTA, also incorporate similar provisions. This article considers what incorporating such clauses in FTAs means for the interpretation of …

Ransomware Groups On Notice: U.S. Cyber Operation Against Revil Is Permissible Under International Law, Justin Singh

American University International Law Review

The continued increase in the use of ransomware by cyber criminals has had a costly impact on businesses and organizations around the world. Ransomware groups continue to initiate attacks on businesses and organizations, and states have become increasingly concerned over the potential impact it may have on their critical infrastructure and economies. The United States’ recent acknowledgement of cyber operations against ransomware groups highlights the seriousness of the issue and exposes areas of international law that are complicated when applied to cyber operations against these groups. This Comment explores the relevant international law as it applies to the United States …

Securing Patent Law, Charles Duan

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

A vigorous conversation about intellectual property rights and national security has largely focused on the defense role of those rights, as tools for responding to acts of foreign infringement. But intellectual property, and patents in particular, also play an arguably more important offense role. Foreign competitor nations can obtain and assert U.S. patents against U.S. firms and creators. Use of patents as an offense strategy can be strategically coordinated to stymie domestic innovation and technological progress. This Essay considers current and possible future practices of patent exploitation in this offense setting, with a particular focus on China given the nature …

Lost In Transit: How Enforcement Of Foreign Copyright Judgements Undermines The Right To Research, Naama Daniel

American University International Law Review

The ease of travel in the globalized, modern world is a doubleedged sword for the right to research: while research opportunities are bolstered due to information and data traveling extremely easily in the digital world, the right to research may be undermined by the easy travel of foreign copyright judgments between countries. This article analyzes thoroughly, for the first time, the threats posed to the right to research by private international law instruments on recognition and enforcement of foreign copyright judgments. This article uses a theoretical and doctrinal perspective to analyze the matter, demonstrating that the right to research, aimed …

Manufacturers Beware Of Right To Repair: An Analysis Of The Resurgence Of Right To Repair & The Legal Consequences Of Third-Party Access To Embedded Software In The ‘Internet Of Things’ Era, Lindsey Barringto

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

On March 18, 2019 California became the twentieth state to introduce Right to Repair legislation in one year. The policy objectives for Right to Repair are straightforward: advocate for federal and state laws that make it easier for owners of consumer goods to ix a device when it breaks rather than relying on the Apple store. However, since 2014, small farmers have joined the Right to Repair movement because major manufacturers, such as John Deere, have consolidated dealer networks in response to the consolidation of farming in the past decade.

While proponents for Right to Repair legislation argue that consumers …

[Quote] Hail To The Washington Commanders — And The Power Of The Trademark, Christine Farley

Popular Media

No abstract provided.

Trademark Law’S Monopoly Problem: The Supreme Court On Generic Terms As Trademarks, Christine Farley

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

Federal Judge Seeks Patent Cases, Jonas Anderson, Paul R. Gugliuzza

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

That probably seems like a bizarre Craigslist ad. It’s not real—we mocked it up for this article. Still, and startlingly, it accurately portrays what’s happening in the Waco Division of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. One judge, appointed to the Western District only three years ago, has been advertising his courtroom through presentations to patent lawyers, comments to the media, procedural practices, and decisions in patent cases as the place to file a patent infringement lawsuit. That advertising has succeeded. In 2016 and 2017, the Waco Division received a total of five patent cases. In …

Guest Post Out Of The Blue The Federal Circuit Devises A New Rule For Color Mark, Christine Farley

Editorial Contributions

The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has held that color marks on product packaging can be inherently distinctive. On April 8, 2020, the court issued its opinion in In re: Forney Industries, Inc. It stated that “a distinct color-based product packaging mark can indicate the source of the goods to a consumer, and, therefore, can be inherently distinctive.”URL: https://patentlyo.com/patent/2020/04/federal-circuit-devises.html

Wipo Conversation On Intellectual Property (Ip) And Artificial Intelligence (Ai), Sean Flynn

Working Papers

No abstract provided.

The User Rights Database: Measuring The Impact Of Copyright Balance, Sean Flynn, Michael Palmedo

Working Papers

International and domestic copyright law reform around the world is increasingly focused on how copyright user rights should be expanded to promote maximum creativity and access to knowledge in the digital age. These efforts are guided by a relatively rich theoretical literature. However, few empirical studies explore the social and economic impact of expanding user rights in the digital era. One reason for this gap has been the absence of a tool measuring the key independent variable – changes in copyright user rights over time and between countries. We developed such a tool, which we call the “User Rights Database.” …

Intellectual Property Law Gets Experienced, Victoria Phillips

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Introduction: A decade ago, in Clinical Legal Education and the Public Interest in Intellectual Property Law, I described with my faculty colleagues our motivations for launching a public interest intellectual property law clinic at the American University Washington College of Law. That article introduced our goals and framework for a pioneering clinic framed around a variety of live-client student representations performed under close faculty supervision, weekly case rounds focusing on issues experienced directly by the students in their representations, and a seminar built around a year-long lawyering simulation addressing the public interest dimensions of intellectual property. In that article, we …

Free Speech Comes To Trademark Law, Christine Farley

Popular Media

No abstract provided.

Intellectual Property And Related Rights In Climate Data, Michael Carroll

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This chapter focuses on the ways in which intellectual property law can act as a barrier to data sharing. Intellectual property laws supply exclusive rights that can enable a researcher, employer or funder to ‘own’ data; they can then bring legal claims against persons who access or reuse data without permission. Some of these rights attach automatically to data, data sets, or databases, and thus must be managed properly to enable robust data sharing in climate science. Other rights are created by contract, and the policies around such privately created rights must be understood and analyzed. This chapter briefly describes …

Intellectual Property And Related Rights In Climate Data, Michael W. Carroll

Contributions to Books

This chapter focuses on the ways in which intellectual property law can act as a barrier to data sharing. Intellectual property laws supply exclusive rights that can enable a researcher, employer or funder to ‘own’ data; they can then bring legal claims against persons who access or reuse data without permission. Some of these rights attach automatically to data, data sets, or databases, and thus must be managed properly to enable robust data sharing in climate science. Other rights are created by contract, and the policies around such privately created rights must be understood and analyzed. This chapter briefly describes …

Trips-Plus, Public Health And Performance-Based Rewards Schemes Options And Supplements For Policy Formation In Developing And Least Developed Countries, Mohammed K. El-Said

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Sharing Research Data And Intellectual Property Law: A Primer, Michael Carroll

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Sharing research data by depositing it in connection with a published article or otherwise making data publicly available sometimes raises intellectual property questions in the minds of depositing researchers, their employers, their funders, and other researchers who seek to reuse research data. In this context or in the drafting of data management plans, common questions are (1) what are the legal rights in data; (2) who has these rights; and (3) how does one with these rights use them to share data in a way that permits or encourages productive downstream uses? Leaving to the side privacy and national security …

Sharing Research Data And Intellectual Property Law: A Primer, Michael W. Carroll

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

Sharing research data by depositing it in connection with a published article or otherwise making data publicly available sometimes raises intellectual property questions in the minds of depositing researchers, their employers, their funders, and other researchers who seek to reuse research data. In this context or in the drafting of data management plans, common questions are (1) what are the legal rights in data; (2) who has these rights; and (3) how does one with these rights use them to share data in a way that permits or encourages productive downstream uses? Leaving to the side privacy and national security …

Applying Patent-Eligible Subject Matter Restriction, Jonas Anderson

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

The US Supreme Court's difficulty in promulgating a standard for patent-eligibility has not gone unnoticed in the academy. Hundreds of academic conferences, including this one, have been devoted to the topic. The goal of this Article is not to solve the seemingly intractable problem of patent-eligibility doctrine. The goal of this Article is rather more modest. Instead of normatively assessing patent-eligible subject matter doctrine, this Article seeks to identify which foundational theories of patent-eligible subject matter can most readily be applied by courts and the US Patent and Trademark Office via Section 101. In doing so, this Article categorizes the …

Intellectual Property And Gender: Reflections On Accomplishments And Methodology, Kara W. Swanson

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Selected Resources On Copyright Law, Leonard Klein

Research Guides

This research guide provides specialized primary and secondary sources on copyright law, including specialized reporters on copyright law, interactive tutorials, and websites.

The Bellagio Global Dialogues On Intellectual Property, Joe Karaganis

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

This paper is an account of the Bellagio conferences and of their place within the larger arc of Rockefeller intellectual property work since 2002. In a more limited fashion, it is also an account of the transformation of IP from an obscure legal specialty into a major discourse of power and debate about the shape of globalization. The broadest achievement of the Bellagio series—and of Rockefeller Foundation work more generally in this area—has been to make this debate more open, participatory, and engaged with questions of poverty and human development.

A Pragmatic Approach To Intellectual Property And Development: A Case Study Of The Jordanian Copyright Law In The Internet Age, Rami Olwan

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

On October 4, 2004, Brazil and Argentina requested that WIPO adopt a development-oriented approach to IP and to reconsider its work in relation to developing countries. In October, 2007, WIPO member States adopted a historic decision for the benefit of developing countries, to establish a WIPO Development Agenda. Although there have been several studies related to IP and development that call for IP laws in developing countries to be development-friendly, there is little research that attempts to provide developing countries with practical measures to achieve that goal. This article takes the copyright law in Jordan as a case study and …

Why Full Open Access Matters, Michael W. Carroll

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

This Perspective argues that when authors or funders pay the full cost of publishing a scientific or scholarly journal article in an open access journal, the terms of reuse should require only attribution to some combination of the author(s), the original publisher, and the funder. Publications that charge authors and their financial backers the full cost of publication and then add other reuse restrictions are not fully open access publications.

Acta's Constitutional Problem: The Treaty That Is Not A Treaty (Or An Executive Agreement), Sean Flynn

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

The planned entry of the U.S. into the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) poses a unique Constitutional problem. The problem is that the President lacks constitutional authority to bind the U.S. to the agreement without congressional consent; but that lack of authority may not prevent the U.S. from being bound to the agreement under international law. If the administration succeeds in its plan, ACTA may be a binding international treaty (under international law) that is not a treaty (under U.S. Constitutional law).

An Overview And The Evolution Of The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (Acta), Margot E. Kaminski

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), a plurilateral intellectual property agreement developed outside of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the World Trade Organization (WTO), represents an attempt to introduce maximalist intellectual property standards in the international sphere, outside of existing institutional checks and balances. ACTA is primarily a copyright treaty, masquerading as a treaty that addresses dangerous medicines and defective imports. The latest ACTA draft, which is the final text available to the public before the signed text is released, contains significant shifts away from earlier draft language towards more moderate language, although it poses the same institutional problems …