Law Commons^™

From Bards To Search Engines: Finding What Readers Want From Ancient Times To The World Wide Web, Stephen Maurer

Stephen M. Maurer

Copyright theorists often ask how incentives can be designed to create better books, movies, and art. But this is not the whole story. As the Roman satirist Martial pointed out two thousand years ago, markets routinely ignore good and even excellent works. The insight reminds us that incentives to find content are just as necessary as incentives to make it. Recent social science research explains why markets fail and how timely interventions can save deserving titles from oblivion. This article reviews society’s long struggle to fix the vagaries of search since the invention of literature. We build on this history …

Joinder Of Unrelated Infringers As Defendants In Patent Litigation Under The Jurisprudence Of The United States District Court For Eastern District Of Texas—A Critical Review, Ping-Hsun Chen

Ping-Hsun Chen

On September 16, 2011, the American patent system started a new era because of the enactment of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (“AIA”). 35 U.S.C. § 299 was enacted to limit district court’s power to permit joinder of unrelated infringers as defendants in a single lawsuit. Before that, district courts apply Rule 20 of the Federal Civil Procedure. The Eastern District of Texas had permitted joinder only because the same patent was infringed. By introducing § 299, Congress intended to abrogate such approach. Later, the Federal Circuit in In re EMC limited the practice of Rule 20 and required a …

Joinder Of Unrelated Infringers As Defendants In Patent Litigation Under The Jurisprudence Of The United States District Court For Eastern District Of Texas—A Critical Review, Ping-Hsun Chen

Ping-Hsun Chen

On September 16, 2011, the American patent system started a new era because of the enactment of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (“AIA”). 35 U.S.C. § 299 was enacted to limit district court’s power to permit joinder of unrelated infringers as defendants in a single lawsuit. Before that, district courts apply Rule 20 of the Federal Civil Procedure. The Eastern District of Texas had permitted joinder only because the same patent was infringed. By introducing § 299, Congress intended to abrogate such approach. Later, the Federal Circuit in In re EMC limited the practice of Rule 20 and required a …

A Fake Right Of Priority Under The Cross-Strait Agreement On Intellectual Property Right Protection And Cooperation, Ping-Hsun Chen

Ping-Hsun Chen

On June 26, 2010, Taiwan and China entered into a “Cross-Strait Agreement on Intellectual Property Rights Cooperation and Protection” (“Cross-Strait IP Agreement”). This Cross-Strait IP Agreement was renowned for China’s admission of a right of priority of Taiwanese patent applications or trademark applications. Under the TRIPS Agreement, China is obligated to admit a right of priority of Taiwanese applications, but it has never fulfilled such obligation. China’s particular concern is that a right of priority is rooted from the Paris Convention which only allows a state to join, so by admitting a right of priority of Taiwanese applications it may …

Some Key Things Entrepreneurs Need To Know About The Law And Lawyers, Lawrence J. Trautman, Anthony Luppino, Malika S. Simmons

Lawrence J. Trautman Sr.

New business formation is a powerful economic engine that creates jobs. Diverse legal issues are encountered as a start-up entity approaches formation, initial capitalization and fundraising, arrangements with employees and independent contractors, and relationships with other third parties. The endeavors of a typical start-up in the United States will likely implicate many of the following areas of law: intellectual property; business organizations; tax laws; employment and labor laws; securities regulation; contracts and licensing agreements; commercial sales; debtor-creditor relations; real estate law; health and safety laws/codes; permits and licenses; environmental protection; industry specific regulatory laws and approval processes; tort/personal injury, products …

Copyrightability Of Music Compilations And Playlists: Original And Creative Works Of Authorship?, Marc Fritzsche

Marc Fritzsche

With the digitalization of music and the increasing popularity of online streaming services, people can conveniently create their own playlists and music compilations at will and share them worldwide. Imagine a world in which any selection and arrangement of songs, whether made by you, a DJ, a radio station, or a record label, is protected under the regime of Copyright Law. The result would be a vast amount of copyright infringements when a playlist or compilation gets mimicked by others. Thus far, only the High Court in London, UK, was confronted with this problem, but the parties settled, leaving the …

Users' Patronage: The Return Of The Gift In The "Crowd Society", Giancarlo F. Frosio

Giancarlo Francesco Frosio

In this work, I discuss the tension between gift and market economy throughout the history of creativity. For millennia, the production of creative artifacts has lain at the intersection between gift and market economy. From the time of Pindar and Simonides – and until the Romanticism will commence a process leading to the complete commodification of creative artifacts – market exchange models run parallel to gift exchange. From Roman amicitia to the medieval and Renaissance belief that “scientia donum dei est, unde vendi non potest,” creativity has been repeatedly construed as a gift. Again, at the time of the British …

Dismissing Provenance: The Use Of Procedural Defenses To Bar Claims In Nazi-Looted Art And Securitized Mortgage Litigation, Christian J. Bromley

Christian J Bromley

The litigation surrounding an estimated 650,000 works looted by the Nazis in the Second World War and the millions of securitized mortgages foreclosed in the wake of the Great Recession converge on a fundamental legal principle: who really holds rightful title? Seemingly worlds apart, these separate yet remarkably similar forms of property challenge the American judiciary to allocate property rights between adversaries steadfast in their contention of rightful ownership. The legal fulcrum in this allocation often rests not on the equity or righteousness of either parties’ claim—whether museum versus heir or bank versus former homeowner—but instead on procedural defenses that …

Doctrinal Approaches To The Animal Breeders’ Rights Granting, Diana V. Ivanova Dr., Julia A. Fedorova

Diana V. Ivanova Dr.

In the paper we analyze foreign and national doctrinal approaches to the animal breeders’ rights granting. Its genesis, legal nature of animal breed, and location of related legal norms are considered. We try to justify the possibility of granting animal breeders’ rights in the Republic of Belarus.

Infringement As Unfair Competition: A Blueprint For Global Governance?, Sean Pager, Eric Priest

Sean Pager

INFRINGEMENT AS UNFAIR COMPETITION: A BLUEPRINT FOR GLOBAL GOVERNANCE?

Sean A. Pager Michigan State University College of Law

Eric Priest University of Oregon School of Law

ABSTRACT

This Article examines a new approach to address persistent regulatory failures in global supply chains. In a series of recent cases, unfair competition actions have been brought in U.S. court against foreign manufacturers who infringe software overseas under the theory that the cost savings from infringement confers an unfair advantage in U.S. markets. While this theory has been advanced in the intellectual property context, the same approach could work to target abuses in …

If That’S The Way It Must Be, Okay: Campbell V. Acuff-Rose On Rewind, Thomas C. Irvin

Thomas C. Irvin

The 1994 Supreme Court case Campbell v. Acuff-Rose established broad protections for parody in U.S. copyright law. The decision has justifiably been hailed as a victory for free speech and artistic creativity. But while the case is well known, the facts behind the case are not. Those facts show that the case should have been decided differently by every court that heard it. In short, the case came out wrong—wonderfully wrong. This article is the first in-depth review of Campbell v. Acuff-Rose since the decision was handed down nearly 20 years ago, and is the first to examine the musical …

Traditional Knowledge Rights And Wrongs, Sean Pager

Sean Pager

SourceURL:file://localhost/Users/sean/Documents/Folklore%20TK/Unpacking%20ABSTRACT.doc

Traditional Knowledge Rights and Wrongs

Sean A. Pager, Michigan State University

ABSTRACT

Should the intangible heritage of indigenous people be subject to intellectual property rights? After years of effort, international delegates are poised to complete a pair of ambitious treaties that would accomplish this goal. This Article provides the first detailed analysis and critique of the draft treaties, which provide for exclusive rights in traditional knowledge and cultural expression, respectively. Proponents of such protection often invoke both cultural integrity and economic justice rationales. Yet, these rationales dictate conflicting imperatives. To resolve these conflicts, the Article argues for greater differentiation …

On Climate Change And Cyber Attacks: Leveraging Polycentric Governance To Mitigate Global Collective Action Problems, Scott J. Shackelford

Scott Shackelford

Although the atmosphere and cyberspace are distinct arenas, they share similar problems of overuse, difficulties of enforcement, and the associated challenges of collective inaction and free riders. Moreover, “[m]illions of actors affect the global atmosphere[,]” just as they do the Internet. With weather patterns changing, global sea levels rising, and temperatures set to exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2100, climate change is a problem affecting the entire world, but one in which the benefits are dispersed and the harms are often concentrated. Similarly, much of the cost of cyber attacks is focused in a relatively small number of nations even …

Adopting Subsequent Remuneration Right In Chinese Copyright Law, Xi Chen

Xi Chen

One heavily and contentiously argued clause in Chinese Copyright Law amendments drafts focuses on the practicality of granting authors of audiovisual works the legal right to collect subsequent remunerations (SRR), when their works are reused in subsequent exploitations.

With the rapid increase of media channels for the Chinese movie industry, and other entertainment industries relying on a heavy usage of audiovisual work, authors demand that they should be entitled to the profit earned from derivative markets and other media channel beyond the first intended market. In order to balance the conflicting interest between the author and the producer, and to …

Copyright In Pantomime

Brian L. Frye

Why does the Copyright Act specifically provide for the protection of “pantomimes”? This article shows that the Copyright Act of 1976 amended the subject matter of copyright to include pantomimes simply in order to conform it to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. It further shows that the Berlin Act of 1909 amended the Berne Convention to provide for copyright protection of “les pantomimes” and “entertainments in dumb show” in order to ensure copyright protection of silent motion pictures. Unfortunately, the original purpose of providing copyright protection to “pantomimes” was forgotten. This Article argues that …

International Trade V. Intellectual Property Lawyers: Globalization And The Brazilian Legal Profession, Vitor M. Dias

Vitor M. Dias

No abstract provided.

Literature’S Idea-Expression Distinction: Drawing A Line With Distinctive Elements Of Alternate Worlds, Joshua Jeng

Joshua Jeng

The line between ideas and expressions in copyright law has never been particularly clear. We want to protect what authors create so that they are motivated to create more, but we want broad concepts to remain free so that others may produce even more works. The distinction concept and an author's take on a concept has always been very difficult to define, even among legal scholars, and has largely remained misunderstood by the average author. However, as derivative works increase in prevalence and economic importance, the need for workable framework for understanding copyright that the lay author can understand is …

The Final Impression Counts - Seeking Common Ground In Design Patent Infringement, Dana Beldiman, Paolo Beconcini

Dana Beldiman

THE FINAL IMPRESSION COUNTS – Seeking Common Ground in Design Patent Infringement

Dana Beldiman*and Paolo Beconcini

Abstract

The visual appearance of products has become an asset of considerable economic value. Litigation surrounding it is increasingly common and has focused IP law on certain tensions that relate to the visual nature of IP assets.

One such area is design patent infringement. Policy mandates that comparison of two similar designs for purposes of evaluating infringement be performed by a notional purchaser, based on the overall impression of a design as whole. However, in performing the analysis courts are tempted to …

The Emergence Of Classical American Patent Law, Herbert Hovenkamp

Herbert Hovenkamp

The Emergence of Classical Patent Law

Abstract

One enduring historical debate concerns whether the American Constitution was intended to be "classical" -- referring to a theory of statecraft that maximizes the role of private markets and minimizes the role of government in economic affairs. The most central and powerful proposition of classical constitutionalism is that the government's role in economic development should be minimal. First, private rights in property and contract exist prior to any community needs for development. Second, if a particular project is worthwhile the market itself will make it occur. Third, when the government attempts to induce …

The Supreme Assimilation Of Patent Law, Peter Lee

Peter Lee

Although tensions between universality and exceptionalism apply throughout law, they are particularly pronounced in patent law, a field that deals with highly technical subject matter. This Article explores these tensions by investigating an underappreciated descriptive theory of Supreme Court patent jurisprudence. Significantly extending previous scholarship, it argues that the Court’s recent decisions reflect a project of eliminating “patent exceptionalism” and assimilating patent doctrine to general legal principles (or, more precisely, to what the Court frames as general legal principles). Among other motivations, this trend responds to rather exceptional patent doctrine emanating from the Federal Circuit in areas as varied as …

Gender Biases In Cyberspace: A Two-Stage Model For A Feminist Way Forward, Shlomit Yanisky-Ravid, Amy Mittelman

Shlomit Yanisky-Ravid Professor of Law

Increasingly, there has been a focus on creating democratic standards and procedures in order to best facilitate open exchange of information and communication online—a goal that fits neatly within the feminist aim to democratize content creation and community. Collaborative websites, such as blogs, social networks, and, as focused on in this Article, Wikipedia, represent both a Cyberspace community entirely outside the strictures of the traditional (intellectual) proprietary paradigm and one that professes to truly embody the philosophy of a completely open, free, and democratic resource for all. In theory, collaborative websites are the solution that social activists, Intellectual Property opponents …

It’S The End Of The Biological Patent World As We Know It, And Consumer Watchdog Feels Fine: How Consumer Watchdog Is Attempting To Kill The Future Of Horticultural Research, George R. Holton

George R Holton

No abstract provided.

The Evolution Of Internet Service Providers From Partners To Adversaries: Tracking Shifts In Interconnection Goals And Strategies In The Internet’S Fifth Generation, Rob Frieden

Rob Frieden

At the Internet’s inception, carriers providing the bit switching and transmission function largely embraced expanding connections and users as a primary service goal. These ventures refrained from metering traffic and charging for carriage based on the assumption that traffic volumes roughly matched, or that traffic measurement was not worth the bother in light of external funding from government grants. Most Internet Service Providers (“ISPs”) bartered network access through a process known as peering in lieu of metering traffic and billing for network use. As governments removed subsidies and commercial carriers invested substantial funds to build larger and faster networks, identifying …

Déjà Vu All Over Again: Questions And A Few Suggestions On How The Fcc Can Lawfully Regulate Internet Access, Rob Frieden

Rob Frieden

This paper will examine the FCC’s March, 2015 Open Internet Order with an eye to assessing whether and how the Commission can successfully defend its decision in an appellate court. On two prior occasions, the FCC failed to convince a reviewing court that proposed regulatory safeguards do not unlawfully impose common carrier duties on private carriers. The Commission now has opted to reclassify broadband Internet access as common carriage, a decision sure to trigger a third court appeal. The FCC Open Internet Order offers several, possibly contradictory, justifications for its decision to apply Title II of the Communications Act, subject …

El Rompecabezas Incompleto. La Omisión Normativa Y Jurisprudencial Sobre La Protección Por El Derecho De Autor De Personajes Y Objetos De La Obra, Javier André Murillo Chávez

Javier André Murillo Chávez

No abstract provided.

Network Neutrality And Consumer Demand For “Better Than Best Efforts” Traffic Management, Rob Frieden

Rob Frieden

This paper assesses whether and how ISPs can offer quality of service enhancements, at premium prices for full motion video, while still complying with the new rules and regulations established by the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) in March, 2015. The paper explains that having made the controversial decision to reclassify all forms of Internet access as a telecommunications service, the FCC increases regulatory uncertainty. In particular, the FCC has failed to identify instances where “retail ISPs,” serving residential broadband subscribers, can offer quality of service enhancements that serve real consumer wants without harming competition and the ability of most content …

The Protection Of Performers Under U.S. Law In Comparative Perspective, Daniel Gervais

Daniel J Gervais

The Garcia v Google case raised fundamental questions about US law as it applies to performed works. This Essay uses a comparative lens to shed some hopefully useful light on the debate. The Essay proceeds essentially in two parts. First, the Essay explores and critiques the international protection of performers’ rights using both history and policy as focal points. The following part describes the protection of performers and other owners of “related rights” in US law and explains the differences that adopting a related rights regime would bring about in the United States.

The World’S Laboratory: China’S Patent Boom, It Standards And The Implications For The Global Knowledge, Christopher Mcelwain, Dennis Fernandez

Christopher McElwain

Just as China’s factories disrupted the economics of IT hardware, its research labs have the potential to disrupt the economics of the technology itself. In 2014, China’s patent office received nearly 2.4 million patent applications, 93% from domestic applicants. China has also climbed to third place in terms of international applications, with over 21,000 WIPO PCT applications. Meanwhile, China has taken an assertive role in setting technology standards, both at the national and international levels. In the past, this has included developing and promoting alternatives to important IT standards as a means of challenging perceived monopolies by certain (foreign-dominated) technologies. …

Ninth Circuit Nine-Plus -- Settling The Law In Internet Keyword Advertising And Trademark Use, Andrew Leahey

Andrew Leahey

No abstract provided.

The Irrelevance Of Nanotechnology Patents, Emily Michiko Morris

Emily Michiko Morris

Once the stuff of science fiction, nanotechnology is now expected to be the next technological revolution, but despite millions of dollars of investment, we still have yet to see the brave new world of cheap energy, cell-specific drug delivery systems, and self-replicating nanobots that nanotechnology promises. Instead, nanotechnology seems to be in a holding pattern, perpetually stuck in the status of “emerging science,” “immature field,” and “new technology” for over three decades now. Why? Professor Mark Lemley and a number of others have suggested that the answer to this puzzling question is simple: nanotechnology differs from the all of the …