Law Commons^™

Christmas In July: A Response To David Fagundes, Why Less Property Is More, Brian L. Frye

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

A response to David Fagundes, Why Less Property Is More: Inclusion, Dispossession, & Subjective Well-Being, 103 Iowa L. Rev. 1361 (2018).

Illustrating A Technical Manual: Copyright And Fair Use In A Real World Professional Context, Karyn Hinkle

Library Faculty and Staff Publications

This lesson was developed for students preparing to enter professional practice who were assigned to write and/or illustrate a technical howto manual on a topic of their choice (how to put on ski boots, draw blood, use a fitness tracking app, etc.). The teaching librarian conducts a class session on finding and creating images to illustrate the manuals and teaches differences between using copyrighted and non-copyrighted images. The students work on finding images in the public domain, creating their own images, and incorporating copyrighted images via Creative Commons licenses and the principle of fair use. Librarians can teach this lesson …

"It's Your #!": A Legal History Of The Bacardi Cocktail, Brian L. Frye

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

The Bacardi cocktail was the Cosmopolitan of the Jazz Age: a sweet and sour tipple with an attractive rosy hue and a deceptively alcoholic punch. Created in about 1913, and named after Bacardi rum, it soon became one of the most popular cocktails in America. Prohibition only increased its popularity, as wealthy Americans vacationing in Cuba enjoyed Bacardi cocktails and demanded them at speakeasies and at home. Of course, every good speakeasy offered white rum (or a passable facsimile thereof) and called it “bacardi” no matter who made it. After Repeal, the popularity of the Bacardi cocktail continued to rise …

Invention Of A Slave, Brian L. Frye

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

On June 10, 1858, the Attorney General issued an opinion titled Invention of a Slave, concluding that a slave owner could not patent a machine invented by his slave, because neither the slave owner nor his slave could take the required patent oath. The slave owner could not swear to be the inventor, and the slave could not take an oath at all. The Patent Office denied at least two patent applications filed by slave owners, one of which was filed by Senator Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, who later became the President of the Confederate States of America. But …

Registration Is Fundamental, Brian L. Frye, Nicole E. Pottinger

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Under the Copyright Act, copyright owners can file infringement actions only if registration of their copyright claim with the Copyright Office “has been made” or “has been refused.” The United States Supreme Court recently granted certiorari in Fourth Estate v. Wall-Street.com, in order to decide whether registration is “made” when a claimant files a registration application or when the Copyright Office registers the claim.

This article argues that the Court should hold that registration occurs when the Copyright Office registers the claim, in order to ensure that federal courts can benefit from the expertise of the Copyright Office. The Copyright …