Law Commons^™

What Do Flexible Road Signs, Children's Clothes And The Allied Campaign In Europe During Wwii Have In Common? The Public Domain And The Supreme Court's Intellectual Property Jurisprudence, David E. Shipley

Scholarly Works

Part I of this article discusses the impact of the Sears, Compco and Bonito Boats, and the uncertainty over whether the principles of federal intellectual property announced in these decisions serve as limitations on the scope of protection that can be afforded under trademark legislation enacted by Congress under its Commerce Clause power. Part II presents the Supreme Court's reaffirmation of fundamental principles intellectual property policy in a series of cases decided in the last decade: Qualitex, Wal-Mart, TrafFix, Mosley and Dastar. Part III summarizes some of the common themes emerging from these decisions …

The Proven Key: Roles And Rules For Dictionaries In The Patent Office And The Courts, Joseph Scott Miller, James A. Hilsenteger

Scholarly Works

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, in its continuing effort to develop a patent claim construction jurisprudence that yields predictable results, has turned to dictionaries, encyclopedias, and similar sources with increasing frequency. This paper explores, from both an empirical and a normative perspective, the Federal Circuit's effort to shift claim construction to a dictionary-based approach. In the empirical part, we present data showing that the Federal Circuit has, since its own in banc Markman decision in April 1995, used reference works such as dictionaries to construe claim terms with steadily increasing frequency. In addition, and contrary to …

Class Schedule - Spring 2005, Office Of Registrar

Semester Schedules and Information

No abstract provided.

2006-07 Curriculum, Office Of Registrar

Semester Schedules and Information

No abstract provided.

Enhancing Patent Disclosure For Faithful Claim Construction, Joe Miller

Scholarly Works

Claim construction jurisprudence is in disarray. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reverses trial court claim construction decisions at a worryingly high rate. The proportion of Federal Circuit claim construction opinions that include separate concurrences or dissents continues to grow. And the muddled mix of issues the Federal Circuit framed for en banc review in the Phillips case suggests that the court is having trouble reaching consensus on what the central questions are, much less on how to answer them. Perhaps the path to adequately predictable claim construction is continued tinkering with the analytical constructs internal to …

Taxing The Promise To Pay, Gregg D. Polsky, Brant J. Hellwig

Scholarly Works

The IRS recently disclosed that it has identified more than 100 executives at 42 leading public corporations that participated in a tax shelter designed to defer the recognition of income from the exercise of stock options. While the agency thus far has identified approximately $700 million in unreported gains from these shelters, it predicts that the revenue loss to the government will ultimately exceed $1 billion. Compared to most tax shelters, this particular transaction (commonly known as the "Executive Compensation Strategy" or "ECS") is remarkably simple. Rather than exercise the options individually, a participating executive instead transfers the options to …

American Corporate Copyright: A Brilliant, Uncoordinated Plan, Paul J. Heald

Scholarly Works

At first glance, American copyright law and policy seem to be dictated entirely by a monolithic block of corporate rightsholders. Over the last twenty years, powerful interests including Disney, the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), Microsoft, and the American Motion Picture Association (AMPA), have successfully lobbied Congress for copyright term extensions, copyright restoration, software anticircumvention legislation, protection against audio bootlegging, and a series of bilateral and international agreements designed to increase protection for American copyright owners overseas. Even the failure to protect databases in America, widely touted as a victory for the public interest, has been driven …

Protecting The Environment During Wartime, Daniel M. Bodansky

Popular Media

Woodruff Chair Daniel M. Bodansky explores the impact of war on the environment and what can be done to protect precious resources during times of conflict. This article is drawn from a study completed in 2003 for the German Environment Agency, “Legal Regulation of the Effects of Military Activity on the Environment” (Erich Schmidt Verlag, 2003).

Dramatic Moments In The Pursuit Of Justice, Ronald L. Carlson

Presentations and Speeches

Callaway Chair of Law Emeritus Ronald L. Carlson talks about significant turning points in several high profile cases at the University of Georgia's annual Founders' Day Lecture.

Joseph Henry Lumpkin Inn Of Court Team Members 2005-2006, Kellie Casey Monk

Materials from All Student Organizations

No abstract provided.

Mock Trial Team Members 2005-2006, Kellie Casey Monk

Materials from All Student Organizations

No abstract provided.

The Drafting Process For A Hague Convention On Jurisdiction And Judgements With Special Consideration Of Intellectual Property And E-Commerce, Knut Woestehoff

LLM Theses and Essays

This thesis is a study of the drafting process for the Hague Convention on Jurisdiction and Judgements. It will be demonstrated why the original goal of a broad treaty was given up in favor of a draft convention that only applies in international cases to exclusive choice of court agreements concluded in civil and commercial matters in the business-to-business setting. The reader will get an understanding of how the participating nations and interest groups influenced the negotiations and modified the outcome of the discussions. Special consideration was given to the matters of intellectual property and e-commerce, which were nearly completely …

Apprendi, Blakely And Federalism, Peter B. Rutledge

Scholarly Works

The Clark Y. Gunderson Lecture is a memorial to a man who devoted his life to legal education and spent thirty years teaching at the Law School. It is supported by a trust fund in the University of South Dakota Law School Foundation established principally by Colonel Gunderson's family. Professor Rutledge delivered the 2004 Gunderson Lecture at the Law Review's Symposium on Sentencing and Punishment, which took place at the Law School on November 5, 2004. What follows is an adapted version of Professor Rutledge's lecture.

Looking Ahead: October Term 2006, Peter B. Rutledge

Scholarly Works

October Term 2006 will be the first full opportunity for Court-watchers to assess the impact of recent changes in the Court's membership. It will be Chief Justice Roberts' second full term and Justice Alito's first. It also will provide the first full term in which to assess whether Justice Kennedy will reclaim his role as "swing justice." Accompanying these changes in the Court's personnel will be a docket full of interesting cases on topics such as the constitutionality of racial diversity programs, abortion, environmental law, punitive damages, and criminal procedure. Consistent with prior contributions to this series, this essay offers …

To Judge Leviathan: Sovereign Credit Ratings, National Law, And The World Economy, Christopher Bruner, Rawi Abdelal

Scholarly Works

Recent decades have witnessed the remarkable rise of a kind of market authority almost as centralized as the state itself – two credit rating agencies, Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s. These agencies derive their influence from two sources. The first is the information content of their ratings. The second is both more profound and vastly more problematic: Ratings are incorporated into financial regulations in the United States and around the world. In this article we clarify the role of credit rating agencies in global capital markets, describe the host of problems that arise when their ratings are given the force …

The Impact Of Hsas On Health Care Reform: Preliminary Results After One Year, Edward J. Larson, Marc Dettmann

Scholarly Works

With over one year having passed since the Medicare Modernization Act ("MMA") authorized the creation of the first individual Health Savings Accounts ("HSA"), this Article reviews the context, structure, promise, and impact of this new type of tax-advantaged account. The Article begins by briefly reviewing the context of this reform, documenting what both Presidents Clinton and Bush noted about rising costs and decreasing access. The Article then reviews the HSA legislation itself, H.R. 2596, and summarizes how HSAs operate. Part IV of this Article reviews the claims made for HSAs when H.R. 2596 passed as part of the MMA. Part …

Lending A Helping Hand?: A Guide To Kentucky’S New Predatory Lending Law, Kent H. Barnett

Scholarly Works

The purpose of this note is to furnish the consumer advocate with an in-depth analysis of Kentucky's new predatory lending law by examining the basic structure of the statute, and its ambiguities, faults, and remedies. Practitioners will understand the impact the law may have on high-cost home loans, the potential traps that await their clients, and the provisions that require amending.

Part I discusses the applicability of the statute. Part II focuses on Kentucky's limitations that dovetail HOEPA requirements for high-cost home loans. Part III discusses provisions of the Kentucky law that require much more than, or in some cases …

Fig Leaves, Fairytales, And Constitutional Foundations: Debating Judicial Review In Britain, Lori A. Ringhand

Scholarly Works

This paper examines an ongoing debate about the origins and legitimacy of judicial review as practiced in Britain. I begin by examining how British law traditionally has attempted to justify judicial review of governmental actions. I then discuss how that orthodox view has been challenged, and how the proponents of the orthodoxy responded to that challenge. In doing so, I explain how the British debate has evolved into a far-reaching examination of the role of interpretive methodologies in legitimating judicial power. I conclude by exploring how the richness and depth of the British discussion can inform the larger debate about …

Environmental Law, Eleventh Circuit Survey, Travis M. Trimble

Scholarly Works

In 2004 courts in the Eleventh Circuit addressed several Clean Water Act issues. The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals arguably expanded the scope of the injuries a plaintiff may allege to have standing to sue under the Clean Water Act. The court held that the federal court had jurisdiction over a Clean Water Act citizen suit alleging violations of a permit issued by the State of Georgia under its permitting program authorized under the Act. The Eleventh Circuit also addressed whether a Florida state regulation effectively revised or added to the state's Clean Water Act, which mandated water quality standards, …

Commentary: Grades- Achievement, Attendance, Or Attitude, Anne Dupre, John Dayton

Scholarly Works

This article addresses the impact that grades can have on the lives of students and discusses what grades actually represent in terms of student achievement. It also addresses disputes involving grading policies that allowed non-academic factors in decisions on grades or academic credit. The article includes a brief summary of the history and legal theories related to grading challenges and then provides a review of the relevant case law including Board of Curators of the University of Missouri v. Horowitz, Barnard v. Inhabitants of Shelburne, Tinker v. Des Moines, Goss v. Lopez, Knight v. Board of education, Gutierrez v. School …

Gauging The Cost Of Loopholes: Health Care Pricing And Medicare Regulation In The Post-Enron Era, Elizabeth Weeks Leonard

Scholarly Works

This article explores the problem of risk perception and regulatory loopholes in the unique era of corporate governance that followed Enron and other high-profile corporate scandals. The article draws on behavioral law and economics theory to examine pressing issues in U.S. welfare policy reform. The current Administration's domestic agenda features proposals to privatize traditional government welfare programs, including Social Security and Medicare. Those proposals rely on market competition and other profit incentives to improve quality and reduce program costs. The article traces a detailed case study of a prominent for-profit hospital corporation, the impact of public perceptions of corporate wrongdoing, …