Law Commons^™

Undetected Conflict-Of-Laws Problems In Cross-Border Online Copyright Infringement Cases, Marketa Trimble

Scholarly Works

This article provides and analyzes data on copyright infringement cases filed in U.S. federal district courts in 2013; it focuses on infringement cases involving activity on the internet and discusses actual and potential conflict-of-laws issues that the cases raised or could have raised. The article complements the report entitled "Private International Law Issues in Online Intellectual Property Infringement Disputes with Cross-Border Elements: An Analysis of National Approaches" (the "Report"), which was published by the World Intellectual Property Organization in September 2015. In the Report its author, Professor Andrew F. Christie, discusses his empirical findings about the intersection of intellectual property …

Copyright Update For The 2015 Nevada Bar Intellectual Property Law Conference, Marketa Trimble

Boyd Briefs / Road Scholars

Professor Marketa Trimble presented these materials to the Intellectual Property Law Section of the Nevada Bar on October 23, 2015. Over the course of her presentation, Prof. Trimble covered significant legal developments and statistical trends in copyright law from the 2014-2015 period, both in the United States and abroad.

The Multiplicity Of Copyright Laws On The Internet, Marketa Trimble

Scholarly Works

From the early days of the Internet, commentators have warned that it would be impossible for those who act on the Internet (“Internet actors”) to comply with the copyright laws of all Internet-connected countries if the national copyright laws of all those countries were to apply simultaneously to Internet activity. A multiplicity of applicable copyright laws seems plausible at least when the Internet activity is ubiquitous — i.e., unrestricted by geoblocking or by other means — given the territoriality principle that governs international copyright law and the choice-of-law rules that countries typically use for copyright infringements.

This Article posits that …

The Marrakesh Puzzle, Marketa Trimble

Scholarly Works

This article analyzes the puzzle created by the 2013 Marrakesh Treaty in its provisions concerning the cross-border exchange of copies of copyrighted works made for use by persons who are “blind, visually impaired, or otherwise print disabled” (copies known as “accessible format copies”). The analysis should assist executive and legislative experts as they seek optimal methods for implementing the Treaty. The article provides an overview of the Treaty, notes its unique features, and examines in detail its provisions on the cross-border exchange of accessible format copies. The article discusses three possible sources for implementation tools – choice of law rules, …

Copyright Update For The 2014 Nevada Bar Intellectual Property Law Conference, Marketa Trimble

Boyd Briefs / Road Scholars

Professor Marketa Trimble presented these materials at the Nevada Bar Intellectual Property Law Section's annual Intellectual Property Law Conference, held on November 14, 2014 at the William S. Boyd School of Law.

The presentation provided attendees with a "year-in-review" update on copyright law, covering the time period of October 2013 to October 2014. Nevada copyright litigation statistics, summaries of important copyright cases, and discussion of pending copyright legislation were included in the presentation.

The Territoriality Referendum, Marketa Trimble

Scholarly Works

Many Internet users have encountered geoblocking tools – tools that prevent users from accessing certain content on the Internet based on the location from which the users are connecting to the Internet. Because at least some users want to access such content, they turn to tools that enable them to evade geoblocking, to appear on the Internet as if they were located in another location, and to access the content that is available in this other location. So far these activities appear to be under the radar of intellectual property (“IP”) owners, perhaps because geoblocking evasion by users for the …

Conferring About The Conference (Recalibrating Copyright: Continuity, Contemporary Culture, And Change), Marketa Trimble

Scholarly Works

Professor Marketa Trimble and her colleagues Professors Jessica Silbey and Aaron Perzanowski reflect on papers presented at the University of Houston Law Center's Institute for Intellectual Property & Information Law's annual conference held in Spring of 2014.

Book Review: "Die Gemeinfreiheit: Begriff, Funktion, Dogmatik (The Public Domain: Concept, Function, Dogmatics)" By Alexander Peukert, Marketa Trimble

Scholarly Works

The reviewer considers a recent book by Alexander Peukert, the professor of civil and commercial law who specializes in international intellectual property law at Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Peukert has devoted the book to defining the limits of the public domain – the realm of intellectual activity in which works are free for anyone to use because the works are not protected by intellectual property rights, are protected but the protection has expired, are subject to an exception to the rights under the law, or are unprotected because the owner of the rights chooses not to enforce …

Fashion And U.S. Ip Law, Marketa Trimble

Boyd Briefs / Road Scholars

No abstract provided.

The Future Of Cybertravel: Legal Implications Of The Evasion Of Geolocation, Marketa Trimble

Scholarly Works

Although the Internet is valued by many of its supporters particularly because it both defies and defeats physical borders, these important attributes are now being exposed to attempts by both governments and private entities to impose territorial limits through blocking or permitting access to content by Internet users based on their geographical location—a territorial partitioning of the Internet. One of these attempts, for example, is the recent Stop Online Piracy Act (“SOPA”) proposal in the United States. This article, as opposed to earlier literature on the topic discussing the possible virtues and methods of erecting borders in cyberspace, focuses on …

Setting Foot On Enemy Ground: Cease-And-Desist Letters, Dmca Notifications And Personal Jurisdiction In Declaratory Judgment Actions, Marketa Trimble

Scholarly Works

In declaratory judgment actions brought by alleged infringers against rights holders, such as actions for declaration of invalidity or non-infringement of intellectual property rights, U.S. courts have long maintained that sending a cease-and-desist letter alone, absent other acts in an alleged infringer's forum, is not a sufficient basis for personal jurisdiction over the rights holder who mailed them to the alleged infringer's forum. Notwithstanding the similarities between cease-and-desist letters and notifications under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals recently decided that sending a notification alone does establish a basis for personal jurisdiction over the …

When You Wish Upon Dastar: Creative Provenance And The Lanham Act, Mary Lafrance

Scholarly Works

This Article examines the application of section 43(a) of the Lanham Act to claims of reverse passing off through the lens of the Supreme Court's unpersuasive effort in Dastar Corp. v. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. to exclude a single class of reverse passing off-claims - those involving “expressive” works as opposed to physical commodities - from the scope of section 43(a). The Article critiques the Court's analysis of section 43(a) in light of case law and the pertinent legislative history, including, the Trademark Law Revision Act of 1988, the Berne Convention Implementation Act of 1988, and the Visual Artists …

Authorship And Termination Rights In Sound Recordings, Mary Lafrance

Scholarly Works

In late 1999, Congress amended the definition of "works made for hire" in § 101 of the Copyright Act to make explicit its intent to include sound recordings as a category of works eligible for this status. The amendment was repealed with retroactive effect less than a year later. All this happened—pardon the expression—in record time.

This odd course of events was precipitated by a request from the record industry, represented by the Recording Industry Association of America ("RIAA"), which persuaded Congress, shortly before passage of the Intellectual Property and Omnibus Communications Reform Act of 1999, to add a "technical …

New Laws, New Technology: Copyright Law Struggles With Change, Mary Lafrance

Scholarly Works

This article examines the development of copyright law in 2000 and 2001.

Recent Developments In Copyright Law: Technology And International Trade Play Starring Roles, Mary Lafrance

Scholarly Works

The once staid field of copyright law has undergone a dramatic revolution in recent years, as new technologies and international trade pressures have spurred legislative change, while challenging the federal courts to find answers to those questions that Congress has not resolved or, in some cases, to questions that recent acts of Congress have created. This article explores recent developments in copyright law in 2002.

Authorship, Dominance, And The Captive Collaborator: Preserving The Rights Of Joint Authors, Mary Lafrance

Scholarly Works

For copyright purposes, determining whether a work has a single author or joint authors is important for a variety of reasons. Perhaps the most significant legal consequence of joint authorship is joint ownership, under which the authors enjoy equal and undivided ownership of the copyright, allowing each to exploit the work freely, subject to a duty to account to the others for a ratable share of the exploitation profits. Absent an agreement to the contrary, each author of a joint work has an equal claim to those profits and an equal right to exploit the work, even if the authors' …