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Trademark Law And Consumer Centrality - Part I, James Gibson
Trademark Law And Consumer Centrality - Part I, James Gibson
Law Faculty Publications
The conventional wisdom provides two traditional justifications for trademark law. The first is the “consumer protection” rationale. If there were no trademark law, an unknown soft drink manufacturer could freely use Coca-Cola’s COKE trademark on its goods. If it did so, consumers would be defrauded; they would buy the unknown’s products thinking that they were Coca-Cola’s. Trademark law prevents this sort of fraud from occurring and thereby protects consumers from fraud.
The second justification is the “producer incentive” rationale. In the preceding COKE example, it is not just the consumer who is happy that fraud has been prevented. Coca-Cola is …
Transformation, Copyright Infringement, And Fair Use, James Gibson
Transformation, Copyright Infringement, And Fair Use, James Gibson
Law Faculty Publications
A small copyright decision out of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit last month has gotten a big reaction from copyright experts. The case is Kienitz v. Sconnie Nation, and it involves an entertaining set of facts.
In the 1960s, there was a young University of Wisconsin student named Paul Soglin, who had an anti-authoritarian streak. He led a number of demonstrations on issues ranging from civil rights to the Vietnam War. Indeed, one particular Vietnam protest, in May 1969, led to his arrest for failure to obey a police officer. That same protest became an annual …
Cease, Desist, And Laugh, James Gibson
Cease, Desist, And Laugh, James Gibson
Law Faculty Publications
Anyone who teaches intellectual property law knows how exciting the subject matter can be for students. They inundate professors not only with questions about the classroom material but also with news about emerging technologies, cutting-edge litigation, and legislative initiatives. And the attentive professor will seek to turn these exchanges into teaching moments.
One favorite of students involves a classic intellectual-property mechanism, the cease-and-desist letter. It’s a favorite, I think, because such correspondence can be over the top, and the responses can be quite funny – making this a perfect topic for this April Fool’s edition of IP Viewpoints. [...]
Small Fry In Copyright Litigation, James Gibson
Small Fry In Copyright Litigation, James Gibson
Law Faculty Publications
In two of my earlier entries in this series, I discussed the results of an empirical study of copyright cases that I have been doing with my colleague Chris Cotropia. One of those entries focused on how hard the parties in copyright lawsuits fightagainst each other, and the other focused on the role of major media companies in copyright litigation.
In this entry, I will continue to talk about the parties that we observed in our study, but instead of discussing major media companies, I will concentrate on the other end of the spectrum: the individual as a party. This …