Law Commons^™

Game Changers: Rewriting The Playbook A Sports And Entertainment Law Symposium, Brandon Posivak

Akron Law Review

Brandon Posivak gave the following remarks as part of the Akron Law Review 2023 Symposium at The University of Akron School of Law in April 2023.

Mr. Posivak graduated in May 2023 from Pepperdine Caruso School of Law in Malibu, CA with Certificates in Entertainment, Media, and Sports; Dispute Resolution; and Entrepreneurship and the Law with a specialization in Entertainment, Technology, and Intellectual Property. Prior to law school he was a Division I baseball player at Lafayette College in Easton, PA and has published two books, Step on the Cracks: Reinventing Happiness, Positivity, and Optimism and Waiting for Yesterday.

Game Changers: Rewriting The Playbook - A Sports And Entertainment Law Symposium, Luke Fedlam

Akron Law Review

Attorney Luke Fedlam gave the following remarks as part of the Akron Law Review 2023 Symposium at The University of Akron School of Law in April 2023.

Attorney Fedlam is a Partner and Sports Attorney in Columbus, OH at Porter Wright Morris & Arthur. He is passionate about providing professional athletes with trusted business advice and legal counsel. Throughout his career, Attorney Fedlam’s passion has earned him honors such as Ohio Super Lawyers’ Rising Star award, Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in America, and recognition as an expert and thought leader in Name, Image, & Likeness. He serves on several …

A Socio-Economic Approach To Antitrust: Unpacking Competition, Consumer Surplus, And Allocative Efficiency, Jeffrey L. Harrison

Akron Law Review

The primary function of socio-economics is to ask questions and broaden the discussion. I have attempted to do that by unpacking and contextualizing the two economic goals of antitrust law - maximizing consumer surplus and allocative efficiency. I have avoided what I believe is today's faith-based approach as exemplified by the Supreme Court. That approach has now gone beyond economics and seems to reveal, in its most benign form, a deep distrust of government.

At its most basic and obvious level the two antitrust goals cede to those with income - earned or not - the right to determine how …

Permissible Product Hopping: Why A Per Se Legal Rule Barring Antitrust Liability Is Necessary To Protect Future Innovation In The Pharmaceutical Industry, Michelle L. Ethier

Akron Intellectual Property Journal

Pharmaceutical product hopping is a relatively new phenomenon in which a brand-name pharmaceutical company tactically reformulates a drug and patents the reformulation in an attempt to avoid competition by a generic competitor. When viewed in the context of the HatchWaxman framework, product hopping can effectively eliminate generic competitors from the market, thereby implicating § 2 of the Sherman Act. In addressing antitrust liability, this Note advocates a per se legal approach to product hopping so long as the hop is supported by a valid patent. Although some have argued that deference to the United States Patent and Trademark Office and …

The Present Antitrust Jungle, G. William Trivoli

Akron Law Review

First, a brief review of the historical framework of antitrust is presented to gain some perspective of the present problems. Second, there is a brief review of the legal and economic concepts of monopoly. Next, there is a brief discussion of two important unresolved issues of antitrust, conglomerate mergers and economic concentration. Finally, several recommendations are made for changes and improvements in antitrust to make it more effective and less cumbersome.

International Joint Ventures And The U.S. Antitrust Laws, James R. Atwood

Akron Law Review

"This paper deals with only a limited class of international joint ventures and with only one body of law. It is therefore incomplete but more manageable in scope. I address only questions under United States antitrust laws, excluding those raised by foreign or international antitrust. Also, consistent with the Symposium's topic I limit myself to joint ventures involving foreign business activities by U.S. companies. This excludes joint ventures between solely foreign firms, and those between U.S. companies and foreign entities where the locus of the venture is to be the United States. These other forms of joint ventures present competitive …

International Joint Ventures And The U.S. Antitrust Laws, James R. Atwood

Akron Law Review

This paper deals with only a limited class of international joint ventures and with only one body of law. It is therefore incomplete but more manageable in scope. I address only questions under United States antitrust laws, excluding those raised by foreign or international antitrust. Also, consistent with the Symposium's topic I limit myself to joint ventures involving foreign business activities by U.S. companies. This excludes joint ventures between solely foreign firms, and those between U.S. companies and foreign entities where the locus of the venture is to be the United States. These other forms of joint ventures present competitive …

Paradigm Of Labor-Antitrust Relations: Defining A Union's Allowable Area Of Economic Conflict, Kenneth J. Kryvoruka

Akron Law Review

The friction between a relaxed labor policy and the stringent antitrust laws presents a dilemma. In 1921, Chief Justice Taft noted that the purpose and effect of every labor organization is to eliminate competition in the labor market, while Learned Hand, in reflecting the national policy favoring competition, stated that: "It is possible, because of its indirect social or moral effect, to prefer a system of small producers, each dependent for his success upon his own skill and character, to one in which the great mass of those engaged must accept the direction of a few."

Three Strikes And You're Out: An Investigation Of Professional Baseball's Antitrust Exemption, H. Ward Classen

Akron Law Review

This Article will examine the economic structure of the professional sports industry, explore professional baseball's judicially created exemption from antitrust laws and discuss the impact of the Federal Baseball Club v. National League and subsequent decisions on the professional sports industry. Finally, this Article will demonstrate that while baseball's antitrust exemption may have been justified sixty-five years ago, it now promotes economic inefficiency and infringes upon the constitutional rights of professional baseball players to freely market their talents.

An Analysis Of The Vertical Price-Nonprice Dichotomy, John R. Allison

Akron Law Review

The debate concerning the appropriateness of existing antitrust standards for distribution (vertical) restrictions continues unabated. Some observers have criticized current national antitrust policy, which treats vertical price restraints (usually referred to as either resale price maintenance or vertical price fixing) as per se illegal and vertical nonprice restraints as illegal only if found unduly anticompetitive under the rule of reason, as being seriously lacking in theoretical unity. These commentators usually contend that resale price maintenance, like vertical nonprice restraints, should be judged under the rule of reason. A few have even called expressly for a rule of per se legality …

Punt, Impasse Or Kick: The 1987 Nflpa Antitrust Action, Elyzabeth Joy Holford

Akron Law Review

The business aspects of professional sport dominated the media when a twenty-seven day strike disrupted the 1987 NFL football season, which included the hiring of replacement players, the filing of numerous labor charges by both the NFL Management Council (NFLMC) and the NFL Players' Association (NFLPA) and the dismal end of the strike after many players crossed the picket lines to return to play.' On the day that the NFLPA announced that the strike was over, they also shifted into their final goal line defense: the filing of an antitrust action against the National Football League (NFL) and each individual …

Antitrust Issues In The Litigation And Settlement Of Infringement Claims, Deborah A. Coleman

Akron Law Review

Although the owner of intellectual property rights is privileged to enforce those rights through litigation and to settle such litigation on satisfactory terms, infringement actions or case settlements can create liability for antitrust violations or unfair competition. Most importantly, an agreement in restraint of trade is not sheltered from antitrust scrutiny because it is made in the context of settling threatened or actual infringement litigation. That a patent confers a limited legal monopoly in a product, method or process is only one fact that is taken into account in evaluating whether the terms under which infringement litigation is settled unfairly …

Sui Generis'?: An Antitrust Analysis Of Buyer Power In The United States And European Union, Richard Scheelings, Joshua D. Wright

Akron Law Review

The argument of this paper is simple: from an economic policy point of view, there is nothing special about market power on the buyer side of markets. In particular, we reject the contention that retail sector buying power requires different treatment from antitrust authorities compared to other sectors in the economy. Likewise, we find arguments contending that ‘buyer power’ requires that new or different laws be enacted or judicially developed ultimately unpersuasive. This paper is divided into three parts. Part I summarizes the relevant economics of buyer power, and more generally, monopsony. Part II compares the relevant antitrust treatment, in …

Six Summary Judgment Safeguards, Edward Brunet

Akron Law Review

This article sets forth a more optimistic assessment of the current status of summary judgment. Numerous potential safeguards deter improper grants of summary judgment motions and serve to temper trial judges who are prone to rule favorably on summary judgment requests. While some of the safeguards act more as ineffectual clichés or slogans, others provide a set of significant deterrents to overly adventuresome treatment of Rule 56 motions. The goal of this article is to critique six possible summary judgment safeguards and, in so doing, to determine whether the state of contemporary summary judgment is as bleak as leading critics …

Ebay's Practical Effect: Two Differing Visions, Jay Dratler

Akron Law Faculty Publications

This short paper examines the likely effect of the Court's three opinions on the actual practice of intellectual property cases in their remedial phase. The first part briefly discusses the unanimous opinion and its likely economic effect in increasing the already daunting complexity-and therefore the already considerable cost-of intellectual property litigation. The second part examines the first concurring opinion and the effect of its implicit suggestion that nothing much has really changed. The third part examines the possible practical effect of the second concurring opinion. The conclusion then offers a few general observations on where remedial practice in patent cases …

Ebay's Practical Effect: Two Differing Visions, Jay Dratler

Jay Dratler

This short paper examines the likely effect of the Court's three opinions on the actual practice of intellectual property cases in their remedial phase. The first part briefly discusses the unanimous opinion and its likely economic effect in increasing the already daunting complexity-and therefore the already considerable cost-of intellectual property litigation. The second part examines the first concurring opinion and the effect of its implicit suggestion that nothing much has really changed. The third part examines the possible practical effect of the second concurring opinion. The conclusion then offers a few general observations on where remedial practice in patent cases …

Vexatious Litigation As Unfair Competition And The Applicability Of The Noerr-Pennington Doctrine, Robert L. Tucker

Akron Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Vexatious Litigation As Unfair Competition And The Applicability Of The Noerr-Pennington Doctrine, Robert L. Tucker

Robert L Tucker

No abstract provided.