Law Commons^™

Right On Time: First Possession In Property And Intellectual Property, Dotan Oliar, James Y. Stern

James Y. Stern

How should we allocate property rights in unowned tangible and intangible resources? This Article develops a model of original acquisition that draws together common law doctrines of first possession with original acquisition doctrines in patent, copyright, and trademark law. The common denominator is time: in each context, doctrine involves a trade-off between assigning entitlements to resources earlier or later in the process of their development and use. Early awards risk granting exclusivity to parties who may not be capable of putting resources to their best use. Late awards prolong contests for ownership, which may generate waste or discourage acquisition efforts …

Silicon Ceilings: Information Technology Equity, The Digital Divide And The Gender Gap Among Information Technology Professionals, Andrea M. Matwyshyn

Andrea Matwyshyn

No abstract provided.

Brexit And Ip: The Great Unraveling?, Graeme B. Dinwoodie, Rochelle C. Dreyfuss

Graeme B. Dinwoodie

Correlative Obligation In Patent Law: The Role Of Public Good In Defining The Limits Of Patent Exclusivity, Srividhya Ragavan

Srividhya Ragavan

In light of the recent outrageous price-spiking of pharmaceuticals, this Article questions the underlying justifications for exclusive rights conferred by the grant of a patent. Traditionally, patents are defined as property rights granted to encourage desirable innovation. This definition is a misfit as treating patents as property rights does a poor job of defining the limits of the patent rights as well as the public benefit goals of the system. This misfit gradually caused an imbalance in the rights versus duties construct within patent law. After a thorough analysis of the historical and philosophical perspectives of patent exclusivity, this Article …

Tailoring Legal Protection For Computer Software, Peter S. Menell

Peter Menell

No abstract provided.

A Trade Secret Approach To Protecting Traditional Knowledge, Deepa Varadarajan

Deepa Varadarajan

This Article argues that the doctrinal and normative divide between traditional knowledge protection and intellectual property law has been overemphasized, and that trade secret law can help narrow it. First, in terms of doctrinal fit, trade secret doctrine offers a viable model for protecting a subset of traditional knowledge that is not already publicly available. Broadly speaking, trade secret law imposes liability for the wrongful acquisition, use, or disclosure of valuable information that is the subject of reasonable secrecy efforts. Second, in addition to its practical import, the underlying justifications of trade secret law offer a useful normative guide for …

Digital Media And The Changing Face Of Intellectual Property Law, Pamela Samuelson

Pamela Samuelson

No abstract provided.

A Manifesto Concerning The Legal Protection Of Computer Programs, Pamela Samuelson, Randall Davis, Mitchell D. Kapor, J. H. Reichman

Pamela Samuelson

No abstract provided.

Locke, Labour, And Limiting The Author’S Right: A Warning Against A Lockean Approach To Copyright Law, Carys J. Craig

Carys Craig

This paper criticizes a Lockean approach to copyright, which sees an author’s right as the natural entitlement to the fruits of her labour. The author’s contention is that the Lockean account mistakenly finds the justification for copyright in the relationship between an author and her work, rather than the persistent presence of this labour-desert rationale in Canadian copyright rhetoric necessarily privileges the interests of the private rights-bearer over the public interest, and so threatens the public policy goals that copyright is intended to further. The author attacks the Lockean copyright theory from two directions. First, she examines the extent to …

Do Androids Dream Of Electric Free Speech? Visions Of The Future Of Copyright, Privacy And The First Amendment In Science Fiction, Daxton R. Stewart

Daxton "Chip" Stewart

Science fiction authors have long projected the future of technology, including communication devices and the way in which future societies may use them. In this essay, these visions of future technology, and their implications on the future of media law and policy, are explored in three areas in particular – copyright, privacy, and the First Amendment. Themes examined include moving toward massively open copyright systems, problems of perpetual surveillance by the state, addressing rights of obscurity in public places threatened by wearable and implantable computing devices, and considering free speech rights of autonomous machines created by humans. In conclusion, the …

Global Warming Trend? The Creeping Indulgence Of Fair Use In International Copyright Law, Richard Peltz-Steele

Richard J. Peltz-Steele

In her article Toward an International Fair Use Doctrine in 2000, Professor Ruth Okediji hypothesized that the internationalization of copyright law would threaten the freedom of expression if some doctrine akin to U.S. “fair use” were not established as an international legal norm. Acknowledging the central concern of the Okediji article, this paper analyzes research and legal developments since that article to determine how the present state of the “fair use” concept in international copyright law differs from its state in 2000. The paper concludes that in the last eight years, though there has been no formal adoption of an …

From Infringement To Innovation: Counterfeiting And Enforcement In The Brics, J. Benjamin Bai, Keith D. Lindenbaum, Yi Qian, Cynthia Ho

Cynthia M Ho

No abstract provided.

The Existing Legal Infrastructure Of Brics: Where Have We Been And Where Are We Going?, Robert B. Ahdieh, Zhu (Julie) Lee, Srividhya Ragavan, Kevin Noonan, Clinton W. Francis

Srividhya Ragavan

No abstract provided.

Interests In The Balance: Fda Regulations Under The Biologics Price Competition And Innovation Act, Parker Tresemer

Parker Tresemer

Recent biotechnology advances are yielding potentially life-saving therapies, but without FDA regulations designed to minimize product costs, patients will continue to be unable to afford these expensive biologic products. Many believe that these prohibitive costs stem from weak competition from generic biologic products, also known as follow-on biologics. To correct this deficiency, and to address the often conflicting regulatory and policy concerns associated with biologic products, Congress enacted the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act. The Act created an abbreviated approval pathway for biologic products and, if effective, could increase competition while driving down product costs. But legislation alone is …

Copyright Basics, B. Douglas Robbins

B. Douglas Robbins

In this paper we discuss the fundamentals of copyright law: what sort of works are protected by copyright, what sort of works are not protected, how copyright protection operates, the term of copyright protection, and what the consequences are for copyright infringement.

From Music Tracks To Google Maps: Who Owns Computer-Generated Works?, Mark Perry, Thomas Margoni

Mark Perry

Increasingly the digital content used in everyday life has little or no human intervention in its creation. Typically, when such content is delivered to consumers it comes with attached claims of copyright. However, depending on the jurisdiction, approaches to ownership of computer-generated works vary from legislated to uncertain. In this paper we look at the various approaches taken by the common law, such as in Canada, and the legislative approach taken in the United Kingdom. The options for how computer-generated works may be treated and suggestions for their best placement in copyright are discussed.

Chapter 7 - Restricting Fair Use To Save The News, Ryan T. Holte

Prof. Ryan T. Holte

Ryan T. Holte in “Restricting Fair Use to Save the News: A Proposed Change in Copyright Law to Bring More Profit to News Reporting” examines the present condition of the media and the economic and public policies behind protecting news. He further discusses current means of protecting information through copyright and misappropriation law, before proposing a change in the Copyright Act to better allow the news industry to reap profits from news reporting.

Creating A Legal Framework For Copyright Management Of Open Access Within The Australian Academic And Research Sector, Brian Fitzgerald, Anne Fitzgerald, Mark Perry, Scott Kiel-Chisholm, Erin Driscoll, Dilan Thampapillai, Jessica Coates

Mark Perry

This Report analyses the copyright law framework needed to ensure open access to outputs of the Australian academic and research sector such as datasets, articles and theses. It is written in the context of an increasing recognition, in Australia and internationally, that access to knowledge is a key driver of social, cultural and economic development and that publicly funded research should be openly accessible. With the objective of enabling access to knowledge, this Report proposes the development of clear protocols for copyright management (designed as practical and effective tools) for implementation in the Australian academic and research sector The Report …

Acts Of Parliament: Privatisation, Promulgation And Crown Copyright – Is There A Need For A Royal Royalty?, Mark Perry

Mark Perry

The road of privatisation of government assets is littered with the debris of mishaps and oversights. One clear illustration is the history and effect of the sale of the Government Printing Office (GPO) in 1990. Within the sale process there was a failure to ensure adequate consideration of the policy implications from an important perspective, namely the effect of privatising the means of promulgation of the normative materials of the State. Furthermore, there was no enquiry into the dubious assumptions made as to Crown Copyright in legislation. Intellectual property rights in primary legal materials create a dilemma for policy makers. …

Book Review Of "Intellectual Proptery Rights In Eu Law: Free Movement And Competition Law, Mark Perry

Mark Perry

No abstract provided.

How Can Whelan V. Jaslow And Lotus V. Borland Both Be Right? Re-Examining The Economics Of Computer Software Reuse, Michael Risch

Michael Risch

The basic economic goal of copyright law is to balance an author's incentive to create with his or her ability to build on prior work in order to maximize social wealth. This balance is extremely important for computer software. On the one hand, software is often expensive to create and companies therefore need protection in order to recoup their investment. On the other hand, software is often expensive to create and companies can save costs by reusing pre-existing work. Quite often, the same companies that want to protect their software also want to use pre-existing work. As a result of …