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Full-Text Articles in Computer Law
Abstraction In Software Patents (And How To Fix It), 18 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 364 (2019), Athul Acharya
Abstraction In Software Patents (And How To Fix It), 18 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 364 (2019), Athul Acharya
UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law
Software has long posed a quandary for patent law. As many have observed, software is an abstract technology—but abstract ideas are supposedly ineligible for patenting. This Article explores just what that means, what it doesn’t mean, and what might fix the problem of abstraction in software patents. This Article offers two related ways to understand the abstract nature of software. First, computer science defines itself as a “science of abstraction,” and that self-definition finds real doctrinal purchase. Second, software code is designed to be what the doctrine calls “functional”—to describe abstract results that can be executed on heterogenous hardware without …
Blocking Ad Blockers, 16 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 272 (2017), Tyler Barbacovi
Blocking Ad Blockers, 16 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 272 (2017), Tyler Barbacovi
UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law
The prevalence of ad blocking software (software that prevents the loading of web based advertisements) is a growing problem for website owners and content creators who rely on advertising revenue to earn money. While the number of ad block users continues to increase, there has thus far been no significant legal challenge to ad blocking in the United States. This comment examines how a website owner, through a combination of technological improvements and the anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, could successfully raise a legal challenge against the purveyors of ad blocking software.
Commercial Creations: The Role Of End User License Agreements In Controlling The Exploitation Of User Generated Content, 16 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 382 (2017), Neha Ahuja
UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law
This article considers the current licensing regime used to control the exploitation of copyright protected works within the online interactive entertainment sector—particularly virtual worlds including multiplayer online games—to further author new copyrightable works. This article aims to identify the gaps that have arisen on account of the nature of these subsequently authored works and the potential for their exploitation under the said licensing regime. Users and the proprietors of virtual worlds often end up in conflict over the monetization and commercialization of user generated content on account of contradictory yet overlapping rights created by copyright law when controlled by contract …
Apis And Copyright Protection: The Potential Impact On Software Compatibility In The Programming Industry, 16 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 153 (2016), Daria Vasilescu-Palermo
Apis And Copyright Protection: The Potential Impact On Software Compatibility In The Programming Industry, 16 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 153 (2016), Daria Vasilescu-Palermo
UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law
In Oracle v. Google, the Federal Circuit set precedent when it decided to grant copyright protection to APIs. This comment examines the potential impact the computer programming industry will face now that APIs are deemed copyrightable. This comment also discusses Google s success in using fair use as an affirmative defense in order to use copyrightable APIs and what that means for the rest of the computer programming industry. Due to the fast-paced and ever-changing world of technology, this comment also proposes that the abstract-filtration-comparison test is the appropriate test to be used in determining API copyrightability if the issue …
Did Copyright Kill The Radio Star? Why The Recorded Music Industry And Copyright Act Should Welcome Webcasters Into The Fold, 14 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 292 (2015), Patrick Koncel
UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law
The Copyright Act has not kept pace with the times, and the next revolution is going full stream ahead. Rather than adapt, entrenched interests at the Copyright table push for more protection, while new technologies are demonized and underrepresented. The resulting Copyright Act’s provisions relating to internet-based radio, ranging from passive over-the-air broadcasts to fully interactive music hosting sites, are a patchwork of accommodations and concessions to these interests. For all non-interactive services, licensing music typically occurs within the Copyright Act’s compulsory licensing system. For interactive webcasters, licensing negotiations take place with the copyright holders directly. These negotiations have proven …
The Great Decentralization: How Web 3.0 Will Weaken Copyrights, 15 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 136 (2015), Nick Vogel
UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law
Bitcoin’s popularity increased as its value increased and people became excited about the prospect of a trustless, decentralized currency that could be used on the Internet. Within the last two years, however, people and organizations began exploiting the potential of the block chain that powers the bitcoin network. These people realized that the block chain—a transparent public ledger that cannot be altered—can be used for more than digital currency. One such organization calls itself Ethereum and its developers plan to use block chains to allow decentralized autonomous applications to operate free of government censorship or corruption. While such a network …
Inventing A New Way Of Dealing With Circumvention: A Patent-Based Alternative To The Dmca, 15 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 91 (2015), Priya Desai
UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law
Over time, it has become easier for consumers to steal music. Some technologies, like ReDigi, have been specifically designed to allow copyright infringement by giving consumers the ability to sell digitally purchased music files. While copyright laws have been updated to deal with changing technologies, the laws have not been sufficient to keep up. This comment highlights the failings of modern copyright law and questions whether patent laws are a viable way to ensure that technologies that induce copyright infringement do not find marketplace success.
The Conflict Between An Athlete’S Right Of Publicity And The First Amendment, 15 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 117 (2015), Edward Kuester
The Conflict Between An Athlete’S Right Of Publicity And The First Amendment, 15 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 117 (2015), Edward Kuester
UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law
The recent rise of fantasy sports has created a conflict between an athlete’s right of publicity and the First Amendment of the Constitution. The legal question being discussed is whether athletes have a right of publicity in their identity, specifically their performance statistics and biographical information. If a right of publicity violation does exist, courts will have to determine whether a fantasy provider’s First Amendment privilege can prevail against an athlete’s publicity rights. This comment examines recent litigation surrounding athletes’ identities and the problems courts have in balancing the conflict between an athlete’s right of publicity and the First Amendment. …
Navigating Cybersquatting Enforcement In The Expanding Internet, 13 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 321 (2014), Jordan A. Arnot
Navigating Cybersquatting Enforcement In The Expanding Internet, 13 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 321 (2014), Jordan A. Arnot
UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law
It has always been a considerable task to police something as vast at the Internet for trademark violations and abuse. As the Internet develops with the ongoing launch of hundreds of new generic Top-Level Domains, so does the host of enforcement options available to those seeking to protect the value of trademarks and other intellectual property. This article outlines seven criteria to consider when selecting a remedy, or combination of remedies. The traditional cease and desist letter is still a viable and effective option, and so, of course, is litigation. These tools were greatly enhanced in 1999 when the Internet …
Review And Reflection: Copyright Hearings And Related Discourse In The Nation’S Capital, 13 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 487 (2014), Maria A. Pallante
Review And Reflection: Copyright Hearings And Related Discourse In The Nation’S Capital, 13 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 487 (2014), Maria A. Pallante
UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law
On February 28, 2014, the Register of Copyrights of the United States and Director of the U.S. Copyright Office Maria A. Pallante delivered a keynote speech on the copyright hearings and related discourse in the nation’s capital. The speech was given at The John Marshall Law School’s 58th Annual Intellectual Property Conference. This article is based on her speech at the Conference.
Aerevolution: Why We Should, Briefly, Embrace Unlicensed Online Streaming Of Retransmitted Broadcast Television Content, 13 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 577 (2014), Bradley Ryba
UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law
The United States has long recognized broadcast television programming’s importance to the public’s information and entertainment needs. Accordingly, Congress has historically offered strong copyright protections for broadcast television networks. Those strong protections allowed broadcast networks to withstand business threats from innovations like cable television and VCRs. However, Congress’ recent silence on DVRs and cloud computing technology has allowed an entrepreneur to create the networks’ next biggest threat, Aereo. The creators of Aereo and similar businesses designed their services specifically around ambiguities within copyright law that could allow them to transmit networks’ content without paying the otherwise necessary consent fees. These …
Mad Men Posing As Ordinary Consumers: The Essential Role Of Self-Regulation And Industry Ethics On Decreasing Deceptive Online Consumer Ratings And Reviews, 12 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 462 (2013), Lucille M. Ponte
UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law
Technology provides consumers with new ways to avoid advertisements, such as fast forwarding through TV commercials and using filtering software to block pop-up ads. Accordingly brand sponsors and their advertising marketing firms have sought alternative methods to pierce through consumer resistance to ads. Social media offers an optimal platform to reach millions of consumers on a nearly daily basis who interact and often rely heavily on the reviews and rankings of fellow consumers. However, many of today’s branding campaigns now mask sponsored ads as ordinary consumer reviews or “Like” and “Don’t Like” responses to a service or product. Unbeknownst to …
The Emerging Reality Of Social Media: Erosion Of Individual Privacy Through Cyber-Vetting And Law’S Inability To Catch Up, 12 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 551 (2013), Saby Ghoshray
UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law
The rise of social media means that data about a large number of people is available in public and quasi-public digital locations. Employers, keen on taking advantage of this additional data to decrease the risk associated with an offer of employment, are engaging in “cyber-vetting”—non-consenting social media searches conducted by third parties or the employers themselves. To the extent that current law applies to this practice, the regulation it provides is weak and attacks only part of the problem. Left unchecked, cyber-vetting has the potential to fundamentally alter the scope of prospective employees’ rights. This article surveys the legal and …
How The Internet Has Removed The Historical Rationale For "Non-Analogous Arts", 13 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 68 (2013), Hal Milton
UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law
The growth of the Internet has affected countless aspects of daily life, including the patent system. Internet-based legal research has grown considerably, given the convenience of general search agents such as Google, legally-focused search agents such as Westlaw and Lexis, and patent-focused search agents such as the PAIR system of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. These legal research tools have not only made it easier to find prior art, they have also expanded the volume of information that is available to one of ordinary skill in the art. Consequently, the traditional rules of so-called “analogous arts” are changing. …
Copyright Trolls, Defining The Line Between Legal Ransom Letters And Defending Digital Rights: Turning Piracy Into A Business Model Or Protecting Creative From Internet Lawlessness?, 13 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 170 (2013), Luke S. Curran
UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law
The scarlet letter of the term “troll” has long been affixed to the lapel of businesses within the patent context. This pejorative term, however, has had little relevance or widespread public recognition within the domain of copyright law until 2010. Since the awakening of the “copyright troll,” several non-author rights holders have recently adopted and propagated a substantially modified version of this sue-to-settle paradigm within the context of copyright law while introducing it to the scale of mass-litigation. Further, the amorphous term “copyright troll” traditionally characterizes a business practice of acquiring unenforced copyrights that are being infringed upon through various …
Fostering Web 2.0 Innovation: The Role Of The Judicial Interpretation Of The Dmca Safe Harbor, Secondary Liability And Fair Use, 12 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 70 (2012), Susanna Monseau
UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law
Web 2.0 has generated a surplus of creativity, encouraging innovation of new technologies and further creative expansion of the internet. Social media platforms have demonstrated a significant growth during this time and have been used to create and disseminate a wealth of information and cultural material. While it is important that copyright owners receive legal protection of the content they create, it is necessary not to simultaneously stifle the creativity of end-users. Copyright owners have more power in bargaining for their rights, and their rights are well established through statutory protections. However, internet innovators and end-users, who may have a …
Hotfile, Megaupload, And The Future Of Copyright On The Internet: What Can Cyberlockers Tell Us About Dmca Reform?, 12 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 205 (2012), Ross Drath
UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law
More than a decade ago, Napster brought the issue of copyright infringement by file-sharing to the center of the public stage. How would a body of copyright law built to regulate tangible objects apply in the digital realm? The safe harbor provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, intended as a compromise between the interests of copyright owners and webhosts, have instead introduced legal uncertainty and allocated the costs of online enforcement both inefficiently and disproportionately. While Napster and several other major peer-to-peer services have been shuttered in the intervening period, the scope of online copyright infringement continues to grow …
Exploring Apple’S Ipad Trademark Blunder: Chinese Trademark Approval Procedure Is A Trademark Protection Safeguard Or Another National Protectionism?, 11 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 777 (2012), Arthur Tan-Chi Yuan
UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law
It is well-reported that Apple’s iPad® product embodies technological advances that are protected by U.S. and foreign patents. One would also assume that it is protected by trademarks in various jurisdictions, including China. However, to this day, Apple struggles to prefect its iPad trademark rights in China, the second largest economy in the world. While the Chinese trademark registration approval process is different from that in the U.S. practice, such approval step is essential to every international corporation doing business in China. This article explains where Apple may have overlooked this step in the overall trademark registration process in China …
Cybersex: Protecting Sexual Content In The Digital Age, 11 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 815 (2012), Nicole Chaney
Cybersex: Protecting Sexual Content In The Digital Age, 11 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 815 (2012), Nicole Chaney
UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law
Advertisers employ bare-skinned models and sex appeal to seduce American consumers with every magazine, billboard, and television advertisement. The ubiquity of sexual gratification has reached a tangible quality in American culture, but sex is still somehow taboo in our legal system. Despite the vast market for online adult entertainment, obscenity laws have been used to strike down claims for adult content copyright owners. These content owners are producing creative sexual expression for the public benefit, but they are being denied the same economic incentives granted to their mainstream counterparts. Ironically, Playboy Co. is an outlier in the adult entertainment industry …
Right Of Publicity: Is Behavioral Targeting Violating The Right To Control Your Identity Online?, 10 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 811 (2011), Andrea Stein Fuelleman
Right Of Publicity: Is Behavioral Targeting Violating The Right To Control Your Identity Online?, 10 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 811 (2011), Andrea Stein Fuelleman
UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law
Behavioral targeting (“BT”) is an advertising technique that receives a great deal of attention due in part to the balkanized self-regulatory policies that address consumer protection issues. The majority of the self-regulation policies, including the BT principles proposed by the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) focus on privacy issues but fail to discuss the impact BT may have on the right to control the commercial use of one’s identity. In discussing the right of publicity, many legal scholars agree that everyone has a right to control the commercial use of his or her identity, regardless of his or her status as …
Fifteen Years Of Fame: The Declining Relevance Of Domain Names In The Enduring Conflict Between Trademark And Free Speech Rights, 11 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 1 (2011), Jude A. Thomas
UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law
Domain name disputes have been the subject of substantial litigation, legislative action, and scholarly debate over the course of the past fifteen years. Much of the debate is the product of disagreement concerning whether trademark rights naturally extend into the domain name space and to what extent those rights are limited by principles of free speech. Gripe sites are paradigmatic examples of this debate. Society’s investment in defining these rights continues to grow, even as the relevance of domain names may be declining, due to: (1) changes in the way users locate content on the Internet; (2) the growth of …
Rights Versus Commerce: Balancing Online Trademark Policing With The Emerging Marketplace, 11 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 217 (2011), Jessica L. Hilliard
Rights Versus Commerce: Balancing Online Trademark Policing With The Emerging Marketplace, 11 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 217 (2011), Jessica L. Hilliard
UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law
In 2008, jeweler Tiffany & Co. (“Tiffany”) commenced an action against eBay after discovering that a significant amount of counterfeit Tiffany jewelry was being sold on the online auction house. Tiffany had previously used eBay’s Verified Rights Owner program to report the infringement and pursued enforcement actions against individual sellers. Nevertheless, Tiffany sued eBay for various causes of action, including contributory trademark infringement. The Second Circuit held that online service providers like eBay are not liable for contributory trademark infringement unless they have specific knowledge of particular instances of infringement. Due to the ruling, Tiffany bears the burden for policing …
The New Ontologies: The Effect Of Copyright Protection On Public Scientific Data Sharing Using Semantic Web Ontologies, 10 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 181 (2010), Andrew Clearwater
The New Ontologies: The Effect Of Copyright Protection On Public Scientific Data Sharing Using Semantic Web Ontologies, 10 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 181 (2010), Andrew Clearwater
UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law
The semantic web is going to become an important tool for scientists who need to accurately share data given context through structured relationships. The structure that defines contextual relationships on the semantic web is known as an ontology; which is a hierarchical organization of a knowledge domain that contains entities and their relations. This paper seeks to answer whether semantic web ontologies are protectable by copyright, and regardless of the outcome, what the best practices are for the scientific community. The best practices for the scientific community should include the adoption of a machine readable ontology license which disclaims copyright …
American Exceptionalism, The French Exception, Intellectual Property Law, And Peer-To-Peer File Sharing On The Internet, 10 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 95 (2010), Lyombe Eko
UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law
A fundamental problem confronting policy makers is how to apply intellectual property rules and regulations developed for tangible intellectual property assets in real space to intangible,dematerialized intellectual property in cyberspace. The United States and France are self-described exceptionalist countries. American exceptionalism refers to the historical tendency of the United States to emphasize its unique status as the beacon of liberty, while l’exception française (the French exception) refers to the French ideological posture that emphasizes the specificity and superiority of French culture. American exceptionalism and l’exception française are functionally equivalent theoretical constructs that describe and explain how the United States and …
Twitter: New Challenges To Copyright Law In The Internet Age, 10 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 231 (2010), Rebecca Haas
Twitter: New Challenges To Copyright Law In The Internet Age, 10 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 231 (2010), Rebecca Haas
UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law
Twitter is part of the new wave of internet communication. It is unique because messages sent via Twitter are limited to 140 characters. Many of these messages are about mundane details of daily life, but some are creative, even literary, and may qualify for copyright protection. The problem,then, is not necessarily whether a Tweet can qualify for copyright protection, but how that protection is enforced. Current infringement policies and procedures are not designed to effectively handle copyright infringement on the internet. Internet infringement is widespread and not easy to monitor or regulate, therefore there is a need for a regulatory …
Social Networking And Blogging: The New Legal Frontier, 9 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 500 (2009), Robert Newman, Liisa Thomas
Social Networking And Blogging: The New Legal Frontier, 9 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 500 (2009), Robert Newman, Liisa Thomas
UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law
Improvements in communication technology have effectively made the world a smaller place. As businesses attempt to exploit these new technological improvements to better communicate their messages to their clients, these same improvements continue to raise new and difficult legal issues related to fair trade practices, privacy, and freedom of speech. This article identifies current legal developments related to advertising in the online world and analyzes the actions taken to resolve these new and difficult legal issues within the framework of United States federal and state law and private industry-specific self-governance.
Will Youtube Sail Into The Dmca's Safe Harbor Or Sink For Internet Piracy?, 6 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 550 (2007), Michael Driscoll
Will Youtube Sail Into The Dmca's Safe Harbor Or Sink For Internet Piracy?, 6 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 550 (2007), Michael Driscoll
UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law
Is YouTube, the popular video sharing website, a new revolution in information sharing or a profitable clearing-house for unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material? YouTube’s critics claim that it falls within the latter category, in line with Napster and Grokster. This comment, however, determines that YouTube is fundamentally different from past infringers in that it complies with statutory provisions concerning the removal of copyrighted materials. Furthermore, YouTube’s central server architecture distinguishes it from peer-to-peer file sharing websites. This comment concludes that any comparison to Napster or Grokster issuperficial, and overlooks the potential benefits of YouTube to copyright
Why Are Competitor's Advertising Links Displayed When I Google My Product? An Analysis Of Internet Search Engine Liability For Trademark Infringement, 5 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 431 (2006), Isaiah A. Fishman
UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law
Traditional federal trademark law is being challenged in the current case of Google v. AmericanBlind. When internet issues clash with trademark infringement, courts are often faced with the dangerous task of either refusing to stretch not specifically internet tailored trademark law to grant remedy to a perceived wrong or refusing to grant remedy because of the chilling effect the remedy may have on traditional trademark. By analyzing the history of trademark law in relation with internet issues, focusing on domain name cases, pop-up advertising cases, and search engine cases, it becomes clear that specific congressional action is the most viable …
Intellectual Property Rights In The Internet Era: The New Frontier, 5 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 589 (2006), Lulin Gao
UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law
With the rapid development of information and Internet technologies, how to protect intellectual property (IP) rights in the Internet era became a new frontier for IP practitioners and scholars internationally. This article highlights some important IP protection issues related to copyright, patent, trademark, and domain names, as well as the impact of technological advances on IP protection in the Internet era. The author believes that in order to solve these new emerging issues, the most important principle is keeping the balance between different sides with stakes in the IP right. Finally, international cooperation must be enhanced with more technical assistance …
The Wipo "Internet Treaties" The United States As The Driver: The United States As The Main Source Of Obstruction — As Seen By An Anti-Revolutionary Central European, 6 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 17 (2006), Mihály Ficsor
UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law
The copyright policy of the United States developed from initial isolationism, through the 1891 Chase Act, various bilateral and inter-American agreements and the establishment of the Universal Copyright Convention, to active participation in the international copyright cooperation. This development was completed by the United States’ accession to the Berne Convention in 1988. Since then, the United States has played a leading role in this field, which was manifested both during the negotiations of the 1994 TRIPS Agreement and the preparatory work of the two 1996 WIPO “Internet Treaties”, the WCT and the WPPT. These WIPO Treaties, the preparation and adoption …