Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

Evaluating Flexibility In International Patent Law, Sarah R. Wasserman Rajec

Sarah R. Wasserman Rajec

Global patent law has raced toward harmonization over the past decades. Countries with vastly different industries, values, and levels of development now offer robust patent rights with similar contours through membership in the World Trade Organization and consequent adoption of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (“TRIPS”). However, patent law is still far from harmonized among countries or static within countries. Jurisdictions tailor their patent laws to accommodate differences between industries, unforeseen inefficiencies, and diverse views of the costs and benefits associated with offering patent rights to stimulate innovation. Prior scholarly work consists of either doctrinal analyses …

Infringement, Unbound, Sarah R. Wasserman Rajec

Sarah R. Wasserman Rajec

No abstract provided.

Who Owns The Law? How To Restore Public Ownership Of Legal Publication, Leslie A. Street, David R. Hansen

Leslie Street

No abstract provided.

The Jekyll And Hyde Story Of International Trade: The Supreme Court In Phrma V. Walsh And The Trips Agreement, Srividhya Ragavan

Srividhya Ragavan

No abstract provided.

Spill-Over Reputation: Comparative Study Of India & The United States, Srividhya Ragavan

Srividhya Ragavan

This paper compares India’s position with that of the US on the question of protection of well-known marks in the light of applicable international legal prescriptions. The discussion in this paper compares protection for famous foreign marks (as opposed to a famous mark). Famous foreign marks are those that have acquired fame in one country and hence, well-known in another country.

A Collision Course Between Trips Flexibilities And Investor-State Proceedings, Cynthia M. Ho

Cynthia M Ho

This Article discusses an important, yet understudied threat to patent, as well as other intellectual property sovereignty under TRIPS: pending and potential challenges by companies under international agreements protecting investments. Although such agreements have existed for decades, Philip Morris and Eli Lilly are blazing a new path for companies to sue countries they claim interfere with their intellectual property rights through so-called investor-state arbitrations. These suits seek hundreds of millions in compensation and even injunctive relief for alleged violations of internationally agreed intellectual property norms. The suits fundamentally challenge TRIPS flexibilities at the very time the Declaration on Patent Protection …

Strength In Intellectual Property Protection And Foreign Direct Investment Flows In Least Developed Countries, James T. Gathii

James T Gathii

No abstract provided.

Data Exclusivities In The Age Of Big Data, Biologics, And Plurilaterals, Peter K. Yu

Peter K. Yu

The past decade has seen many new developments impacting the intellectual property system. The introduction of big data analytics has transformed the fields of biotechnology and bioinformatics while ushering in major advances in drug development, clinical practices, and medical financing. The arrival of biologics and personalized medicines has also revolutionized the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries. In addition, the emergence of bilateral, regional, and plurilateral trade agreements have raised serious, and at times difficult, questions concerning the evolution of domestic and international intellectual property standards.

One topic linking all three developments together concerns the establishment of international standards to protect clinical …

Three Questions That Will Make You Rethink The U.S.-China Intellectual Property Debate, 7 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 412 (2008), Peter K. Yu

Peter K. Yu

Commentators have attributed China’s piracy and counterfeiting problems to the lack of political will on the part of Chinese authorities. They have also cited the many political, social, economic, cultural, judicial, and technological problems that have arisen as a result of the country’s rapid economic transformation and accession to the WTO. This provocative essay advances a third explanation. It argues that the failure to resolve piracy and counterfeiting problems in China can be partly attributed to the lack of political will on the part of U.S. policymakers and the American public to put intellectual property protection at the very top …

Still Dissatisfied After All These Years: Intellectual Property, Post-Wto China, And The Avoidable Cycle Of Futility, Peter K. Yu

Peter K. Yu

No abstract provided.

A Half-Century Of Scholarship On The Chinese Intellectual Property System, Peter K. Yu

Peter K. Yu

No abstract provided.

Ip Enforcement Under The Tpp: Civil And Administrative Procedures And Remedies, Provisional Measures In Tpp (Articles 18.71–18.76), J. Janewa Osei-Tutu

J. Janewa Osei-Tutu

No abstract provided.

The Rcep And Trans-Pacific Intellectual Property Norms, Peter K. Yu

Peter K. Yu

In the past few years, the Trans-Pacific Partnership has garnered considerable media, policy and scholarly attention. Rarely analyzed and only occasionally mentioned is the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). This agreement is currently being negotiated between Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Launched in November 2012 under the ASEAN 6 framework, the RCEP negotiations built on past trade and non-trade discussions between ASEAN and its six major Asia-Pacific neighbors.

This article examines the RCEP with a focus on the intellectual property norms that it seeks to …

The Rcep And Intellectual Property Normsetting In The Asia-Pacific, Peter K. Yu

Peter K. Yu

Commissioned for the CEIPI-ICTSD Series on Global Perspectives and Challenges for the Intellectual Property System, this article examines the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) with a focus on the intellectual property norms it seeks to develop. It begins by briefly discussing the partnership’s historical origins and ongoing negotiations. It then examines the latest leaked draft of the RCEP intellectual property chapter, highlighting the key provisions concerning copyright and related rights, trademarks, patents, trade secrets and undisclosed information, and intellectual property enforcement. This article concludes by exploring three scenarios concerning the future of this chapter--namely, the lack of an intellectual property …

The Quest For A User-Friendly Copyright Regime In Hong Kong, Peter K. Yu

Peter K. Yu

The quest for a user-friendly copyright regime began a decade ago when the Hong Kong government launched a public consultation on "Copyright Protection in the Digital Environment" in December 2006. Although this consultation initially sought to address Internet-related challenges, such as those caused by peer-to-peer file-sharing technology, the reform effort quickly evolved into a more comprehensive digital upgrade of the Hong Kong copyright regime.

A decade later, however, Hong Kong still has not yet amended its Copyright Ordinance. Thus far, three consultation exercises have been launched in December 2006, April 2008 and July 2013. Two bills have also been introduced …

Five Decades Of Intellectual Property And Global Development, Peter K. Yu

Peter K. Yu

The 2016-2017 biennium marks the historical milestones of several major pro-development initiatives relating to intellectual property law and policy. These important milestones include the Intellectual Property Conference of Stockholm in 1967, the adoption of the Declaration on the Right to Development (UNDRD) in 1986 and the establishment of the WIPO Development Agenda in 2007.

On January 1, 2016, the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) also came into force. Adopted by the UN General Assembly in September 2015, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development featured 17 SDGs and 169 targets. Prominently mentioned in Target 3.b of SDG 3 are the WTO …

Business Methods, Technology, And Discrimination, Daniel Harris Brean

Daniel Harris Brean

Blockchain And Smart Contracts: The Missing Link In Copyright Licensing?, Balazs Bodo, Daniel Gervais, Joao Pedro Quintais

Daniel J Gervais

Are They Pirates Or Pioneers?, Ashley H. Song Ms.

Ashley Song

Korea has the perceptive corruption level lower than the Western countries and shares the common appetite for the cultural products with the Japanese, often regarding Japanese more noble or superior and Westerns even more. Based on this sentiment, the ‘license musicals’ which have been bilaterally purchased from the West are popularly consumed in Korea. The paper calls this is not the cultural business, but the “self-confined cripples’ money party based on the informational deceptions.” The Korean licensee who has fueled the staggering production in the US transforms to the businessmen, caster, and producer in Korea . The licensed dramatico-musical transforms …

U.S. Patent Extraterritoriality Within The International Context, Amy L. Landers

Amy L. Landers

Patents And Traditional Knowledge Of The Uses Of Plants: Is A Communal Patent Regime Part Of The Solution To The Scourge Of Bio Piracy, Ikechi Mgbeoji

Ikechi Mgbeoji

No abstract provided.

Trademark Cosmopolitanism, Sonia K. Katyal

Sonia Katyal

The world of global trademarks can be characterized in terms of three major shifts: first, a shift from national to global branding strategies; second, a shift from national and regional systems to harmonized international regimes governing trademark law; and third, a concurrent shift from local to transnational social movements that challenge branding and other corporate practices. The rise of transnational brands brings with it an attendant series of legal shifts in trademark law. Long considered the stepchild of intellectual property law, today, trademark law has morphed into a powerful global legal phenomenon, revealing a foundational shift from national and regional …

Indigenous Peoples, Intangible Cultural Heritage And Participation In The United Nations, Ana Filipa Vrdoljak

Ana Filipa Vrdoljak

This chapter concentrates on the participation of indigenous peoples in multilateral initiatives to protect cultural heritage, with specific reference to intangible heritage. While an international instrument for the protection of intangible heritage was adopted over a decade ago, the importance of intangible heritage for indigenous peoples is evident in their work in various UN fora. I examine indigenous peoples’ interventions before UNESCO and bodies established to implement the Convention on the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage; within WIPO in respect of ongoing moves to adopt specialist instruments on traditional knowledge and cultural expressions; and finally, within UNEP and the implementation …

Prioritising Human Development In African Intellectual Property Law, Janewa Osei Tutu

J. Janewa Osei-Tutu

Traditional Knowledge Rights And Wrongs, Sean Pager

Sean Pager

SourceURL:file://localhost/Users/sean/Documents/Folklore%20TK/Unpacking%20ABSTRACT.doc

Traditional Knowledge Rights and Wrongs

Sean A. Pager, Michigan State University

ABSTRACT

Should the intangible heritage of indigenous people be subject to intellectual property rights? After years of effort, international delegates are poised to complete a pair of ambitious treaties that would accomplish this goal. This Article provides the first detailed analysis and critique of the draft treaties, which provide for exclusive rights in traditional knowledge and cultural expression, respectively. Proponents of such protection often invoke both cultural integrity and economic justice rationales. Yet, these rationales dictate conflicting imperatives. To resolve these conflicts, the Article argues for greater differentiation …

Working Paper: International Cooperation, Intellectual Property, And Climate-Essential Innovation, Brian R. Israel

Brian R Israel

No abstract provided.

Copyright In Pantomime

Brian L. Frye

Why does the Copyright Act specifically provide for the protection of “pantomimes”? This article shows that the Copyright Act of 1976 amended the subject matter of copyright to include pantomimes simply in order to conform it to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. It further shows that the Berlin Act of 1909 amended the Berne Convention to provide for copyright protection of “les pantomimes” and “entertainments in dumb show” in order to ensure copyright protection of silent motion pictures. Unfortunately, the original purpose of providing copyright protection to “pantomimes” was forgotten. This Article argues that …

International Trade V. Intellectual Property Lawyers: Globalization And The Brazilian Legal Profession, Vitor M. Dias

Vitor M. Dias

No abstract provided.

From Pirates To Partners (Episode Ii): Protecting Intellectual Property In Post-Wto China, Peter K. Yu

Peter K. Yu

In From Pirates to Partners: Protecting Intellectual Property in China in the Twenty-First Century, I criticized the ineffectiveness and short-sightedness of the U.S.-China intellectual property policy. As I argued, the approach taken by the administration in the 1980s and early 1990s had created a cycle of futility in which China and the United States repeatedly threatened each other with trade wars only to back down in the eleventh hour with a compromise that did not provide sustainable improvements in intellectual property protection. Since I wrote that article five years ago, China has joined the WTO and undertook a complete overhaul …

The International Enclosure Movement, Peter K. Yu

Peter K. Yu

No abstract provided.