Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

Rethinking Patent Law's Exclusive Appellate Jurisdiction, Christa Laser

Cleveland State Law Review

The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit was created in 1982 to unify and clarify patent law, inter alia. It was built from political compromise after the Hruska Commission, which studied the caseload crisis in the federal appellate courts in the 1970s, initially recommended creation of a new National Court of Appeals that would exist between the regional federal appellate circuits and the Supreme Court. The Federal Circuit judges admirably implemented these functions for four decades.

However, the initial function of the Federal Circuit might no longer be as needed in the current judicial climate. The environment …

Certiorari In Patent Cases, Christa J. Laser

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

In the decade from 2010 to 2019, the Supreme Court has decided more patent law cases than in the prior three decades combined. A higher percentage of its docket has been patent cases--5.45%--than in any decade in the last century. A number of scholars have advanced theories of why this rate of review of patent cases has increased and provided quantitative analyses. Yet no scholarship to date has used qualitative data to investigate why the Supreme Court’s patent docket is increasing and what factors the Supreme Court considers in its review of patent cases. This paper shares statistics of the …

Patent Politics, Michael Henry Davis

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

To observe that so-called intellectual property (IP) flowered in the late twentieth century, even supplanting, to a large extent, the place of real and tangible personal property in terms of corporate, if not individual, wealth, is almost trite. Since IP has become the bedrock of most commercial wealth, especially in international trade, and since international trade is, or is about to become, the center of most commercially valuable trade, a comprehensive understanding of IP has become essential. Instead of being the reserve of technicians, the field demands a full examination by jurists and the larger society.Although IP literature has blossomed, …

Extending Copyright And The Constitution: "Have I Stayed Too Long", Michael H. Davis

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

On October 27, 1998, President Clinton signed into law the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998, Pub. L. No. 105-298, 112 Stat. 2827 (hereinafter the “Bono Law”). The Bono Law extended the term of copyright protection by an additional twenty years, both prospectively and retrospectively. The former is probably constitutionally proper; the latter is almost certainly forbidden by the Constitution's copyright clause. But most criticism5 has not forcefully distinguished between retrospective as opposed to prospective extension and so far has failed to convince either Congress or the courts of any constitutional infirmity. This is because most critics agree-or …

Government Recognition And Acquisition Of Patent Rights, Charles W. Small

Cleveland State Law Review

The status and value of patent rights owned by private enterprise may be materially affected by the procurement policies and practices of the Federal Government. The most publicized and controversial policies are found in the rules and regulations of the Department of Defense, the Atomic Energy Commission and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. It is the purpose of this article to delineate the major differences being promulgated by these three governmental agencies.

Copyright And Design Patents - The Common Zone Between, Albert P. Sharpe Iii

Cleveland State Law Review

The overlapping of our present-day Copyright and Design Patent Laws, apparently initially created by random legislative development and recently aggravated by the decision of the Supreme Court in Mazar v. Stein, has resulted in a legal morass of substantial proportions. The purpose of this paper is to explore briefly the influence which gave rise to this situation, to discuss the present state of the law and its practical impact upon the practicing patent advocate, and finally to review and evaluate proposed legislation, past and present, in an effort to determine the possible course of future developments.

Malpractice Of Patent Attorneys, B. Joan Holdridge

Cleveland State Law Review

This article will consider briefly the general nature of patent practice, and will indicate those areas where negligence on the part of the attorney could prevent a person from obtaining a patent or from having as full coverage of his invention as that to which he is entitled.