Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

Buying A Lie: The Harms And Deceptions Of Ghostwriting, T. J. Fosko

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

Ghostwriters are hired by politicians, celebrities, professionals and even established authors to do the work of writing for significant monetary compensation. Although ghostwriters receive no professional credit for their authorship, publishers who employ ghostwriters enjoy the financial windfall of marketing a book by a well-known person. While the economic harm of purchasing a relatively inexpensive book from what the consumer thought was a best-selling author is relatively slight, the serious harm of ghostwriting is the message received by the consumer who thinks that the ideas and message of the book come from the purported author.

Despite the inherently deceptive nature …

A Proposal To Expand The Religious Services Exemption Under The Copyright Act, Kevin M. Lemley

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

This article focuses on the religious services exemption to the Copyright Act. The religious services exemption is one of many exemptions that permit certain types of use without first obtaining permission from the copyright owner, or proving fair use. This article argues that the religious services exemption should be expanded to cover any work used in the course of services as well as the recording, broadcast, and transmission of the services.

The first part of this article analyzes the existing religious services exemption under the Copyright Act to define the bounds that uses fall under the exemption. The article then …

Patent Law—Patentability Post-Bilski: No Need To Throw The Baby Out With The Bath Water When Determining Subject Matter Eligibility Under 35 U.S.C. § 101, Jennifer L. Davis

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

Pursuant to Title 35, §101 of the United States Code, anyone who "invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof" is eligible for a patent. Traditionally, the United States Patent and Trademark Office and the federal courts have enumerated a variety of tests for determining patent eligibility, but common language in the case law had lead to, in Bilski v. Kappos, 130 S. Ct. 3218 (2010), the development of what is known as the machine-or-transformation test. In an opinion delivered on the final day of the 2009-2010 …

Untangling Jurisdiction And Contract Scope Issues Within Intellectual Property Licenses, Brandon Beam

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

Copyright license cases pose difficult issues regarding the mixture of federal copyright law and state contract law for courts and commentators alike. Specifically, a split exists over which cases "arise under" federal copyright law. This complication is compounded by the difficulty in predicting federal preemption of state contract law.

In an effort to stabilize these complications, this comment recommends an approach of split sovereignty that would empower different systems to control the areas they are designated to regulate. In particular, the author suggests that procedural issues in copyright license cases should be clarified by (1) governing exclusive federal jurisdiction under …