Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

The Law Of Trade Secrets: Toward A More Efficient Approach, Jon Chally

Vanderbilt Law Review

Trade secret law must efficiently protect that which can be considered a trade secret. Were the law to provide too little protection, information protected as a trade secret would not be created. Were the law to provide too much protection, competition would be unnecessarily stifled. Only efficient protection, meaning neither too little nor too much, appropriately addresses the unique nature of trade secrets as intellectual property. Such a conclusion becomes increasingly necessary given the rising import of trade secret law in the spectrum of intellectual property.

"It is the policy of the law, for the advantage of the public, to …

Bucking The Trend: The Unsupportability Of Index Providers' Imposition Of Licensing Fees For Unlisted Trading Of Exchange Traded Funds, Peter N. Hall

Vanderbilt Law Review

Exchange traded funds (ETFs) are popular investment products that have recently generated substantial investment press, several new regulations, huge earnings for the securities markets, and potential legal conflicts that will likely lead to major litigation. ETFs are derivative securities that represent ownership in funds, unit investment trusts, or depositary receipts with portfolios of securities designed to track the performance and dividends of specific securities indices.' ETFs track indices by holding a representative sampling of securities in the index, thus approximating investment results of the index as a whole. They may or may not hold all the stocks in a particular …

The Music Industry's Failed Attempt To Influence File Sharing Norms, Steven A. Hetcher

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Digitization and related technologies such as file-sharing software and wireless communications are revolutionizing how intellectual content is distributed and consumed. At the same time, the ways in which consumers have chosen to use this technology are challenging how characteristics of intellectual property ownership are defined. Some of the important rights promised to owners under the Copyright Act may begin to appear as little more than formal guarantees if the explosive trend toward unauthorized copying continues to expand. As a result, the content industry has viewed the ever-expanding footprint of digital media as a mixed blessing. While this technology promises vastly …

Too Much Of A Good Thing: Deciphering Copyright Infringement For The Musician, Joseph K. Christian

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Imitation may indeed be flattering, but at least in the world of music, too much imitation is illegal. Copyright law protects "original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression. "It guarantees the owner of a copyrighted work the exclusive right to reproduce, distribute, display, and publicly perform the work, among other rights. To the owner of a copyright in music, that means that no one else may perform the musical work, or make or distribute copies of the original manuscript or a recording of the work, without the permission of the copyright owner.'