Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

Abandoning Copyright, Dave Fagundes, Aaron K. Perzanowski

Faculty Publications

For nearly two hundred years, U.S. copyright law has assumed that owners may voluntarily abandon their rights in a work. But scholars have largely ignored copyright abandonment, and the case law is fragmented and inconsistent. As a result, abandonment remains poorly theorized, owners can avail themselves of no reliable mechanism to abandon their works, and the practice remains rare. This Article seeks to bring copyright abandonment out of the shadows, showing that it is a doctrine rich in conceptual, normative, and practical significance. Unlike abandonment of real and chattel property, which imposes significant public costs in exchange for discrete private …

Constitutional Obstacles? Reconsidering Copyright Protection For Pre-1972 Sound Recordings, Eva E. Subotnik, June M. Besek

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

The typical complaint about intellectual property laws is that they are sluggish in responding to technological change. An unfolding question in the contemporary era, however, is the degree to which the threat of constitutional challenge will lead Congress to further adhere to the status quo. In the wake of the patent law overhaul several years ago, for example, the wisdom and scope of those amendments were widely debated, but concern about their constitutional soundness was also expressed in some quarters. Likewise, the latter concern is in play with respect to a proposed amendment of the law that applies to …

Copyright Versus The Public Domain: Does The Constitution Allow Congress To Take Works From The Public Domain And Replace Those With Private Exclusive Rights?, Dennis D. Crouch, Ted Wright

Faculty Publications

This case arose out of U.S. treaty obligations to restore copyright to foreign authors who had failed to comply with the pre-1989 formalities in the law. Section 514 of the Uruguay Round Agreement Act (URAA) restores those copyrights and, in doing so, allowed thousands of widely disseminated works to be removed from the public domain. Petitioners challenge the law—arguing that the law overreaches constitutional authority and violates speech rights protected by the First Amendment.

Protection For Works Of Foreign Origin Under The 1909 Copyright Act, Tyler T. Ochoa

Faculty Publications

One of the principal goals of the 1909 Copyright Act was to simplify and streamline the formalities required to obtain copyright protection. Before the 1909 Copyright Act, authors had to register their works before publication in order to be eligible for copyright protection; and notice of the registration had to be included on all copies published in the United States. If a work was published anywhere in the world before registration, or if the notice was omitted when the work was published domestically, the work went into the public domain. Under the 1909 Act, however, authors only had to publish …

Random Numbers, Chaos Theory, And Cogitation: A Search For The Minimal Creativity Standard In Copyright Law, Ralph D. Clifford

Faculty Publications

This article explores the second type of expressive work, those where there is a question if the author’s contribution is qualitatively sufficient, to determine how much creativity and of what type is required to sustain a copyright. Initially, the historic standards of creativity use before Fiest was decided in 1991 will be presented. Then, after a brief discussion of Fiest, the scientific basis of creativity will be explored. Next, the confusion regarding creativity that exists in the lower courts will serve to expose the source of misapplication of the law – a disconnect between how courts perceive creativity and …

Origins And Meanings Of The Public Domain, Tyler T. Ochoa

Faculty Publications

This article surveys the history and development of the public domain in intellectual property law. The public domain has existed since time immemorial, and was first recognized in the Statute of Monopolies and the Statute of Anne, which placed time limits on patents and copyrights, after which the invention or work could be copied freely by anyone. The concept was enshrined in the U.S.Constitution and reflected in American patent and copyright laws. Before 1896, courts referred to matter not protected by patent or copyright law as "public property" or "common property. " In 1896,the U.S. Supreme Court imported the term …