Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

The Transaction Cost Benefits Of Electronic Patent Licensing Platforms: A Discussion At The Example Of The Patentbooks Model, Roya Ghafele, Benjamin Gibert

Roya Ghafele

Current mechanisms to compensate inventors and improve legal access to their inventions remain ineffective. Manufacturers encounter significant transaction costs in the process of licensing the multitude of patent rights implicated in their products. High-technology product manufacturing requires access to a diverse pool of technologies that are owned by different organizations all over the world. The transaction costs of licensing these disparate rights are inhibiting unlicensed manufacturers in emerging economies from entering important markets and simultaneously limiting the revenue patent owners can generate from non-exclusive licenses. As communications technologies improve, innovative licensing mechanisms are emerging that can help firms avoid many …

‘Breakfast At Tiffany’S’: Ebay Inc, Trade Mark Law And Counterfeiting, Matthew Rimmer

Matthew Rimmer

In an exploration of intellectual property and fashion, this article examines the question of the intermediary liability of online auction-houses for counterfeiting. In the United States, the illustrious jewellery store, Tiffany & Co, brought a legal action against eBay Inc, alleging direct trademark infringement, contributory trademark infringement, false advertising, unfair competition and trademark dilution. The luxury store depicted the online auction-house as a pirate bazaar, a flea-market and a haven for counterfeiting. During epic litigation, eBay Inc successfully defended itself against these allegations in a United States District Court and the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. …

A State Law Approach To Preserving Fair Use In Academic Libraries, David R. Hansen

David R Hansen

Why Full Open Access Matters, Michael W. Carroll

Michael W. Carroll

Rapporteur, Peter Yu

Peter K. Yu

No abstract provided.

Social Media And Legal Ethics, Jonathan I. Ezor

Jonathan I. Ezor

A presentation on the legal issues arising out of attorney use of social media services, including for electronic discovery

A Proposal For A Clean Technology Directive: European Patent Law And Climate Change, Matthew Rimmer

Matthew Rimmer

This article charts the conflicted, dissonant policies of the European Union towards intellectual property and climate change. It contends that there is a mismatch between the empirical work of the European Patent Office and the quietist policy options contemplated by the European Union. This article contends that the European Union needs to develop a Clean Technology Directive to allow for a differentiated approach to patent law and clean technologies – especially given the past complicity of the European Union in global warming and climate change. It highlights essential elements in a comprehensive policy package for the reform of patent law …

Efficiencies In Aids Programming: The Rhetoric And The Realities, Brook Baker, David Holtzman, Jennifer Cohn

Brook K. Baker

Finding “efficiencies” in global HIV programs is the buzzword of the hour. This term has peppered speeches of everyone from Global AIDS Ambassador Eric Goosby to President Clinton and Bill Gates. Even UNAIDS is utilizing new frameworks for costing HIV interventions focusing on strategic investments instead of needs-based costing. “Efficiency” here is generally taken to mean “do more with less” — save lives with fewer resources and win the war against HIV without funding increases. Although there are efficiencies to be gained, additional up-front investments are necessary to turn the tide against HIV and save future costs. It is also …

Noción Y Elementos Existenciales Del Título De Crédito, Bruno L. Costantini García

Bruno L. Costantini García

Discernir la noción y elementos de existencia de los títulos de crédito, considerando la doctrina y la denominación expresada en nuestra Ley General de Títulos y Operaciones de Crédito, conceptualizando el término de los documentos que consignan un derecho crediticio propio de su naturaleza y deslindando de manera dogmatica y exegética los elementos que lo forman y le dan su funcionamiento, mediante una visión de las instituciones jurídicas que les dan su existencia y aplicación dentro del devenir de los actos de comercio.

The Graduated Response, Peter Yu

Peter K. Yu

No abstract provided.

Agency Cost Problems In Executive Compensation: An Evaluation Of Dividend Equivalent Rights On Restricted Stocks, Ufuoma Barbara Akpotaire

Ufuoma Barbara Akpotaire

Some authors argue that the integration of stock options as well as restricted stocks into executive compensation may reduce the conflicts between shareholders and management but may at the same time give rise to other agency problems connected to debt. While this line of argument may hold some merit, the structure of executive compensation packages, has over the years, focused less on stock options and more on restricted stocks. A classic example of this trend is Microsoft, who in 2003, switched from using stock options to restricted stock.

Compensating executives through restricted stocks has recently come under scrutiny due to …

First Amendment Interests And Copyright Accommodations, David S. Olson

David S. Olson

Copyright law exists to encourage the creation of works of authorship by granting exclusive rights. But copyright’s incentive function seems in tension with the public’s First Amendment interests to use and freely hear copyrighted speech. Conventional wisdom holds, however, that copyright law serves to encourage much more speech than it discourages, and resolves First Amendment concerns with protections internal to copyright law like the fair use defense and the idea/expression dichotomy. This Article argues that the conventional wisdom no longer holds given the unprecedented expansion of copyright’s scope and cor-responding drastic diminution of the public domain in the last three …

First Amendment Based Copyright Misuse, David S. Olson

David S. Olson

We are at a crossroads with respect to the underdeveloped equitable defense of copyright misuse. The defense may go the way of its sibling, antitrust-based patent misuse, which seems to be in a state of inevitable decline. Or—if judges accept the proposal of this Article—courts could reinvigorate the copyright misuse defense to better protect First Amendment speech that is guaranteed by statute, but that is often chilled by copyright holders misusing their copyrights to control others’ speech. The Copyright Act serves First Amendment interests by encouraging authors to create works. But copyright law can also discourage the creation of new …

A Legitimate Interest In Promoting The Progress Of Science: Constitutional Constraints On Copyright Laws, David S. Olson

David S. Olson

The Supreme Court certified two questions in Golan v. Holder: (1) Does section 514 of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (“URAA”) violate the Progress Clause of the Constitution? (2) Does the URAA violate the First Amendment? This Essay argues that section 514 violates the Progress Clause’s requirement that copyright laws “promote the Progress of Science.” This is because the statute bequeaths copyright status without in return achieving any net increase in the creation or dissemination of creative works. Even if the Government relies on other constitutional authorities to justify section 514—such as the Commerce Clause or the Treaty Power—the limitations …

First Amendment Interests And Copyright Accomodations, David S. Olson

David S. Olson

Copyright law exists to encourage the creation of works of authorship by granting exclusive rights. But copyright’s incentive function seems in tension with the public’s First Amendment interests to use and freely hear copyrighted speech. Conventional wisdom holds, however, that copyright law serves to encourage much more speech than it discourages, and resolves First Amendment concerns with protections internal to copyright law like the fair use defense and the idea/expression dichotomy. This Article argues that the conventional wisdom no longer holds given the unprecedented expansion of copyright’s scope and corresponding drastic diminution of the public domain in the last three …

Owning Digital Copies: Copyright Law And The Incidents Of Copy Ownership, Joseph P. Liu

Joseph P. Liu

As copyrighted works are increasingly distributed in digital form over the Internet, our conventional print-based understandings of the rights associated with copy ownership are coming into increasing conflict with the copyright owner's right to restrict copying. Specifically, certain common activities, such as reading and transferring physical copies of copyrighted works (such as books), are increasingly being viewed as potential acts of copyright infringement when applied to digital copies. This Article explores this conflict by taking a close look at the concept of copy ownership. It argues that conventional notions of physical property ownership play an important, unrecognized role in copyright …

Sports Merchandizing, Publicity Rights, And The Missing Role Of The Sports Fan, Joseph P. Liu

Joseph P. Liu

Sports fans play a tremendously important role in the success and popularity of sports teams and the enterprise of sports in general. It is somewhat curious, then, that fan interests are almost entirely missing from discussions about certain important legal issues that have a direct impact on them. Specifically, fan interests play a surprisingly limited role in discussions about sports team merchandising and player rights of publicity. This Article argues that modern sports licensing practices are coming into increasing conflict with the interests of sports fans, and that the law should take greater account of such interests. This Article starts …

Copyright Law's Theory Of The Consumer, Joseph P. Liu

Joseph P. Liu

Copyright law has a rather well-developed theory of the author, but it has no similarly well-developed conception of the consumer. This exploratory Article is an attempt to begin piecing together a coherent image of the copyright consumer. The author argues that copyright law currently conceives of consumers in one of two ways, either as passive consumers of copyrighted works or as active authors in their own right. This binary conception of the consumer, however, is incomplete, as it neglects important and complex consumer interests in autonomy, communication, and creative self-expression. By examining these additional interests, it is possible to begin …

Intellectual Property In Acta And The Tpp: Lessons Not Learned, Kimberlee G. Weatherall

Kimberlee G Weatherall

In this paper I am interested in what ACTA as it emerged from the negotiating process has to teach us about the negotiation of international agreements in IP, and in whether we can see any evidence that those lessons have been learned or are being applied to the TPP negotiations. As I will show below, the ACTA text that emerged from several years’ controversial negotiations was a quite different beast from the original aspirations of the negotiating parties. ACTA as it was finalised retreated significantly from earlier proposals: it contains more safeguards, and less detailed and stringent provisions, than was …

U.S. Federal Circuit Upholds U.S. International Trade Commission's Authority To Ban Importation Of Products Containing Trade Secrets Misappropriated By A Chinese Company In China, Matthew P. Allen

Matthew P. Allen

No abstract provided.

La Presunción De Inocencia Como Proposición Sintética, Cesar A. Prieto

Cesar A. Prieto

No abstract provided.

U.S. Supreme Court Reaffirms Importance Of Well-Crafted Agreements To Clarify Title To Patented Inventions Among Businesses, Universities, Researchers, And The Government, Matthew P. Allen

Matthew P. Allen

No abstract provided.

Wipo Regional Seminar On The Implementation Of The Wipo Development Agenda, Peter Yu

Peter K. Yu

No abstract provided.

Protection Of Intellectual Property Rights In The North American Free Trade Agreement: A Successful Case Of Regional Trade Regulation, Frank J. Garcia

Frank J. Garcia

No abstract provided.

Copyright Basics, B. Douglas Robbins

B. Douglas Robbins

In this paper we discuss the fundamentals of copyright law: what sort of works are protected by copyright, what sort of works are not protected, how copyright protection operates, the term of copyright protection, and what the consequences are for copyright infringement.

Primitive Accumulation And Enclosure Of The Commons: Genetically Engineered Seeds And Canadian Jurisprudence, Wilhelm Peekhaus

Wilhelm Peekhaus

This paper juxtaposes the legal decisions made in the case of Percy Schmeiser, who was sued by Monsanto for patent infringement, against the attempt by the Organic Agriculture Protection Fund to obtain class certification in its efforts to sue Monsanto and Bayer for genetic contamination of organic canola. Together these two cases establish an unacceptable incongruity at common law between the rights enjoyed by intellectual property owners and any corresponding duties that might attach to their inventions. I suggest that Marx’s concept of primitive accumulation offers a suitable theoretical register for apprehending contemporary erosions of the commons through the enclosure …

Acting Like An Administrative Agency: The Federal Circuit En Banc, Ryan G. Vacca

Ryan G. Vacca

When Congress created the Federal Circuit in 1982, it thought it was creating a court of appeals. Little did it know that it was also creating a quasi-administrative agency that would engage in substantive rulemaking and set policy in a manner substantially similar to administrative agencies. In this Article, I examine the Federal Circuit's practices when it orders a case to be heard en banc and illustrate how these practices cause the Federal Circuit to look very much like an administrative agency engaging in substantive rulemaking. The number and breadth of questions the Federal Circuit agrees to hear en banc …

Social Semiotics In The Fair Use Analysis, H. Brian Holland

H. Brian Holland

No abstract provided.

A Social Semiotic Approach To Copyright Law, H. Brian Holland

H. Brian Holland

No abstract provided.

The Changing Damages Regime: Reasonable Royalties After Lucent And Willful Infringement And Enhanced Damages After Seagate, Christopher B. Seaman

Christopher B. Seaman

No abstract provided.