Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

What Happens When The Public Wants To Remove Public Art? The Second Circuit Weighs In On One Recent Vara Case, Paige Green

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal Blog

n 1990, the Visual Artists’ Rights Act (VARA) became a welcome addition to the federal Copyright Act of 1976. VARA was the first time the “moral rights” of an artist were federally protected in the United States. Moral rights are commonly understood to provide attribution to artists and protect the integrity of visual art pieces. Under VARA, this means authors have a right to claim authorship on pieces they create, prevent the use of their name on a work they did not create, and prohibit the destruction of works of “recognized statute” (both intentional and through gross negligence). The law …

Simplifying The Wipo Broadcasting Treaty: Proposed Amendments To The Third Revised Draft, Bernt Hugenholtz

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

In preparation of the 44^th meeting of the SCCR a Third Revised Draft Text for the WIPO Broadcasting Organizations Treaty was prepared by the SCCR Acting Chair. The current (third) draft contains mostly minor modifications as compared to the previous draft. The previous (second) revised draft was critically examined by the author of this document. The present document builds on the Comments by proposing amendments that transform the main points of criticism and suggestions for improvement into possible treaty language. Whereas – following the 2007 General Assembly decision – there is consensus within the SCCR that the Broadcasting Treaty …

Enhancing Efficiency And Accessibility For Federal Trademark Protection: Leveraging Blockchain Technology For Prosecution, Maintenance, And Enforcement Processes., Julia Ashley-Burd Mainini

Featured Student Work

This paper conducts an analysis of the intersection between Blockchain Technology and Intellectual Property Law, with a specific focus on Trademark Law in the United States. It explores the potential utilization of Blockchain Technology to enhance the efficiency and accessibility of prosecution, maintenance, and enforcement processes for attorneys, applicants, and registrants. Additionally, the paper examines areas within the Lanham Act that could benefit from updates to promote the adoption of Blockchain Technology in trademark-related procedures.

Vaccine Development, The China Dilemma, And International Regulatory Challenges, Peter K. Yu

Faculty Scholarship

This article examines the role played by China in the development of international regulatory standards at the intersection of intellectual prop- erty, international trade, and public health. It begins by briefly discussing the role China has played in the global health arena during the COVID-19 pandemic. The article then highlights the difficulty in determining how best to engage with the country in the development of new international regula- tory standards. It shows that the preferred method of engagement will likely depend on one’s perspective on China’s potential contributions and hin- drances: a perspective that focuses on global competition—in the economic, …

Twenty Years After Krieger V Law Society Of Alberta: Law Society Discipline Of Crown Prosecutors And Government Lawyers, Andrew Flavelle Martin

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Krieger v. Law Society of Alberta held that provincial and territorial law societies have disciplinary jurisdiction over Crown prosecutors for conduct outside of prosecutorial discretion. The reasoning in Krieger would also apply to government lawyers. The apparent consensus is that law societies rarely exercise that jurisdiction. But in those rare instances, what conduct do Canadian law societies discipline Crown prosecutors and government lawyers for? In this article, I canvass reported disciplinary decisions to demonstrate that, while law societies sometimes discipline Crown prosecutors for violations unique to those lawyers, they often do so for violations applicable to all lawyers — particularly …

Comments On The September 6, 2023 Draft Of A Wipo Broadcasting Treaty, The Definitions, Scope Of Application, National Treatment And Formalities, James P. Love

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is evaluating a proposal for a new treaty that provides rights to broadcasting organizations. The negotiations began in 1997 and are currently taking place in the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR). On September 6, 2023, the WIPO Secretariat published a revised draft text prepared by the SCCR Chair, SCCR Vice-Chairs and facilitators. This article looks at certain elements of the draft concerning the definitions, scope of application, national treatment and formalities. Objections to the text focus on several draft definitions and the scope of application on the grounds that (1) very …

Walking The Talk: An Exploration Of Pathways In Implementation Of The 2013 Marrakesh Treaty - A Case Study Of Uganda, Anthony C.K. Kakooza

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

The Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled, is a WIPO administered treaty on copyright that was adopted in Marrakesh, Morocco, on 27^thJune 2013. The year 2023 therefore marks 10 years since its adoption. It is therefore an ideal time to do some stock taking as to how effective the treaty has been, thus far, in creating avenues through which blind or visually impaired persons can have easier access to published works.

This article looks at the implementation of the Marrakesh Treaty specifically in Uganda where …

Cardozo Aelj Interview Series: Professor Saurabh Vishnubhakat, Saurabh Vishnubhakat

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal Blog

In this interview, Cardozo Professor Saurabh Vishnubhakat discusses what he hopes to bring to Cardozo as the new Director of Intellectual Property and Information Law Program, his professional background, and what drew him to the field of intellectual property.

This post was originally published on the Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal website on September 22, 2023. The original post can be accessed via the Archived Link button above.

Comments On Preliminary Draft 9, Shyamkrishna Balganesh, Jane C. Ginsburg, Peter S. Menell

Faculty Scholarship

We are writing to offer our views on Preliminary Draft No. 9 (“PD9”) and express our deep and persistent concern about the direction and methodology that the Project continues to take, which we have sought to address and remedy at multiple points over the last several years. The elements of PD9 that we describe below are, in our view, particularly striking illustrations of the problems that we have previously identified. The gravity and salience of PD9’s problems are borne out in the comments of Judge Pierre Leval, who describes elements of the draft as requiring “a substantial editing and rewriting.” …

Two Decades Of Trips In China, Peter K. Yu

Faculty Scholarship

This chapter reviews China’s engagement with the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) in the past twenty years. It begins by highlighting TRIPS-related developments in the first decade of China’s WTO membership. The chapter then discusses the country’s ‘innovative turn’ in the mid-2000s and the ramifications of its changing policy positions. This chapter continues to examine the US-China trade war, in particular the second TRIPS complaint that the United States filed against China in March 2018. It concludes with observations about the impact of the TRIPS Agreement on China, China’s impact on that agreement and how the …

Additional Comments On Preliminary Draft 9, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

I am adding to the comments submitted by Profs. Balganesh, Menell and myself a list of points in PD9 that I believe require correction or clarification. These comments do not include Chapters 8, 10 or 11.

Architects, Artists, Photographers, Property Owners, The Public And Their Rights: Reconciling Vara, The Awcpa, And Copyright Fundamentals, David E. Shipley

Scholarly Works

Murals, sculpture, and other works of visual art have been parts of buildings, monuments and other structures for centuries, but copyright infringement litigation in the federal courts between artists, architects, photographers, and building owners is a relatively recent phenomenon. The outcome of these lawsuits has an impact on the public seeing works of visual art; experiencing works of visual art on buildings, monuments, and structures; and, looking at photographs of visual art on or in those architectural works. This article focuses on how the Copyright Act’s protection of artists’ rights in their works of visual art on buildings under the …

Making Data Management Plans Machine Actionable: Templates And Tools, Joakim Philipson, Adil Hasan, Hanne Moa

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

Since September of 2019, a task group within the European Open Science Cloud - EOSC Nordic Project, work-package 5 (T5.3.2), has focused its attention on machine-actionable Data Management Plans (maDMPs). A delivery working-paper from the group (Hasan et al. 2021) concluded in summary that extracting useful information from traditional free-text based DMPs is problematic. While maDMPs are generally more FAIR compliant, and as such accessible to both humans and machines, more interoperable with other systems, and serving different stakeholders for processing, sharing, evaluation and reuse. Different DMP tools and templates have developed independently, to a varying degree, allowing for the …

The Library & Generative Ai, Nat Gustafson-Sundell, Mark Mccullough

Library Services Publications

A demonstration of several AI tools, including ChatGPT, ChatPDF, Consensus, and more. The focus of the session is on potential student uses of the tools and related library initiatives, so we address the limits of ChatGPT as an information source. Librarians can help students learn how to use these tools responsibly and provide leadership on campus as AI is integrated into assignments.

Implementing Informatics Tools With Data Management Plans For Disease Area Research, Vivek Navale, Matthew Mcauliffe

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

Data Management Plans (DMPs) are essential to a research data life cycle. The DMPs should be developed as part of the research programs to be effective. For disease area research, integrating research community-recommended data standards during collection can enhance the likelihood of data reuse. Informatics tools are required as part of DMPs with the aim of data being findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable.

The US National Institutes of Health supports various disease area research programs and has recently finalized the Data Management and Sharing Policy. The policy highlights the importance of sharing data and metadata, including information on various elements …

Comparison Of Library Publishing Workflows By Oa Model, Sue Ann Gardner

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries: Conference Presentations and Speeches

Population of an institutional repository is a form of publishing. Green and diamond OA library publishing workflows are compared. The workflow for gold OA does not involve library publishing. Some data about the UNL Digital Commons institutional repository (https://digitalcommons.unl.edu) are included.

Repair As Research: How Copyright Impedes Learning About Devices, Anthony D. Rosborough, Aaron Perzanowski

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

Widespread computerization and ubiquitous smart devices have enabled software-based copyright governance to reach into new domains. Beyond their instrumental utility, these devices are also containers of vast amounts of information in the form of software and technical know-how. Through copyright and anti-circumvention rules, however, this information can be cordoned off and confined to exclusive distribution channels. This can have a significant impact on research. While copyright law traditionally conceives research as the use of expressive works within institutional settings, this paper proposes a broader conceptualization that includes device research, including informal inquiries and DIY activities. Whether for the purposes of …

Harvestable Metadata Services Development: Analysis Of Use Cases From The World Data System, Robert R. Downs, Alicia Urquidi Díaz, Qi Xu, Juanle Wang, Aude Chambodut, Chuang Liu, Simon Flower, Karen Payne

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

Minimally, a research data repository exists to make a collection of data assets available to potential users. If a dataset cannot be discovered and found, it cannot be reused (Garnett et al. 2017). Harvestable metadata catalogues are a key strategy for achieving greater global findability of data assets, as they create a surveyable access point to discover data products within large data collections. Such catalogues can be especially effective if they are tailored for interoperability with feature-rich infrastructures (e.g. meta-catalogues, see Kapiszewski & Karcher 2020; CRFCB 2014) that are highly visible and widely used, and also themselves integrated within the …

Article Processing Charges For Open Access Journal Publishing: A Review, Ángel Borrego

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

Abstract

Some open access (OA) publishers charge authors fees to make their articles freely available online. This paper reviews literature on article processing charges (APCs) that has been published since 2000. Despite praise for diamond OA journals, which charge no fees, most OA articles are published by commercial publishers that charge APCs. Publishers fix APCs depending on the reputation assigned to journals by peers. Evidence shows a relationship between high impact metrics and higher, faster rising APCs. Authors express reluctance about APCs, although this varies by discipline depending on previous experience of paying publication fees and the availability of research …

Defining Open Scholarly Infrastructure: A Review Of Relevant Literature, Saman Goudarzi, Richard Dunks

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

This report outlines IOI’s initial attempt towards a framework for understanding open infrastructure for research and scholarship. For this report, we examined a body of literature that includes works across the fields of anthropology, scholarly communications, international development studies, science and technology studies, and infrastructure studies. ....

This review also makes clear that the distinguishing feature between open infrastructure and its commercially-run and -operated counterparts is the fact that its value lies not just in its ability to support productive functions but how it fosters positive and desirable social practices and values. It is insufficient to simply assert certain values …

Toward A Canadian Right To Repair: Opportunities And Challenges, Anthony D. Rosborough

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This Article draws a picture of the past, present, and future of the right to repair in Canada. It looks to early successes toward automotive right to repair, challenges faced in proposing consumer protection reforms in Ontario and Quebec, and the utility of a proposed copyright “Technological Protection Measure (TPM) exception” allowing circumvention for repair purposes. In light of right to repair priorities identified by Canada’s current federal government, the Article identifies a selection of reforms that could achieve these goals. Such reforms include creating regulations under the Copyright Act governing the use and implementation of TPMs, passing an exception …

Cardozo Aelj Author Interview Series: Scott Semaya, Class Of 2023, Scott Semaya

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal Blog

The Cardozo AELJ Author Interview Series seeks to give our readers further insight into the Articles and Notes published in the Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal. In this interview, Scott Semaya discusses his Note, Name, Image and Likeness: Giving College Athletes the Clearest Guidance to Best Profit off Their NIL, which was published in Volume 41, Issue 2.

This post was originally published on the Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal website on June 6, 2023. The original post can be accessed via the Archived Link button above.

Considering A Right To Repair Software, Robert W. Gomulkiewicz

Articles

The right to repair movement aims to extend the usability of products by allowing a consumer (or a repair professional acting on the consumer’s behalf) to fix broken products. Implicitly, the movement’s focus has been on hardware—on the right to repair cars, tractors, and phones. But as more and more of the functionality of goods comes from software, it is important to consider whether we need a right to repair software. There are practical challenges to software repair. For example, fixing software is more difficult and treacherous than fixing hardware. Complicating matters further, more and more software is embedded in …

Rethinking Education Theft Through The Lens Of Intellectual Property And Human Rights, Peter K. Yu

Faculty Scholarship

This Essay problematizes the increased propertization and commodification of education and calls for a rethink of the emergent concept of “education theft” through the lens of intellectual property and human rights. This concept refers to the phenomenon where parents, or legal guardians, enroll children in schools outside their school districts by intentionally violating the residency requirements. The Essay begins by revisiting the debate on intellectual property rights as property rights. It discusses the ill fit between intellectual property law and the traditional property model, the impediments the law has posed to public access to education, and select reforms that have …

U.S Department Of Energy Public Access Plan, U.S Department Of Energy

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

This document, the Public Access Plan (the Plan) for the Department of Energy (DOE or Department), including the National Nuclear Security Administration, presents the Department of Energy’s plan for increasing access to the results of the research and development (R&D) it supports in response to the August 25, 2022, Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Memorandum, “Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research”1 and to the previous February 22, 2013, OSTP Memorandum, “Increasing Access to the Results of Federally Funded Scientific Research.”2 This Plan, which supplants the Department’s July 2014 Public Access Plan, was developed by …

The Open Access Journals Toolkit, Alex Mendonça, Andrea Chiarelli, Andy Byers, Andy Nobes, Chris Hartgerink, Clarissa França Dias Carneiro, Elle Malcolmson, Ivonne Lijano, Katie Foxall, Lucia Loffreda, Rebecca Wojturska, Solange Santos, Susan Murray, Tom Olijhoek, Wendy Patterson

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

Contents: Getting Started 5 • Scope, aims and focus 5 • Choosing a title for your journal 6 • Types of content accepted 7 • Kick-off and ongoing funding 11 • Disciplinary considerations 16 • Journal setup checklist and timeline 18 • Running a journal 20 • Article selection criteria 20 • Publication frequency and journal issues 23 • Attracting authors 25 • Peer review and quality assurance 27 • The costs of running an online open access journal 31 • Running a journal in a local or regional language 34 • Flipping a journal to open access 36 • …

Cryptic Patent Reform Through The Inflation Reduction Act, Arti K. Rai, Rachel Sachs, Nicholson Price

Law & Economics Working Papers

If a statute substantially changes the way patents work in an industry where patents are central, but says almost nothing about patents, is it patent reform? We argue the answer is yes — and it’s not a hypothetical question. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) does not address patents, but its drug pricing provisions are likely to prompt major changes in how patents work in the pharmaceutical industry. For many years scholars have decried industry’s ever-evolving strategies that use combinations of patents to block competition for as long as possible, widely known as “evergreening,” but legislators have not been receptive to …

The Territorial Discrepancy Between Intellectual Property Rights Infringement Claims And Remedies, Marketa Trimble

Media & Informal Publications

Professor Trimble delivered a presentation for the International Dimension of Intellectual Property Disputes conference.

The topic relates to Professor Trimble's article The Territorial Discrepancy Between Intellectual Property Rights Infringement Claims and Remedies.

Erasmian Perspectives On Copyright: Justifying A Right To Research, Tania Cheng-Davies

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

The right to research exists in many jurisdictions as an exception to copyright infringement but unharmonized and inconsistent in its application, with no universal understanding or acceptance of how such a right should be framed. Researchers face unknown and uncertain obstacles in accessing research and scholarly works, which in turn frustrates their own research and development. While copyright law has increasingly strengthened in scope and duration over time, there has been a reactive backlash to this in the form of calls for a more balanced copyright regime, including the recognition of a clear right to research. The keys to understanding …

Dystopian Trademark Revelations, Amanda Levendowski

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Uncovering dystopian technologies is challenging. Nondisclosure agreements, procurement policies, trade secrets, and strategic obfuscation collude to shield the development and deployment of these technologies from public scrutiny until it is too late to combat them with law or policy. But occasionally, exposing dystopian technologies is simple. Corporations choose technology trademarks inspired by dystopian philosophies and novels or similar elements of real life—all warnings that their potential uses are dystopian as well. That pronouncement is not necessarily trumpeted on social media or corporate websites, however. It is revealed in a more surprising place: trademark registrations at the U.S. Patent and Trademark …