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Full-Text Articles in Intellectual Property Law
A World Wide Web Of Potential Franchise Law Violations, Michael J. Lockerby
A World Wide Web Of Potential Franchise Law Violations, Michael J. Lockerby
Richmond Journal of Law & Technology
Franchising -- whereby independent entrepreneurs are licensed to provide goods and services of uniform quality (hopefully) under their licensor's trademarks -- has long been the predominant method of distributing goods and services in the U.S. Time will tell how many suppliers use the Internet to "cut out the middleman", and instead, sell goods and services directly to the ultimate consumer. While franchising so far appears to be safe from the Internet, the Internet may not be safe from franchising -- or, perhaps more accurately, from the world wide web of laws that govern franchising. The explosive growth of Internet commerce …
When Is Property Intellectual: The Leveraging Problem Essays, Mark R. Patterson
When Is Property Intellectual: The Leveraging Problem Essays, Mark R. Patterson
Faculty Scholarship
Patents and copyrights protect inventions and expression; they do not protect products. This distinction, I argue in this essay, is a key to the antitrust problem of the "leveraging" of intellectual property. In a typical leveraging case, the manufacturer of a durable good, like a copier or computer, refuses to sell replacement parts for its equipment unless the purchaser also hires the manufacturer to service the equipment. Such a practice can be illegal under antitrust law, but when the leveraging products-in this example, replacement parts-are protected by patent or copyright, the manufacturer will often claim that the leveraging is a …