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Full-Text Articles in Intellectual Property Law
Patent Invalidity Versus Noninfringement, Roger Allen Ford
Patent Invalidity Versus Noninfringement, Roger Allen Ford
Law Faculty Scholarship
Most patent scholars agree that the Patent and Trademark Office grants too many invalid patents and that these patents impose a significant tax upon industry and technological innovation. Although policymakers and scholars have proposed various ways to address this problem, including better ex ante review by patent examiners and various forms of ex post administrative review, district courts invalidating patents in litigation remain a core defense against bad patents. This article analyzes a previously unidentified impediment to the use of district courts to invalidate patents. Nearly every patent lawsuit rises or falls on one of two defenses: invalidity or noninfringement. …
Safe Harbor For The Innocent Infringer In The Digital Age, Tonya M. Evans
Safe Harbor For The Innocent Infringer In The Digital Age, Tonya M. Evans
Law Faculty Scholarship
The primary goal of this Article is three-fold: (1) to explore the role of the innocent infringer archetype historically and in the digital age; (2) to highlight the tension between customary and generally accepted online uses and copyright law that compromise efficient use of technology and progress of the digital technologies, the Internet, and society at large; and (3) to offer a legislative fix in the form of safe harbor for direct innocent infringers. Such an exemption seems not only more efficient but also more just in the online environment where unwitting infringement for the average copyright consumer is far …