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Full-Text Articles in Internet Law

Mad Men Posing As Ordinary Consumers: The Essential Role Of Self-Regulation And Industry Ethics On Decreasing Deceptive Online Consumer Ratings And Reviews, 12 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 462 (2013), Lucille M. Ponte Jan 2013

Mad Men Posing As Ordinary Consumers: The Essential Role Of Self-Regulation And Industry Ethics On Decreasing Deceptive Online Consumer Ratings And Reviews, 12 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 462 (2013), Lucille M. Ponte

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

Technology provides consumers with new ways to avoid advertisements, such as fast forwarding through TV commercials and using filtering software to block pop-up ads. Accordingly brand sponsors and their advertising marketing firms have sought alternative methods to pierce through consumer resistance to ads. Social media offers an optimal platform to reach millions of consumers on a nearly daily basis who interact and often rely heavily on the reviews and rankings of fellow consumers. However, many of today’s branding campaigns now mask sponsored ads as ordinary consumer reviews or “Like” and “Don’t Like” responses to a service or product. Unbeknownst to …


The Emerging Reality Of Social Media: Erosion Of Individual Privacy Through Cyber-Vetting And Law’S Inability To Catch Up, 12 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 551 (2013), Saby Ghoshray Jan 2013

The Emerging Reality Of Social Media: Erosion Of Individual Privacy Through Cyber-Vetting And Law’S Inability To Catch Up, 12 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 551 (2013), Saby Ghoshray

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

The rise of social media means that data about a large number of people is available in public and quasi-public digital locations. Employers, keen on taking advantage of this additional data to decrease the risk associated with an offer of employment, are engaging in “cyber-vetting”—non-consenting social media searches conducted by third parties or the employers themselves. To the extent that current law applies to this practice, the regulation it provides is weak and attacks only part of the problem. Left unchecked, cyber-vetting has the potential to fundamentally alter the scope of prospective employees’ rights. This article surveys the legal and …


How The Internet Has Removed The Historical Rationale For "Non-Analogous Arts", 13 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 68 (2013), Hal Milton Jan 2013

How The Internet Has Removed The Historical Rationale For "Non-Analogous Arts", 13 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 68 (2013), Hal Milton

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

The growth of the Internet has affected countless aspects of daily life, including the patent system. Internet-based legal research has grown considerably, given the convenience of general search agents such as Google, legally-focused search agents such as Westlaw and Lexis, and patent-focused search agents such as the PAIR system of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. These legal research tools have not only made it easier to find prior art, they have also expanded the volume of information that is available to one of ordinary skill in the art. Consequently, the traditional rules of so-called “analogous arts” are changing. …


Copyright Trolls, Defining The Line Between Legal Ransom Letters And Defending Digital Rights: Turning Piracy Into A Business Model Or Protecting Creative From Internet Lawlessness?, 13 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 170 (2013), Luke S. Curran Jan 2013

Copyright Trolls, Defining The Line Between Legal Ransom Letters And Defending Digital Rights: Turning Piracy Into A Business Model Or Protecting Creative From Internet Lawlessness?, 13 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 170 (2013), Luke S. Curran

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

The scarlet letter of the term “troll” has long been affixed to the lapel of businesses within the patent context. This pejorative term, however, has had little relevance or widespread public recognition within the domain of copyright law until 2010. Since the awakening of the “copyright troll,” several non-author rights holders have recently adopted and propagated a substantially modified version of this sue-to-settle paradigm within the context of copyright law while introducing it to the scale of mass-litigation. Further, the amorphous term “copyright troll” traditionally characterizes a business practice of acquiring unenforced copyrights that are being infringed upon through various …


Memetic Theory, Trademarks & The Viral Meme Mark, 13 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 96 (2013), Shontavia Jackson Johnson Jan 2013

Memetic Theory, Trademarks & The Viral Meme Mark, 13 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 96 (2013), Shontavia Jackson Johnson

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

This Article proposes that memetic theory is a useful lens through which to view trademarks, particularly as there has been a rise in the number of applications for culturally-driven words and catchphrases in the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Memetic theory, or memetics, is a scientific field related to how units of information evolve and replicate. These units of information, called memes, undergo a process of natural selection comparable to that of genes. To survive as trademarks, memes must not only exist in the proper form, but they must also subsist in an environment where replication, variation, and selection …