The "Printed Publication" Bar After Klopfenstein: Has The Federal Circuit Changed The Way Professors Should Talk About Science?, 2015 The University of Akron
The "Printed Publication" Bar After Klopfenstein: Has The Federal Circuit Changed The Way Professors Should Talk About Science?, Sean B. Seymore
Akron Law Review
The key question for universities is how Klopfenstein will affect the way that science professors talk about science. To answer this question, Part II explores the conflict between a professor’s need to disseminate research and the university’s potential interest in seeking patent protection. The research talk, one of the most important forums for communication in the science community, is an objective measure of research success and scholarship. When a professor produces a patentable invention, university TTOs must balance the professor’s need to discuss the research against the strict statutory requirement to file within one year of public disclosure. If a …
Improvement Doctrines, 2015 Georgia State University College of Law
Improvement Doctrines, Deepa Varadarajan
Deepa Varadarajan
When one party makes significant but unauthorized improvements to another's land, chattels or informational assets, should the "improving" nature of the act alter the liability or remedy calculus? Traditional property law has long had to resolve conflicts that arise when one person improves another's land or chattels without permission -- for example, if A cuts down B's trees and fashions a chair, or A erects a building on B's land. Ordinarily, A would be liable and subject to an injunction because B has a strict right to exclude that is protected by a property rule. But various doctrines in traditional …
Ip As Metaphor, 2015 University of Kentucky College of Law
Ip As Metaphor, Brian L. Frye
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
Everybody hates intellectual property trolls. They are parasites, who abuse intellectual property by forcing innovators to pay an unjust toll. Even worse are intellectual property pirates. They are thieves, who steal intellectual property by using it without the consent of its owner. By contrast, everybody loves innovators. They are farmers, entitled to reap what they have sown and enjoy the fruits of their labor.
But trolls, pirates, and farmers are metaphors. A "troll" abuses intellectual property only if its ownership or use of that intellectual property is unjustified, a "pirate" steals intellectual property only if the ownership of that intellectual …
Copyright As Charity, 2015 University of Kentucky College of Law
Copyright As Charity, Brian L. Frye
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
Copyright and charity law are generally considered distinct and unrelated bodies of law. But they are actually quite similar and complement each other. Both copyright and charity law are intended to increase social welfare by solving market and government failures in public goods caused by free riding. Copyright solves market and government failures in works of authorship by providing an indirect subsidy to marginal authors, and charity law solves market and government failures in charitable goods by providing an indirect subsidy to marginal donors. Copyright and charity law complement each other by solving market and government failures in works of …
Anatomy Of A Design Regime, 2015 Indiana University Maurer School of Law
Anatomy Of A Design Regime, Kathryn C. Moore
Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies
Since the European Union adopted uniform sui generis design rights, an increasingly complex system of cumulative and overlapping intellectual property rights has emerged. While such harmonization offers several benefits, analyzing the interpretation and application of narrow legal requirements within the EU Community Design Rights may indicate whether such benefits will actually be realized. This paper examines Regulation 6/2002's definitions of "informed user" and "overall impression" as they apply to registered designs. After summarizing relevant case law and considering underlying policy goals of the EU Community design legislation, this paper explores whether these definitions could be more efficient and intellectually honest …
Copyright Complements And Piracy-Induced Deadweight Loss, 2015 Stanford University
Copyright Complements And Piracy-Induced Deadweight Loss, Jiarui (Jerry) Liu
Indiana Law Journal
Conventional wisdom suggests that copyright piracy may in effect reduce the deadweight loss resulting from copyright protection because it allows the public unlimited access to information goods at a price closer to marginal cost. It has been further contended that lower copyright protection would benefit society as a whole, as long as authors continue to receive sufficient incentives from alternative revenue streams in ancillary markets, for example, touring, advertising, and merchandizing. By evaluating the empirical evidence from the music, performance, and video game markets, this Article highlights a counterintuitive yet important point: copyright piracy, while decreasing the deadweight loss in …
The Medical Liability Exemption: A Path To Affordable Pharmaceuticals, 2015 Florida State University College of Law
The Medical Liability Exemption: A Path To Affordable Pharmaceuticals, Carrie E. Rosato
Florida State University Law Review
Patent monopolies are tolerated because we believe they promote progress that benefits society. What should be done when these monopolies actually increase human suffering? Drug prices in America are fifty to eighty percent higher than the rest of the world, meaning many cannot afford drugs that will improve or even save their lives. When striking a balance between the interests of the patent holder and that of the public, it is important to bear in mind that the rewards granted to patentees are secondary to the public benefit derived from their labors. The ideal solution would come from Congress creating …
Trade Secret Fair Use, 2015 St. John’s University School of Law
Trade Secret Fair Use, Deepa Varadarajan
Deepa Varadarajan
Trade secret law arose to help companies protect confidential information (e.g., the Coca-Cola formula) from competitors seeking to copy their innovative efforts. But companies increasingly use trade secret law to block a wide swath of information from the scrutinizing eyes of consumers, public watchdog groups, and potential improvers. Companies can do this, in part, because trade secret law lacks clear limiting doctrines that consider the social benefits of unauthorized use. For example, trade secret law makes no allowance for the departing employee that uses proprietary information to create a substantially improved product or disclose public health risks. This Article argues …
A Trade Secret Approach To Protecting Traditional Knowledge, 2015 St. John's University - New York
A Trade Secret Approach To Protecting Traditional Knowledge, Deepa Varadarajan
Deepa Varadarajan
This Article argues that the doctrinal and normative divide between traditional knowledge protection and intellectual property law has been overemphasized, and that trade secret law can help narrow it. First, in terms of doctrinal fit, trade secret doctrine offers a viable model for protecting a subset of traditional knowledge that is not already publicly available. Broadly speaking, trade secret law imposes liability for the wrongful acquisition, use, or disclosure of valuable information that is the subject of reasonable secrecy efforts. Second, in addition to its practical import, the underlying justifications of trade secret law offer a useful normative guide for …
Privatizing Human Rights? Creating Intellectual Property Rights From Human Rights Principles, 2015 The University of Akron
Privatizing Human Rights? Creating Intellectual Property Rights From Human Rights Principles, David S. Welkowitz
Akron Law Review
This article focuses on one human rights treaty, the Convention, and the possible uses of its provisions to secure and expand intellectual property rights (“IP rights”). Although the Convention does not contain any provision specifically referencing IP rights, it does contain several provisions that could be used to expand IP rights. Furthermore, the existence of a substantial body of interpretive case law from the ECHR affords us a more detailed perspective on the manner in which the Convention could be used to further IP rights. Finally, the group of countries adhering to the Convention, though all part of Europe, represent …
When Tigers Bare Teeth: A Qualitative Study Of University Patent Enforcement, 2015 The University of Akron
When Tigers Bare Teeth: A Qualitative Study Of University Patent Enforcement, Jacob H. Rooksby
Akron Law Review
Part I provides a brief background on patent infringement litigation involving university plaintiffs, including information on the activity’s costs, historical incidence, and how leading voices within the technology transfer community view the activity. Part II details the methodology used in the study conducted for this article. It describes the research questions that guided the study, its theoretical framework, information on participants and how they were selected for inclusion, and other information concerning data collection. Finally, Part III presents and discusses the study’s findings, which are arrayed thematically.
Beyond Incentives: Expanding The Theoretical Framework For Patent Law Analysis, 2015 The University of Akron
Beyond Incentives: Expanding The Theoretical Framework For Patent Law Analysis, Ofer Tur-Sinai
Akron Law Review
This Article challenges this one-dimensional approach and calls for a more frequent use of non-utilitarian considerations in discussions of the patent system. To be sure, this Article does not call for the complete abolition of economic analysis of patent law, which, despite its shortcomings, remains the most important tool in the evaluation of legal rules in this arena, where the vast majority of the players are motivated primarily by economic considerations. However, it does call for a broader use of non-economic considerations, particularly those embedded in the labor theory and the personality theory, alongside the economic analysis. As will be …
Initial Impressions: Trademark Protection For Abbreviations Of Generic Or Descriptive Terms, 2015 The University of Akron
Initial Impressions: Trademark Protection For Abbreviations Of Generic Or Descriptive Terms, Mary Lafrance
Akron Law Review
This article compares the approaches which different federal courts have adopted to address the distinctiveness of abbreviations where the underlying expression or information conveyed by the abbreviation is unprotectable either because it is generic or because it is descriptive and lacks secondary meaning. While this study is not intended as a comprehensive survey, it is designed to highlight the inconsistencies in approaches. The article concludes with some observations about the patterns and trends emerging from the unsettled decisional law.
Second Level Agreements, 2015 The University of Akron
Second Level Agreements, Yafit Lev-Aretz
Akron Law Review
This Article analyzes in-depth a significant practice that has not been recognized in legal scholarship. Their unique structure and the way in which Second Level Agreements have developed within the relatively short time of their existence have important consequences for the various players in the copyright market...The Article also offers a normative assessment of the benefits and shortcomings of the Second Level Agreements practice...The Article then carefully looks at the future of Second Level Agreements while reviewing four potential catalysts—the shift towards premium content, the Viacom v. Google ruling, the move towards disintermediation, and the rise of noncommercial licensing system. …
Sirius Xm Radio, Inc., Defendant: The Case For A Unified Federal Copyright System For Sound Recordings, 2015 Pace University School of Law
Sirius Xm Radio, Inc., Defendant: The Case For A Unified Federal Copyright System For Sound Recordings, Brian G. Shaffer
Pace Law Review
This article observes the surviving gap between state and federal protection of music recordings through the lens of the current litigation against Sirius XM. Part II sets out a history of copyright protection in the music industry. Part III outlines the relevant provisions of the federal Copyright Act and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the role played in the federal system by the Copyright Royalty Board. Part IV examines the pertinent statutory property protection of music recordings in the state of California. Part V then discusses the merits of the current lawsuits against Sirius XM. After considering the potential …
Copyright Protection Of Photographs Post-2012, 2015 Western University
Copyright Protection Of Photographs Post-2012, Margaret Ann Wilkinson
Margaret Ann Wilkinson
No abstract provided.
When Nominal Is Reasonable: Damages For The Unpracticed Patent, 2015 Cornell Law School
When Nominal Is Reasonable: Damages For The Unpracticed Patent, Oskar Liivak
Oskar Liivak
To obtain a substantial patent damage award a patentee need not commercialize the patented invention; the patentee need only show that its patent was infringed. This surely incentivizes patenting but it dis-incentivizes innovation. Why commercialize yourself? The law allows you to wait for others to take the risks, and then you emerge later to lay claim to “in no event less than a reasonable” fraction of other people’s successes. It is rational to be a patent troll rather than an innovator. This troll-enabling interpretation of patent law’s reasonable royalty provision, however, is wrong as a matter of patent policy. Surprisingly, …
Ola Spring Copyright Symposium, 2015 Western University
Ola Spring Copyright Symposium, Margaret Ann Wilkinson
Margaret Ann Wilkinson
No abstract provided.
Freedom In My Heart, 2015 Software Freedom Conservancy
Aereo, In-Line Linking, And A New Approach To Copyright Infringement For Emerging Technologies, 2015 The Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law
Aereo, In-Line Linking, And A New Approach To Copyright Infringement For Emerging Technologies, Shannon Mcgovern
Catholic University Law Review
In an ever-changing technological landscape, strictly adhering to the language and definitions of the Copyright Act in cases involving emerging technologies may contravene the purpose and intent of copyright law. However, the Supreme Court’s 2014 opinion in American Broadcasting Cos. v. Aereo Inc. puts forth a commercial interest rationale that suggests copyright infringers may no longer be able to avoid liability based on perceived technological loopholes that have typically absolved online infringers of infringement liability. This Note argues that Aereo’s commercial interest rationale paves the way for a new approach to technologically complex copyright cases, particularly where in-line linking …