Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

Regulation And The Marginalist Revolution, Herbert J. Hovenkamp

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law

The marginalist revolution in economics became the foundation for the modern regulatory State with its “mixed” economy. Marginalism, whose development defines the boundary between classical political economy and neoclassical economics, completely overturned economists’ theory of value. It developed in the late nineteenth century in England, the Continent and the United States. For the classical political economists, value was a function of past averages. One good example is the wage-fund theory, which saw the optimal rate of wages as a function of the firm’s ability to save from previous profits. Another is the theory of corporate finance, which assessed a ...

Digitalcommons Users Discuss The Bepress Acquisition, Paul Royster, Roger Weaver, Marilyn Billings, Phillip Fitzsimmons, Terri Fishel

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

Since the acquisition of the Berkeley Electronic Press (bepress) by Elsevier last summer, there has been much discussion online, in listserves, and elsewhere about what that development means for the future of open access and scholarly communications. The people most directly affected are the users of the bepress DigitalCommons repository hosting service. Some have recoiled in horror at the new ownership situation, others are waiting to see what happens next. This is a panel discussion by current users concerning what they see in the road ahead, including what they regard as essential services, possible options, functionality requirements, and necessary safeguards.

What We Don't See When We See Copyright As Property, Jessica Litman

Law & Economics Working Papers

It is becoming increasingly clear that the supposed copyright wars that copyright scholars believed we were fighting – nominally pitting the interests of authors and creators against the interests of readers and other members of the audience – were never really about that at all. Instead the real conflict has been between the publishers, record labels, movie studios, and other intermediaries who rose to market dominance in the 20th century, and the digital services and platforms that have become increasingly powerful copyright players in the 21st. In this essay, adapted from the 13th annual University of Cambridge Center for Intellectual Property and ...

Monitoring Behavior: Universities, Nonprofits, Patents, And Litigation, Teo Firpo, Michael S. Mireles

SMU Law Review

This paper examines the confluence of two important issues concerning patent law. The two issues are the merits of the debate concerning the supposed “patent troll” crisis and the increased patenting and licensing of university and other nonprofit inventions, including the litigation of those patents.

First, there is a debate in the literature concerning the presence and scope of the problem concerning so-called “patent trolls.” To some, supposed “patent troll” behavior is ordinary litigation behavior, and to others, it points to problems with the patent litigation system. Indeed, some may argue that the benefits of “patent trolls” may outweigh the ...

Innovation And Tradition: A Survey Of Intellectual Property And Technology Legal Clinics, Cynthia L. Dahl, Victoria F. Phillips

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law

For artists, nonprofits, community organizations and small-business clients of limited means, securing intellectual property rights and getting counseling involving patent, copyright and trademark law are critical to their success and growth. These clients need expert IP and technology legal assistance, but very often cannot afford services in the legal marketplace. In addition, legal services and state bar pro bono programs have generally been ill-equipped to assist in these more specialized areas. An expanding community of IP and Technology clinics has emerged across the country to meet these needs. But while law review articles have described and examined other sectors of ...

Non-Practicing Entities & Patent Reform, Nicholas Douglas

Pace Law Review

The patent system is designed to promote innovation and supply a blueprint for innovative minds to improve upon, but the behavior of some patent owners is contrary to these principles. Non-practicing entities obtain patent rights, and rather than produce the product claimed in the patent, they assert their exclusionary rights broadly and aggressively against businesses producing similar products in order to induce settlement or licensing payments. These assertions account for a significant percentage of infringement claims and threaten a potentially innocent business with expensive litigation. The actions of these entities have a substantial effect on the patent system and have ...

The History Of U.S. Copyright Law And Disney’S Involvement In Copyright Term Extension, Clarissa Anderson

Honors Theses AY 17/18

Copyright term extension is often a contentious topic among copyright owners, corporate lobbyists, and opponents of copyright extension. The history of copyright law spans more than 225 years and has always been an ever-evolving process. The Copyright Act of 1790 was the first statute in the United States to identify definite provisions of copyright law and permitted authors the right to their intellectual property for a duration of 14 years. Today, depending on the type of work, copyright terms can reach up to 120 years. Historically, Disney has been exceedingly protective of their intellectual property and is a prominent supporter ...

The Blessing Of Talent And The Curse Of Poverty: Rectifying Copyright Law's Implementation Of Authors' Material Interests In International Human Rights Law, Saleh Al-Sharieh

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) grants authors the right to the protection of the material interests resulting from their intellectual works. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights interpreted these interests to comprise the ability to achieve an adequate standard of living (as a minimum). This paper argues that copyright law provides a useful yet incomplete model for the protection of authors’ material interests. Copyright creates the legal environment necessary for establishing a market for intellectual works but does not guarantee its benefits to authors. Therefore, States Parties to the ICESCR should both tailor ...

An Ethical Framework For Library Publishing: Version 0.5 (Draft For Comment), Jason Boczar, Charlotte Roh, Melanie Schlosser, Nina Collins, Rebel Cummings-Sauls, Terri Fishel, Valerie Horton, Harrison Inefuku, Sarah Melton, Joshua Neds-Fox, Wendy C. Robertson, Jaclyn Sipovic, Camille Thomas

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

Background: At the Library Publishing Coalition (LPC) Membership Meeting at the 2017 Library Publishing Forum in Baltimore, Maryland, the community discussed how the LPC can respond to the current political climate. The discussion was wide-ranging, but kept coming back to the importance of library values and our responsibility as library publishers to center our publishing practice around them. A number of those present offered to devise a way for the conversation to continue beyond the Forum. That group included Marilyn Billings, Jason Boczar, Rebel Cummings-Sauls, Harrison W. Inefuku, Joshua Neds-Fox, Matt Ruen, Emily Stenberg, and Monica Westin, who proposed a ...

“Wake Up, Mr. West!”: Distinguishing Albums And Compilations For Statutory Damages In Copyright Within A Streaming–Centric Music Economy, Tyler Laurence

University of Miami Business Law Review

The concept of the music album has been a vital cornerstone of the recorded music industry since its adoption in the form of the long–play vinyl record in 1948. For over sixty years, the ability for artists to package a cohesive collection of performances has remained of paramount priority and an art within itself, notwithstanding the flurry of technological innovations that have altered the album’s size, shape, length, and interactivity. These collections of songs have even withstood the so–called “era of unbundilization,” as digital music services declared a new piecemeal distribution standard of albums through the turn ...

State Biotechnology Oversight: The Juncture Of Technology, Law, And Public Policy, Christine C. Vito Ph.D.

Maine Law Review

In a 1980 landmark decision, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that genetically engineered lifeforms such as bacteria were patentable. The significance of this decision to the emerging biotechnology industry—an industry predicated on intellectual property rights—was incalculable. The characteristically research-intensive, capital-intensive biotechnology industry now had the economic incentive to push the technology of genetic engineering to previously unimagined extremes. The genetic engineering and recombinant DNA applications pursued by the biotechnology industry over the past ten years have engendered a spectrum of perplexing inquiries concerning ethical and moral values; agricultural, ecological and environmental matters; global competitiveness and ...

Taking Ai Personally: How The E.U. Must Learn To Balance The Interests Of Personal Data Privacy & Artificial Intelligence, Matthew Humerick

Santa Clara High Technology Law Journal

Taking AI Personally: How the E.U. Must Learn to Balance the Interests of Personal Data Privacy & Artificial Intelligence

Mei-Gsr Holdings, Llc V. Peppermill Casinos, Inc., 134 Nev. Adv. Op. 31 (May 3, 2018), Joseph K. Fabbi

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court held that jury instructions must be aligned with a Nevada statute if the Nevada statute has plain meaning via “facially clear” language. Further, the Court determined there must be discretionary abuse by a district court if an appellate court over rules its decision regarding a motion to amend, a motion to compel discovery, a motion for case concluding sanctions, or a motion in limine regarding evidence. The Court concluded that NRS 600A.060 does not preclude a court from awarding attorney fees via other appropriate statutes.

The Contract Exception To The Uniform Trade Secrets Act And Its Implications For The Federal Defend Trade Secrets Act, Richard F. Dole, Jr.

Santa Clara High Technology Law Journal

The Contract Exception to the Uniform Trade Secrets Act and Its Implications for the Federal Defend Trade Secrets Act

Ip Law Book Review, Vol. 8 #2, William T. Gallagher

Intellectual Property Law

THE BRANDING OF THE AMERICAN MIND: HOW UNIVERSITIES CAPTURE, MANAGE, AND MONETIZE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND WHY IT MATTERS, by Jacob Rooksby. Reviewed by Liza Vertinsky, Emory University School of Law

ILLEGAL LITERATURE: TOWARD A DISRUPTIVE CREATIVITY by David S. Roh. Reviewed by Shubha Ghosh, Syracuse University College of Law

ARTISTIC LICENSE: THE PHILOSOPHICAL PROBLEMS OF COPYRIGHT AND APPROPRIATION, by Darren Hudson Hick. Reviewed by Shubha Ghosh, Syracuse University College of Law

THE LAW AND PRACTICE OF TRADEMARK TRANSACTIONS: A GLOBAL AND LOCAL OUTLOOK, edited by Irene Calboli and Jacques de Werra. Reviewed by Jake Linford, Florida State University College of ...

A (Thigh) Gap In The Law: Addressing Egregious Digital Manipulation Of Celebrity Images, Jessica L. Williams-Vickery

Georgia State University Law Review

In 2012, world-renowned supermodel Coco Rocha agreed to be photographed for the cover of one of Elle’s magazine publications, Elle Brazil. Rocha posed for the pictures in a dress with significant cutouts, covered only by a sheer layer of skin-toned fabric. In keeping with her firm policy of no full or partial nudity, Rocha wore a bodysuit underneath the dress to limit her exposure. When Elle published the magazine, the final product shocked Rocha; the magazine had altered the image to remove her bodysuit, giving the impression Rocha had shown more skin than she in fact had. Rocha took ...

The House Advantage: Trade Secret Protections On The Casino Floor, Kevin Johnson

UNLV Gaming Law Journal

No abstract provided.

What's In A Game: Collective Management Organizations And Video Game Copyright, Tori Allen

UNLV Gaming Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Return Of The Plague: Inequitable Conduct After Regeneron V. Merus, Matthew Avery, Matthew Kempf, Amy Liang

Santa Clara High Technology Law Journal

The Return of the Plague: Inequitable Conduct After Regeneron V. Merus

Considerations Regarding A Canadian Patent Collective, Jorge L. Contreras

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

In its 2018 budget, the Government of Canada pledged CDN$85.3 million over five years to support an ambitious new intellectual property (IP) strategy, including CDN$30 million for the formation of a Canadian “Patent Collective.” This paper explores the possible structure and goals of such a collective, as well as potential risks and challenges of each. It concludes that appreciable technology development by Canadian firms is not likely to be achieved through the proposed patent collective, but that such a collective could assist Canadian firms by facilitating their participation in existing international defensive patent networks. The paper recommends ...