Digital Commons Network^™

Some Legal Aspects Of The Pan-American Copyright Convention Of 1946, Bryce Rea, Jr.

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Implied Warranties Of Non-Infringement, Louis Robertson

Michigan Law Review

When a manufacturer or dealer sells a product, is there an implied warranty that the product does not infringe adversely-owned patents? In other words, does the purchaser who is successfully sued for infringement have the right, without an indemnity clause, to be indemnified by the seller?

Many lawyers, especially patent lawyers, who are accustomed to advising the insertion of express patent warranties in sales contracts to take care of the matter, have answered this question instantly and positively in the negative, and it is quite possible that according to fundamental principles of implied warranties they are right, and yet all …

Recent Developments In Patent Law, Arthur M. Smith

Michigan Law Review

The framers of the Federal Constitution shared with Thomas Jefferson his "wish to see new inventions encouraged, and old ones brought again info useful notice." Their concern for the public welfare caused many, including Jefferson, to question the wisdom of using a limited monopoly to encourage such inventions.

Judicial Legislation-Patent Law-Has The Doctrine Of Contributory Infringement Been Repudiated?, John B. Waite

Michigan Law Review

When leaders quarrel the rank and file may flounder; and, in their recent decision of Mercoid Corp. v. Mid-Continent Investment Co., the justices of the Supreme Court have created confusion for lawyers. Four of the seven opinions clearly express intent to promulgate a new rule of law; two deny that intent; one is indefinite; and the purpose of the Court as a whole is left in doubt. Though the decision affects only the patent law, the process of decision concerns every lawyer.

Abstracts, Katherine Kempfer

Michigan Law Review

The abstracts consist merely of summaries of the facts and holdings of recent cases and are distinguished from the notes by the absence of discussion.

Trade Restraints - Resale Price Maintenance - Use Of Competitors As Agents, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Masonite Corporation, the principal defendant, manufactured and sold for construction purposes a patented wood product known as "hardboard." The other defendants sold, and many of them manufactured, building materials, several having patents that competed with Masonite. After a short period of patent litigation between Masonite and one of its chief competitors, a plan was devised and gradually extended to the other defendants, by which the latter were constituted the del credere agents of Masonite to sell its product at prices and according to terms which it should establish. The agents were not to use the trademarks of Masonite; and the …

Copyright Of Statute Compilations, Robert M. Spragens

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Compilations As Subjects For Copyright, Mary Barton Jackson

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Validity Of Conditions In Patent Licenses, John Barker Waite

Michigan Law Review

In discussing this subject one can still begin with the premise that in this country a patentee possesses the absolute right to preclude anyone, except the United States government, from making use of his invention.

Patents - Validity Of Contracts To Assign Employee's Future Inventions To Employer, Lloyd M. Forster

Michigan Law Review

The relative rights of employer and employee to the fruits of the employee's inventive genius have become increasingly important. In deciding these rights the courts have shown a marked tendency to favor the employee, possibly to compensate for the superior bargaining power of the employer. They have been anxious to limit the rights in the employer implied by the relationship of the parties. Contractual ambiguities have been construed in favor of the employee to a far greater extent than is called for by the rule of construction against the party drawing the contract. Unusual rights in the employer must be …

"Cola" Not Enjoined As Mark Or Name

Indiana Law Journal

Notes and Comments: Trade Regulation

Patent Law - Conditions In Leases Made By Patentee To His Licensees - Suits For Direct Infringement, Brooks F. Crabtree

Michigan Law Review

Respondent manufactured and leased patented devices used in the canning industry for depositing salt tablets. One condition in the leases for these machines required licensees to use with the patented machines only tablets sold by respondent's subsidiary. Respondent sued in the district court for an injunction and an accounting for infringement of its patent by petitioner, who manufactured and leased infringing salt-depositing machines. Upon petitioner's motion to dismiss on the ground that respondent was making use of its patent to restrain the sale of salt tablets in competition with its own sale of unpatented tablets, the trial court granted a …

The Law On Abridgment Of Copyrighted Literary Material, Harry W. Roberts Jr.

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Judgments - Propriety Of Finding That A Nonparty Conducted The Defense, David N. Mills

Michigan Law Review

A patent infringement suit against a distributor was dismissed on the ground that plaintiff's patents were invalid. A finding was incorporated in the judgment that the defense had been "openly and avowedly conducted" by the manufacturer of the article distributed by defendant. Plaintiff objected that the finding "on its face would be a valid estoppel" in case plaintiff later wished to sue the manufacturer in a separate suit. Held, that plaintiff was entitled to have the finding deleted from the judgment since the finding was not necessary to a disposition of the issues between plaintiff and defendant. Minneapolis- Honeywell …

Trade Marks And Trade Names - Unauthorized Use Of Registered Vessels - Search Warrant, Reed T. Phalan

Michigan Law Review

A number of milk bottles bearing registered marks of various dairies were seized from the possession of plaintiff dairyman by defendant deputy sheriff, under a search warrant issued by defendant district judge, upon affidavit and showing by defendant deputy commissioner of agriculture that the bottles were being unlawfully used. Notice was given of a hearing to be held before the judge to determine the persons entitled to possession of the seized property. Plaintiff brought this action for an original writ of prohibition to restrain further proceedings, charging that the search warrant section of the statute under which the proceedings were …

Judgments - Declaratory Judgments - Availability To Alleged Infringers In Patent Cases, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

In addition to an injunction and an accounting, the prayer of the plaintiff requested a declaratory judgment to determine the plaintiff's rights in relation to a patent of the defendant. The petition alleged the plaintiff was importing and offering for sale a chemical called "Estradoil," and that the defendant had notified the plaintiff's customers that the chemical infringed the defendant's patent. A year prior to the action, the defendant had published a notice in a trade journal stating that a certain patent had been issued to it which covered the chemical known as "Estradoil," and that any use of the …

Trade Restraints - Associations Of Manufacturers To Combat Style Piracy - Illegal Restraints Of Trade, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

In order to combat the practice of "style piracy" among competitors, a large number of producers of women's coats and dresses formed an association, whose membership was composed of designers, manufacturers, and distributors. Producers adjudged copyists by the association were not permitted membership. The clear purpose of the association was primarily to boycott retailers who refused to deal solely with members of the association, and secondarily to boycott, and eliminate competition from, the copyists. In addition there was provided a system of registration for designs made by members, and a judicial type of machinery for protecting the designers' interest therein. …

Trade Marks And Trade Names - Unfair Competition - Restrictions On Use Of Personal Name, Reed T. Phalan

Michigan Law Review

For many years plaintiff and its predecessors used the name "Dougherty's" in marketing straight whiskey throughout the United States. In 1939 defendant, Edwin L. Dougherty, began selling blended whiskey in Pennsylvania, likewise using the name "Dougherty's," to dominate his labels, and in 1940, pursuant to a previously formed intention, plaintiff began selling blended whiskey under the same name. Plaintiff brought an action to enjoin defendant's use of the name "Dougherty's." Held, through plaintiff's prior use, the name "Dougherty's" had come to be associated by the purchasing public with plaintiff's whiskey; therefore defendant's use of the same name to dominate …

Use Of The Doctrine Of Unfair Competition To Supplement Copyright In The Protection Of Literary And Musical Property, Paul Leo Oberst

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Present Status Of The Sherman Act, Robert W. Harbeson

Michigan Law Review

Two circumstances may be advanced by way of justification for the present addition to the voluminous literature dealing with the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. First, the Supreme Court has in recent months handed down two decisions involving the application of the Sherman Act to the oil industry, which are of great importance both because of their sweeping application to marketing practices in that industry and because of the directness with which they raise certain issues of economic theory and policy. Second, the fiftieth anniversary of the Sherman Act on July 2, 1940 provides an appropriate occasion for a review of the …

Rights Of Recording Orchestras Against Radio Stations Using Records For Broadcast Purposes

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Patents-Reissues-Intervening Rights

Indiana Law Journal

Recent Case Notes

Unfair Competition - Trade Marks And Trade Names -Nature Of Relief Against The Use Of A Misleading Trade Name Which Has Acquired A Secondary Meaning, Harold M. Street

Michigan Law Review

The petitioner, a Pennsylvania manufacturer of cigars which contained only Pennsylvania tobacco, but which it had branded "Havana Smokers" since 1902, was ordered by the Federal Trade Commission to cease and desist from using the word "Havana" to designate its product. The petitioner claimed that the brand had acquired a secondary meaning and asked the court to modify the order to permit retention of the word "Havana" qualified by the legend: "Notice. These cigars are made in the United States and only of United States tobacco." Held, the name so used might result in misrepresentation and its use must …

Federal Courts - Appeal And Error - Does A Statute Which Authorizes An Interlocutory Appeal Require Such Appeal?, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A bill seeking an injunction and an accounting was filed in a United States district court for alleged infringement by defendant of plaintiff's rights in the words of a song. Defendant's appeal from a decree enjoining further use of the song and directing an accounting for profits was denied, because the appeal had been taken more than thirty days after its entry and so the circuit court of appeals was without jurisdiction. The case proceeded to an accounting in the district court, and a final decree was entered from which defendant appealed again to the circuit court. Held, the …

Copyright Law--Musical Style Piracy--Possible Methods Of Legal Protection For The Musical Stylist, John L. Young

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Trade Restraints- Equitable Servitude On Chattels - Radio Broadcast Of Electrical Transcriptions, Roy L. Steinheimer

Michigan Law Review

A popular orchestra leader made certain electrical transcriptions (not records) of unique interpretations of different musical numbers which were distributed, for a consideration, for radio broadcast on the Ford Motor Program. A notice appears on the transcription that it is to be used only by a distributee station and then only on the Ford Program. Defendant, who is not a distributee, broadcast one of these transcriptions without the plaintiff's consent. Plaintiff sued to enjoin rendition of the transcriptions. Held, that the injunction should be granted because there was a proprietary interest in the plaintiff's rendition of these musical numbers, …

Patents - Right Of Patentee To Restrict Manufacture, Use, And Sale Of Patented Device, Collins E. Brooks

Michigan Law Review

The patent laws of the United States grant to a patentee the "exclusive right to make, use, and vend the invention or discovery . . . throughout the United States and the Territories thereof . . . . " Much litigation has arisen over the extent of the monopoly thus granted a patentee, but even at this late date it is not too clearly defined. The question came up anew in the case of General Talking Pictures Corp. v. Western Electric Co., where the owner of a patent on a device used in sound reproduction and broadcast reception had …

The Measure Of Recovery In Actions For The Infringement Of Copyright, Julian Caplan

Michigan Law Review

Since the present federal copyright statute was enacted in 1909, and especially quite recently, there have been repeated attempts at drastic modification of the law. Certain groups contend that the present statutory provisions are not of sufficient protection to the copyright proprietor, whereas other groups contend that the extent of the protection is entirely unwarranted. One of the chief phases of controversy has involved the measure of recovery in suits for infringement. The issue is of fundamental importance, since the measure of damages determines to a large extent how effective the other provisions of the statute will be. Whether, under …

Radio Broadcasting As An Infringement Of A Copyright, Steven L. Bladek

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Copyright Protection Of Advertising, Joseph S. Freeland

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.