Digital Commons Network^™

3d Printing And Healthcare: Will Laws, Lawyers, And Companies Stand In The Way Of Patient Care?, Evan R. Youngstrom

Evan R. Youngstrom

Today, our society is on a precipice of significant advancement in healthcare because 3D printing will usher in the next generation of medicine. The next generation will be driven by customization, which will allow doctors to replace limbs and individualize drugs. However, the next generation will be without large pharmaceutical companies and their justifications for strong intellectual property rights. However, the current patent system (which is underpinned by a social tradeoff made from property incentives) is not flexible enough to cope with 3D printing’s rapid development. Very soon, the social tradeoff will no longer benefit society, so it must be …

The Biblical Fool And The Brander: The Law And Economics Of Propertization In American Trademark Law, William P. Kratzke

William P. Kratzke

Isaiah 35:8, which tells of “fools” upon a highway who shall not err, became authority for the position that the Federal Trade Commission should protect fools from deception. This Article examines the Biblical passage in context and concludes that it does not support protection of unthinking, credulous people. Ensuing FTC orders based on witnesses’ speculation of how fools would construe particular claims actually harmed fools. The FTC retreated. Unfortunately, the objective of protecting fools from deception has taken over § 43(a) Lanham Act jurisprudence – but now sellers speculate in competitor lawsuits how fools will construe competitors’ claims and undertake …

Artificial Intelligence, Robotics And The Next Transformative Technology, Woodrow Barfield

Woodrow Barfield

No abstract provided.

You Can't Sit With Us: Furniture's Future In Fighting Phonies, Katia N. Alcantar

Katia N. Alcantar

There are countless ways to design a chair. The designer of the chair on which you are currently sitting may have designed it for style, comfort, utility, or all of the above. The more consumers enjoy the design, the more likely the designer will want to protect his intellectual property through trade dress to combat knockoffs, preserve his exclusive right to distinguish his product, and prevent other companies from free-riding on his marketing expenditures. The more functional the chair’s design, however, the less likely it will acquire trade dress. Indeed, some legal scholars believe that there is no possibility of …

Some Key Things Entrepreneurs Need To Know About The Law And Lawyers, Lawrence J. Trautman, Anthony Luppino, Malika S. Simmons

Lawrence J. Trautman Sr.

New business formation is a powerful economic engine that creates jobs. Diverse legal issues are encountered as a start-up entity approaches formation, initial capitalization and fundraising, arrangements with employees and independent contractors, and relationships with other third parties. The endeavors of a typical start-up in the United States will likely implicate many of the following areas of law: intellectual property; business organizations; tax laws; employment and labor laws; securities regulation; contracts and licensing agreements; commercial sales; debtor-creditor relations; real estate law; health and safety laws/codes; permits and licenses; environmental protection; industry specific regulatory laws and approval processes; tort/personal injury, products …

Doctrinal Approaches To The Animal Breeders’ Rights Granting, Diana V. Ivanova Dr., Julia A. Fedorova

Diana V. Ivanova Dr.

In the paper we analyze foreign and national doctrinal approaches to the animal breeders’ rights granting. Its genesis, legal nature of animal breed, and location of related legal norms are considered. We try to justify the possibility of granting animal breeders’ rights in the Republic of Belarus.

On Climate Change And Cyber Attacks: Leveraging Polycentric Governance To Mitigate Global Collective Action Problems, Scott J. Shackelford

Scott Shackelford

Although the atmosphere and cyberspace are distinct arenas, they share similar problems of overuse, difficulties of enforcement, and the associated challenges of collective inaction and free riders. Moreover, “[m]illions of actors affect the global atmosphere[,]” just as they do the Internet. With weather patterns changing, global sea levels rising, and temperatures set to exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2100, climate change is a problem affecting the entire world, but one in which the benefits are dispersed and the harms are often concentrated. Similarly, much of the cost of cyber attacks is focused in a relatively small number of nations even …

Copyright In Pantomime

Brian L. Frye

Why does the Copyright Act specifically provide for the protection of “pantomimes”? This article shows that the Copyright Act of 1976 amended the subject matter of copyright to include pantomimes simply in order to conform it to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. It further shows that the Berlin Act of 1909 amended the Berne Convention to provide for copyright protection of “les pantomimes” and “entertainments in dumb show” in order to ensure copyright protection of silent motion pictures. Unfortunately, the original purpose of providing copyright protection to “pantomimes” was forgotten. This Article argues that …

International Trade V. Intellectual Property Lawyers: Globalization And The Brazilian Legal Profession, Vitor M. Dias

Vitor M. Dias

No abstract provided.

The Evolution Of Internet Service Providers From Partners To Adversaries: Tracking Shifts In Interconnection Goals And Strategies In The Internet’S Fifth Generation, Rob Frieden

Rob Frieden

At the Internet’s inception, carriers providing the bit switching and transmission function largely embraced expanding connections and users as a primary service goal. These ventures refrained from metering traffic and charging for carriage based on the assumption that traffic volumes roughly matched, or that traffic measurement was not worth the bother in light of external funding from government grants. Most Internet Service Providers (“ISPs”) bartered network access through a process known as peering in lieu of metering traffic and billing for network use. As governments removed subsidies and commercial carriers invested substantial funds to build larger and faster networks, identifying …

Network Neutrality And Consumer Demand For “Better Than Best Efforts” Traffic Management, Rob Frieden

Rob Frieden

This paper assesses whether and how ISPs can offer quality of service enhancements, at premium prices for full motion video, while still complying with the new rules and regulations established by the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) in March, 2015. The paper explains that having made the controversial decision to reclassify all forms of Internet access as a telecommunications service, the FCC increases regulatory uncertainty. In particular, the FCC has failed to identify instances where “retail ISPs,” serving residential broadband subscribers, can offer quality of service enhancements that serve real consumer wants without harming competition and the ability of most content …

The World’S Laboratory: China’S Patent Boom, It Standards And The Implications For The Global Knowledge, Christopher Mcelwain, Dennis Fernandez

Christopher McElwain

Just as China’s factories disrupted the economics of IT hardware, its research labs have the potential to disrupt the economics of the technology itself. In 2014, China’s patent office received nearly 2.4 million patent applications, 93% from domestic applicants. China has also climbed to third place in terms of international applications, with over 21,000 WIPO PCT applications. Meanwhile, China has taken an assertive role in setting technology standards, both at the national and international levels. In the past, this has included developing and promoting alternatives to important IT standards as a means of challenging perceived monopolies by certain (foreign-dominated) technologies. …

Ninth Circuit Nine-Plus -- Settling The Law In Internet Keyword Advertising And Trademark Use, Andrew Leahey

Andrew Leahey

No abstract provided.

The Irrelevance Of Nanotechnology Patents, Emily Michiko Morris

Emily Michiko Morris

Once the stuff of science fiction, nanotechnology is now expected to be the next technological revolution, but despite millions of dollars of investment, we still have yet to see the brave new world of cheap energy, cell-specific drug delivery systems, and self-replicating nanobots that nanotechnology promises. Instead, nanotechnology seems to be in a holding pattern, perpetually stuck in the status of “emerging science,” “immature field,” and “new technology” for over three decades now. Why? Professor Mark Lemley and a number of others have suggested that the answer to this puzzling question is simple: nanotechnology differs from the all of the …

From The Unforeseeability Exception To Foreseeability Estoppel: The Federal Circuit’S Effort To Limit The Doctrine Of Equivalents, Ping-Hsun Chen

Ping-Hsun Chen

A person can infringe a patent under the doctrine of equivalents (“DOE”) which may be limited by prosecution history estoppel (“PHE”). The Supreme Court in Festo Corp. v. Shoketsu Kinzoku Kogyo Kabushiki Co., 535 U.S. 722 (2002), finalized the basic doctrine of PHE in the context of claim amendment. A narrowing amendment of a claim results in a presumption that a patentee has surrendered the scope between the original claim and amended claim, but the patentee is allowed to rebut the presumption by proving any of three exceptions. Among those exceptions is the “unforeseeable” exception under which a patentee …

Invisible Labor, Invisible Play: Online Gold Farming And The Boundary Between Jobs And Games, Julian Dibbell

Julian Dibbell

When does work become play, and play work? Courts have considered the question in a variety of economic contexts, from student athletes seeking recognition as employees to professional blackjack players seeking to be treated by casinos just like casual players. Here I apply the question to a relatively novel context: that of online gold farming, a gray-market industry in which wage-earning workers, largely based in China, are paid to play online fantasy games (MMOs) that reward them with virtual items their employers sell for profit to the same games’ casual players. Gold farming is clearly a job (and under the …

Problematic Approaches Of The Joinder Clause Under The America Invents Act By Federal District Courts, Ping-Hsun Chen

Ping-Hsun Chen

Before 35 U.S.C. § 299 was enacted, some minority district courts had permitted joinder of independent defendants only because the same patent was infringed. That gave a great incentive to non-practicing entities to sue as many defendants as possible in one suit. To resolve this problem, Congress created § 299(b) to abrogate the minority view of joinder. The Federal Circuit in In re EMC Corp. also created a test requiring finding of “an actual link between the facts underlying each claim of infringement.” The Federal Circuit provides six EMC factors for lower courts to determine permissive joinder. However, the Eastern …

Prices Versus Prizes: Patents, Public Policy And The Market For Inventions, Daniel F. Spulber

Daniel F Spulber

The article argues that market prices provide far better incentives for invention and innovation than do government prizes. The question of prices versus prizes is important because the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 has established a framework for government prizes. The article finds fundamental flaws in the deadweight welfare loss arguments for replacing market prices with government prizes. The article examines public prizes in comparison to the market for inventions in terms of efficiency in the allocation of inventions. The discussion shows how, in contrast to public prizes, prices in the market for inventions provide guidance for investment in …

Holding Standards For Randsome: A Remedial Perspective On Rand Licensing Commitments, Layne S. Keele

Layne S. Keele

In Apple, Inc. v. Motorola, Inc., 757 F.3d 1286 (Fed. Cir. 2014), the four federal judges who considered the case—Judge Posner by designation at the trial level, and three Federal Circuit judges on appeal—all expressed differing opinions on the question of whether and to what extent extraordinary patent remedies should be available for the infringement of standard-essential patents. This article aims to simplify this muddled and confusing topic.

The article employs a teleological approach, examining the purposes behind remedies in general, the purposes of extraordinary remedies in patent law, and the purposes of RAND commitments (commitments to license standard-essential …

Prerogative, Nationalized: The Social Formation Of Intellectual Property, Laura R. Ford

Laura R Ford

In this article, I offer a “social formation story” (Hirschman & Reed) of the emergence of intellectual property, as a new type of legal property in England. I treat the history of patents and copyrights together, and focus especially on the Constitutional transformations of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries that enabled this new, “intellectual” form of property to finally emerge in the Eighteenth Century. I open and conclude with the cases of Millar v. Taylor (King’s Bench 1769) and Donaldson v. Becket (House of Lords 1774), viewing these as the first cases in which the status of this new type …

From The Unforeseeability Exception To Foreseeability Estoppel: The Federal Circuit’S Effort To Limit The Doctrine Of Equivalents, Ping-Hsun Chen

Ping-Hsun Chen

A person can infringe a patent under the doctrine of equivalents (“DOE”) which may be limited by prosecution history estoppel (“PHE”). The Supreme Court in Festo Corp. v. Shoketsu Kinzoku Kogyo Kabushiki Co., 535 U.S. 722 (2002), finalized the basic doctrine of PHE in the context of claim amendment. A narrowing amendment of a claim results in a presumption that a patentee has surrendered the scope between the original claim and amended claim, but the patentee is allowed to rebut the presumption by proving any of three exceptions. Among those exceptions is the “unforeseeable” exception under which a patentee …

The Right To Read, Lea Shaver

Lea Shaver

Reading – for education and for pleasure – may be framed as a personal indulgence, a moral virtue, or even a civic duty. What are the implications of framing reading as a human right?

Although novel, the rights-based frame finds strong support in international human rights law. The right to read need not be defended as a “new” human right. Rather, it can be located at the intersection of more familiar guarantees. Well-established rights to education, science, culture, and freedom of expression, among others, provide the necessary normative support for recognizing a universal right to read as already implicit in …

The Cost Of Confusion: The Paradox Of Trademarked Pharmaceuticals, Hannah W. Brennan

Hannah W Brennan

The United States spends nearly $1,000 per person annually on drugs—40 percent more than the next highest spender, Canada, and more than twice the amount France and Germany spend. Although myriad factors contribute to high drug spending in the United States, the crucial role that intellectual property laws play in inhibiting access to cheaper, generic medications is among one of the best documented. Yet, for the most part, the discussion of the relationship between intellectual property law and drug spending has centered on patent protection. Recently, however, a few researchers have turned their attention to a different exclusivity—trademark law. New …

Bowman V. Monsanto: A Bellwether For The Emerging Issue Of Patentable Self-Replicating Technologies And Inadvertent Infringement, Christopher M. Holman

Christopher M Holman

The inherent tendency of patented seeds to self-replicate has led to fears that farmers might face liability for inadvertent patent infringement. To address the perceived problem, some have proposed severely limiting the availability of effective patent protection for self-replicating technologies, for example by denying patent rights to “second generation” self-replicating products, or even by broadly declaring such technologies ineligible for patent protection. The fact is, lawsuits against inadvertently infringing farmers remain of largely hypothetical concern. However, changes in the market could soon render such lawsuits a reality. In addressing the resulting policy concerns, the courts and/or Congress have at their …

Sustainable Cybersecurity: Applying Lessons From The Green Movement To Managing Cyber Attacks, Scott J. Shackelford, Tim Fort

Scott Shackelford

According to Frank Montoya, the U.S. National Counterintelligence Chief, “We’re an information-based society now. Information is everything. That makes . . . company executives, the front line – not the support mechanism, the front line – in [determining] what comes.”[1] Chief Montoya’s remarks underscore the central role played by the private sector in ongoing efforts aimed at enhancing cybersecurity, much like the increasingly vital role firms are playing in fostering sustainability. For example, according to Accenture surveys, the number of managers who consider sustainability to be critical to the future success of their organizations jumped from fifty to more …

Making A Mark: Taking A Glance At Trademarks And Graphic Infringement, Heather S. Ray

Heather S Ray

No abstract provided.

Transformative Teaching And Educational Fair Use After Georgia State, Brandon C. Butler

Brandon C. Butler

The Supreme Court has said that copyright’s fair use doctrine is a “First Amendment safety valve” because it ensures that certain crucial cultural activities are not unduly burdened by copyright. While many such activities (criticism, commentary, parody) have benefited from the courts’ increased attention to first amendment values, one such activity, education, has been mired for years in a minimalist, market-based vision of fair use that is largely out of touch with mainstream fair use jurisprudence. The latest installment in the history of educational fair use, the 11th Circuit’s opinion in the Georgia State e-reserves case, may be the last …

Managing Cyberthreat, Lawrence J. Trautman

Lawrence J. Trautman Sr.

Cyber security is an important strategic and governance issue. However, because most corporate CEOs and directors have no formal engineering or information technology training, it is understandable that their lack of actual cybersecurity knowledge is problematic. Particularly among smaller companies having limited resources, knowledge regarding what their enterprise should actually be doing about cybersecurity can’t be all that good. My goal in this article is to explore the unusually complex subject of cybersecurity in a highly readable manner. First, an examination of recent threats is provided. Next, governmental policy initiatives are discussed. Third, some basic tools that can be used …

Toward A State-Centric Cyber Peace? Analyzing The Role Of National Cybersecurity Strategies In Enhancing Global Cybersecurity, Scott J. Shackelford, Andraz Kastelic

Scott Shackelford

There is a growing consensus that nations bear increasing responsibility for enhancing cybersecurity. A related recent trend has been the adoption of long-term strategic plans to help deter, protect, and defend against cyber threats. These national cybersecurity strategies outline a nation’s core values and goals in the realm of cybersecurity law and policy, from mitigating cybercrime and espionage to preparing for cyber warfare. This Article assesses the notion that nations bear the primary responsibility for managing cyber attacks and mitigating cybercrime by analyzing thirty-four national cybersecurity strategies as a vehicle to discover governance trends that could give rise to customary …

A Unified Framework For Rand And Other Reasonable Royalties, Richard J. Gilbert, Jorge L. Contreras

Richard J Gilbert

The framework for calculating “reasonable royalty” patent damages has evolved over the years to a point at which, today, it is viewed by many commentators as potentially misleading and untethered from its original purpose. We offer a proposal to modify the framework for determining reasonable patent royalties that is based on recent scholarly and judicial analyses of standards-essential patents that are subject to commitments to license on terms that are reasonable and non-discriminatory (RAND).

Many standard setting organizations require owners of patents that are essential to a standard to license those patents on RAND terms, but typically offer little specific …