Law Commons^™

Cutting Out The Middleman: Why "Look And Feel" Should Be Ignored In Trade Dress Law, Nicholas Dimarino

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

Part I of this Note discusses the background and elements of general trade dress law. Part II discusses the narrower issue of "look and feel" in the context of websites and outlines how courts have currently addressed the "look and feel" issue. Part III proposes that courts ignore the artificial "look and feel" distinction and instead apply normal trade dress analyses and elements. This solution, which requires that courts adhere to a workable standard that serves the underlying purpose of trade dress law, allows recognition of the distinctive characteristics of website trade dress claims, while reducing the risk of …

Protecting American Innovators By Combating The Decline Of Patents Granted To Small Entities, W. Keith Robinson

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

Part I of this Article discusses the current state of the U.S. patent system and reviews some of the challenges entrepreneurs and small entities face regarding patenting their inventions. Part II reviews some patent reform proposals and existing programs and discusses their impact on small entities. Part III highlights the current USPTO examination programs and discusses the effectiveness of the various programs. Part IV sets forth the proposed program, prioritizing a select number of patent applications where the inventor is an entrepreneur or small entity. The Article concludes in Part V, which suggests how patent stakeholders, including the USPTO, …

Copyright Policy And The Problem Of Generalizing, Eva E. Subotnik

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

Today we have heard a variety of concerns expressed by professional authors, artists and performers. But one of the toughest aspects of determining how to make the copyright system work better is generalizing about what is and is not working. In these brief remarks, I would like to identify three areas that demonstrate this difficulty.

At the outset, a disclaimer: I took the animating theme of this Symposium to be the improvement of the financial stake of individual authors in some kind of direct way. This mode of analysis should be distinguished from other approaches, equally valid, that would …

Whether Rejection Of A Trademark License Agreement Terminates The Licensee's Rights To Use The Trademark, Crystal Lawson

Bankruptcy Research Library

(Excerpt)

Section 365(a) of the Bankruptcy Code sets forth the basic power of a trustee in bankruptcy or a debtor in possession to assume or reject an executory contract. A debtor's ability to assume or reject an executory contract allows a debtor to keep favorable contracts and to discard burdensome contracts, subject to the bankruptcy court’s approval. The bankruptcy court will apply a two-part test to determine whether assumption or rejection should be allowed. First the court will determine whether the contract is executory. If the court determines that the contract is executory, the court will then determine whether assumption …

Copyright And The Living Dead?: Succession Law And The Postmortem Term, Eva E. Subotnik

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

Intellectual property (“IP”) policy in the United States is primarily aimed at stimulating the creative, inventive, and socially enriching behavior of the living. Yet one key aspect of our incentive-based regime is intimately linked to the death of the creative contributor. Specifically, the term of copyright generally lasts for seventy years following the death of the author. Such a feature is not the product of policy choices in place from time immemorial but rather reflects a contemporary decision to link the duration of exclusive rights to some fixed point in time beyond the author’s death. In particular, until the …

Identity Property: Protecting The New Ip In A Race-Relevant World, Philip Lee

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

This Article explores the relatively new idea in American legal thought that people of color are human beings whose dignity and selfhood are worthy of legal protection. While the value and protection of whiteness throughout American legal history is undeniable, non-whiteness has had a more turbulent history. For most of American history, the concept of non-whiteness was constructed by white society and reinforced by law—i.e., through a process of socio-legal construction—in a way that excluded its possessor from the fruits of citizenship. However, people of color have resisted this negative construction of selfhood. This resistance led to the development …