Law Commons^™

Infrostructure(S): Administering Information, Kali Murray

Buffalo Law Review

This Article, Infrostructure(s): Administering Information, considers how authoritative entities generate, manage, and produce informational structures, facilities, and architectures that support market creation and creative economy decision-making between private parties and entities. The term infrostructure, as opposed to other terms, such as infostructure and infosphere, suggests that infrostructures play vital roles in modern democratic life including producing new information resources, facilitating private transactions between private parties, and building the administrative state.

This Article is divided into two parts. Part I discusses how information regulation is mediated through information forms and information systems with a focus on the materialities of information forms …

Generic Ab Initio, James A. Heilpern, Earl Kjar Brown, William G. Eggington, Zachary D. Smith

Buffalo Law Review

From comic conventions to disbanded dioceses, courts continue to struggle with a unique but puzzling question of trademark law. Federal law protects certain terms that refer to a product or service from a specific producer instead of to a product generally. Terms that refer to products are considered generic and cannot receive protection. Courts have also held that a term that was generic at the time the party adopted the mark cannot receive protection, even if the public later views it as being specific to a particular producer. But, many marks were adopted decades or centuries ago. As a result, …

Blockchain Copyright Exchange – A Prototype, Jiarui Liu

Buffalo Law Review

The copyright market for creative works such as music and movies traditionally involves a complex web of licensing transactions and exorbitant transaction costs. Out of every dollar that consumers pay, an artist who writes, performs, and produces her own work may receive less than fifteen cents while the rest are diverted to cover the costs of financing new production, marketing new works, and distributing royalties. Although artists are typically scheduled to receive royalties on a quarterly basis, a payment may lag as far as two years after users paid. Furthermore, if a collecting society is unable to identify the rightful …

A Legislative Framework To Avoid A Vulgar Trademark System, Jordan Kilijanski

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Modify State “Piracy” After Allen: Introducing Apology To The U.S. Copyright Regime, Runhua Wang

Buffalo Law Review

Copyright protection from state offenders is onerous because of the imbalanced bargaining power between states and authors, which is increased by the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Allen v. Cooper. This decision clarifies that state sovereign immunity is not abrogated by the Copyright Remedy Clarification Act of 1990 (“CRCA”). It secures states’ constitutional rights, the public interest, and the efficiency of copyright infringement litigations against states. However, a paradox of this decision is that it may harm innovation incentives or spirits of creativity due to the increased imbalanced bargaining power to prevent authors from being repaired for their economic or …

Comment: Loosening The Grasp Of Restriction By Allowing Multiple Claims In Design Patents, Samuel E. Kielar

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Not The African Copyright Pirate Is Perverse, But The Situation In Which (S)He Lives—Textbooks For Education, Extraterritorial Human Rights Obligations, And Constitutionalization "From Below" In Ip Law, Klaus D. Beiter

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

Printed textbooks remain crucial for education, particularly in developing countries. However, in many of these countries, textbooks are unavailable, too expensive, or not accessible in learners' native tongues. Digital content, for many reasons, does not prove a wondrous solution. Cheaply (translating and) reproducing textbooks would be a strategy. However, reprography is highly regulated under copyright law. Copyright also adds to the cost of textbooks. The availability, accessibility, and acceptability of learning materials constitute essential elements of the right to education under international human rights law. Intellectual property (IP) law has so far refrained from endorsing the concept of extraterritorial state …

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow? Post-Grant Review And Ptab Interpretation Of § 101 Subject Matter After Myriad, Conor T. Flynn

Buffalo Intellectual Property Law Journal

Post-grant review is a new review procedure for granted patents in the United States. The procedure, instituted as a mechanism to get rid of "bad patents," allows any outside party, within nine months of the patent grant date, to challenge the validity of a granted patent on any ground under the patent law, including patentable subject matter, provided that the petitioner can demonstrate that it is more likely than not that at least one of the claims challenged in the petition is unpatentable, or if there is a showing that "the petition raises a novel or unsettled legal question that …

Very Few Appreciated Just How Bad Aia Inter Partes Reviews (Iprs) Would Be For Patent Owners, Although Ipr Denials Have Been, For Patent Owners, A Glimmer Of Hope, Stacy Lewis, Tom Irving

Buffalo Intellectual Property Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Spotlight On Objective Evidence Of Nonobviousnes In Aia Post-Grant Proceedings, Shing-Yi (Cindy) Cheng, Li Feng, Stacy Lewis, Tom Irving

Buffalo Intellectual Property Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Navigating The Limitations On Discovery In Aia Post-Grant Proceedings, Mary R. Henninger, Jill K. Macalpine, Amelia Feulner Baur, Anthony A. Hartmann, Lara C. Kelley, Rebecca M. Mcneill, P. Andrew Riley, Michael A. Stramiello

Buffalo Intellectual Property Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Spotlight On Claim Construction Before Ptab, James Stein, Jennifer Gupta, Hojung Cho, Stacy Lewis, Tom Irving

Buffalo Intellectual Property Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Stay Awhile: The Evolving Law Of District Court Stays In Light Of Inter Partes Review, Post-Grant Review, And Covered Business Method Post-Grant Review, Jonathan Stroud, Linda Thayer, Jeffrey C. Totten

Buffalo Intellectual Property Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Amending Rather Than Cancelling Claims In Inter Partes Reviews, Stacy Lewis, Tom Irving

Buffalo Intellectual Property Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Occupy Copyright: A Law & Economic Analysis Of U.S. Author Termination Rights, Kate Darling

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Finding Meaning In The Death Of Virtual Identities, Jordan L. Walbesser

Buffalo Intellectual Property Law Journal

Historically speaking, legal fiction assumes that identity and the credentials proving identity are one and the same. It is an important fiction that allows us to access information associated with our identity and restrict others from doing the same. Crimes of identity theft are commonly manifested through the usurpation of one's credentials to falsely verify identity. Legal doctrine such as agency theory makes the assumption that identity and credentials are only transferrable together. Technology, especially the Internet, alters this fiction by allowing the creation of multiple credentials that enable access to multiple identities manifested throughout the world. The one-to-one relationship …

Traditional Cultural Expressions And The U.S. Constitution, Alexander Bussey

Buffalo Intellectual Property Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Inequitable Conduct And Supplemental Examination: Promise, Procedure, And Particulars, Amanda K. Murphy, Jonathan R. K. Stroud

Buffalo Intellectual Property Law Journal

The America Invents Act, signed into law on September 16, 2011, ushered in an array of patent reforms. One overlooked procedure, Supplemental Examination, seeks to purge putative instances of inequitable conduct prior to litigation by allowing patent owners to submit prior art and short statements to the USPTO after patent issuance. Few parties have used it. We analyze the law of inequitable conduct, explain the Supplemental Examination procedure, and discuss potential reasons for its lack of popularity among patent owners.

The Property Attributes Of Copyright, Pascale Chapdelaine

Buffalo Intellectual Property Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Curing Cablevision: Prescribing A Functional Solution To A Technical Astigmatism, Adam Adler

Buffalo Intellectual Property Law Journal

In a string of recent copyright cases, judges have increasingly adopted a technical approach to copyright law. Rather than evaluating contested technologies based on how the technologies are used, courts have focused their analysis on technical details of implementation. As a consequence, courts have constructed rules that limit technologies not in what they do, but how they do it. In this Article, I argue that courts should evaluate technologies based on functional considerations. I argue that this functional approach is constitutionally, statutorily, and practically preferable to a technical approach. Finally, I show that a functional approach would lead to decisions …

Pretending Without A License: Intellectual Property And Gender Implications In Online Games, Casey Fiesler

Buffalo Intellectual Property Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Coordinating Extensive Trademark Rights And Competition Policy, Kexin Li

Buffalo Intellectual Property Law Journal

A trademark can be not only a word or logo, but also a color, sound, three-dimensional object, and many other nontraditional items. Corporations are increasingly seeking nontraditional trademark protection instead of or in addition to traditional patents and/or copyrights. They are also enforcing both traditional and nontraditional marks more aggressively and in ways that may lead to significant foreclosure effects. This working paper argues that these trends may raise serious competition policy concerns that should play an important role in the evolution of trademark law. For instance, trademark registration and enforcement should be subject to the same antitrust constraints as …

Geolocation And Targeted Advertising: Making The Case For Heightened Protections To Address Growing Privacy Concerns, Ryan Mura

Buffalo Intellectual Property Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Crossing Parallel Lines: The State Of The First Sale Doctrine After Costco V. Omega, Maureen B. Collins

Buffalo Intellectual Property Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Reclaiming Copyright From The Outside In: What The Downfall Hitler Meme Means For Transformative Works, Fair Use, And Parody, Aaron Schwabach

Buffalo Intellectual Property Law Journal

Continuing advances in consumer information technology have made video editing, once difficult, into a relatively simple matter. The average consumer can easily create and edit videos, and post them online. Inevitably many of these posted videos incorporate existing copyrighted content, raising questions of infringement, derivative versus transformative use, fair use, and parody.

This article looks at several such works, with its main focus on one category of examples: the Downfall Hitler meme. Downfall Hitler videos take as their starting point a particular sequence - Hitler's breakdown rant - from the 2004 German film Der Untergang [Downfall in the US]. The …

The Seed 2.0: Evolving Intellectual Property Rights Of Agricultural Germplasm, Jennifer Wai-Shing Maguire

Buffalo Intellectual Property Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Trademark Infringement, Trademark Dilution, And The Decline In Sharing Of Famous Brand Names: An Introduction And Empirical Study, Robert Brauneis, Paul Heald

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Increasing Revenue In Developing Nations Through Intellectual Property Rights: Why A Diversified Approach To Intellectual Property Protection With A Focus On Geographical Indications Is The Best Method, Philip Matthews

Buffalo Intellectual Property Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Google Analytics: Analyzing The Latest Wave Of Legal Concerns For Google In The U.S. And The E.U., Raizel Liebler, Keidra Chaney

Buffalo Intellectual Property Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The American Models Of Technology Transfer: Contextualized Emulation By Developing Countries?, Benton C. Martin

Buffalo Intellectual Property Law Journal

No abstract provided.