Law Commons^™

The Effects Of Myriad And Mayo On Molecular-Test Development In The United States And Europe: Interviews From The Frontline, Johnathon Liddicoat, Kathleen Liddell, Mateo Aboy

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

US Supreme Court decisions in Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories and Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics Inc. caused US and European law on what is patentable subject matter to diverge significantly. Both cases related to molecular tests and changed decades of patent practice. Whether the decisions adversely affect the development of molecular tests in the United States and Europe has been a matter of much speculation but limited empirical investigation. This interview-based study has three main findings. First, Myriad and Mayo have negatively affected the development of some molecular tests. Notably, half of the US university technology-transfer …

Franchise Participants As Proper Patent Opponents: Walker Process Claims, Robert W. Emerson

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Franchise parties may be sued for patent infringement, or they may seek to sue others for an antitrust injury as the result of a fraudulently obtained patent. Indeed, franchisors and franchisees may simultaneously fall under both categories-sued for infringement but aggrieved because the very basis of that suit is illegitimate in their eyes. These franchise parties may turn for relief to a patent-validity challenge authorized in the seminal case Walker Process Equipment, Inc. v. Food Machine & Chemical Corp. Franchise participants-franchisees and franchisors alike-may be the ideal Walker Process claimants. When these types of cases occur, the damages within the …

Improvising Intellectual Property In Saigon, David A. Bergan

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

How does intellectual property become part of the structure of social practice? The traditional answers are enforcement, education, and incentivized self-interest. This Article challenges that understanding by examining the social field of young engineers in Vietnam. In Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, intellectual production is not only about producing the legal commodity we call intellectual property. For many young engineers working with multinational companies, it is not about producing a product at all. It is about improving their position in society. Relying on over a year of qualitative, ethnographic fieldwork from 2012 to 2014, this Article develops a critique of …

The Price Of Closing The Value Gap: How The Music Industry Hacked Eu Copyright Reform, Annemarie Bridy

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Sweeping changes are coming to copyright law in the European Union. Following four years of negotiations, the European Parliament in April 2019 approved the final text of the Digital Single Market (DSM) Directive. The new directive contains provisions for enhancing cross-border access to content available through digital subscription services, enabling new uses of copyrighted works for education and research, and, most controversially, "clarifying" the role of online services in the distribution of copyrighted works.

Article 17 of the DSM Directive is directed to the last of these goals. It was designed to address the so-called value gap-the music industry's longstanding …

Jon Snow Lives! Glenn Dies! When Revealing Plot Twists Constitutes Copyright Infringement, Joel Timmer

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

TV shows frequently rely on plot twists and cliff-hangers to keep viewers engaged and tuned-in for the next episode. To try to keep these plot twists secret, networks and program producers take steps to prevent people from revealing them before the episodes air. Recently, HBO and AMC, the networks that air Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead, respectively, have alleged that these so-called spoilers constitute copyright infringement. However, it does not appear that courts have considered whether posting such spoilers does, in fact, constitute infringement. This Article thus examines that question, which requires considering whether such spoilers constitute fair …