Law Commons^™

Copyright Trolling, An Empirical Study, Matthew Sag

Faculty Publications & Other Works

ABSTRACT: This detailed empirical and doctrinal study of copyright trolling presents new data showing the astonishing rate of growth of multi-defendant John Doe litigation in United States district courts over the past decade. It also presents new evidence of the association between this form of litigation and allegations of infringement concerning pornographic films. Multi-defendant

John Doe lawsuits have become the most common form of copyright litigation in several U.S. districts, and in districts such as the Northern District of Illinois, copyright litigation involving pornography accounts for more than half of new cases.

This Article highlights a fundamental oversight in the …

Sovereignty Under Siege: Corporate Challenges To Domestic Intellectual Property Decisions, Cynthia M. Ho

Faculty Publications & Other Works

Countries face a new threat that strikes at their ability to balance protection of intellectual property rights against other priorities, such as public health. They may have to pay substantial compensation to companies that dislike domestic intellectual property laws. This threat is much more significant than the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights ("TRIPS"), a landmark international agreement concluded twenty years ago, that for the first time required all countries to provide "minimum" levels of intellectual property rights; before that time, countries were not obligated to provide any such rights at all. Since the conclusion of TRIPS, policymakers …