Law Commons^™

A Tale Of (At Least) Two Authors: Focusing Copyright Law On Process Over Product, Laura A. Heymann

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Public's Domain In Trademark Law: A First Amendment Theory Of The Consumer, Laura A. Heymann

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Of Trolls, Davids, Goliaths, And Kings: Narratives And Evidence In The Litigation Of High-Tech Patents, Colleen V. Chien

Faculty Publications

While each patent dispute is unique, most fit the profile of one of a limited number of patent litigation stories. A dispute between an independent inventor and a large company, for instance, is often cast in "David v. Goliath" terms. When two large companies fight over patents, in contrast, they are said to be playing the "sport of kings." Some corporations engage in "defensive patenting" in order to deter others from suing them. Patent licensing and enforcement entities who sue have been labeled "trolls." Finally, observers of the patent system call the use of patent litigation to impose or exploit …

Global Warming Trend? The Creeping Indulgence Of Fair Use In International Copyright Law, Richard J. Peltz-Steele

Faculty Publications

In her article Toward an International Fair Use Doctrine in 2000, Professor Ruth Okediji hypothesized that the internationalization of copyright law would threaten the freedom of expression if some doctrine akin to U.S. “fair use” were not established as an international legal norm. Acknowledging the central concern of the Okediji article, this paper analyzes research and legal developments since that article to determine how the present state of the “fair use” concept in international copyright law differs from its state in 2000. The paper concludes that in the last eight years, though there has been no formal adoption of an …

Brand Spillovers, Eric Goldman

Faculty Publications

This Article considers the spillover effects of trademarks - in particular, brand spillovers, which occur when consumer interest in a trademark increases the profits of third parties who do not own the trademark. Using techniques such as loss leaders and shelf space adjacency, retailers routinely create brand spillovers for their profit, and trademark law generally has not restricted these activities. Online intermediaries, such as search engines, also create and profit from brand spillovers by selling manufacturers' trademarks for advertising purposes (keyword triggering). However, in contrast to retailer practices, keyword triggering has sparked a heated and irresolute battle over its legitimacy …

Copyright Law: The Last Five Years Of Journal Coverage, Tyler T. Ochoa

Faculty Publications

Five years ago, I was asked to write an essay to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Santa Clara Computer and High Technology Law Journal. In that essay, I surveyed the major developments in copyright law during the previous twenty years and documented how those developments had been chronicled (or foreshadowed) in the Journal. Today, as the Journal publishes the first issue of its 25th volume, I take this opportunity to look back at the Journal's coverage of copyright law during the past five years.

Rethinking Anticircumvention's Interoperability Policy, Aaron K. Perzanowski

Faculty Publications

Interoperability is widely touted for its ability to spur incremental innovation, increase competition and consumer choice, and decrease barriers to accessibility. In light of these attributes, intellectual property law generally permits follow-on innovators to create products that interoperate with existing systems, even without permission. The anticircumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA") represent a troubling departure from this policy, resulting in patent-like rights to exclude technologies that interoperate with protected platforms. Although the DMCA contains internal safeguards to preserve interoperability, judicial misinterpretation and narrow statutory text render those safeguards largely ineffective.

One approach to counteracting the DMCA's restrictions …