Law Commons^™

Small Can Be Inventive: The Patentability Of Nanoscale Reproductions Of Macroscale Machines, Christopher Anderson

William & Mary Business Law Review

Nanotechnology is a thriving new field of research. If even a fraction of the excitement surrounding the field proves to be true, there will be profound benefits in many aspects of our lives. Crucial to its development, however, will be the treatment of nanotechnology with respect to patents. This field has the unique potential to replicate existing machines and devices at a billionth of their size. In light of rulings that “mere scaling” of prior inventions does not create a patentable invention, problems with patentability might arise. This Note tackles this issue, considering the patentability requirements of novelty and non-obviousness, …

Creative Communities And Intellectual Property Law, Laura A. Heymann

Popular Media

No abstract provided.

Pleading Patent Infringement: Res Ipsa Loquitur As A Guide, Andrew L. Milam

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Nature Of Sequential Innovation, Christopher Buccafusco, Stefan Bechtold, Christopher Jon Sprigman

William & Mary Law Review

When creators and innovators take up a new task, they face a world of existing creative works, inventions, and ideas, some of which are governed by intellectual property (IP) rights. This presents a choice: Should the creator pay to license those rights? Or, alternatively, should the creator undertake to innovate around them? Our Article formulates this “build on/build around decision” as the fundamental feature of sequential creativity, and it maps a number of factors—some legal, some contextual—that affect how creators are likely to decide between building on existing IP or building around it. Importantly, creators are influenced by more than …

Impression Products, Inc. V. Lexmark Inc.: Will International Patent Exhaustion Bring Free Trade In Patented Goods?, Sarah R. Wasserman Rajec

Popular Media

No abstract provided.

Reading Together And Apart: Juries, Courts, And Substantial Similarity In Copyright Law, Laura A. Heymann

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Problem Of Creative Collaboration, Anthony J. Casey, Andres Sawicki

William & Mary Law Review

In this Article, we explore a central problem facing creative industries: how to organize collaborative creative production. We argue that informal rules are a significant and pervasive—but nonetheless underappreciated—tool for solving the problem. While existing literature has focused on how informal rules sustain incentives for producing creative work, we demonstrate how such rules can facilitate and organize collaboration in the creative space.

We also suggest that informal rules can be a better fit for creative organization than formal law. On the one side, unique features of creativity, especially high uncertainty and low verifiability, lead to organizational challenges that formal law …

Let’S Stop Playing Games: A Consistent Test For Unlicensed Trademark Use And The Right Of Publicity In Video Games, Arlen Papazian

William & Mary Business Law Review

Courts cannot agree on how to handle cases centered on unlicensed use of a trademark or celebrity’s likeness in video games. Two tests have arisen as the primary standards by which to judge such cases: the Rogers test and the transformative-use test. However, in an area of law muddled by multiple standards and the inconsistent application of those standards to a relatively new medium, neither test can adequately balance mark holder rights with the constitutional rights of video game developers. In this turmoil, large video game companies take advantage of marks and licenses knowing the rightful holders will have little …

Indefiniteness As An Invalidity Case, Janet M. Smith

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.