Law Commons^™

Book Review. Copyright For The Eighties: Cases And Materials, 2d Ed., Marshall A. Leaffer

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Hindering The Progress Of Science: The Use Of The Patent System To Regulate Research On Genetically Altered Animals, Robert B. Kambic

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Note considers whether genetically altered animals should be protected by patents and discusses the ramifications of a congressionally imposed moratorium on the issuance of animal patents. The Note discusses the purpose of the patent system and analyzes case law concerning patents on living organisms, examines the controversy surrounding the patenting of altered animals, and contains a discussion of the PTO's role in issuing an ethically controversial patent. The Note concludes that the PTO was correct in determining that genetically altered animals are patentable subject matter.

An Economic Understanding Of Copyright Law's Work-Made-For-Hire Doctrine, I. Trotter Hardy

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

What Has Happened Since Chakrabarty, Jane M. Marciniszyn

Journal of Law and Health

It is conventional wisdom that the patent system is designed to undergrid the investment in pushing technology forward. The patent system is innovation-oriented. And (sic) it functions most effectively in the expensive, breakthrough technologies, where uncertainties of success or payback abound. If, in assessing the risk of commitment, the penalties of failure outweigh the prizes of success, the prudent money will go elsewhere. The patent system moves the equation to the right, not by better assuring success (for only public needs and market values can do that), but by aiding success through offering the innovator a temporary respite from non-innovative …

Copyright In The People's Republic Of China: A Foreigner's Guide, Joseph T. Simone

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Performer's Rights And Digital Sampling Under U.S. And Japanese Law, Jessica D. Litman

Articles

A year or two ago, one of my copyright students called to my attention a problem that seemed to him to pose unique difficulties for the copyright statute. The problem arises because of a technology called digital sampling.' Digital sampling is a new threat to performers' rights that has grown out of the combination of digital recording technology with music synthesizer technology. This threat is a very recent one. Indeed, the digital sampling problem is so new that copyright lawyers haven't yet figured out how to think about it.

Trade Regulations In International Transfer Of Technology Agreements: A Comparative View Of National And International Legal Provisions, Franz-Martin Wolff

LLM Theses and Essays

This LL.M. thesis provides a comprehensive comparative analysis of national and international legal frameworks governing the regulation of international transfer of technology agreements, set against the backdrop of the stalled UNCTAD negotiations on a Draft International Code of Conduct on the Transfer of Technology. The work examines the role of national patent systems under the Paris Convention, analyzes proposed modifications — including preferential treatment for Developing Countries — and evaluates the adverse effects of monopolistic rights granted under patent laws. Key topics include antitrust regulation in the United States (Sherman Act per se violations and rule of reason), the European …

Retroactive Protection Of Visual Arts Published Without A Copyright Notice: A Proposal, Martin Bressler, Robert L. Seigel

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Search For An Author: Shakespeare And The Framers, James Boyle

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Intellectual Property Rights And The Gatt: United States Goals In The Uruguay Round, Mark L. Damschroder

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The pursuit of protection of IP rights is a valuable goal both for the United States and the rest of the world community. Such rights promote creativity and the advancement of knowledge, as well as fuel the domestic economy and improve the position of the United States vis-a-vis the other trading nations of the world. With the growing interdependence of the global economy, there is no time like the present to lay the foundation for a system of dispute settlement of such trade matters. Economic interdependence will continue to increase, and the problems of international trade in, and piracy of, …

Who Cares Who Wrote "Shakespeare"?, Peter Jaszi

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Obviously, a great many people, on both (or all) sides of the "authorship question," and they care a lot. The real question is why. Proponents of various authorship claimants compete in their protestations of admiration for the plays and poems in controversy. But if these works are in fact so universally and inexhaustibly fertile of significance, why should any admirer of them waste precious time, which might better be devoted to the study of the texts themselves, arguing about an ultimately irresoluble historical puzzle? And why is so much of the discussion conducted at such a relatively high pitch of …

One Hundred And Two Years Later: The U.S. Joins The Berne Convention, Jane C. Ginsburg, John M. Kernochan

Faculty Scholarship

In historic votes on October 5 and October 12, the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives unanimously approved legislation designed to bring U.S. law into compliance with the Berne Convention. The legislation was signed by President Reagan on October 31, 1988. Also signed by the President was a Senate Resolution of October 20 of Ratification of the Berne Convention. Following deposit of the requisite instruments with the World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva, U.S. adherence to Berne took effect on March 1, 1989.

For the U.S., this momentous step is the culmination of decades of struggle, including many failed attempts …

Digital Audio Tape Machines: New Technology Or Further Erosion Of Copyright Protection?, Todd Page

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Colors In Conflicts: Moral Rights And The Foreign Exploitation Of Colorized U.S. Motion Pictures, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

This article explores an international aspect of the current debate over colorized motion pictures. Under the present U.S. copyright law, most film directors and other creative contributors to an audiovisual work are unlikely to obtain injunctive relief from a U.S. court against the exhibition or dissemination of color-encoded versions of black and white originals. The difficulty is not simply that the U.S. copyright law does not recognize a specific moral right of integrity independent of economic rights. The director's poor domestic prospects are largely due to U.S. copyright law's work-made-for-hire doctrine. Most contributors to an audiovisual work are employees for …

Proprietary Rights And The Norms Of Science In Biotechnology Research, Rebecca S. Eisenberg

Articles

As basic research in biotechnology yields increasing commercial applications, scientists and their research sponsors have become more eager to protect the commercial value of research discoveries through intellectual property law. Some scientists fear that these commercial incentives will weaken or even undermine the norms that have traditionally governed scientific research. In this Article, Professor Eisenberg examines the interaction of proprietary rights in inventions with these traditional scientific norms. Trade secrecy, she argues, is an undesirable strategy for protection of basic research discoveries because it impedes dissemination of new knowledge to the scientific community. She finds that patent law is in …

Copyright Law: Cases And Materials, Marshall A. Leaffer

Vanderbilt Law Review

Interest in copyright law is on the upswing. The reason is simple: copyright law, and more generally, intellectual property law, is the law for the information age. The subject touches not only the traditional concerns of artists, writers, and musicians, but also reaches the cable television and computer industries as well as future technologies not yet thought of. I predict course offerings on copyright and intellectual property law will proliferate. Before publication of Craig Joyce's Copyright Law, the growing market for copyright casebooks was already well served by three excellent and diverse works' that would satisfy all tastes and approaches …

K Mart Corporation V. Cartier, Inc., Lewis F. Powell Jr.

Supreme Court Case Files

No abstract provided.

Blanket Music Licensing And Local Television: An Historical Accident In Need Of Reform, Frederick C. Boucher

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

On Not Compensating For Bad Outcomes To Biomedical Innovations: A Response And Modest Proposal, Alan J. Weisbard

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Trademark Law, Economics And Grey-Market Policy, Lars H. Liebeler

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The New World Of Patents Created By The Court Of Appeals For The Federal Circuit, Martin J. Adelman

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The purpose of this Article is to outline the creation of this new circuit and to analyze its position on several substantive issues. Part I discusses the origin and power of the Federal Circuit. Part II analyzes the court's recent decisions on the issues of nonobviousness, infringement, inequitable conduct, patent misuse, and jury trials. This Article concludes that the Federal Circuit has in general performed well, but there are areas of patent law that must be refined for the court to further its intended goals.

A Proposal To View Patent Claim Nonobviousness From The Policy Perspective Of Federal Rule Of Civil Procedure 52(A), Bradley G. Lane

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note analyzes the scope of appellate review that should be accorded to a trial judge's determination of nonobviousness. Part I details the condition of nonobviousness and how it has evolved into the principal obstacle to patentability. Part II analyzes the Supreme Court and appellate precedents on the scope of review on this issue. Part III evaluates the policy underpinnings of Rule 52(a) and applies a two-pronged analysis to the nonobviousness requirement to determine whether the clearly erroneous standard of review is appropriate. This Note concludes that the treatment of the nonobviousness determination as a question of law cannot be …

Iv. Copyright, Patent & Trademark Law

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It, John R. Worthington

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

The author argues that the Department of Justice and the divested Bell Operating Companies are trying to persuade the divestiture court to do directly what the Dole Bill tried to accomplish indirectly, namely, eliminate the provisions of the AT&T consent decree which restrict those companies from entering lines of business in which they could abuse their bottleneck power. The author suggests that the Department's recommendations to remove these restrictions are fundamentally flawed and completely unprincipled - and that, furthermore, recent history and present realities show that federal regulators cannot prevent the anti-competitive abuses which the decree was crafted to prevent. …

Mfj: Judicial Overkill - Further Perspective And Response, Robert B. Mckenna, Ronald L. Slyter

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

The authors postulated in Volume 9:1 of COMM/ENT that the line-ofbusiness restrictions imposed in the AT&T divestiture decree-which sharply limit the business activities in which the divested exchange carriers may operate-were based upon fundamentally flawed premises. In this rejoinder, the authors take issue with those who would oppose the rights of the regional holding companies to own non-telecommunications- related enterprises. The authors suggest that the regulators are fully capable of properly fulfilling their statutory tasks in areas where exchange carriers have market power, and that the United States Congress has the legislative and constitutional power to eliminate the consent decree's …

Freeing The Telephone Company Seven: The Justice Department Joins The Chorus, James P. Denvir

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

In January of this year, the Department of Justice submitted to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia its recommendations concerning the line-of-business restrictions contained in the consent decree which was entered in U.S. v. AT&T. The Department recommended that restrictions on information services and manufacturing be lifted entirely and that the inter-exchange service restrictions be modified. The author discusses the marked departure from earlier positions of the Justice Department that these recommendations represent. The rationale for the Justice Department's change in position, as well as anticipated difficulties the Department would likely encounter in persuading the court …

Congress And The Federal Communications Commission: The Continuing Contest For Power, Harry M. Shooshan Iii, Erwin G. Krasnow

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

This article discusses the changing relationship between Congress and the Federal Communications Commission. The authors suggest that the Commission's status as an independent agency has been eroded by the emergence of a new system of checks and balances imposed by Congress. The use of riders on appropriations bills and the enactment of statutory moratoriums have served to increase Congressional involvement in, and control over, Commission decision-making. After discussing specific examples of how these new tools of legislative oversight have affected major Commission decisions, the authors conclude that the challenge for the Commission in the future will be to learn from …

Cameras In The Courtroom: A First Amendment Right Of Access, Richard H. Frank

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

In Westmoreland v. Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that a per se ban on television access to a federal courtroom does not violate the first amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The author asserts that Westmoreland and two similar courts of appeal decisions upholding absolute prohibition of electronic access to judicial proceedings are indefensible under recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions such as Chandler v. Florida and the Richmond Newspapers, Inc. v. Virginia line of cases. The author details the widespread success of television access to courtrooms in over eighty percent of the …

Constitutional Struggle Over Telecommunications Regulation, Rita M. Cain

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

For almost two decades, federal telecommunications regulators had preempted state telecommunications regulations based on the supremacy of federal policy. The federal courts consistently upheld this federal exercise of power. This article examines that trend and the recent Supreme Court decision that abruptly reversed the trend, Louisiana Public-Service Commission v. FCC. The immediate and substantial impact of that decision is examined and, in some cases, questioned.

United States Regulation Of Transborder Speech, Stephen R. Barnett

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

Regulation of transborder speech - speech flowing into or out of the country - is a relatively neglected subject that now appears to be attracting increased attention in American law. This article presents a survey and commentary on United States laws regulating transborder speech. Its many topics include ideological restrictions on visitors' visas, regulation of "political propaganda" distributed by foreign agents in the United States, government certification of "educational" films for dutyfree circulation abroad, and restrictions on the reception of television programming from foreign communications satellites for purposes of home viewing, university study, or retransmission by American news organizations. The …