Law Commons^™

Patents - The Changing Standard Of Patentable Invention: Confusion Compounded, John M. Webb S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

In Lyon v. Bausch and Lomb Optical Co., Judge Learned Hand carefully analyzed the problem and took the position that Congress intended to modify the standard then applied by the Supreme Court and revive that used twenty-five years ago. He stated that under recent Supreme Court decisions he would be compelled to find the patent invalid, but upheld it on the basis of his interpretation of the new statute. This comment is directed not only to Judge Hand's interpretation, but also to the effect that his decision has had, and may be expected to have in the future, both …

Federal Employee Invention Rights - Time To Legislate, Marcus B. Finnegan, Richard W. Pogue

Michigan Law Review

It is the purpose of this article to review judicial standards applicable to the determination of rights in inventions made by employees of the federal government, to note statutory provisions affecting the problem, to examine the content and effect of the present Executive program for determining such rights, to review and evaluate two fundamental and conflicting theories in this field, and to propose legislation establishing appropriate standards and procedures. This topic is believed to have general interest because, in addition to the urgencies suggested above, the problem touches some of the basic legal philosophy underlying the United States patent system.

Trademarks - Extraterritorial Application Of The Lanham Act, William R. Luney S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, an American corporation, had manufactured and sold women's undergarments in the United States and Canada since 1917, under a U.S. registered trademark, "Vanity Fair." Defendant, a Canadian corporation, had registered the same trademark in Canada in 1915, and for this reason plaintiff's application for a Canadian trademark was denied in 1919. From 1945 to 1953, defendant purchased plaintiff's trademarked goods for resale in Canada. In 1953, defendant began selling goods of Canadian manufacture with its own Vanity Fair trademark, and threatened its competitors in Canada with infringement suits if they continued to sell plaintiff's trademarked goods. In an action …

Patents - Licensing - Legality Of Grant-Back Clauses, Eric E. Bergsten S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

There is no authoritative definition of the term "patent grant-back." It has been defined as a clause in a patent license which provides "for license or assignment to the licensor of any improvement patented by the licensee in the products or processes of the licensed patent." In litigated cases grant-back clauses usually appear either in basic patent licenses or in licenses of the products or processes of an industry which the licensor dominates through control of a multitude of overlapping patents.

Patents - Misues Doctrine - Multiple Licenses With Price-Fixing Provisios As Shermen Act Violation, Herbert A. Bernhard S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

In a suit for infringement of a moire process patent, relief was denied by the trial court partially on the ground that plaintiff had misused its patent by violating section 1 of the Sherman Act. Plaintiff had licensed two other moire finishers to use the patented process. Each license contained a proviso that plaintiff could specify the prices the licensee was to charge its customers for finishing cloth with the patented process. On appeal, held, affirmed. It is a violation of the antitrust laws for a patentee to issue more than one license containing price-fixing provisions. Newburgh Moire Co. …

Abstracts Of Recent Cases, M. J. P.

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Limits Of State Jurisdiction In Affording Common Law Protection To Clothing Designs, Leonard S. Elman

Vanderbilt Law Review

The recent case of Dior v. Milton' indicates that the "misappropriation" doctrine of the law of unfair competition will be applied to impose liability upon unlicensed users of original clothing designs. The purpose of this article is to outline briefly the statutory protection presently available for such designs, and to discuss certain problems raised by the Dior v. Milton decision.

The Constitution, in article I, section 8, provides that Congress shall have power to enact legislation "to promote the progress of science and the useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their …

A Manual Of Copyright Practice, Allen D. Choka

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Patents - Misuse Doctrine - Exclusive Distributorship Agreements As Patent Misuse, Howard N. Nemerovski

Michigan Law Review

In a suit for infringement of a storm window patent, defendant claimed that relief should be denied because plaintiff allegedly misused the suit patent by requiring its wholesale distributors to maintain sales organizations devoted exclusively to the sale of plaintiff's windows, and by restraining the distributors from offering merchandise for sale in competition with any article manufactured or distributed by plaintiff. The patent did not comprise an element of the distributor agreements, but was mentioned therein. The trial court denied relief, sustaining the defense of misuse of the suit patent. On appeal, held, affirmed. A patentee's right does not …

Vaughan: The United States Patent System. Legal And Economic Conflicts In American Patent History, Bernard F. Garvey

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The United States Patent System. Legal and Economic Conflicts in American Patent History. By Floyd L. Vaughan.

Patent Office Performance In Perspective, George E. Frost

Michigan Law Review

" the only patent that is valid is one which this Court has not been able to get its hands on."

Justice Jackson's note of despair reflects all too accurately the treatment patents have seemingly received in the hands of the courts since the "new trend" of recent years. It has become the legal fashion to characterize letters patent as something the Patent Office issues and the courts strike down. Statistical support for this conclusion can be readily assembled.

Regulation Of Business - Sherman Act - Patent Pool Agreements Which Restricts Fields Of Use, Martin F. Roston S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

DeVlieg, the owner of three major patents in the machine tool field, licensed his inventions to several machine tool manufacturers. Subsequently, he and the licensees formed a new corporation, Associated Patents, Inc., a patent holding company, to which he assigned his patents. Each party to the agreement owned an equal share of API. The agreement contained provisions for the granting back to API of any improvement patents acquired by the parties and it also restricted the use of the patents by each party to carefully circumscribed fields of use. Held, a patent pool agreement restricting fields of use is …

Patents And Antitrust: Peaceful Coxeistence?, S. Chesterfield Oppenheim

Michigan Law Review

My thesis for this paper is based upon developments which appear, as of 1955, to bring into clearer focus the process by which the earned differential advantages of patent rights are being adjusted to the prohibitory dixits of antitrust law. This is part of the never-ending governmental function of balancing stability of legal rights against the desired flexibility resulting from evolutionary growth. We can only chart the directions of the current trends. Generalizations from this panorama should not be overdrawn or artificially simplified. Both the patent and antitrust spectra are arranged in degrees. The edges of certainty are blurred in …

Security Inventions: Compensation Under Patent And Atomic Energy Acts

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Patent-Antitrust Problem, Bartholomew Diggins

Michigan Law Review

The Patent-Antitrust section of the Report of the Attorney General's National Committee to Study the Antitrust Laws is an excellent analysis of the existing law and is an invaluable handbook for practitioners in this difficult field. The writer's approach to the problem is different from that of the committee and before commenting specifically on the Report it is only fair to state the writer's views of the problem lest differences in viewpoint give the impression of criticism of the Report.

In any approach to the patent-antitrust problem there is a basic question: does a "patent-antitrust problem" exist? The Report …

Constitutional Law - Commerce Clause - Federal Jurisdiction In Trade-Mark Infringement Proceedings Under The Lanham Act, Richard R. Dailey

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff's trade-mark, "Minute Maid," had been registered under the Lanham Act in 1952 and had been used in interstate commerce in connection with the sale of frozen fruit juice concentrates since that time. Defendant's trade-mark consisted in part of the words "Minute Made." Defendant used its mark wholly within the State of Florida in the processing and sale of frozen meat products. Both plaintiff and defendant were Florida corporations. In a suit for trade-mark infringement, jurisdiction of the federal district court depended. on the provisions of the Lanham Act. The complaint alleged damage to plaintiff's good will established in interstate …

Industrial Trade Secrets, Their Use And Protection, G. G. Maruchnics

Cleveland State Law Review

Because of the great part that such trade secrets play in the success of many industrial endeavors, the courts have been called upon on many occasions to resolve controversies of litigants concerning such secrets.The cases most often appearing before the courts involve the relationship of employer and employee, or former employee. Out of this relationship arise the questions of ownership and use and misuse of alleged confidential information or trade secrets. Other relationships have also been considered by the courts, and the questions considered are in many respects overlapping. The big question is to determine what is a trade secret …

Unfair Competition--News--Literary Property, A. J. B.

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Borderland - Where Copyright And Design Patent Meet, Richard W. Pogue

Michigan Law Review

Copyright law and design patent law contemplate basically different objects of protection. Yet at the outer fringes of these types of protection certain concepts overlap to form a rather undefined borderland in which it is difficult to say what law is applicable-copyright law, patent law, neither, or both. It is the purpose of this paper to explore this borderland area in the light of traditional copyright and patent law principles, with attention given to policy considerations involved, and to offer suggestions toward drawing a sharper boundary between the two.

Literary Property—Elements Of Ownership Of An Idea, Robert Louis Manuele

Buffalo Law Review

Belt v. Hamilton National Bank, 108 F. Supp. 689 (D. C. 1952).

Copyright Protection To Aliens And Stateless Persons, Edward T, Breathitt Jr.

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Regulation Of Business-Resale Price Maintenance-Constitutionality Of Non-Signer Provion In Michigan Fair Trade Act, Richard D. Rohr S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, a manufacturer of trade-marked products, brought a bill to restrain defendant-retailer from selling plaintiff's products at prices below the minimum prices established by plaintiff in contracts made pursuant to the Michigan Fair Trade Act. Defendant admitted such sales; but contended that because it had not signed a fair trade agreement with plaintiff, enforcement of the Michigan act against defendant would violate its rights under the due process clause of the state constitution. The trial court, treating the transactions involved as being exclusively in intrastate commerce, held the Michigan Fair Trade Act, as applied to non-signers of fair trade agreements, …

Patent Royalties As Capital Gains Under I.R.C., Section 117(A), Ruth E. Riddell

Michigan Law Review

With the incidence of high personal surtax rates, a patentee is ordinarily interested in deriving the greatest monetary return after taxes, measured in proportion to the extent of use over what he expects to be the increasingly productive life of the intangible right evidenced by his patent, without surrendering his option to reclaim the patent in event of insolvency or lack of diligence on the part of the person to whom he transfers the patent for exploitation. Although ideal for these purposes, the favorable capital gain status under section 117(a) of the Internal Revenue Code, requiring recognition of only fifty …

Federal Procedure-Mandamus-Use To Prevent Change Of Venue, Richard J. Darger S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Petitioners instituted a suit in the District Court for the Southern District of California seeking damages for alleged patent infringement. That court ordered the case transferred to the District Court for the District of Delaware on the ground that venue was not properly laid in the Southern District of California. Then petition was made to the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit for mandamus to compel the judge of the lower court to withdraw the order of transfer. Held: petition denied. Mandamus will issue to prevent a transfer of a case to the district court of another circuit …

Woe Unto You Trade-Mark Owners, Julius R. Lunsford, Jr.

Michigan Law Review

THE new Trade-Mark Act,1 widely heralded as giving added protection to trade-mark owners, has in its nearly four years of operation resulted, in several spectacular instances, in narrowing the rights conferred by the registration and use of trade-marks. Text author Rudolph Callmann remarked after the act's first birthday: "Despite all the efforts of the bar, our courts still cling to the familiar anachronisms."2 Where do trade-mark owners stand today? The Supreme Court has to date failed to answer this question, and the federal courts have refused to consider the import of the new legislation. Many commentators, attorneys and scholars thought …

Patents-Exclusive Licenses-Licensor And Licensee Relationship- Llicensee's Obligations, Gordon W. Hueschen S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Patent licensing is today, as always, a very significant part of patent law. Since royalty licenses allow a patentee to realize pecuniary benefits from his invention without yielding ownership, as he would by an assignment, they are especially attractive to an inventor who anticipates considerable commercial success for his contribution, and who does not desire to lose all control of the invention for a lump sum, the adequacy of which must be, at best, speculative. From the licensee's standpoint, it is usually advantageous to be free of competition from others also operating under the same patent monopoly, at least within …

New Concepts In Trade-Mark Legislation, Orland M. Christensen

Washington Law Review

The widely favored Lanham Act makes important changes in the former picture, chief of which perhaps is the unprecedented effect now given trade-mark registration. The new act does not alter the common law concept that trade-mark rights must arise first out of actual use of the mark in trade. However, the owner of a valid interstate mark can now strengthen and even expand his rights substantively by registration, and, conversely, his failure to register promptly can result in serious losses.

The Compulsory Manufacturing Provision-An Anachronism In The Copyright Act, Clinton R. Ashford S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The protection afforded foreign authors under the United States Copyright Act at the present time is subject to stringent restrictions. Copyright will not be granted to a person who is neither a citizen nor a resident of the United States unless he complies with a great many formalities, and, in addition, conforms with the compulsory manufacturing requirement. It is the object of this comment to examine the manufacturing provision, section 16 of the Copyright Law, and to show why it should be deleted from the act.

Book Reviews, Alfred Conrad, Daniel J. Boorstin, Charles C. Callahan, Arnold C. Rood, Robert R. Wilson, Ella Cooper Thomas, I. Maurice Wormser, Louis Prashker, Cornelius J. Moynihan

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Patent Monopolies And Free Enterprise, Myron W. Watkins, George W. Stocking

Vanderbilt Law Review

Public policy has long recognized the intimate relation between a dynamic technology and a well-adjusted economy. Without experiment, industrial arts stagnate. Rightly understood, invention is synonymous with improvement in the industrial arts, and invention comes about only from experimenting. Not every inventor finds what he is looking for, true enough, or is looking for what he finds. But unless, consciously or unconsciously, he is seeking a new way to do something or a new "combination of matter" he will never discover anything.

To encourage experiment and thus foster technical improvment is the avowed purpose of the American patent system. The …