Law Commons^™

One Hundred Nos: An Empirical Analysis Of The First 100 Denials Of Institution For Inter Partes And Covered Business Method Patent Reviews, Jonathan R. K. Stroud, Jarrad Wood

Jonathan R. K. Stroud

Tasked in 2011 with creating three powerful new patent review trial regimes, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office—through the efforts of their freshly empowered quasi-judicial body, the Patent Trial and Appeals Board—set to creating a fast-paced trial with minimal discovery and maximum efficiency. In the first two years of existence, the proceedings have proved potent, holding unpatentable many of the claims that reach decisions on the merits. Yet a small subsection of petitions never make it past the starting gate, resulting in wasted time and effort on the parts of petitioners—and likely sighs of relief from the rights-holders. Parties on …

Teaching The Biological Clock: Age-Related Fertility Decline And Sex Education, Kerry Macintosh

Kerry L Macintosh

Fertility in women declines significantly at age thirty-two and takes a sharp downward turn at age thirty-seven. Miscarriages also increase with age. In vitro fertilization cannot reverse the effects of aging, and embryo screening, egg freezing, and egg donation are imperfect solutions.

Unfortunately, many women fail to grasp these facts until it is too late. Various factors are to blame, including physicians who shy away from the topic of age-related fertility decline, persistent messaging about the need for pregnancy prevention (implying that conception is easy), and media accounts of celebrities who are pregnant in their forties.

This Article argues that …

Self-Defense Against Robots, A. Michael Froomkin, Zak Colangelo

A. Michael Froomkin

This paper examines when, under U.S. law, humans may use force against robots to protect themselves, their property, and their privacy. May a landowner legally shoot down a trespassing drone? May she hold a trespassing autonomous car as security against damage done or further torts? Is the fear that a drone may be operated by a paparazzo or a peeping Tom sufficient grounds to disable or interfere with it? How hard may you shove if the office robot rolls over your foot? This paper addresses all those issues and one more: what rules and standards we could put into place …

“Can I Profit From My Own Name And Likeness As A College Athlete?” The Predictive Legal Analytics Of A College Player’S Publicity Rights Vs. First Amendment Rights Of Others, Roger M. Groves

Roger M. Groves

Two federal court decisions during 2013 have changed the game for college students versus the schools, the NCAA and video game makers. This article explores whether for the first time in history these athletes can profit from their own name and likeness and prevent others from doing so. But those cases still leave many untested applications to new facts – facts that the courts have not faced. Particularly intriguing is how 21st Century technology will apply to this area in future litigation. No publicity rights case or article to date has explored the application of predictive analytics, computer programs, algorithms, …

From Patent Thickets To Patent Networks: The Legal Infrastructure Of The Digital Economy, Jonathan M. Barnett

Jonathan M Barnett

Scholarly and popular commentary often assert that markets characterized by intensive patent issuance and enforcement suffer from “patent thickets” that suppress innovation. This assertion is difficult to reconcile with continuous robust levels of R&D investment, coupled with declining prices, in technology markets that have operated under intensive patent issuance and enforcement for several decades. Using network visualization software, I show that information and communication technology markets rely on patent pools and other cross-licensing structures to mitigate or avoid patent thickets and associated inefficiencies. Based on the composition, structure, terms and pricing of selected leading patent pools in the ICT market, …

Drones, Henry H. Perritt Jr., Eliot O. Sprague

Henry H. Perritt, Jr.

Canceling The Order: How High Frequency Traders Are Disrupting The Derivatives Market, And What The Regulators Can Do To Stop Them, Andrew C. Burr

Andrew C Burr

High Frequency Trading (“HFT”) is now a part of the modern financial lexicon, and inspires feelings of awe, fear, and ignorance. While millions of investors around the world are still trying to grapple with what exactly HFT is and does, the U.S. regulators who are tasked with investigating and charging manipulators are finding themselves in a quandary of how to prosecute the offenders. Further, while the media has focused its attention on the U.S. Securites Exchange Commission’s (“SEC”) new policies on the subject, few have noticed the progress made by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”), and how the …

To Read Or Not To Read: Privacy Within Social Networks, The Entitlement Of Employees To A Virtual “Private Zone” And The Balloon Theory, Shlomit Yanisky-Ravid

Shlomit Yanisky-Ravid Professor of Law

Social networking has increasingly become the most common venue of self-expression in the digital era. Although social networks started as a social vehicle, they have recently become a major source for employers to track personal data ("screening") of applicants, employees or former employees.

This article addresses the questions of whether this casual business routine harms employees' rights to privacy with regard to data users post in social networks, what the drawbacks of this routine may be, and why and how privacy rights should be protected to secure private zones within the virtual sphere. The article suggests that a privacy right …

Social Innovation, Peter Lee

Peter Lee

This Article provides the first legal examination of the immensely valuable but underappreciated phenomenon of social innovation. Innovations such as cognitive behavioral therapy, microfinance, and strategies to reduce hospital-based infections greatly enhance social welfare yet operate completely outside of the patent system, the primary legal mechanism for promoting innovation. This Article draws on empirical evidence to elucidate this significant kind of innovation and explore its divergence from the classic model of technological innovation championed by the patent system. In so doing, it illustrates how patent law exhibits a rather crabbed, particularistic conception of innovation. Among other characteristics, innovation in the …

Sharing Public Safety Helicopters, Henry H. Perritt Jr.

Henry H. Perritt, Jr.

No abstract provided.

No Surfing Allowed: A Review And Analysis Of Legislation Prohibiting Employers From Demanding Access To Employees’ And Job Applicants’ Social Media Accounts, Robert Sprague

Robert Sprague

This article examines recent state legislation prohibiting employers from requesting username and password information from employees and job applicants in order to access restricted portions of those employees’ and job applicants’ personal social media accounts. This article raises the issue of whether this legislation is even needed, from both practical and legal perspectives, focusing on: (a) how prevalent the practice is of requesting employees’ and job applicants’ social media access information; (b) whether alternative laws already exist which prohibit employers from requesting employees’ and job applicants’ social media access information; and (c) whether any benefits can be derived from this …

Beyond Notice And Choice: Privacy, Norms, And Consent, Richard Warner, Robert Sloan

Richard Warner

Informational privacy is the ability to determine for yourself when and how others may collect and use your information. Adequate informational privacy requires a sufficiently broad ability to give or withhold free and informed consent to proposed uses.

Notice and Choice (sometimes also called “notice and consent”) is the current paradigm for consent online. The Notice is a presentation of terms, typically in a privacy policy or terms of use agreement. The Choice is an action signifying acceptance of the terms, typically clicking on an “I agree” button, or simply using the website. Recent reports by the Federal Trade Commission …