Law Commons^™

Innovative Approaches To Diversion Data, Sean Flynn, Robin Olsen, Maggie Wolk

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Prosecutors across the country are collecting and using data to make decisions in their offices. At the same time, prosecutors are interested in developing and sustaining prosecutorial diversion approaches. Prosecutors can use data to assist in decision-making regarding diversion case processing choices as well as to make office policy and resource allocation decisions that, in turn, support expanded diversion programs. Data collection can help prosecutors decide if a prosecutorial diversion program will work for them, and if so, what characteristics it should have. Finally, data can help prosecutors see whether they are obtaining their intended outcomes. Prosecutors possess varying levels …

Gene Patents, Drug Prices, And Scientific Research: Unexpected Effects Of Recently Proposed Patent Eligibility Legislation, Charles Duan

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Recently, Congress has considered legislation to amend§ 101, a section of the Patent Act that the Supreme Court has held to prohibit patenting of laws of nature, natural phenomena, and abstract ideas. This draft legislation would expand the realm of patent-eligible subject matter, overturning the Court's precedents along the way. The draft legislation, and movement to change this doctrine of patent law, made substantial headway with a subcommittee of the Senate holding numerous roundtables and hearings on the subject.

This article considers some less-discussed consequences of that draft legislative proposal. The legislation likely opens the door to patenting of subject …

Payments Failure, Hilary Allen

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

The processing of retail payments has traditionally been the domain of regulated banks, but technologically sophisticated players like Venmo, AliPay, Bitcoin and Ripple (and potentially Facebook’s Libra) are making incursions into the market. Even within regulated banks, payments processing is becoming increasingly reliant on new technologies – JPMorgan Chase’s “JPMCoin” is just one example. However, limited attention has been paid to the new kinds of operational risks associated with these complex new methods of processing retail payments. This Article argues that technological failures at a payments provider (bank or non-bank) could be amplified in unexpected ways as they interact with …

Tinkering With Circuit Conflicts Beyond The Schoolhouse Gate, Stephen Wermiel

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

Transnational Government Hacking, Jennifer Daskal

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

Big Data Prosecution And Brady, Andrew Ferguson

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Prosecutors are joining the big data revolution, adopting “intelligence-driven” strategies to target crime patterns. Centralized big data systems now track offenders, places, and groups allowing prosecutors to link crimes by time, place, associations, or other connections. Adding to these types of formalized, structured databases are growing sources of raw, unstructured big data from digital surveillance technologies like video cameras, police body cameras, and automated license plate readers. The prosecutors of the future will sit on a wealth of valuable investigative insights – all searchable and potentially relevant for a more aggressive and proactive investigation strategy.But as helpful as these new …

Nonexcludable Surgical Method Patents, Jonas Anderson

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

A patent consists of only one right: the right to exclude others from practicing the patented invention. However, one class of patents statutorily lacks the right to exclude direct infringers: surgical method patents are not enforceable against medical practitioners or health care facilities, which are the only realistic potential direct infringers of such patents. Despite this, inventors regularly file for (and receive) surgical method patents. Why would anyone incur the expense (more than $20,000 on average) of acquiring a patent on a surgical method if that patent cannot be used to keep people from using the patent?

The traditional answer …

Implementing User Rights For Research In The Field Of Artificial Intelligence: A Call For International Action, Sean Flynn, Michael W. Carroll

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Last year, before the onset of a global pandemic highlighted the critical and urgent need for technology-enabled scientific research, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) launched an inquiry into issues at the intersection of intellectual property (IP) and artificial intelligence (AI). We contributed comments to that inquiry, with a focus on the application of copyright to the use of text and data mining (TDM) technology. This article describes some of the most salient points of our submission and concludes by stressing the need for international leadership on this important topic. WIPO could help fill the current gap on international leadership, …