Law Commons^™

Officially Obsolete? A Critical Examination Of The Canadian Official Marks Regime And Its Waning Relevancy In Trademark Law, Maddison Tebbutt

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

When the Trademark Act (‘‘TMA”) came about in 1985, a unique aspect of Canadian trademark law was created: the official marks regime under section 9(1)(n). The official marks regime is available to public authorities and universities as a means of sidestepping the lengthy and expensive process of trademark registration and providing special protection for official marks. Once public authorities and universities obtain an official mark through this system, they are entitled to an expansive monopoly that allows them to use their mark for commercial use, while simultaneously keeping the official mark out of the public domain. Moreover, while …

Bringing Section 8 Home: An Argument For Recognizing A Reasonable Expectation Of Privacy In Metadata Collected From Smart Home Devices, Ana Qarri

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

Internet of Things devices (also known as smart home devices) are a fast-growing trend in consumer home electronics. The information collected from these devices could prove very useful to law enforcement investigations. These individual pieces of metadata — the collection of which might appear harmless on its face — can be highly revealing when combined with other metadata or information otherwise available to law enforcement. This article builds an argument in favour of recognizing a reasonable expectation of privacy in metadata collected from smart home devices under section 8 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This article presents …

From Nyan Cat To Nfts: Determining How Canada’S Cultural Property Export And Import Act Applies To Digital Works, Mitchel Fleming

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

One of Canada’s principal pieces of legislation enacted to protect its cultural patrimony is not well equipped to deal with the rise of digital content creation. Digital works, particularly NFTs, pose a unique challenge to the established regime. This paper seeks to understand how these artistic developments fit within the current legislative framework and whether legislative action is needed to bring these revolutionary mediums within the scope of the Cultural Property Export and Import Act. Ultimately, the author concludes that while digital works may be captured by the Act under specific circumstances, the protectionist policies of the past are …

Blockchain And The Genesis Of Creative Justice To Disintermediate Creativity, Tonya M. Evans

Lewis & Clark Law Review

Historically, the art market has been shrouded in opaqueness and exclusivity, permissioned access and asymmetry of information that rivals the systemic ills of legacy financial markets that led to the Great Recession. Moreover, legacy art market stakeholders have, through the centuries, been entrenched in elitist and inequitable notions of art that excluded Black artists. These legacy intermediaries have also consistently demonstrated a deep and enduring disdain for any art connected to the digital world. That is, until the age of COVID-19 and the dramatically increasing value and dominance of the non-fungible token (NFT) market.

This Essay explores why, and how, …

Persistent Surveillance, Andrew Guthrie Ferguson

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Persistent surveillance technologies grant police vast new investigative capabilities. The technologies both monitor targeted areas and generate databases of searchable information about people, places, and patterns that can be connected and accessed for criminal prosecutions.

In the face of this growing police surveillance, courts have struggled to make sense of a fragmented Fourth Amendment doctrine. The Supreme Court has offered some clues that “digital may be different” when it comes to surveillance, but lower courts have been left struggling to apply old law to new technologies. Warrantless use of persistent surveillance technologies raises hard questions about when a “search” occurs …

Metasoftware: Building Blocks For Legal Technology, Houman Shadab

Articles & Chapters

This Article develops a novel concept in information technology called metasoftware. It then applies the concept of metasoftware to developing legal technology.

Metasoftware enables users to create the software of their choosing and stands in sharp contrast to traditional, functional software that is intended for a particular purpose or a defined range of tasks. Functional software is the default type of software that is currently produced and includes word processing, email, social networking, enterprise resource management, online marketplaces, and video game software. Metasoftware, by contrast, is not functional. Metasoftware presents the user with a blank slate upon which to build …

Returning To The Start? Federal Bipa Claims After Transunion V. Ramirez, Michael Goodyear

Articles & Chapters

The Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, more commonly known as “BIPA,” was the first statute to protect biometric privacy in the United States when it was passed in 2008. Although Texas and Washington have since passed their own biometric privacy laws, and other states have protected biometric information as part of more general data privacy legislation, BIPA remains the most powerful such law in the country due to being the only biometric privacy law to contain a private right of action. BIPA has also proven to be an important precedent for other states, such as New York, that are currently …

In Celebration Of Dissents (And Lengthy Textbooks): How Digital Became Different For The Fourth Amendment And Why It Is Time For A Real Warrant Default, Stephen E. Henderson

Faculty Articles

The last decade has brought tremendous change to the Fourth Amendment, finally resulting in a ‘digital is different’ norm. We stand at an inflection point between a monolithic, analog past and a murky future of yet-unarticulated constitutional digital policing rules. It is a good time, then, to reflect upon how we came to be here and where we ought to go. This Essay first looks back to a monumental, majestic dissent: that of Justice Louis Brandeis in the 1928 decision of Olmstead v. United States. Every American, and especially every law student, ought to know that opinion, and judges …

The Fourth Amendment In The Age Of Autonomous Vehicles, Tracy Hresko Pearl

Faculty Articles

Autonomous vehicles exist at the intersection of two extremely turbulent areas of Fourth Amendment jurisprudence—traffic stops and emerging technologies—and have implications for virtually every major search and seizure doctrine developed over the last century. Complicating matters even further is the fact that car manufacturers are developing these vehicles at varying rates, meaning that vehicles with differing levels of automation are being introduced onto the consumer market at different (and often unpredictable) times. Each level of vehicle automation, in turn, poses unique issues for law enforcement. Semi-autonomous (Levels 2 and 3) vehicles make it extremely difficult for police to distinguish between …

The “Law Of The Horse” For Outer Space? What “Space Law” Is, And Why It Is Important To Educate Space Lawyers, Frans G. Von Der Dunk

Space, Cyber, and Telecommunications Law Program: Faculty Publications

When I tell someone that I make a professional living with teaching, researching, and advising on space law, the first reaction all too often is laughter, followed by an only half-joking “So tell me, who owns the Moon then?” Which, by the way, nowadays is an important legal issue indeed. Such a lack of automatic recognition that something like “space law” makes sense ever since humankind entered outer space, however, usually is part of a more fundamental lack of understanding of the importance of space activities for our daily lives, which does not stop growing day by day.

It is …

Italy And The Implementation Of International Space Law, Frans Von Der Dunk

Space, Cyber, and Telecommunications Law Program: Faculty Publications

1. Introduction
2. Italy in Space
3. International Space Law and the Main Parameters for Private Space Activities
4. National Space Law in Italy as Addressing Private Space Activities
5. Concluding Remarks

Writing a contribution to the Liber Amicorum for someone who counts among the greatest space lawyers of Italy and indeed of the world, as well as being a long-time friend, is obviously a pleasure and an honour—and what other subject would be more suitable than the particular country that has been his birth ground, home, and point of departure for traveling the world to help the cause of …

The Right To Privacy And Data Protection In Times Of Armed Conflict, Asaf Lubin, Russell Buchan

Books & Book Chapters by Maurer Faculty

Contemporary warfare yields a profound impact on the rights to privacy and data protection. Technological advances in the fields of electronic surveillance, predictive algorithms, big data analytics, user-generated evidence, artificial intelligence, cloud storage, facial recognition, and cryptography are redefining the scope, nature, and contours of military operations. Yet, international humanitarian law offers very few, if any, lex specialis rules for the lawful processing, analysis, dissemination, and retention of personal information. This edited anthology offers a pioneering account of the current and potential future application of digital rights in armed conflict.

In Part I Mary Ellen O’Connell, Tal Mimran and Yuval …

Racialized, Judaized, Feminized: Identity-Based Attacks On The Press, Lili Levi

Articles

No abstract provided.

Technological Self-Sufficiency And The Role Of Novelty Traps, Rochelle C. Dreyfuss, Daniel Benoliel

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

The COVID pandemic has demonstrated the tragic consequences of technological dependency. Unable to manufacture vaccines for themselves, developing countries must rely on obtaining supplies from other nations. While strong arguments have been made to waive international obligations under the TRIPS Agreement to permit these countries to freely use COVID-related patented inventions, it is not clear that this move would produce sufficient vaccines to meet global demand. Considerable scholarship has been devoted to the question of how to help these countries reach the technological frontier and become technologically independent. In this Article, we identify a novel source of their problem: a …

Post-Grant Adjudication Of Drug Patents: Agency And/Or Court?, Arti K. Rai, Saurabh Vishnubhakat, Jorge Lemus, Erik Hovenkamp

Faculty Scholarship

The America Invents Act of 2011 (AIA) created a robust administrative system—the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB)—that provides a route for challenging the validity of granted patents outside of district courts. Congress determined that administrative adjudication of the validity of initial patent grants could be cheaper and more scientifically accurate than district court adjudication of such validity.

For private economic value per patent, few areas of technology can match the biopharmaceutical industry. This is particularly true for small-molecule drugs. A billion-dollar drug monopoly may be protected from competition by a relatively small number of patents. Accordingly, the social cost …

Exclusion Cycles: Reinforcing Disparities In Medicine, Ana Bracic, Shawneequa L. Callier, Nicholson Price

Articles

Minoritized populations face exclusion across contexts from politics to welfare to medicine. In medicine, exclusion manifests in substantial disparities in practice and in outcome. While these disparities arise from many sources, the interaction between institutions, dominant-group behaviors, and minoritized responses shape the overall pattern and are key to improving it. We apply the theory of exclusion cycles to medical practice, the collection of medical big data, and the development of artificial intelligence in medicine. These cycles are both self-reinforcing and other-reinforcing, leading to dismayingly persistent exclusion. The interactions between such cycles offer lessons and prescriptions for effective policy.

Why Digital Policing Is Different, Andrew Ferguson

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Many Fourth Amendment debates boil down to following argument: if police can already do something in an analog world, why does it matter that new digital technology allows them to do it better, more efficiently, or faster? This Article addresses why digital is, in fact, different when it comes to police surveillance technologies. The Article argues that courts should think of these digital technologies not as enhancements of traditional analog policing practices but as something completely different, warranting a different Fourth Amendment approach. Properly understood, certain digital searches should be legally distinguishable from analog search precedent such that the older …

Data Privacy, Human Rights, And Algorithmic Opacity, Sylvia Lu

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Decades ago, it was difficult to imagine a reality in which artificial intelligence (AI) could penetrate every corner of our lives to monitor our innermost selves for commercial interests. Within just a few decades, the private sector has seen a wild proliferation of AI systems, many of which are more powerful and penetrating than anticipated. In many cases, AI systems have become “the power behind the throne,” tracking user activities and making fateful decisions through predictive analysis of personal information. Despite the growing power of AI, proprietary algorithmic systems can be technically complex, legally claimed as trade secrets, and managerially …

Contracts Formed By Software: An Approach From The Law Of Mistake, Vincent Ooi

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

A ‘Contracting Problem’ arises when software is used to autonomously enter into contracts without human input. Questions arise as to how and whether there can be an expression of an objective intention to be legally bound. This article considers three leading solutions to the Contracting Problem. The ‘Mere Tools Theory’, which views software as ‘mere tools’ of communication, is too harsh as it binds users to any software malfunction. The Agency Approach, which treats software as Electronic Agents, capable of contracting on behalf of their users, is untenable as it ascribes unrealistic characteristics to software. The article submits that the …

Establishing A Legitimate Indonesia’S Government Electronic Surveillance Regulation: A Comparison With The U.S. Legal Practices, Citra Yuda Nur Fatihah

Indonesia Law Review

Cybersecurity and privacy have now become a matter of increasing concern for citizens, the private sector, and the Indonesian government. The government is currently struggling to combat cyberattacks and data breaches. Indonesia is, in fact, in the early stages of developing a national cybersecurity strategy. The legal framework for cybersecurity in Indonesia is still weak. The one and only legal basis for regulating cybersecurity, privacy, and security, in Indonesia so far is the Electronic Information and Transactions Law No. 11/2008 and its revised version Law No.19/2016. Furthermore, the government through the Indonesian Ministry of Communication and Information has just issued …

Paging Doctor Robot: Medical Artificial Intelligence, Tort Liability, And Why Personhood May Be The Answer, Benedict See

Brooklyn Law Review

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a part of everyday life. From our phones, to social media accounts, to online shopping, AI is present and enhances our daily experiences. One area where AI has a heavy (and an increasing) presence is the medical industry. Just as humans make mistakes, so does AI. However, when a human doctor makes a mistake, they can be sued for malpractice, but when AI makes a mistake, who is to be held responsible? Because tort law was designed with humans in mind, it may be hard to apply to medical AI, who’s “black box” algorithms make their …

A Trip Through Employment Law: Protecting Therapeutic Psilocybin Users In The Workplace, Benjamin Sheppard

Journal of Law and Health

In 2020, Oregon voters legalized therapeutic psilocybin in response to a plethora of scientific studies showing symptom reduction for depression, anxiety, substance use disorders, opioid addictions, migraines, other mental illnesses, HIV/AIDS, and cancer. The legal rethinking regarding therapeutic psilocybin continues in both state legislatures and city councils. Yet, despite state and local legalization or decriminalization of therapeutic psilocybin it remains illegal under the federal Controlled Substances Act. This tension between local and federal law places therapeutic psilocybin users and their employers in a difficult position. Because all types of psilocybin use remain illegal under federal law, a zero-tolerance drug use …

Contract Remedies Need Not Undercompensate Aspiring Parents When Cryopreserved Reproductive Material Is Lost Or Destroyed: Recovery Of Consequential Damages For Emotional Disturbance When Breach Of Contract Results In The Lost Opportunity To Become Pregnant With One's Own Biological Child, Joseph M. Hnylka

Journal of Law and Health

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported that the use of assisted reproductive technology (ART) has doubled over the past decade. In vitro fertilization (IVF) is the most prevalent form of ART. During IVF, a woman’s eggs are extracted, fertilized in a laboratory setting, and then implanted in the uterus. Many IVF procedures use eggs or sperm that were stored using a process called cryopreservation. A recent survey reported that cryopreservation consultations increased exponentially during the coronavirus pandemic, rising as much as 60 percent. It is estimated that more than one million embryos are stored in cryopreservation …

Indiana Law’S Lubin, Sun Help Advise Kosovo Government On Country’S Cybersecurity Act, James Owsley Boyd

Keep Up With the Latest News from the Law School (blog)

No abstract provided.

Ai In Adjudication And Administration, Cary Coglianese, Lavi M. Ben-Dor

Brooklyn Law Review

The use of artificial intelligence has expanded rapidly in recent years across many aspects of the economy. For federal, state, and local governments in the United States, interest in artificial intelligence has manifested in the use of a series of digital tools, including the occasional deployment of machine learning, to aid in the performance of a variety of governmental functions. In this Article, we canvass the current uses of such digital tools and machine-learning technologies by the judiciary and administrative agencies in the United States. Although we have yet to see fully automated decision-making find its way into either adjudication …

Putting A Finger On Biometric Privacy Laws: How Congress Can Stitch Together The Patchwork Of Biometric Privacy Laws In The United States, Eliza Simons

Brooklyn Law Review

The use of biometric identification in the consumer industry has grown immensely over the last decade and is projected to continue growing at an even faster rate. As private entities abandon password-based security systems and opt for the more secure, convenient, and cost-effective method of using biometric data, individuals are worried how that information will be protected. Although the right to privacy has always been valued in the United States, Congress has yet to specifically address biometric privacy. This note sets the legal landscape of privacy law, through the lens of biometric privacy, by surveying four categories of privacy law: …

Foreword: Law + Computation: An Algorithm For The Rule Of Law And Justice?, Daniel W. Linna Jr.

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

The Legislative Recipe: Syntax For Machine-Readable Legislation, Megan Ma, Bryan Wilson

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

Legal interpretation is a linguistic venture. In judicial opinions, for example, courts are often asked to interpret the text of statutes and legislation. As time has shown, this is not always as easy as it sounds. Matters can hinge on vague or inconsistent language and, under the surface, human biases can impact the decision-making of judges. This raises an important question: what if there was a method of extracting the meaning of statutes consistently? That is, what if it were possible to use machines to encode legislation in a mathematically precise form that would permit clearer responses to legal questions? …

Autonomous Corporate Personhood, Carla L. Reyes

Washington Law Review

Several states have recently changed their business organization law to accommodate autonomous businesses—businesses operated entirely through computer code. A variety of international civil society groups are also actively developing new frameworks— and a model law—for enabling decentralized, autonomous businesses to achieve a corporate or corporate-like status that bestows legal personhood. Meanwhile, various jurisdictions, including the European Union, have considered whether and to what extent artificial intelligence (AI) more broadly should be endowed with personhood to respond to AI’s increasing presence in society. Despite the fairly obvious overlap between the two sets of inquiries, the legal and policy discussions between the …

Community Empowerment In Decarbonization: Nepa’S Role, Wyatt G. Sassman

Washington Law Review

This Article addresses a potential tension between two ambitions for the transition to clean energy: reducing regulatory red-tape to quickly build out renewable energy, and leveraging that build-out to empower low-income communities and communities of color. Each ambition carries a different view of communities’ role in decarbonization. To those focused on rapid build-out of renewable energy infrastructure, communities are a potential threat who could slow or derail renewable energy projects through opposition during the regulatory process. To those focused on leveraging the transition to clean energy to advance racial and economic justice, communities are necessary partners in the key decisions …