Law Commons^™

Of Text, Technique, And The Tangible: Drafting Patent Claims Around Patent Rules, 17 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 219 (1998), John R. Thomas

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

Courts have long recognized and policed attempts to contract around the patent code. Settled law establishes that the proprietor of a patent which enjoys market power cannot extend that patent beyond its statutory term or restrain competition in an unpatented product via contract. Yet today a far more subtle and fundamental mechanism for drafting around the statute has materialized: the humble patent instrument itself. Patent drafters have only partially realized the remarkable set of tools they now possess for expanding the scope of patent-eligible subject matter, augmenting the market power of issued patents, and avoiding core precepts of the patent …

Statutory Subject Matter And Hybrid Claiming, 17 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 277 (1998), R. Carl Moy

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

The statutory subject matter provision of the United States patent code is one of that law's murkiest provisions. It has been the subject of repeated cases before the United States Supreme Court. Despite this, confusion and disagreement among the lower courts remains substantial. Much of the literature agrees that the law is in disarray. This paper isolates and treats one such problem: that of dealing with so-called "hybrid" inventions. Hybrid inventions are those that consist of both statutory and non-statutory elements grouped together. As such, their basic nature presents a classification problem. Hybrid inventions are mongrels, neither purely statutory nor …

Examination Guidelines For Computer-Related Inventions, 17 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 311 (1998), The United States Patent And Trademark Office

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

No abstract provided.

Are Beauregard's Claims Really Valid?, 17 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 347 (1998), Jeffrey S. Draeger

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

Computer hardware, software, and networking equipment together have fueled the onset of the Information Age, an age where a seemingly endless stream of ones and zeroes often is an extremely valuable commodity. Undeniably, computer software has been a crucial building block in this Information Age. However, intellectual property law has been slow to embrace software inventions as patentable subject matter on par with computer hardware and networking equipment. This Comment concludes that claims for computer instruction embodied in a computer readable medium do constitute statutory subject matter. As proper statutory subject matter, such claims should be evaluated "as a whole," …

An Attempt To Rationalize Floppy Disc Claims, 17 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 183 (1998), Richard H. Stern

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

It is now more than four years since the Federal Circuit's en banc decision in In re Alappat. It is now at least two years since the intertwined events of the Federal Circuit's curious decisions to remand in In re Beauregard and In re Trovato, and the publication by the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) of its Guidelines on the examination of software-related patent applications. Despite that passage of time, the clarity of the legal status of software-related patents, and particularly those written in article of manufacture format (so-called floppy disk patents), has not improved. Nonetheless, use of such claims …

Maintaining Incentives For Bioprospecting: The Occasional Need For A Right To Lie, Robert H. Heidt

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Building on a model by Anthony Kronman, the author argues that biotechnological researchers searching for valuable cells should occasionally be allowed to deceive research subjects whose cells prove valuable. The wish to preserve proper incentives for these searches justifies this exception to the law's usual abhorrence of deception. The subject's ability to "hold up" the researcher once the subject learns of his cells' value combined with the law's likely refusal to force an unwilling subject to continue his cooperation with the researcher poses risks for biotechnologists that other producers of information do not face and that the right to deceive …

The Impact Of Technology On The Notary Process, 31 J. Marshall L. Rev. 911 (1998), Glen-Peter Ahlers Sr.

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Dollywood Is Not Just A Theme Park In Tennessee Anymore: Unwarranted Prohibitory Human Cloning Legislation And Policy Guidelines For A Regulatory Approach To Cloning, 31 J. Marshall L. Rev. 1385 (1998), Paul Tully

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

On The Sudden Loss Of A Human Rights Activist: A Tribute To Dr. Jonathan Mann's Use Of International Human Rights Law In The Global Battle Against Aids, 32 J. Marshall L. Rev. 129 (1998), Mark E. Wojcik

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Harnessing The Human Genome Through Legislative Restraint, George P. Smith Ii

Scholarly Articles

The awesome predictive power of genetic medicine promises great advancements in not only the treatment of identifiable conditions but the prevention of their pathological manifestations. At the same time, the release and dissemination of this genetic or medical information poses a distinct risk of loss of privacy and stigmatization to carriers of genetic disorders. In order to safeguard the individual right of autonomy, privacy, confidentiality and informed consent-yet accommodate the legitimate interests of employers and insurers to obtain medical information relevant to their professional needs and economic responsibilities a balance must be struck legislatively at the federal and state levels …

Bioethics And The Administration Of Justice, George P. Smith Ii

Faculty Books

This essay is divided into five parts. The first will examine, in broad-brush, bioethics as a discipline, language and political movement. The second explores the politics of morality and the role bioethicists have in assisting with the tasks of judicial decision making. Part three tackles the feasibility of promoting a deliberative democracy within the New Age of Biotechnology. Part four considers forensic or scientific evidence. And, the final section of this essay considers how Elizabeth Taylor, Reva Shane Lewis of the CBS soap opera, "The Guiding Light," Thomas Donaldson and the sheep, "Dolly," shape the contours of this new age …

Sovereign Indignity? Values, Borders And The Internet: A Case Study, Eric B. Easton

Seattle University Law Review

This Article focuses on the publication ban issued by Justice Kovacs in the Karla Homolka trial and the reaction to it as a case study of the new global communications environment. Part I reconstructs the factual circumstances that provoked the ban, as well as the responses of the media, the legal establishment, and the public. Part II examines the ban itself, the constitutional challenge mounted by the media, and the landmark Dagenais decision. Part III reflects on the meaning of the entire episode for law, journalism, and national sovereignty. The article concludes that the publication ban in this case, by …

The Chinese System Of Administrative Protection For Pharmaceuticals, 31 J. Marshall L. Rev. 1165 (1998), J. Michael Warner, Han Xiaoquing

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Destination Unknown: Does The Internet's Lack Of Physical Situs Preclude State And Federal Attempts To Regulate It , Christopher S.W. Blake

Cleveland State Law Review

This Note summarizes recent tests of state and federal Internet content regulations and analyzes the impact the Internet's incompatibility with "real space" geography had or might have had on the courts' reasoning. To some extent, it posits what problems the incompatibility poses for impending legislation. In the midst of such discussion, this Note opines that state and federal regulations of the Internet could conceivably both fail Constitutional muster, due specifically to the internet's physical shortcomings. Part II of this Note offers a background of the Internet's different communication capacities and describes its conflicts with geography. Part III summarizes the courts' …

Seeing Is Believing: A Practitioner's Guide To The Admissibility Of Demonstrative Computer Evidence, 1998 John M. Manos Writing Competition On Evidence , Karen D. Butera

Cleveland State Law Review

As computer equipment itself becomes more financially accessible, more experts are using computer simulations as demonstrative evidence during their trial testimony. However, this use of computer simulations presents several novel, complex issues. Part II will explore the backgrounds of demonstrative evidence, computerization, and the use of computer simulation for demonstrative evidence. Part III will discuss and analyze several relevant issues, including attorney training, expert knowledge, judicial confusion, additional evidentiary issues, and the possible prejudicial influence of demonstrative computer simulations. This discussion concludes with some general thoughts regarding the use of demonstrative computer simulation to illustrate expert testimony.

Year 2000 Hurdles And Controversies, Michael D. Schindler

Cleveland State Law Review

This article examines the hurdles and controversies of the Year 2000 problem. First, some background on the "Millennium Bug" explains the nature of the problem, how to fix it, and what it will cost. Next, the article discusses recent Year 2000 litigation. Then the article suggests that companies should implement a legal strategy to avoid potential liability by performing a legal audit of the Year 2000 problem. Additionally, the UCC and case law analysis are used to explain possible causes of action and who the plaintiffs and defendants will be. Other key legal issues analyzed are SEC disclosure requirements, insurance …

The Unauthorized Dissemination Of Celebrity Images On The Internet ... In The Flesh, Navin Katyal

Cleveland State Law Review

This paper will explore and analyze the unauthorized use and dissemination of celebrity images over the Internet as a violation of the copyrights of either the celebrity themselves, or the cinematographic' rights of the film production studio(s). The analysis will focus on the Copyright Act of both Canada and the United States and will be covered in three parts. Part I will define the basic nomenclature of the Internet and explain the applicability of copyright law to the Internet. Part II will focus on methods in which the celebrity and film studio can protect their copyright 'On-line' through the American-defined …

An Open Courtroom: Should Cameras Be Permitted In New York State Courts?, Jay C. Carlisle

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

On June 30, 1997, the State of New York became one of the nation's few states which does not permit audio-visual coverage of court proceedings. There are several potent arguments in the determination of whether cameras should be permitted in courtroom proceedings. This article will briefly summarize the history of the use of cameras in New York State courts, and then, set out the arguments for and against their use in the state's judicial system. The article is prompted by the book entitled “An Open Courtroom: Cameras in New York Courts” which was published in 1997 by the New York …

International Response To Dolly: Will Scientific Freedom Get Sheared , Melissa K. Cantrell

Journal of Law and Health

This Comment will discuss the current threat to scientific freedom posed by absolute bans on human cloning. Parts II and III discuss the response of the United States and the international community to Dolly. Part IV discusses the legal position of scientific freedom in the U.S. and abroad. Finally, Part V will posit that a total ban on human cloning infringes on the freedom of scientific inquiry, and endangers the public by encouraging the establishment of black market cloning clinics.

Transgenic Agriculture: Biosafety And International Trade, Michael S. Baram, Calestuous Juma, Sheldon Krimsky, Rufus C. King

Faculty Scholarship

We stand at the threshold of a new century that will bring novel methods of producing foods, industrial materials, pharmaceuticals, and other products important to society and industry. Today's session will, therefore, address a subject of great importance: the introduction of genetically modified crops, livestock, micro-organisms, and other substances into agriculture and related fields, made possible by American and foreign corporate biotechnology.

Gambling On The Internet, Aaron Craig

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

This article analyzes current proposals to regulate gambling on the Internet and suggests that their flaws stem primarily from a failure to appreciate the complexity of the vice/economic gain dichotomy that has been incorporated in American gambling regulatory policy. Americans have historically prohibited some forms of gambling while tolerating others. An Internet gambling regulatory system should view the Internet as a medium across which current gambling policies should be extended. Regimes that legalize all forms of gambling on the Internet are politically untenable and unwise. Proposals to outlaw all forms of gambling fail to recognize the Government's interest in permitting …

Contracting In Cyberspace, Jeff C. Dodd, James A. Hernandez

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

Cyberspace law has started to take some shape as lawyers and merchants increasingly look to the same models and structures for guidance. Proposed statutes dealing directly with cyberspace contracting issues are working their way through the process of uniform and legislative law making. A few of these statutory laws have already made it through the gauntlet.4 Although this unsystematic growth through practice has led to a motley collection of legal standards governing cyberspace contracting, most of the issues that these standards purport to deal with relate to only five root problems:

(a)   Authority. When is the contract "my" contract? What …

Upstream Patents = Downstream Bottlenecks, Rebecca S. Eisenberg, Michael A. Heller

Articles

Thirty years ago in Science, Garrett Hardin introduced the metaphor "tragedy of the commons" to help explain overpopulation, air pollution, and species extinction. People often overuse resources they own in common because they have no incentive to conserve. Today, Hardin's metaphor is central to debates in economics, law, and science and powerful justification for privatizing commons property. While the metaphor highlights the cost of overuse when governments allow too many people to use a scarce resource, it misses the possibility of underuse when governments give too many people rights to exclude others. Privatization can solve one tragedy, but cause another.

Commercial Speech On The Internet: Spain And The First Amendment, Joshua A. Marcus

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Copyright And The Jurisprudence Of Self-Help, Julie E. Cohen

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The proposed draft of Article 2B grants broad rights to enforce electronically contract provisions governing access to and use of digital works. Purveyors of digital works may engage in electronic self-help following breach of contract, and may also elect to foreclose unauthorized uses ex ante, via electronic “regulation of performance.” This Article examines these provisions in light of existing law authorizing self-help repossession of tangible chattels, leading academic justifications for self-help repossession, and federal copyright law and policy. It concludes that the provisions authorize an unprecedented degree of intrusion into private homes and offices, that they lack a sound theoretical …

The International Enforcement Of Software Copyrights And Patents, Siehnai F. Williamson

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

Upon graduating with a computer science degree, Shannon Smith and her classmates started their own educational computer software firm called ABC Software (ABC). ABC observed that the computer software industry had grown exponentially since the 1980s due in part to industry-wide standards (like the Windows® platform) and the declining costs in computer hardware that have increased demand for computer products. Because ABC believes the software industry is knowledge-based, ABC need incur little research and developmental costs. ABC's ability to protect its software will be the determining factor in deciding where to distribute its products. Since the very nature of computer …

U.S. Subject Matter Jurisdiction For Copyright Infringements On The Internet, Christian M. Reider

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

Copyright infringement is currently the most important substantive legal issue in online communication. Many copyright owners, a handful of authors, and an increasing number of courts realize that the Internet, more than any other medium, will challenge the enforcement of copyright infringement in the international context. The threshold issue in copyright enforcement is the question of subject matter jurisdiction over the Internet, a digital world without significant national boundaries.

Determining subject matter jurisdiction has great economic and legal impact on the parties. The exposure of any individual Internet user or any local company to foreign as well as multiple jurisdictions …

Table Of Contents

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

No abstract provided.

Neither Dead Nor Forgotten: The Past, Present, And Future Of The Communications Decency Act In Light Of Reno V. Aclu, Sue Ann Mota

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

The Communications Decency Act (CDA) was enacted by Congress in February of 1996 as part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The goal of the CDA was to limit children's exposure to sexually explicit online materials. President Clinton signed the bill into law on February 8, 1996, and the CDA was immediately challenged.  A three-judge federal district court panel in ACLU v. Reno held that certain provisions of the CDA violate the U.S. Constitution. On June 26, 1997, the Supreme Court handed down its decision, affirming that certain provisions of the CDA violate the First Amendment. The provisions held to …