Law Commons^™

Mark Of The Devil: The University As Brand Bully, James Boyle, Jennifer Jenkins

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

In recent years, universities have been accused in news stories of becoming “trademark bullies,” entities that use their trademarks to harass and intimidate beyond what the law can reasonably be interpreted to allow. Universities have also intensified efforts to gain expansive new marks. The Ohio State University’s attempt to trademark the word “the” is probably the most notorious. There has also been criticism of universities’ attempts to use their trademarks to police clearly legal speech about their activities. But beyond provocative anecdotes, how can one assess whether a particular university is truly bullying, since there are entirely legitimate reasons for …

Care For A Sample? De Minimis, Fair Use, Blockchain, And An Approach To An Affordable Music Sampling System For Independent Artists, Sean M. Corrado

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

Thanks, in part, to social media and the digital streaming age of music, independent artists have seen a rise in popularity and many musicians have achieved mainstream success without the affiliation of a major record label. Alongside the growth of independent music has come the widespread use of music sampling. Sampling, which was once depicted as a crime perpetrated by hip-hop artists, is now prevalent across charttopping hits from all genres. Artists have used sampling as a tool to integrate cultures, eras, and styles of music while experimenting with the bounds of musical creativity. Artists whose works are sampled have …

A Patent Reformist Supreme Court And Its Unearthed Precedent, Samuel F. Ernst

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

How is it that the Supreme Court, a generalist court, is leading a project of innovation reform in our times while the court of appeals established to encourage innovation is having its precedent stricken down time and again? This decade the Supreme Court has issued far more patent law decisions than in any decade since the passage of the Patent Act of 1952. In doing so, the Supreme Court has overruled the Federal Circuit in roughly threequarters of the patent cases in which the Supreme Court has issued opinions. In most of these cases, the Supreme Court has established rules …

Argh, No More Pirating America’S Booty: Improving Copyright Protections For American Creators In China, Johnathan Ling

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

The advent of the internet brought about revolutionary changes and challenges to the world. Internet piracy is one area which is presenting new challenges, particularly to copyright holders such as artists, filmmakers, and creators. China has been a hotbed of piracy and is home to the second highest number of file sharing infringers in the world. China has made strides to improve its copyright protection, such as implementing a copyright law in 1990, as well as joining the World Trade Organization and signing on to the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, which specifies minimum levels of intellectual …

Towards A Jurisprudence Of Fashion, Susan Scafidi

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

More Than An Academic Question: Defining Student Ownership Of Intellectual Property Rights, Kurt M. Saunders, Michael A. Lozano

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

Intellectual property is increasingly important due to technology’s rapid development. The importance of intellectual property is also reflected within universities as traditional centers of research and expression, where students and faculty are encouraged to develop inventions and creative works throughout the educational experience. The commercialization potential of the intellectual property that emerges from these efforts has led many universities to adopt policies to determine ownership of intellectual property rights. Many of these policies take different approaches to ownership, and most students are unaware of their rights and are unlikely to consider whether the university has a claim to ownership. The …

Intellectual Property And The Prisoner’S Dilemma: A Game Theory Justification Of Copyrights, Patents, And Trade Secrets, Adam D. Moore

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

In this article, I will offer an argument for the protection of intellectual property based on individual self-interest and prudence. In large part, this argument will parallel considerations that arise in a prisoner’s dilemma game. In brief, allowing content to be unprotected in terms of free access leads to a sub-optimal outcome where creation and innovation are suppressed. Adopting the institutions of copyright, patent, and trade secret is one way to avoid these sub-optimal results.

Pay The Troll Toll: The Patent Troll Model Is Fundamentally At Odds With The Patent System's Goal Of Innovation And Competition, Grace Heinecke

Fordham Law Review

Patent litigation has multiplied sixfold since the 1980s, with the last few years seeing an unprecedented number of patent lawsuits. When an inventor receives a patent, the U.S. Constitution grants him a monopoly for a limited number of years to reward him for his investment of time and resources and to incentivize him to continue innovating, which ultimately benefits society. However, the emergence of a litigious character, deemed the “patent troll,” has led to the patent system’s hindrance of innovation, a result that is at odds with the primary goal of patent law. Patent trolls exploit weaknesses in the patent …

Do Abstract Ideas Have The Need, The Need For Speed?: An Examination Of Abstract Ideas After Alice, Maria R. Sinatra

Fordham Law Review

Imagine you invented a way to perform mathematical calculations all over the world simultaneously. Now, imagine that you cannot patent your invention because it was compared to, and found to contain, the same idea as an abacus. This scenario was the outcome of Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International.

In coming to its decision in Alice, the U.S. Supreme Court adopted a two-part test that it had previously utilized to analyze the patentability of laws of nature to determine whether the patent at issue met the subject matter patentability standards of § 101 of the Patent Act. Determining …

Hacking Trademark Law For Collaborative Communities, Yana Welinder, Stephen Laporte

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

Collaborative communities create popular work with widely recognized brands, such as Wikipedia, Linux, Android, and Firefox. Trademark law can provide protections to members of these communities and the users of their products so that they can rely on the brands to identify the original projects. This Article explores the conflict between collaborative communities and trademark law. While collaborative communities thrive on openness and decentralization, trademark law requires centralized quality control and various formalities. This Article introduces a descriptive taxonomy of “hacks” that collaborative communities have used to try to mitigate the tensions between their values and trademark law. These hacks …

Stay Tuned: Whether Cloud-Based Service Providers Can Have Their Copyrighted Cake And Eat It Too, Amanda Asaro

Fordham Law Review

Copyright owners have the exclusive right to perform their works publicly and the ability to license their work to others who want to share that right. Subsections 106(4) and (5) of the Copyright Act govern this exclusive public performance right, but neither subsection elaborates on what constitutes a performance made “to the public” versus one that remains private. This lack of clarity has made it difficult for courts to apply the Copyright Act consistently, especially in the face of changing technology.

Companies like Aereo, Inc. and AereoKiller, Inc. developed novel ways to transmit content over the internet to be viewed …

Toward A Limited Right Of Publicity: An Argument For The Convergence Of The Right Of Publicity, Unfair Competition And Trademark Law, Andrew Beckerman-Rodau

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

The right of publicity — the most recently developed type of intellectual property — allows a person to control commercial use of his or her identity. The scope of the right has expanded significantly since its inception because many courts and commentators have misinterpreted it, viewing it as a pure property right justified by a labor or unjust enrichment theory. Rather, this article contends that it should be evaluated in light of the utilitarian justification for intellectual property law. Rewarding people by allowing them to monetize their public persona is not the goal of the right of publicity. The goal …

Bearing Down On Trademark Bullies, Irina D. Manta

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

Trademark bullying has become a persistent problem, with large companies intimidating smaller entities with cease and desist campaigns and achieving anti-competitive results. A number of tactics exist to deal with bullying behavior. One of them is the imposition of judicial sanctions, but the standards in that area are unclear and the defendants often do not have the financial means to engage in litigation at all. Other, extralegal measures such as shaming have shown some success, but also present numerous drawbacks and prove insufficient when used against powerful actors. This symposium contribution proposes a new model that draws on the existing …

Real-Life Protection For Fictional Trademarks, Benjamin M. Arrow

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Prospective Compensation In Lieu Of A Final Injunction In Patent And Copyright Cases, H. Tomas Gomez-Arostegui

Fordham Law Review

In a 2006 decision, eBay Inc. v. MercExchange, L.L.C., the U.S. Supreme Court held that traditional equitable factors apply to injunctions in patent and copyright cases, and therefore the mere fact that a defendant has infringed a patent or a copyright does not necessarily mean a final injunction must issue. In the three years since, lower courts have denied final injunctions more frequently than before and are now struggling with what relief, if any, to give prevailing plaintiffs in lieu of an injunction. Some courts permit plaintiffs to sue again later. But most award prospective relief to plaintiffs¾sometimes a lump-sum …

When Worlds Collide: Intellectual Property At The Interface Between Systems Of Knowledge Creation, Introduction, Katherine J. Strandburg, Brett M. Frischmann, Jay P. Kesan

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Notes On A Geography Of Knowledge, Michael J. Madison

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Commercial Free And Open Source Software: Knowledge Production, Hybrid Appropriability, And Patents, Greg R. Vetter

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Transferring Innovation, Jay P. Kesan

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Interface: The Push And Pull Of Patents, Peter Lee

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

User Innovator Community Norms: At The Bounds Between Academic And Industry Research, Katherine J. Strandburg

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Regulation Of Creativity Under The Wipo Internet Treaties, Ruth L. Okediji

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Keynote Address, Harmless Use: Gleaning From Fields Of Copyrighted Works, Wendy J. Gordon, Sonia Katyal

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Pull Of Patents, Brett M. Frischmann

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Internet Packet Sniffing And Its Impact On The Network Neutrality Debate And The Balance Of Power Between Intellectual Property Creators And Consumers, Rob Frieden

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Intellectual Property And Americana, Or Why Ip Gets The Blues, Michael J. Madison

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Sentencing Luxury: The Valuation Debate In Sentencing Traffickers Of Counterfeit Luxury Goods, Jana Nicole Checa Chong

Fordham Law Review

This Note examines the contentious debate that exists regarding the property valuation used by the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines with regard to counterfeiting. Currently, the Sentencing Guidelines employ “street value.” However, many scholars and organizations argue that the alternative use of “retail value” will best assess the harm to the intellectual property owner as well as combat the growing problem of counterfeiting. This Note suggests that amending the Sentencing Guidelines, in order to allow for application of “retail value,” will best combat a growing national and international problem posed by the counterfeit luxury goods market.

The Irs’S Cost-Sharing Proposals In The Worldwide Tax System: Why Congress Should Avoid Anti-Competitive Transfer Pricing Regulations And Embrace A Territorial Tax, James D. Mandolfo

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

No abstract provided.

Pto Rulemaking In The Twenty-First Century: Defining The Line Between Strategic Planning And Abuse Of Authority, Brian E. Mack

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Panel I: Monsanto V. Scruggs: The Scope Of Downstream Licensing Restrictions, Mark R. Patterson, Richard B. Ulmer Jr., Peter Castensen, Jay P. Kesan

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.