Law Commons^™

Balancing Acts: Using A Mixed Test To Ensure Better Results In Rule Of Reason Patent Misuse Analysis Within Section 337, Syvil Shelbourne

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

This Comment addresses the tensions faced by the Federal Circuit in reviewing the ITC’s patent misuse decisions that address § 337 claims. First, this Comment provides relevant background information by explaining § 337 itself, the administrative power and function of the ITC under § 337, and the Federal Circuit’s jurisdiction and deferential stance to the ITC regarding § 337 appeals. Subsequently, this Comment examines both per se and rule of reason patent misuse defenses, within the context of ITC appeals to the Federal Circuit of § 337 claims, by laying out their doctrinal frameworks as set out by the Federal …

Table Of Contents

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

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Medimmune V. Genentech: A Game-Theoretic Analysis Of The Supreme Court’S Continued Assault On The Patentee, Nicholas G. Smith

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

In 2007, the Supreme Court decided MedImmune v. Genentech. This decision changed the landscape of the patent licensing field by holding that a licensee in good standing may challenge the validity of a patent in a declaratory judgment action. By adding to the cost of entering a license agreement, MedImmune erodes one characteristic of a patent from which it derives its worth—the patent’s ability to be licensed. Unfortunately, this has decreased the incentive to innovate by decreasing the value of a patent. This Comment seeks to illustrate, using a game theoretic model, how MedImmune will increase litigation against patent …

I'M Still Your Baby: Canada's Continuing Support Of U.S. Linkage Regulations For Pharmaceuticals, Ron A. Bouchard

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

Canada's linkage regime for pharmaceuticals, modeled after the originating U.S. Hatch-Waxman regime, was brought in under intense political pressure to balance effective patent enforcement over new and innovative drugs with the timely market entry of lower-priced generic competitors. It has been almost two decades since the regulations were enacted, and to date, there has been little objective assessment as to whether the regulations have, in fact, stimulated innovation and timely generic entry. We recently completed three empirical studies on the linkage between drug approval and drug patenting under the Patented Medicines (Notice of Compliance) Regulations (NOC Regulations). Of particular interest …

Living With Patents: Insights From Patent Misuse, Vincent Chiapetta

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

The Author argues that the patent misuse doctrine should be eliminated. Created almost a century ago as a response to patent power, it has now not only outlived its purpose but causes affirmative harm. Other more nuanced approaches, including antitrust law, produce superior results. Although the Federal Circuit has contained the doctrine, it cannot overrule Supreme Court misuse precedent. Accordingly, the Court should abolish the doctrine at the earliest opportunity or, failing prompt action, Congress should add the matter to its ongoing patent reform agenda. The misuse experience also provides valuable insights regarding how we can appropriately live with our …

Emerging Scholars Series: A Sui Generis Regime For Traditional Knowledge: The Cultural Divide In Intellectual Property Law, J. Janewa Oseitutu

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

Traditional knowledge can be protected, to some extent, under various intellectual property laws. However, for the most part, there is no effective international legal protection for this subject matter. This has led to proposals for a sui generis regime to protect traditional knowledge. The precise contours of the right are yet to be determined, but a sui generis right could include perpetual protection. It could also result in protection for historical communal works and for knowledge that may be useful but that is not inventive according to the standards of intellectual property law. Developing countries have been more supportive of …

Twitter Or Tweeter: Who Should Be Liable For A Right Of Publicity Violation Under The Cda?, Kristina M. Sesek

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

The Communications Decency Act (CDA), passed in 1996, immunized Internet service providers (ISPs) from being treated as the publisher or speaker of any information posted on their website by another person and from possible subsequent liability. The CDA also carved out an exemption for violations of intellectual property‹meaning an ISP could still be liable for information posted on their website by another person that violates an intellectual property right. However, the CDA did not spell out whether it intended to include only federal intellectual property rights or both federal and state intellectual property rights.

This Comment proposes two possible reasons …

The Performance Rights Act: A Lack Of Impact On A Transitioning Music Industry, Michael C. Yeh

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

The music industry is in a decline. Music sales are not creating the same profits as before, and rather than change or adapt, record labels are petitioning the legislature to create new modes of revenue. One way the music industry is petitioning the legislature to add a new source of revenue, without changing its archaic business model, is by pushing Congress to pass the Performance Rights Act. This Act proposes that analog radio stations pay musicians and artists royalties to play their songs on the air, just like on digital radio. While the Performance Rights Act looks great on the …

Can The Patent Office Be Fixed?, Mark A. Lemley

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

The Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) finds itself caught in a vise. On the one hand, it has been issuing a large number of dubious patents over the past twenty years, particularly in the software and electronic commerce space. It issues many more patents than its counterparts in Europe and Japan; roughly three-fourths of applicants ultimately get one or more patents, a higher percentage than in other countries. Complaints about those bad patents are legion, and indeed, when they make it to litigation, they are quite often held invalid. Even the ones that turn out to be valid are often …

Intellectual Property Colloquium Series: Canada And The Three-Step Test: A Step In Which Direction?, Ysolde Gendreau

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

In her lecture, Prof. Gendreau discusses the relationship between Canada and the United States when it comes to Copyright law. More specifically, Prof. Gendreau discusses the concept of fair dealing in education in Canada, and then discusses the Canadian provision in the context of international treaties, in particular the TRIPS Agreement and the Berne Convention.

Coercion Will Not Protect Trademark Owners In China, But An Understanding Of China's Culture Will: A Lesson The United States Has To Learn, Dalila Hoover

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

China remains the single largest producer of pirated and counterfeit goods in the world. The purpose of this article is to explore the different factors that have impeded effective trademark protection in China. In particular, this article analyzes the cultural barriers between the United States and China, and in doing so, helps one understand the climate of hostility between the two nations when it comes to trademark enforcement. This article further analyzes the constant pressure exercised by the United States against China, which has led to the adoption of trademark laws by the Chinese government at the national and international …

Acta Fool Or: How Rights Holders Learned To Stop Worrying And Love 512’S Subpoena Provisions, Colin E. Shanahan

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

This comment argues against the adoption of the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. Specifically, that the ACTA provision establishing “[p]rocedures enabling right holders who have given effective notification of a claimed infringement to expeditiously obtain information identifying the alleged infringer” should not extend the current subpoena provisions of 17 USC § 512(h) to encompass p2p networks. The Comment discusses the current U.S. law and cases, why the rights holders want the ACTA Agreeement and argues why the ACTA agreement should not be adopted.

Table Of Contents

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

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Funding Stem Cell Research: The Convergence Of Science, Religion & Politics In The Formation Of Public Health Policy, Edward A. Fallone

Faculty Publications

The controversy over the funding of stem cell research by the federal government is used as a case study for examining how policy choices are made in the field of public bioethics. This article examines the manner in which the decision to fund stem cell research has been influenced by the convergence of evolving scientific knowledge, conflicting religious values, and the role of elected officials in a representative democracy. The article begins by reviewing the current state of scientific knowledge concerning adult stem cells, embryonic stem cells, induced pluripotent stem cells, and the process of direct cell re-programming. Because each …

The Forgotten Employee Benefit Crisis: Multiemployer Benefit Plans On The Brink, Paul M. Secunda

Faculty Publications

This article provides a first time look at the numerous challenges facing multiemployer or Taft-Hartley benefit plans in the post-global recession and health care reform world. These plans have provided pension, health, and welfare benefits to union members of smaller employers in itinerant industries for over sixty years and even today, these plans collectively have over ten million participants in over 1500 plans.

Multiemployer plans are increasingly mired in financial trouble and are finding it more difficult to continue to provide adequate retirement and health benefits to their members. Although they once represented one of the great triumphs in American …

Wisconsin Supreme Court And Legislative History, Patricia A. Cervenka

Faculty Publications

Legislative history has been directly mentioned more than 1,800 times in the body of Wisconsin Supreme Court opinions. In 1927, the Wisconsin Legislature established the Legislative Reference Bureau (LRB) to maintain files of drafting records for each proposed bill. Since the late 1990s, the files have been available electronically to make the information more accessible to lawyers appearing in Wisconsin courts.

Library Without Walls - A Year Later, Patricia A. Cervenka

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Foreward: Lessons From Other Countries: Comparative Pension Law, Paul M. Secunda

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Alimony: What Social Science And Popular Culture Tell Us About Women, Guilt, And Spousal Support After Divorce, Judith G. Mcmullen

Faculty Publications

Over the past few decades, fewer divorcing women have received alimony, and when alimony awards are made, they are in declining amounts and for shorter periods of time. Conventional explanations of this trend focus on legal changes that have made divorces easier to obtain, as well as social changes that have led to larger numbers of married women in the paid workforce, and to greater social tolerance of divorce. Certainly these changes partly explain the downward trend in alimony, but they do not fully explain why alimony awards continue to decline, even among women who do not have viable job …

Private Rights In Public Lands: The Chicago Lakefront, Montgomery Ward, And The Public Dedication Doctrine, Joseph D. Kearney, Thomas W. Merrill

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Sonic Bust: Trying To Retain Major League Franchises In Challenging Financial Times, Paul M. Anderson, W. S. Miller

Faculty Publications

This article analyzes the relationship between a city and team. It uses the litigation surrounding the Seattle Sonics move to Oklahoma City to show how the relationship can break down. The authors then argue that judicial remedies will often be inadequate unless substantiated with strong lease language.

Beyond Rehabilitation: A New Theory Of Indeterminate Sentencing, Michael M. O'Hear

Faculty Publications

Indeterminate sentencing - that is, sentencing offenders to a range of potential imprisonment with the actual release date determined later, typically by a parole board - fell into disrepute among theorists and policymakers in the last three decades of the twentieth century. This sentencing practice had been closely associated with the rehabilitative paradigm in criminal law, which also fell from favor in the 1970’s. In the years that followed, most states eliminated or pared back the various devices that had been used to implement indeterminate sentencing, especially parole release. Yet, sentencing remained indeterminate most places to varying degrees, and now …

Sheep In Wolves' Clothing: Removing Parens Patriae Suits Under The Class Action Fairness Act, Alexander Lemann

Faculty Publications

This Note examines the applicability of the Class Action Fairness Act’s (CAFA) removal provisions to parens patriae suits. CAFA expanded federal diversity jurisdiction to include class actions with minimal diversity, doing away with a rule that had kept most class actions in state court. Although CAFA does not mention parens patriae suits, their inherent similarity to class actions raised the question of whether they too could now be removed to federal court. The Fifth Circuit, in Louisiana ex rel. Caldwell v. Allstate Insurance Co., has held that the real parties in interest — those whose injuries form the basis of …

A Review Of Post-Pga Tour, Inc. V. Martin Legal Developments Regarding The Participation Rights Of Disabled Athletes, Matthew J. Mitten

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Case For A Limited Protection Of Trademark Merchandising, Irene Calboli

Faculty Publications

Since its judicial creation in the 1970s, strong controversy has surrounded the practice of trademark merchandising. Trademark scholars have generally opposed merchandising rights because of the departure from the traditional interpretation of trademark law—protecting consumers and market competition—in favor of a direct protection of trademark value. Despite this opposition, courts and Congress have favored the acceptance of this practice by broadening the scope of trademark protection and by introducing the concept of confusion as to the products’ “sponsorship” or “affiliation” as part of the standard for trademark infringement. Not surprisingly, trademark scholars have criticized these developments but have not offered, …

Constitutional Contracts Clause Challenges In Public Pension Litigation, Paul M. Secunda

Faculty Publications

The recent spate of high profile efforts by state governors to roll back public employee pension rights in light of recent budgetary challenges has shone the light directly on the importance to public employees of the Contracts Clause provisions of the federal and state constitutions. Using as an example the controversial budget repair bill in Wisconsin and the application of the bill’s pension provisions to Milwaukee City employee pension rights, this article has sought to show how, under certain specified circumstances, such legislative attempts may be constitutionally impermissible if such laws substantially impair employee contracts with the state without the …

Neoformalism And The Reemergence Of The Right-Privilege Distinction In Public Employment Law, Paul M. Secunda

Faculty Publications

The First Amendment speech rights of public employees, which have traditionally enjoyed protection under the doctrine of unconstitutional conditions, have suddenly diminished in recent years. At one time developed to shut the door on the infamous privilege/rights distinction, the unconstitutional conditions doctrine has now been increasingly used to rob these employees of their constitutional rights.

Three interrelated developments explain this state of affairs. First, a jurisprudential school of thought – the “subsidy school” – has significantly undermined the vitality of the unconstitutional conditions doctrine through its largely successful sparring with an alternative school of thought, the “penalty school.” Second, although …

Volume 95, Winter 2011 Masthead, Marquette University Law School

Marquette Law Review

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Volume 95, Winter 2011 - Table Of Contents, Marquette University Law Review

Marquette Law Review

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Provocation At Face Value, Kyron Huigens

Marquette Law Review

To take provocation at face value is to plead and prove it as a manslaughter offense, as it is defined in most criminal codes. To do this seems to be both unnecessary and impossible. The defendant has the best access to evidence of provocation and will benefit from the proof of this partial defense, so why should he not be required to prove it? The prosecution has no incentive to prove provocation manslaughter because the definition of this offense includes a murder. Why would the prosecution, having proved a murder, set out to prove a lesser crime than the crime …