Law Commons^™

Making Sense Of Nonsense: Intellectual Property, Antirtust, And Market Power, Ariel Katz

Ariel Katz

While the economic rationale for intellectual property (“IP”) rights rests on the concepts of “monopoly” or market power,” the Supreme Court, in Illinois Tool Works v. Independent Ink, has recently joined a “virtual consensus” among antitrust commentators believing that no presumption of market power should exist in antitrust cases involving IP. This Article critically analyzes this consensus, and clarifies the relationship between IP and market power, shows why IP rights often do confer market power in the antitrust sense, but also explains why acknowledging this should not necessarily lead to oversized application of antitrust law to IP.

Assessing The Moral Legitimacy Of Statutory Damages In Copyright , Ben R. Kociubinski

Ben R Kociubinski

No abstract provided.

Intellectual Property Piracy: Perception And Reality In China, The United States, And Elsewhere, Aaron Schwabach

Aaron Schwabach

The article is intended as a counterpoint to the all-too-frequent portrayal of China as the world’s leading violator of intellectual property rights. In fact, by many measures China, taken as a whole, is not the leading violator. Some measures show China as the leading violator only because they are aggregates, and do not take into account China’s size. When figures are adjusted for population, China’s rates of intellectual property violation are lower than those of many other countries, including the United States. The article first looks at examples of the current round of political and media China-bashing. It then examines …

The Cultural Property Claim Within The Same Sex Marriage Controversy, Marc R. Poirier

Marc R. Poirier

The Cultural Property Claim within the Same Sex Marriage Controversy.

Marc R. Poirier, Seton Hall University School of Law

This article argues that traditionalist opposition to same sex marriage can be understood as a cultural property claim -- the sort of claim that is often made by Native American tribes and other subordinated cultural groups of a right to control the uses of sacred or culturally central rituals, places and objects. Ultimately, it disagrees with the traditionalist position, and argues that traditionalists should not be allowed to maintain a property-like right to exclude same sex couples from marriage. Nevertheless, the …

License To Sue?, Lorelei Ritchie De Larena

Lorelei Ritchie de Larena

Courts, commentators and practitioners have for too long viewed intellectual property law as a discrete discipline, without putting it into the proper theoretical context of general jurisprudence. Intellectual property law cannot and must not exist on its own, outside the normative framework of overlapping legal institutions. Even within the rubric of intellectual property, courts have overlooked the potential for cross-applying relevant doctrines between patent, copyright, and trademark law. Certainly, when intellectual property disputes touch on other disciplines, such as civil procedure, contract, or tort law, courts have tended to overlook their synergies, focusing instead on only one of several important …

"Copynorms, Black Cultural Production And The Debate Over African-American Reparations, Kevin Greene

Kevin Greene

The cultural production of black artists has been central to American society, yet virtually ignored in intellectual property scholarship. This article exlpores how the historical appropriation of works of black authorship ties into the raging debate over black reparations, and contends that providing atonement and apology for cultural appropriation can provide not only redress for the great injustice of cultural appropriation, but can also help inculcate "copynorms" favoring the protection of intellectual property at time when copyright law faces enormous challegnes to its legitimacy.

Who Is Your Starting Pitcher? - Roger Clemens Or #22 On The Yankees?: Why Major League Basaeball Players Should Have Rights In Their Names. , Jason B. Baum

Jason B. Baum

The author examines how complex intellectual property issues affect fantasy baseball. Using CBC Distribution v. Major League Baseball, the author explores why the right of publicity should protect Major League Baseball players from the unauthorized use of Major League Baseball players' statistics in conjunction with their names.

Internet Packet Sniffing And Its Impact On The Balance Of Power , Robert M. Frieden

Rob Frieden

Internet Packet Sniffing and Its Impact on the Balance of Power Between Intellectual Property Creators and Consumers Rob Frieden Professor, Penn State University 102 Carnegie Building University Park, Pennsylvania 16802 (814) 863-7996; rmf5@psu.edu web site: http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/r/m/rmf5/ Previously Internet Service Providers (“ISPs”) had little incentive or technological capability to deviate from plain vanilla best efforts routing for content without examining the nature and type of traffic. Serving as a neutral conduit also provided the means to qualify for a safe harbor exemption from liability for carrying copyright infringing traffic provided by Section 512 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Operators of …

Holdup, Royalty Stacking, And The Presumption Of Injunctive Relief For Patent Infringement: A Reply To Lemley And Shapiro, J. Gregory Sidak

J. Gregory Sidak

Professors Mark Lemley and Carl Shapiro have presented a theoretical argument for weakening the presumption of injunctive relief in patent infringement cases. In this article, I evaluate the Lemley-Shapiro theoretical model of “patent holdup.” I dispute its main finding that the threat of an injunction inflates royalty payments in many cases relative to a hypothetical benchmark royalty rate. I also dispute the Lemley-Shapiro policy prescriptions for patent law reform, which would remove the presumption of injunctive relief in cases where the patented product is a component of a larger product or the patentee is a non-practicing entity. I conclude that …

Teaching Intellectual Property As A Skills Course , Malla Pollack

Malla Pollack

Students can gain experience in practical skills in substantive courses if professors spend the time to create appropriate projects. This article demonstrates by providing reproducible projects involving non-competition agreements, trademarks/trade dress, copyright, and patent. The article also explains the how projects can be expanded and how they can be transposed between counseling and litigation settings.

This paper is part of a symposium entitled “Reflections on Legal Education: How We Teach, How They Learn".

Re-Evaluating Declaratory Judgment Jurisdiction In Intellectual Property Disputes, Lorelei Ritchie De Larena

Lorelei Ritchie de Larena

The Declaratory Judgment Act of 1934 was quickly tagged by the U.S. Supreme Court as a simple procedural measure. Whether simple or procedural, the addition of the declaratory judgment option has dramatically increased the rights of would-be defendants. This is of special interest in patent law, where without the ability to initiate legal action, an alleged infringer would typically have no recourse but to either drop a lucrative business and lose a massive investment, or to languish in legal limbo while potentially accruing liability for treble damages. The option of a mirror-image lawsuit removes the patentee’s ability to unilaterally decide …