Law Commons^™

Resolving The Divided Patent Infringement Dilemma, Nathanial Grow

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article considers cases of divided patent infringement: those in which two or more parties collectively perform all the steps of a patented claim, but where no single party acting alone has completed the entire patented invention. Despite the increasing frequency with which such cases appear to be arising, courts have struggled to equitably resolve these lawsuits under the constraints of the existing statutory framework because of the competing policy concerns they present. On the one hand, any standard that holds two or more parties strictly liable whenever their combined actions infringe a patent risks imposing liability on countless seemingly …

The Audience In Intellectual Property Infringement, Jeanne C. Fromer, Mark A. Lemley

Michigan Law Review

Every intellectual property (“IP”) right has its own definition of infringement. In this Article, we suggest that this diversity of legal rules is largely traceable to differences in the audience in IP cases. Patent, trademark, copyright, and design patent each focus on a different person as the fulcrum for evaluating IP infringement. That patent law, for example, focuses on an expert audience while trademark looks to a consumer audience explains many of the differences in how patent and trademark cases are decided. Expert audiences are likely to evaluate infringement based on the technical similarity between the plaintiff’s and defendant’s works. …

Costs, Norms, And Inertia: Avoiding An Anticommons For Proprietary Research Tools, Rebecca S. Eisenberg

Book Chapters

A decade ago the scientific community was sounding alann bells about the impact of intellectual property on the ability of scientists to do their work. Protracted negotiations over access to patented mice and genes, scientific databases, and tangible research materials all pointed toward the same conclusion: that intellectual property claims were undennining traditional sharing norms to the detriment of science. Michael Heller and I highlighted one dimension of this concern: that too many intellectual property rights in 'upstream' research results could paradoxically restrict 'downstream' research and product development by making it too costly and burdensome to collect all the necessary …

Exclusion Confusion? A Defense Of The Federal Circuit's Specific Exclusion Jurisprudence, Peter Curtis Magic

Michigan Law Review

Specific exclusion has become a controversial limitation on the doctrine of equivalents, which is itself an essential and controversial area of patent law. The doctrine of equivalents allows a patentee to successfully claim infringement against devices that are outside of the literal reach of the language used by the patentee in her patent to describe what she claims as her invention. The Supreme Court has prescribed some of the outer limits of the doctrine of equivalents and articulated the underlying policy concerns that inform its analysis-noting that courts should balance protection of the patentee's intellectual property with the public's reasonable …

Should Patent Infringement Require Proof Of Copying?, Mark A. Lemley

Michigan Law Review

Patent infringement is a strict liability offense. Patent law gives patent owners not just the right to prevent others from copying their ideas, but the power to control the use of their idea--even by those who independently develop a technology with no knowledge of the patent or the patentee. This is a power that exists nowhere else in intellectual property (IP) or real property law, but it is a one that patentees have had, with rare exceptions, since the inception of the Republic. In an important paper in the Michigan Law Review, Samson Vermont seeks to change this, arguing …

The Angel Is In The Big Picture: A Response To Lemley, Samson Vermont

Michigan Law Review

An invention within close reach of multiple inventors differs from an invention within distant reach of a lone inventor. The differences between these two archetypes of invention -"reinventables" and "singletons"- remain unexploited under current U.S. law. Should we reform the law to exploit the differences? Mark Lemley and I agree that we should. To date, those economists who have closely examined the issue concur. What are the differences between reinventables and singletons? First, reinventables can be brought into existence with incentives of lower magnitude. This suggests that we can obtain reinventables at a lower price than we currently pay-i.e., with …

Judges, Juries, And Patent Cases - An Emprical Peek Inside The Black Box, Kimberly A. Moore

Michigan Law Review

The frequency with which juries participate in patent litigation has skyrocketed recently. At the same time, there is a popular perception that the increasing complexity of technology being patented (especially in the electronic, computer software, biological and chemical fields) has made patent trials extremely difficult for lay juries to understand. These developments have sparked extensive scholarly debate and increasing skepticism regarding the role of juries in patent cases. Juries have participated in some aspects of patent litigation since the enactment of the first patent statute in 1790, which provided for "such damages as shall be assessed by a jury." The …

Limiting Patentees' Market Power Without Reducing Innovation Incentives: The Perverse Benefits Of Uncertainty And Non-Injunctive Remedies, Ian Ayres, Paul Klemperer

Michigan Law Review

Uncertainty and delay in patent litigation may have unforeseen virtues. The combination of these oft-criticized characteristics might induce a limited amount of infringement that enhances social welfare without reducing (or without substantially reducing) the profitability of the patentee. Patent infringement is generally viewed as socially inefficient because infringement reduces the patentee's ex ante incentive to innovate. Limited amounts of infringement combined with increased patent duration, however, can substantially reduce the distortionary ex post effects of supracompetitive pricing without reducing the patentee's ex ante incentives to innovate. Indeed, this Article derives a legal regime that preserves the incentive to innovate by …

Idea, Process, Or Protected Expression?: Determining The Scope Of Copyright Protection Of The Structure Of Computer Programs, Steven R. Englund

Michigan Law Review

Courts considering the alleged copying of the structure, rather than literal copying of the text, of a computer program have usually concerned themselves with whether protected expression or an unprotected idea was copied. Courts have seldom suggested that it might be an unprotected process that was copied. However, this Note concludes that the legislative history of the 1976 Act indicates that that legislation's drafters envisioned a far more prominent role for the process-expression dichotomy than it has played to date. The process inquiry is at least as important as the idea inquiry in striking the proper balance between promoting progress …

Television Sponsor And Advertising Agency Held Vicariously Liable For Copyright Infringement--Davis V. E.I. Dupont De Nemours & Co., Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

DuPont sponsored a dramatization of Edith Wharton's novel Ethan Frome presented by the CBS television network. Petitioner claimed an infringement of his earlier copyrighted dramatization of the same novel and sought a declaration of liability against CBS, the producer of the program, DuPont, and its advertising agency, Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn, Inc. (BBDO). Although DuPont and BBDO were notified before the performance of the possibility of copyright infringement liability and could have stopped the producers from using petitioner's play, they made no attempt to interfere. In petitioner's action in the federal district court, DuPont and BBDO contended that they …

Copyright-Notice Requirements-Pitfalls For The Unwary, Gregor N. Neff

Michigan Law Review

Whether judicial remedy of the situation will be adequate or whether legislative change is necessary to remedy the situation presents another problem; but the need for remedy seems clear. The purpose of this comment is to discuss these pitfalls and to indicate present judicial trends regarding these problems. Proposed remedies, both legislative and judicial, will be listed and evaluated where possible.

Copryright - Infringement - Parody Of Dramatic Production Held Not To Be Fair Use, William J. Wise S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Prior to December 1938, Patrick Hamilton wrote an original play entitled "Gaslight" which subsequently was published, performed and protected by copyright in both England and the United States. Loew's acquired exclusive motion picture rights to the play on October 7, 1942, and produced an original feature-length motion picture photoplay of the drama, also entitled "Gaslight." In 1945 Jack Benny sought and received permission to produce a 15-minute parody of the motion picture for his radio program. In 1953, without securing Loew's permission, Benny produced a 15-minute filmed parody of the motion picture for his television program. It was entitled "Autolight" …

The Patent-Antitrust Problem, Bartholomew Diggins

Michigan Law Review

The Patent-Antitrust section of the Report of the Attorney General's National Committee to Study the Antitrust Laws is an excellent analysis of the existing law and is an invaluable handbook for practitioners in this difficult field. The writer's approach to the problem is different from that of the committee and before commenting specifically on the Report it is only fair to state the writer's views of the problem lest differences in viewpoint give the impression of criticism of the Report.

In any approach to the patent-antitrust problem there is a basic question: does a "patent-antitrust problem" exist? The Report …

Constitutional Law - Commerce Clause - Federal Jurisdiction In Trade-Mark Infringement Proceedings Under The Lanham Act, Richard R. Dailey

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff's trade-mark, "Minute Maid," had been registered under the Lanham Act in 1952 and had been used in interstate commerce in connection with the sale of frozen fruit juice concentrates since that time. Defendant's trade-mark consisted in part of the words "Minute Made." Defendant used its mark wholly within the State of Florida in the processing and sale of frozen meat products. Both plaintiff and defendant were Florida corporations. In a suit for trade-mark infringement, jurisdiction of the federal district court depended. on the provisions of the Lanham Act. The complaint alleged damage to plaintiff's good will established in interstate …

Borderland - Where Copyright And Design Patent Meet, Richard W. Pogue

Michigan Law Review

Copyright law and design patent law contemplate basically different objects of protection. Yet at the outer fringes of these types of protection certain concepts overlap to form a rather undefined borderland in which it is difficult to say what law is applicable-copyright law, patent law, neither, or both. It is the purpose of this paper to explore this borderland area in the light of traditional copyright and patent law principles, with attention given to policy considerations involved, and to offer suggestions toward drawing a sharper boundary between the two.

Woe Unto You Trade-Mark Owners, Julius R. Lunsford, Jr.

Michigan Law Review

THE new Trade-Mark Act,1 widely heralded as giving added protection to trade-mark owners, has in its nearly four years of operation resulted, in several spectacular instances, in narrowing the rights conferred by the registration and use of trade-marks. Text author Rudolph Callmann remarked after the act's first birthday: "Despite all the efforts of the bar, our courts still cling to the familiar anachronisms."2 Where do trade-mark owners stand today? The Supreme Court has to date failed to answer this question, and the federal courts have refused to consider the import of the new legislation. Many commentators, attorneys and scholars thought …

Trade Restraints - Patents - Effect Of Illegal Condition In Patent Licensing Agreement, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, owning a patent on a process involving the use of unpatented lecithin in the production of chocolate, assured potential users that the process might be employed by them in the manufacture of chocolate on condition that all lecithin so used be purchased exclusively from plaintiff. Defendant at .first complied with the condition but subsequently, while continuing to use the patented process, began to buy lecithin from plaintiff's competitors. Plaintiff brought suit for an injunction restraining infringement. Defendant, in counterclaiming for an injunction against future suits, in effect asked the court to hold that the implied license under which it …

Federal Courts - Appeal And Error - Does A Statute Which Authorizes An Interlocutory Appeal Require Such Appeal?, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A bill seeking an injunction and an accounting was filed in a United States district court for alleged infringement by defendant of plaintiff's rights in the words of a song. Defendant's appeal from a decree enjoining further use of the song and directing an accounting for profits was denied, because the appeal had been taken more than thirty days after its entry and so the circuit court of appeals was without jurisdiction. The case proceeded to an accounting in the district court, and a final decree was entered from which defendant appealed again to the circuit court. Held, the …

Constitutional Law - National Firearms Act - Usurpation Of Police Power Of States - Constitutional Right To Bear Arms, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Defendants were indicted for violating section 11 of the National Firearms Act by transporting a firearm in interstate commerce without having registered it, and without having in their possession a stamp-affixed written order for the firearm. Their demurrer alleged that the act was unconstitutional because it was not a revenue measure but an attempt to usurp police power reserved to the states, and because it infringed the constitutional right to bear arms. The district court sustained the demurrer on the ground that this section of the act violated the constitutional right to bear arms. Held, on appeal, that the …

Trade - Marks And Trade Names - Effect Of Word - Mark Acquiring A Descriptive Connotation, Grover C. Grismore

Michigan Law Review

One of the principal stumbling blocks in the way of the development of a consistent and satisfactory theory of trade-mark protection has been the anomalous distinction that has always been made between the so-called technical or common-law trade-mark, and the non-technical mark or tradename. This distinction, as has been pointed out previously in this Review, grew somewhat accidentally out of the supposed limitations on the jurisdiction of equity. Some of the earliest trade-mark cases proceeded on the theory that to justify the intervention of a court of equity, when the defendant was not shown to have been guilty of …

Patents - Recovery Of Profits In Contempt Proceedings

Michigan Law Review

The facts of this case are stated in the preceding note. The complainant sought to recover in the contempt action the profits of the infringement subsequent to the injunction decree. The circuit court of appeals refused recovery. Held, the decree of the circuit court of appeals should be reversed; profits from the sale of the infringing article are properly an element of the contempt fine. Krentler-Arnold Hinge Last Co. v. Leman (U. S. Feb. 15, 1932) Adv. Op. No. 332. (Reversing the decision in (C. C. A. 1st, 1931) 50 F.(2d) 699).

Patents - Option Of The Court To Permit Contempt Proceedings Or To Require A New Suit

Michigan Law Review

A final injunction was issued by the federal district court of Massachusetts against A, a Michigan corporation. The terms of the injunction were that A should not make, use, or sell lasts, or any colorable imitation thereof, embodying the invention covered by certain enumerated claims belonging to the present complainant. In a subsequent term of court the complainant alleged a violation of the injunction and brought contempt proceedings against A in the district court. The alleged infringement consisted in the manufacture and sale of a device which was slightly changed in form from that which the defendant had made prior …

Restrictions On The Use Of Patented Articles, Edward S. Rogers

Michigan Law Review

The case of Henry v. Dick recently decided by the Supreme Court of the United States, has occasioned considerable unfavorable comment in the public press. It seems to be the opinion of many that the decision lays down a new principle of law, particularly adaptable to the working of a monopoly, and that the public is, under the supposed new principle, exposed to a practically unlimited exploitation by any patentee. It is believed that neither of these contentions is correct.