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Full-Text Articles in Law
Copyright Preemption And The Right Of Publicity, Jennifer E. Rothman
Copyright Preemption And The Right Of Publicity, Jennifer E. Rothman
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This article addresses the conflict between an ever-expanding right of publicity and the federally guaranteed rights provided by copyright law. This conflict is highlighted in the Wendt v. Host International case in which the actors George Wendt and John Ratzenberger from Cheers used the right of publicity to prevent the show's creators from licensing the use of the Norm and Cliff characters in the decor of a chain of airport bars. Even though the licensing of the characters was explicitly allowed under copyright law, the Ninth Circuit held that the right of publicity prevented the creators from doing so. Similarly, …
Towards An Integrated Theory Of Intellectual Property, Gideon Parchomovsky, Peter Siegelman
Towards An Integrated Theory Of Intellectual Property, Gideon Parchomovsky, Peter Siegelman
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This Article addresses a curious gap in the theory of intellectual property. One of the central dogmas in both the legal and economic literatures is that patents, copyrights and trademarks constitute separate forms of protection, each serving different purposes and designed to operate independently of the others. By challenging this dogma, however, this Article shows that certain combinations of intellectual property protection give rise to important synergies. When a patentee can develop brand loyalty among its customers, the existence of trademark protection allows her to extend its protection even after her patent expires, and thereby earn higher profits than would …
Reconsidering Estoppel: Patent Administration And The Failure Of Festo, R. Polk Wagner
Reconsidering Estoppel: Patent Administration And The Failure Of Festo, R. Polk Wagner
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Last Term, in Festo Corporation v. Shoketsu Kinzoku Kogyo Kabashuki Co., the United States Supreme Court missed perhaps the most important opportunity for patent law reform in two decades. At the core of the failure to grasp the implications of "prosecution history estoppel" - a judicially-crafted principle limiting the enforceable scope of patents based on acts occurring during their application process - is the heretofore universal (but ultimately unsupportable) view of the doctrine as an arbitrary ex post limitation on patent scope. This Article demonstrates the serious flaws in this traditionalist approach, and develops a new theory of prosecution history …
Realspace Sovereigns In Cyberspace: Problems With The Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, Catherine T. Struve, R. Polk Wagner
Realspace Sovereigns In Cyberspace: Problems With The Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, Catherine T. Struve, R. Polk Wagner
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