Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 6 of 6
Full-Text Articles in Law
Trademarked For Death? A Licensee's Trademark Rights After An Executory Contract Is Rejected In Bankruptcy, Philip L. Lu
Trademarked For Death? A Licensee's Trademark Rights After An Executory Contract Is Rejected In Bankruptcy, Philip L. Lu
Vanderbilt Law Review
In 1872, a young man named Claudio Alvarez Lefebre began manufacturing and selling high-quality rum in Cuba under the brand name "Ron Matusalem." In 1948, as the family-run business prospered, the company registered a trademark and corporate logo in the United States. Upon his death, Lefebre left the business-and the secret formulas for making his rum-to his wife and children. By the early 1960s, Lefebre's wife and children had immigrated to the United States, and they split the rum-making business into two separate corporations. These two distinct entities negotiated an executory contract in the form of a franchise agreement with …
Keep Your Friends Close: A Framework For Addressing Rights To Social Media Contacts, Courtney J. Mitchel
Keep Your Friends Close: A Framework For Addressing Rights To Social Media Contacts, Courtney J. Mitchel
Vanderbilt Law Review
A group of entrepreneurial recent college graduates starts a tutoring and test prep company focused on helping promising high school students get an edge on their college applications. Since the cost of print advertising exceeds the group's budget, they each actively promote the business on their personal social media accounts, garnering their first clients. They also create company accounts on Facebook, Linkedln, and Twitter, which clients join for easy, direct communication and quick access to information. Though all the founders contribute occasional posts and encourage their personal social media contacts to join the company accounts, one eventually becomes, in practice …
Navigating The Minefield Of Trade Secrets Protection In China, Daniel C.K. Chow
Navigating The Minefield Of Trade Secrets Protection In China, Daniel C.K. Chow
Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law
Many Multinational Companies (MNCs) now consider trade secrets to be the most important intellectual property right in China, ahead of patents, trademarks, and copyrights. While trade secrets have become more valuable than ever as a business asset in China, many MNCs also find that the protection of trade secrets in China is full of pitfalls and traps. Unlike in the case of patents, trademarks, and copyrights, China has no unified law governing trade secrets, but has disjointed provisions scattered throughout various laws. The pitfalls are also created by a high evidentiary burden in proving a theft of a trade secret …
Appropriation Without Representation? The Limited Role Of Indigenous Groups In Wipo's Intergovernmental Committee On Intellectual Property And Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge, And Folklore, Veronica Gordon
Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law
The World Intellectual Property Organization's (WIPO) Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge, and Folklore (IGC) is currently engaged in text-based negotiations to develop an international legal instrument, or set of instruments, that will effectively protect traditional knowledge, traditional cultural expressions, and genetic resources. Yet, the people who will arguably be most affected by the ultimate instrument(s)--indigenous peoples and local communities--are not able to fully participate in these negotiations. Instead, WIPO deems them "Observers." They cannot formally present proposals, amendments, or motions, and cannot vote at IGC sessions. Thus, their limited influence implicates questions of equity, sovereignty, …
How To Explain The "Implicit Exceptions" To Patent-Eligible Subject Matter, Wesley D. Markham
How To Explain The "Implicit Exceptions" To Patent-Eligible Subject Matter, Wesley D. Markham
Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law
The Supreme Court has as of late taken renewed interest in what inventions or discoveries are deserving of entry into the patent system. Section 101 of Title 35 opens the door to "[w]hoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof." Certain things--now referenced by the Court as "laws of nature, natural phenomena, and abstract ideas"--necessarily fall outside the statute's scope. The question is, why? Not why as a matter of policy, but why as a matter of law. The Court has not yet picked (or at …
Once More Unto The Breach, Dear Friends: Broadway Dramatists, Hollywood Producers, And The Challenge Of Conflicting Copyright Norms, Carol M. Kaplan
Once More Unto The Breach, Dear Friends: Broadway Dramatists, Hollywood Producers, And The Challenge Of Conflicting Copyright Norms, Carol M. Kaplan
Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law
In recent decades, studios that own film and television properties have developed business models that exploit the copyrights in those materials in every known market and in all currently conceivable forms of entertainment and merchandising. For the most part, uniform laws and parallel industry cultures permit smooth integration across formats. But theater is different. The work-made-for-hire provisions that allow corporations to function as the authors of the works they contract to create do not easily align with the culture and standard contract provisions of live theater. Conflicts arise when material that begins as a Hollywood property tries to make the …