Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 2 of 2
Full-Text Articles in Law
The Questionable Use Of Custom In Intellectual Property, Jennifer E. Rothman
The Questionable Use Of Custom In Intellectual Property, Jennifer E. Rothman
All Faculty Scholarship
The treatment of customary practices has been widely debated in many areas of the law, but there has been virtually no discussion of how custom is and should be treated in the context of intellectual property (IP). Nevertheless, customs have a profound impact on both de facto and de jure IP law. The unarticulated incorporation of custom threatens to swallow up IP law, and replace it with industry-led IP regimes that give the public and other creators more limited rights to access and use intellectual property than were envisioned by the Constitution and Congress. This article presents a powerful critique …
Harmonization Through Condemnation: Is New London The Key To World Patent Harmony?, Max Oppenheimer
Harmonization Through Condemnation: Is New London The Key To World Patent Harmony?, Max Oppenheimer
All Faculty Scholarship
Since 1790, when two U.S. patent applicants have claimed the same invention, the patent has been awarded to the first inventor. Today, the United States stands alone in the industrialized world, and many argue that the United States should, in the interest of world patent harmony, change its system so as to award a contested patent to the first applicant. Of the arguments advanced to justify the change, the only ones that withstand scrutiny are that "all the other countries are doing it" and the hope that some concessions in other aspects of intellectual property or trade might be obtained …