Law Commons^™

Taking, Tort, Or Crown Right? The Confused Early History Of Government Patent Policy, Sean M. O'Connor

Articles

From the early days of the Republic, Congress and the federal courts grappled with the government’s rights to own or use patents it issued. Courts rejected the British “Crown Rights” rule that allowed the sovereign to practice whatever patents it issued. Instead, the federal government was conceptualized as a legal person on par with any other persons with regard to issued patents. But, this simple rule presented challenges as complexities arose in three intertwined patent rights scenarios. The first involved inventions by government employees. The second revolved around government and government contractor use of patents held by private citizens. And …

Trademark Apologetic Justice: China And The Three Laws, Xuan-Thao Nguyen

Articles

The article will proceed as follows. Part I discusses the three bodies of law constituting China’s trademark jurisprudence by tracing the development of Trademark Law, Anti-Unfair Competition Law and Civil Law. All of these laws contain relevant provisions pertaining to trademark reputation and remedies, including injunction, damages and public apology to eliminate any bad effects. As China Supreme People’s Court has a significant role in shaping trademark jurisprudence and apologetic justice, Part I also analyzes judicial directives that provide guidance and instructions to the lower courts in addressing trademark reputation remedies.

An analysis of only statutes and judicial directives, however, …

Fostering The Business Of Innovation: The Untold Story Of Bowers V. Baystate Technologies, Robert W. Gomulkiewicz

Articles

Perhaps the law review literature does not need another article on the Federal Circuit’s case [320 F.3d 1317 (Fed. Cir. 2003, cert denied, 123 S.Ct. 2588 (2003)]. That case has received more than its share of attention from commentators, all criticizing Judge Rader’s majority opinion and most extolling the virtues of Judge Dyk’s dissent. Despite the storm of scholarly criticism, however, courts have followed Judge Rader’s opinion.

This Article tells the untold story of why courts have been wise to do so. The Article explains how commentators have argued that federal intellectual property law should have preempted Bowers’ claims …

Apologies As Intellectual Property Remedies: Lessons From China, Xuan-Thao Nguyen

Articles

It is a frequent refrain that “the world is shrinking.” In this same vein, the global influence of China is clearly rising. Chinese businesses are becoming more prominent in the global market, and as such, the influence and effect of Chinese law is likewise gaining in import. Chinese intellectual property law is no different.

One notable aspect of Chinese intellectual property law is the availability of apology as a remedy. Despite a culture that places a high value on apology, and considerable legal scholarship and precedent regarding apology as remedy, many in the United States scoff at the notion of …

Patents As Promoters Of Competition: The Guild Origins Of Patent Law In The Venetian Republic, Ted Sichelman, Sean O'Connor

Articles

Part II of this Article describes the artisan and merchant guild systems of the Venetian Republic. Part III explores the emergence of the patent system as a means for foreigners and Venetian citizens to compete with the guilds, as well as the eventual addition of negative exclusive rights to the basic license form of positive patent privileges. In so doing, contrary to the speculation of some scholars, we reject with near certainty the contention that the first patent law statute granting exclusionary rights for—in modern parlance—technological inventions was a silk-specific directive enacted by the Venetian Grand Council in the late …

Serious Flaw Of Employee Invention Ownership Under The Bayh-Dole Act In Stanford V. Roche: Finding The Missing Piece Of The Puzzle In The German Employee Invention Act, Toshiko Takenaka

Articles

This article argues that the current Bayh-Dole Act is incomplete because the Act fails to provide a mechanism for contractors to secure the ownership of federally funded inventions from their employees. Part I of this Article discusses this flaw in the current Bayh-Dole Act, highlighted by Stanford v. Roche, and argues that a historical accident resulted in this flaw due to Congress's failure to pass a series of bills based on the German EIA. Passages in the Bayh-Dole Act suggest that the Act assumes a transfer by operation of law to secure the ownership of federally funded inventions through …

Taxing Facebook Code: Debugging The Tax Code And Software, Xuan-Thao Nguyen, Jeffrey A. Maine

Articles

This article sets out to analyze both intellectual property laws and tax systems as applied to computer software. It analyzes software within intellectual property's established doctrinal framework, a difficult task due to the fact that software can encompass some combination of the traits of copyrights, trade dress, patents, and trade secrets. It then examines both the federal and state tax systems governing software. It shows that fitting software within current tax schemes presents unique challenges, as software contains both tangible and intangible elements, is subject to varying intellectual property protections, and can be delivered through various media. The article argues …

Hired To Invent Vs. Works Made For Hire: Resolving The Inconsistency Among Rights Of Corporate Personhood, Authorship, And Inventorship, Sean M. O'Connor

Articles

This Essay focuses on the interrelation of three legal doctrines that affect the allocation of ownership and attribution of products of the human mind. The first, corporate personhood, grants corporations rights of personhood similar to those of natural persons. The second, the work-made-for-hire doctrine (WMFH) under copyright law, allocates ownership and attribution for copyrightable works to the employer of the natural-person author—even where that employer is a nonnatural, legal person such as a corporation. And the third, shop rights and the hired-to-invent exception, permits courts to grant equitable licenses or assignments to employers for their employees’ inventions.

These three doctrines …