Law Commons^™

Intellectual Property: The Practical And Legal Fundamentals, Thomas G. Field Jr

Law Faculty Scholarship

Patents, copyrights, trademarks and related interests are known as intellectual property (IP). It has not been long since patents especially were regarded in U.S. courts, and the Supreme Court in particular, as tools of monopolists, and their owners often fared poorly. However, people have come increasingly to view privately funded innovation as critical to national economic well-being and to agree that such innovation cannot occur unless companies that succeed in the marketplace can recoup their research, development and marketing costs. That is a major function of IP, and, particularly within the past dozen years, IP has been seen, both here …

Comment On Orphan Works, Thomas G. Field Jr

Law Faculty Scholarship

Terms of absolute exclusion exceeding the shelf life of particular works give no advantage to authors and publishers, and compulsory licenses are a fair means to increase public access.

Copyright Protection For Perfumes, Thomas G. Field Jr

Law Faculty Scholarship

In June 2004, the Lancome opinion from the Netherlands held that perfume compositions are copyrightable. NautaDutilh, the firm that represented Lancome, claimed the ruling was "internationally groundbreaking."

The thesis of this paper is that the Dutch Court erred in protecting compositions rather than scents or fragrances. As discussed below, such an approach runs afoul of basic copyright principles here and abroad.

Judicial Review Of Copyright Examination, Thomas G. Field Jr

Law Faculty Scholarship

Copyright in qualifying United States works has always arisen upon creation. For many years, however, rights could be lost by failing to, e.g., provide notice, register and deposit copies when works were first published. In 1909 formal requirements were reduced, and the Supreme Court, in 1939, concluded that registration with the U.S Copyright Office was unnecessary to retain rights. Despite that, owners could not sue infringers without having registered.

Regarding registration as helpful if not obligatory, this paper compares the burden on moving parties in circumstances in which registration decisions may be challenged in courts.

Converting Intellectual Assets Into Property, Thomas G. Field Jr

Law Faculty Scholarship

The mouse and graphic interface were first commercialized on Macintosh computers. Yet, Steve Jobs is said to have derived both from the Alto computer developed by Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center. While Jobs became a billionaire, "Xerox completely failed to get into the personal computer business, missing one of the biggest business opportunities in history."

Preferring to be more akin to Apple than to Xerox, firms are increasingly mindful that their most valuable assets are apt to be ideas and information instead of land, buildings and inventory. Not capable of being fenced in or locked up, intangible assets can be …

Avoiding Intellectual Property Problems, Thomas G. Field Jr.

Law Faculty Scholarship

Patents, copyrights, trademarks, as well as trade secrets and related rights can be used to exclude free riders. These rights are usually collectively called "intellectual property" or IP. Everyone should know how to cost-effectively protect their own rights.

Copyrights And Beyond In The Digital Age, Thomas G. Field Jr.

Law Faculty Scholarship

At one time, only works visible to the naked eye were copyrightable, but that has long since changed. Now, works capable of perception only by use of VCRs or computers, for example, enjoy the same protection as books, paintings and sculpture. In 1994, William S. Strong reported that he had "heard Chicken Littles say that the sky is falling in on copyright owners" in the digital age and predicted to the contrary. He was right; publishers' problems may have changed in degree but not in kind. For important, if not critical, internet needs to be met, providers must recoup costs.

Publishers' Rights And Wrongs In The Cyberage, Thomas G. Field Jr.

Law Faculty Scholarship

The author argues in favor of a continued role for traditional publishing in the context of the rise of the Internet.

Brief Survey Of And Proposal For Better Reconciliation Of The Options In Patent, Trademark, Copyright And Related Law, Thomas G. Field Jr

Law Faculty Scholarship

Taking up trademarks, patents, copyrights, and trade secrets (in that order), [this article] will attempt to summarize briefly the ways in which such rights arise, are perfected, and are enforced. It will also discuss a hypothetical in which all of these options will be discussed in a comparative way. Finally, it will suggest that basic improvements in the area could be realized by dispensing with the often confusing and arbitrary subject matter distinctions which characterize the various subparts of the present intellectual property system.

Intellectual And Industrial Property In A Nutshell, Thomas G. Field Jr.

Law Faculty Scholarship

First, intellectual and industrial property is property--extremely valuable property at that. However, this is not a subject that gets more than passing attention in many curricula, and none in most. Consequently, few lawyers, aside from the specialists, know much about it. Moreover, unlike most areas of legal specialization, such as tax, labor, and anti-trust law, the basic principles of which are known to most general practitioners, if a generalist knows anything about literary or industrial property, it is apt to be wrong. Furthermore, because clients tend to approach generalists first, substantial and incurable injury may result from a generalist's mistaken …