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Full-Text Articles in Law
Belonging As Intellectual Creation, Betsy Rosenblatt
Belonging As Intellectual Creation, Betsy Rosenblatt
Missouri Law Review
This Article considers the question of “what we create when we create.” Certainly, one product of creation is “stuff” – inventions, trademarks, and works of authorship. But the same creative process also generates other public, personal, or social goods, such as skills, self-actualization, and community. This project postulates that for some creators, a sense of belonging is a product of intellectual creation that has social value independent of the “stuff” associated with its creation. The project considers social science research establishing a sense of belonging as a fundamental human need and driver of behavior and considers how in creative communities …
Copyright Protection: The Force Could Not Keep Han Solo Alive, But Can It Protect Him From Authors’ Derivative Works?, Micah Uptegrove
Copyright Protection: The Force Could Not Keep Han Solo Alive, But Can It Protect Him From Authors’ Derivative Works?, Micah Uptegrove
Missouri Law Review
This Note is meant to address the issues surrounding the rights copyright holders have in their characters and what rights they should be given. These existing rights are so valuable that it is likely that major companies such as Disney are going to continue to try to extend copyright duration; this method has worked repeatedly in the past to protect their fictional characters. The extension of copyright duration through statutes is an attempt to navigate the issue that the U.S. Constitution technically only allows for copyrights to be protected for a “limited time.” If companies such as Disney can get …
Notice And Remedies In Copyright Licensing, B. J. Ard
Notice And Remedies In Copyright Licensing, B. J. Ard
Missouri Law Review
Copyright owners claim the power to designate practically any term of a copyright license as a “condition” enforceable in copyright. In doing so, these licensors purport to translate breach of the most trivial or idiosyncratic term into the basis for a copyright infringement suit. This Article argues that these licenses are most problematic when licensors provide inadequate notice of unexpected terms. License conditions are typically buried in boilerplate that no reasonable consumer reads, and licensors have few incentives to make them more salient. These circumstances not only threaten unwitting users with copyright liability, but also impede copyright’s own goals by …
Exploring The Abstact: Patent Eligibility Post Alice Corp V. Cls Bank, John Clizer
Exploring The Abstact: Patent Eligibility Post Alice Corp V. Cls Bank, John Clizer
Missouri Law Review
This Note first sets forth the facts and the ultimate holding of the Supreme Court’s decision in Alice. It then details the historical background surrounding the ineligibility of abstract ideas for patent protection that has arisen from the Supreme Court and lower federal courts’ past decisions. Next, it examines in more in detail the Court’s reasoning as applied in this particular case. Finally, this Note discusses several of the questions raised by the Court’s decision: what exactly constitutes an “abstract idea,” what is the full meaning of the Court's "inventive concept" requirement, and how are we to interpret this decision …
Taking Nature Back: Why Tax Strategy Law Is Relevant To Gene Patents, Amy E. Sestric
Taking Nature Back: Why Tax Strategy Law Is Relevant To Gene Patents, Amy E. Sestric
Missouri Law Review
On July 29, 2011, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld the validity of several controversial patents in Association for Molecular Pathology v. United States Patent and Trademark Office.' The patents, exclusively assigned to Myriad Genetics, Inc. (Myriad), claim two human genes fundamental to understanding, researching, and diagnosing common strains of familial breast and ovarian cancers. Patients expressed concern that Myriad's exclusivity over the two genes made diagnosis excessively expensive and precluded the availability of independent second opinion testing. Although the Supreme Court of the United States vacated and remanded the Federal Circuit's decision, the Federal …
Echoes From The Past: How The Federal Circuit Continues To Struggle With Patentable Subject Matter Post-Bilski, Jeff Thruston
Echoes From The Past: How The Federal Circuit Continues To Struggle With Patentable Subject Matter Post-Bilski, Jeff Thruston
Missouri Law Review
This Note will examine whether the cases comprising the eligible subject matter trio are inherently inconsistent. In looking at this issue, this Note will ask if Classen Immunotherapies can be reconciled with the patent eligibility trio, or if both the case and Judge Rader's concerns could have been dealt with more effectively by applying 35 U.S.C. § 101 as a last resort, and instead determining patent eligibility via 35 U.S.C. §§ 102, 103, and 112. It is fundamentally more difficult, expensive, and time consuming to ascertain which category of patentable subject matter a claimed invention falls into, or if the …
To Construe Or Not To Construe: At The Interface Between Claim Construction And Infringement In Patent Cases, Jason R. Mudd
To Construe Or Not To Construe: At The Interface Between Claim Construction And Infringement In Patent Cases, Jason R. Mudd
Missouri Law Review
This Article examines the blurring of this interface in both the "procedural" and "substantive" contexts. Part I discusses the background and modem legal framework for classifying claim construction as a pure question of law that is answered prior to and separate from the issue of infringement. Part II analyzes the claim construction-infringement boundary in a procedural context by examining the stages of a case at which these inquiries are typically performed and the degree to which courts construe claims "in a vacuum," without reference to the accused product. This Part explains that courts are becoming increasingly accepting of and often …
Secret Prior Art: Does Prior Art In A Provisional Patent Application Bar Future Patents, Kyle Gottuso
Secret Prior Art: Does Prior Art In A Provisional Patent Application Bar Future Patents, Kyle Gottuso
Missouri Law Review
This Note will examine whether prior art found in a provisional patent application can (and should) act as prior art to defeat a subsequent application by a second inventor. In looking at this issue, this Note will ask if Giacomini can be reconciled with the principles and policies that underlie patent law. To do so, this Note will first review the facts and holding of Giacomini. Then this Note will survey the patent statutes, giving particular attention to those statutes that deal with priority and prior art. Next, this Note will examine the reasoning of the Giacomini court. Finally, this …
Forward: Symposium On Evolving The Court Of Appeals For The Federal Circuit And Its Patent Law Jurisprudence, Dennis D. Crouch
Forward: Symposium On Evolving The Court Of Appeals For The Federal Circuit And Its Patent Law Jurisprudence, Dennis D. Crouch
Missouri Law Review
As I discuss below, conditions on the ground have changed in the few short months following the Symposium. Congress has now acted, and the Patent Office will soon have additional authority. These changes play directly into the arguments of our Symposium authors and make their results even more important.
Ongoing Confusion Over Ongoing Royalties, The, Mark A. Lemley
Ongoing Confusion Over Ongoing Royalties, The, Mark A. Lemley
Missouri Law Review
In eBay Inc. v. MercExchange, L.L.C., the United States Supreme Court correctly concluded that courts had both the power and the responsibility to decide whether a successful patent owner needed injunctive relief and whether the imposition of that relief would unduly harm either the defendant or the public. The Court's application of the traditional four-factor equity test led, for the first time, to a significant number of cases in which courts found patent infringement but refused to enjoin continued infringement. That, in turn, has raised the question "what happens then?" As a matter of policy, the basic answer seems clear: …
Patent Law's Unpredictability Doctrine And The Software Arts, Greg R. Vetter
Patent Law's Unpredictability Doctrine And The Software Arts, Greg R. Vetter
Missouri Law Review
Part II reviews these insights from the Norden model generally. Part III brings these insights to the disclosure doctrines for software patents, with particular emphasis on the unpredictability factor for undue experimentation within enablement. The model corresponds well with enablement and best mode but does not correspond as well with other disclosure-prompting doctrines whose role is related to defining the claim. Thus, the review in Part III of written description, definiteness, and means-plus-function (§ 112 T 6) claim limitations helps establish the contours of applicability for the Norden model. The discussion of Part III also reviews the current state of …
Crafting A 21st Century United States Patent And Trademark Office, David Kappos
Crafting A 21st Century United States Patent And Trademark Office, David Kappos
Missouri Law Review
Good morning. It is a privilege to be here representing the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). I want to thank the Missouri Law Review for the invitation and for hosting me here today. Moreover, I want to commend the University of Missouri for convening this important conference. These are critical topics, and today I want to focus on the key role the USPTO will play in shaping patent protections in the future. But let me first congratulate the members from the Federal Circuit who are present today for thirty years of excellence in addressing the most fundamental of …
Unpredictability In Patent Law And Its Effect On Pharmaceutical Innovation, Christopher M. Holman
Unpredictability In Patent Law And Its Effect On Pharmaceutical Innovation, Christopher M. Holman
Missouri Law Review
Part II of this Article summarizes the current R&D crisis confronting the pharmaceutical industry and the accompanying drop-off in innovative output from this important technological sector. Part III explains Mr. Armitage's "view from industry," which attributes a significant causative effect to unpredictability in the patent system. Part IV provides two Lilly case studies involving generic challenges to two of the company's important drugs, Gemzar and Strattera, in which the company has suffered as a result of this unpredictability. Part V identifies three distinct forms of unpredictability in patent law: unpredictability caused by the proliferation of loosely defined standards rather than …
Staking A Claim On The Building Blocks Of Life: Human Genetic Material Within The United States Patent System, Alex Osterlind
Staking A Claim On The Building Blocks Of Life: Human Genetic Material Within The United States Patent System, Alex Osterlind
Missouri Law Review
This Article examines the place, if any, of genes within the United States patent system by first providing a broad background of the United States patent system, including the foundational cases that have shaped the system. Further, this Article briefly describes human genes to explain how genetic material is viewed within the United States patent system. Subsequently, "gene patents" within the United States are explained. Building upon this milieu, the merits of arguments in opposition to gene patents are examined by focusing on the arguments presented in an ongoing suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (on behalf of …
Ordinary Creativity In Patent Law: The Artist Within The Scientist, Amy L. Landers
Ordinary Creativity In Patent Law: The Artist Within The Scientist, Amy L. Landers
Missouri Law Review
Patent law is intended to promote the creativity of scientists and engineers. The system recognizes that the work of the individual is the engine that ultimately increases the state ofscientific knowledge. As economist Paul Romer recognized, "Technological advance comes from things that people do." Furthering creativity represents the constitutional, theoretical and doctrinal heart of patent law. Yet the field has not meaningfully evaluated the fundamental question of what creativity is. Using theories from psychology, sociology, history and the philosophy of science, this work examines and proposes how patent law can formulate a legal conception of creativity. To undertake this inquiry, …
Misuse Of Reasonable Royalty Damages As A Patent Infringement Deterrent, The, Brian J. Love
Misuse Of Reasonable Royalty Damages As A Patent Infringement Deterrent, The, Brian J. Love
Missouri Law Review
This Article studies the Federal Circuit's use of excessive reasonable royalty awards as a patent infringement deterrent. I argue against this practice, explaining that, properly viewed in context of the patent system as a whole, distorting the reasonable royalty measure of damages is an unnecessary and ineffective means of ensuring an optimal level of reward for inventors and deterrence for infringers. First, I introduce cases in which the Federal Circuit and other courts following its lead have awarded punitive reasonable royalty awards and explain the Federal Circuit's professed rationale for doing so. Next, I demonstrate that this practice makes little …
Copycats, Relax - The Federal Circuit Lightens Up On Willful Patent Infringement, Sarah J. Garber
Copycats, Relax - The Federal Circuit Lightens Up On Willful Patent Infringement, Sarah J. Garber
Missouri Law Review
"Willful" infringement is alleged in over 90% of patent cases. This is primarily because, under the Patent Act and Federal Circuit case law, a finding of willful infringement gives trial judges the discretion to award treble damages and attorney's fees to the patentee. Given that patent infringement actions can carry litigation fees of two million dollars or more, an award of punitive damages is a serious threat to accused infringers. A common and powerful defense to a willful infringement allegation is reasonable reliance on an opinion of counsel. Using this defense, the accused infringer can prove he acted in good …