Law Commons^™

Useful Articles In Copyright: Proposed Amendments To Section 101 And 114 - 2014, Wendy J. Gordon

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The origin of the definition probably lies with everyone's favorite protean decision, Baker v. Selden, 101 U.S. 99 (1879). For example, in 1924, the Second Circuit borrowed from Baker in upholding the copyright in 'Sparky,' a stuffed doll in the shape of a horse. The crucial distinction, which the court quoted from Baker, was the line between, on the one hand, "designs or pictorial illustrations addressed to the taste" whose "object [is] the production of pleasure in their contemplation," and, on the other hand, "methods of useful art [that] have their final end in application and use. "

Draft Of The Concept Of "Harm" In Copyright - 2013, Wendy J. Gordon

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This essay examines the tort of copyright infringement. It argues that the ideas of "harm" and "fault" already play a role in the tort’s functioning, and that an ideally reformulated version of the tort should perhaps give a more significant role to “harm.” The essay therefore examines what “harm” can or should mean, reviewing four candidates for cognizable harm in copyright law (rivalry-based losses, foregone fees, loss of exclusivity, and subjective distress) and canvassing three philosophical conceptions of “harm” (counterfactual, historical-worsening, and noncomparative). The essay identifies the appropriateness vel non of employing, in the copyright context, each harm-candidate and each …

Draft Of Product Design: The Misfit Of Intellectual Property Law - 2011, Wendy J. Gordon

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The collection of legal rights commonly labeled "intellectual property" does not reflect any comprehensive master plan. Indeed, the label itself does a disservice in suggesting a set of laws with some coherence, cohesion, or at least commonality. 1 In fact, the various laws governing so-called intellectual property have evolved to address disparate concerns, at different times, and through distinct legal tools. 2 As a result, the canvas of intellectual property laws looks more like a messy collage - with overlaps, unmarked or blank spaces, and jagged edges - than a neat landscape characterized by careful planning and harmony.

Speech In The Role Of Fiduciary Law And Trust In The Twenty-First Century, Wendy J. Gordon

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As someone who is not a specialist in the area, I am grateful to be included in today's conference. I wanted to be here to mark the admiration I have for Professor Frankel. Like Ken Simons, I have benefited from Tamar's knowledge base which is both deep and wide, her lively and inexhaustible curiosity, her imagination, and the immense intellectual stimulation she inevitably provides. Her new book under discussion today reveals some of her extraordinary powers, in its skillful use of materials from sources as diverse as Hammurabi and Grotius, from histories ancient and modem, traditions religious and secular, and …

Keynote Lecture For Harmless Boundary Crossings: Their Role In Comparative Institutional Analysis - 2008, Wendy J. Gordon

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One of the things that unifies many of the scholars in IP generally, and in this room in particular, is an interest in what you might call noncommercial models cooperative sharing, peer-to-peer creativity-a yearning for a different kind of life, perhaps, one that's less commercial, more focused on dialogues, both democratic and personal, and a mode of life that emphasizes the process and product of work rather than its monetary payoff. We all know from the work of Teresa Amabile and Alfie Cohen and our own experience that if you are keeping your eye on a monetary goal or getting …

Footnote Draft Of Render Copyright Unto Caesar - 2004, Wendy J. Gordon

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This essay, however, does not press any particular agenda; rather, it tries to make our thinking about the topic more flexible. It is my hope that some conduct-specific rule as was adopted in the defamation context will eventually be adopted for intellectual property. Copyright law cannot continue forever closing its eyes and hoping its house will stop being haunted.

Draft Of Rendering Copyright Into Caesar - 2003, Wendy J. Gordon

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This article makes a simple suggestion. Copyright rules by money, so let it rule the money-bound. Let a different set of rules evolve for more complex uses, particularly when the users have a personal relationship with the utilized text. Copyright. When new artists make transformative use of existing works in settings not characterized by pre-use commercial negotiations, copyright should avoid imposing a distorting burden.

Notes On Dissemination: The Prop/Tort Distinction - 2002, Wendy J. Gordon

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Most of the proviso-based reasons for restricting property rights come into play after dissemination.[1] Is there any other way in which dissemination matters? Yes; the point of dissemination demarks a crucial shift in the Kind of legal protection that must be given- and thus the Kind of institutional decisions that must be made- if the creator is to be protected.

Classroom Lecture For Copyright Law, Wendy J. Gordon

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The differences between direct, vicarious and contributory liability, Section 512 in related matters. Alright, now let's move on to the next question, which is criminal liability. You read some material on that. And the basic lessons that I want you to take from the material are the following. First, notice that federal copyright law does not impose criminal liability easily as ordinary laws of tangible property do. And I think that that's a good thing. Remember that guy in Les Miserables who's pursued for stealing a loaf of bread. Stealing in the sense of copying one song would not make …

Draft Of Ralph Sharp Brown, Intellectual Property And The Public Interest - 1999, Wendy J. Gordon

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Ralph Sharp Brown crossed out the "Junior" that followed his name after his father died. In explanation of the hand-altered stationery, he said (if my recollection holds), "I'm the only one left now." Now, after Ralph's death, there may remain no Ralph Sharp Browns. But there are many law teachers who continue to wage the campaign that Ralph made his life work: to save an interdependent society from unnecessary and stagnating restraints on liberty. In the intellectual property area, Ralph sought to teach us that it can be both right and necessary to give individuals the liberty to "reap without …

New Thoughts And Excerpt From On Commodifying Intangibles - 1999, Wendy J. Gordon

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Here is a ten-page excerpt from! a published piece, followed by some more recent and more random thoughts. Community is not civility. That is, I imagine my ideal community as one where people aren't always sweet to each other; I imagine a community where truth is more important than hurt feelings, and fun is more important than money. I imagine a community of individualists: raucous, iconoclastic. Steve Shiffrin's ROMANCE OF THE FIRST AMENDMENT and Ed Baker's work seems to have the kind of community in mind that I am interested in.

Outline Of Epstein's Possession As The Root Of Title, And Other Matters - 1999, Wendy J. Gordon

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While it may be premature to expect a full working out of detail, it is surely time enough for some semblance of a unified theory of intellectual property law to have emerged. That it has not is due to some extent to the very evil which the existence of such a theory (or the beginnings of one) would prevent, namely, the errors that opinions are heir to. Recognizing common themes would help to isolate deviations, and thus help to clarify their nature; whether in a given context a deviation is justified could then be discussed on its own merits, wihout …

Letter From Professor Timothy J. Brennan, Timothy J. Brennan

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Dear Wendy,

Thanks for sending me the recent pair of articles. I just had a chance to read them today while I'm getting my furnace and AC replaced. I enjoyed them very much, both for the chance to think about copyright issues and to read yet again your creative and insightful approach to them.

The most intriguing thing about the Dayton piece was the asymmetric mar- ket failure idea. (I'll come back to the prisoners' dilemma in connection with the LCP paper!) Your point that justifying copyright requires the belief that intellectual property markets won't work without copyright and that …

Letter To Ms. Sheddy Murphy On Paper For Cd-Rom Symposium, Wendy J. Gordon

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As you know, I am revising the piece primarily by combining it with my oral remarks. Thus I am sending you the original version of the article as you sent it to me, with corrections inked in, and I am also sending several separate typed pages (adapted from the oral remarks), with indications where they fit into the piece. The new pages have several footnotes, but in most cases the footnotes refer to sources cited in the earlier version. I can also send you photocopies of any material cited, if you wish. I hope this is not too burdensome. The …

Cd-Rom Symposium Transcript Two - 1992, Wendy J. Gordon

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MR. METALITZ: I think the point there is that amputation of authorship is really kind of an artifact of the registration process. You wouldn't be that concerned.

Handwritten Notes On Of Harms And Benefits: Torts, Restitution, And Intellectual Property - 1992, Wendy J. Gordon

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Copyright and patent take the form of ordinary property. As tangible property has physical edges, intellectual property statutes create boundaries by defining the subject matters within their zone of protection. As real property owners have rights to prevent strangers from entering their land. intellectual property statutes and case law grant owners rights to exclude strangers from using the protected work in specified ways. As tangible property can be bought and sold, bequeathed and inherited, so can copyrights and patents.

Note On Deserving The Results Of Labor - 1990, Wendy J. Gordon

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Munzer's formulation seems to talk in the end about largely consensual arrangements, like working for wages.

Note On Causation And Limited Duration Of Intellectual Property; Also Patent Standards - 1990, Wendy J. Gordon

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Another causation problem is this: "But for" causation is only one type. It has its own problems. But there are other kinds of cause. In tort law these other kinds of cause are lumped together under the rubric "proximate cause", and the difficulties of "proximate cause" doctrine illustrate some of the difficulties.

Notes On Misc Re Paper: Property Preemption - 1990, Wendy J. Gordon

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Sears/Compco said anything not protected by patent copyright etc is not subject to state anti-copying protection. Goldstein says Sears/Compco didn't mean that exactly- rather, states can't control copying where fed statutory policies would be in conflict with the state protection. Section 102b and generations of copyright cases say ideas, systems, etc., are not copyrightable. That wd seem to suggest that even under Goldstein, ideas, etc can't be protected against state law.[1] However, a 1 iteral reading of 301 might suggest Cong decided there should be no preE of such state law protection of ideas.

Letter From Louis Michael Seidman, Louis M. Seidman

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Dear Wendy:

Thanks for sending me your piece on intellectual property and the restitutionary impulse. As always with your work, I found it fascinating. I'm happy to give you my comments, but I doubt that they will be very useful to you. This is an area I know nothing about, so many of my problems reflect my lack of understanding, rather than any defects in your arguments. With that caveat, and for what it is worth, here are some reactions (many of which, as you will see, are quite trivial):

Notes On Economics Of Suppression - 1990, Wendy J. Gordon

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The Treatise suggests that the two major strains in copyright are the economic or instrumental perspective, and the authors' rights perspective. This dual perspective parallels the configuration in property and tort law as a whole, where quandaries such as the suppression problem are sometimes analyzed in terms of whether the individual holding an entitlement is a "steward" entrusted with the resource solely for sake of the social good that is likely to result from his or her productive use of it, or a "sovereign" to be left unregulated in managing the resource.

Notes On Lear V. Adkins And Kewanee: "Public Domain" And "Dissemination", Wendy J. Gordon

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What is the S ct s notion of public domain? Does dissemination play the same role I thinK it should? Here s a looK at patent pol icy. Basically, I think the following shows that the Supreme Court envisages that there s a separate policy which says that things once made public should stay public. Now d tie that to reliance & changes of position. The court doesn t think it through very well; they may have power in mind, or vesting, or just precedent. It s unclear. But it s useful for my purposes that the Court opinion suggests …

Note On Serendipitous Legal Protections: Preemption Continued - 1989, Wendy J. Gordon

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The First Circuit in Decosta II recognized something r-ar-ely focused on, but of great importance-- namely, the following question: assuming there are applicable federal ·al policies of non-protection, do those policies for-bid only direct state attempts to restrain copying, or- do they also for-bid any state law which has as one of its effects a restraint on copying?

More On Indirect Protections: Piggyback Damage Claims - 1989, Wendy J. Gordon

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One issue is whether indirect i/p protection should be allowed to, or encouraged to, piggyback on other forms of protection, 1 ike privacy & contract law. (This is the KEWANEE issue. It's a matter of general pol icy, and of preemption.). Another issue is whether, within federal i/p law, a cause of action based on limited statutory infringement should be handled any differently because other damage damage which wouldn't be actionable alone under the relevant federal statute - is present. (This is raised by the NATION issue. It's a matter of legislative intent & general policy,) Although both issues involve …

Note On The Four Faces Of The "Sharing Benefits" Issue With Handwritten - 1985, Wendy J. Gordon

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Any overall theory must first be capable of describing what it seeks to theorize about. This article will now do that. In giving a taxonomy, the article may be making its greatest contribution, Lockean theory will hardly be the last world in intellectual property unification theory. But I will have at lest set the terms for debate so we can finally speak clearly to each other, articulate the issues, see their implications.

Outline Of Green Bound - 1985, Wendy J. Gordon

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No abstract provided.

Notes On "Natural Property Rights" In Products Of The Mind: Lock And Contemporary Controversies In Intellectual Property - 1985, Wendy J. Gordon

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No abstract provided.

Notes On Natural Rights Of Intellectual Property - 1985, Wendy J. Gordon

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In many areas courts are giving new intellectual property rights for reasons they largely leave unarticulated. Noncopyrightable stock averages are being protected by state law. Merchandising emblems and symbols are being protected in non-trademark contexts by trademark law. The right of publicity has expanded to such an extent that judges and commentators al iKe bewail the imminent dangers to the First Amendment caused by the imprecision of the new right’s boundaries. Even in federal copyright law, which explicitly says that facts and ideas should be free of protection, and where inadvertent copying is supposed to be as actionable as intentional …

Notes On Desert Theory: The No-Harm Notion - 1985, Wendy J. Gordon

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At first blush, the creation of i/p seems to meet this test of Locke’s proviso, namely, that strangers cannot complain of the ownership if after the appropriation, “there was as good left, as that already possessed, and more than he knew what to do with, or his industry could reach to.” There would seem to be a nearly infinite store of possible melodies, poems, novels, ideas; granting ownership over one variant which has been reduced to expression by a creator wouldn’t seem to interfere with the stranger’s ability to create his own.

Notes On Nomenclature - 1985, Wendy J. Gordon

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The ordinary linkage between "property" and "thing" can be seen in the most common name given to the set of intellectual products. They are called "intellectual property."