Law Commons^™

Clash Of The Titans: Regulating The Competition Between Established And Emerging Electronic Payment Systems, Jane Kaufman Winn

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This article equates the providers of traditional electronic payment services with the Titans of Greek mythology, and the providers of new electronic payment technologies with the Olympians. Professor Winn concludes, however, that unlike the Titans of Greek mythology, these modern Titans appear to be winning in their battle with the upstart Olympians. This article describes the fundamental characteristics of payment systems, reviews the applicable law, and describes the new technologies that were, until quite recently, expected to displace older electronic payment systems. Professor Winn finds that consumers and merchants, by and large, are happy with the existing regulatory structure. And, …

The New Wild West: Measuring And Proving Fame And Dilution Under The Federal Trademark Dilution Act, Xuan-Thao Nguyen

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The passage of the Federal Trademark Dilution Act of 1995 (the Dilution Act or Act) has been widely celebrated, as evidenced by the number of related articles, speeches and symposia. Commentators who applauded the adoption of the Dilution Act believed that a dilution claim would now be easier to prove by trademark owners against diluters because trademark owners would not have to establish the troublesome factual issue of consumer confusion. The courts have embraced the Act, and it has already proven to be an effective weapon for trademark owners. One court has even suggested trademark owners asserting claims of dilution …

The Antitrust Duty To Deal And Intellectual Property Rights, James C. Burling, William F. Lee, Anita K. Krug

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This Article discusses how courts have addressed so-called ‘"duty-to-deal" antitrust claims involving intellectual property, and what they should do in those circumstances to ensure appropriate deference to the competition goals of intellectual property doctrine.

Part II discusses duty-to-deal principles in the general case, where intellectual property rights are not at issue, noting that hard and fast rules have yet to emerge.

Part III discusses the approaches courts have taken in the intellectual property context and contends that, although many courts have conducted their analyses with a view to the objectives of patent law, at least two have not, with potentially …

What Law Librarians Collect, Penny Hazelton

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No abstract provided.

The Dilemma Of Intellectual Property Piracy In China, Jennifer S. Fan

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This Article analyzes the effectiveness of China's intellectual property laws and the role they play in China's foreign trade and investment. It gives an overview of how intellectual property laws developed in China and explains why they have been inadequate, especially with respect to the protection of the interests of U.S. companies. It then illustrates why America's response to the piracy of intellectual property has been largely ineffective. The Article explains why China's strides in intellectual property law have fallen short of expectations and offers alternative methods of protecting intellectual property rights in China.

What A Salmon Czar Might Hope For, William H. Rodgers, Jr.

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There is a windowof opportunity in the wave of Endangered Species Act salmon listings that has descended on the Pacific Northwest in 1998 and 1999. Federal law links listings to the "inadequacy of existing regulatory mechanisms." Experience in Oregon has shown that EPA listings cannot be avoided by "voluntary or future conservation efforts."

Meaningful state law that will deter federal overrides must be "current" and "enforceable." With salmon stocks plummeting and with "inadequate" regulation prominently confirmed, what would the naive observer expect from a Washington State legislature intent upon saving the salmon and protecting its authority? A spate of stunning …

Federalism In The Era Of International Standards: Federal And State Government Regulation Of Merchant Vessels In The United States (Part Iii), Craig H. Allen

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No abstract provided.

How Copyleft Uses License Rights To Succeed In The Open Source Software Revolution And The Implications For Article 2b, Robert W. Gomulkiewicz

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The computer industry moves from one “next great thing” to the next “next great thing” with amazing speed. Graphical user interface, object-oriented programming, client-server computing, multimedia software, Java applets, the network computer, and the Internet have all been hailed as technological breakthroughs at one time or another. Some of these promising developments fizzle, some evolve and succeed slowly, and some revolutionize the industry overnight.

Led by a group of software developers known as “hackers,” the latest “next great thing” is “open source” software. The word “source” refers to software in source code form. Source code is the collection of instructions …

Labor-Management Cooperation In The United States: Reflections On Boeing, Daniel H. Foote

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No abstract provided.

Still Adjusting To Markman: A Prescription For The Timing Of Claim Construction Hearings, William F. Lee, Anita K. Krug

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This Article argues that, in most cases, there is an optimal time for holding the Markman hearing.

Part II provides a short summary of both the Federal Circuit's holding in Markman and the rationale behind the Supreme Court's affirmance of that holding. It then delves into the predictable effects of Markman, as well as into the maze of questions that the decision has engendered and the ways in which the district courts have answered those questions.

Part III discusses the issue of the timing of claim construction hearings, presenting at the outset the possible alternatives. It argues that holding …

The Use Of Preclusion Doctrine, Antisuit Injunctions, And Forum Non Conveniens Dismissals In Transnational Intellectual Property Litigation, Peter Nicolas

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Conflicting standards among the federal circuits over the applicability of inherent powers in the transnational intellectual property context and the divided authority regarding the jurisdiction of U.S. federal courts over foreign intellectual property claims severely hamper the ability of federal district courts to use these tools in such a manner so as to prevent parties in transnational intellectual property suits from engaging in strategic behavior. This Comment seeks to reconcile these conflicts where possible and, where irreconcilable, to demonstrate that the text and history of federal statutes conferring subject matter jurisdiction on federal courts and placing limits on their issuance …

The Most Creative Moments In The History Of Environmental Law: "The Who's", William H. Rodgers, Jr.

Articles

My definition of creativity in environmental law is any legal initiative that advances the subject with new levels of analysis, structure, or institutional bridges. There are two requirements: improvement on function and novelty. Law is better if it increases the prospect of protecting the natural world or its inhabitants. Law is novel if it combines mandate, process, or structure in unusual ways.

There are reasons to suspect that environmental law as a field may be more creative than other legal subjects such as trust and estates, contracts, property, or tax law. One reason, as Oliver Houck has said, is that …

Some Of Them Still Don't Get It: Hostile Work Environment Litigation In The Lower Courts, Eric Schnapper

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This Article describes how the courts of appeals have decided sexual harassment cases in the five years since Harris v. Forklift Systems, Inc., 510 US 17 (1993). In some circuits, events have unfolded largely as Justice Scalia anticipated: the trier of fact—ordinarily a jury—applies the hostile work environment standard announced in Meritor and elaborated upon in Harris.

West Virginia's Adoption Statute: A History Of A Work In Progress, Lisa Kelly

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More than two years have passed since the Legislature reformed West Virginia's adoption statute. The goal of this article is to provide a kind of legislative history to deepen the reader's understanding of the current statute. This history will include an explanation of the West Virginia Law Institute's Proposal, as well as the Legislature's reaction to it. In Part II, I will detail this history. In Part III, I will explain the operation of the current statute, with mention of the few recent adoption decisions that have construed various provisions. In Part IV, I will look at some of the …

Chain Gangs, Boogeymen And Other Real Prisons Of The Imagination, Lisa Kelly

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This narrative is a fictionalized account of real legal, historical, and interpersonal issues rooted in the social construction of race.

Telemedicine And Integrated Health Care Delivery: Compounding Malpractice Liability, Patricia C. Kuszler

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This Article considers how theories of medical negligence might be applied in the context of telemedicine and integrated delivery health plans. Part Two summarizes the history of telemedicine, its increasing breadth of application and opportunity and promise for the future. Part Three reviews traditional negligence principles and precedents and demonstrates how they might be applied when a telemedicine interaction results in negligence and harm to the patient. Part Four discusses evolving theories of shared liability applicable to health plans and managed care entities. Finally, Part Five demonstrates how shared liability theories will be applied to situations involving telemedicine technologies.

Corralling Kevorkian: Regulating Physician-Assisted Suicide In America, Steve Calandrillo

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This article examines the evolution and history of the development of the right-to-die in America, the ethical considerations surrounding physician-assisted suicide (P.A.S.), and the dangers posed by the rise of managed care. I then explore and analyze efforts to legalize and regulate assisted suicide (Netherlands, Oregon, The Model State Act), and suggest the criteria I believe are essential to include in any P.A.S. regulatory scheme.

Despatches From The Front: Recent Skirmishes Along The Frontiers Of Electronic Contracting Law, Jane Kaufman Winn, Michael Rhoades Pullen

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This Article will provide a short overview of the current efforts in the United States and the European Union to reform contract law to accommodate recent innovations in electronic contracting. Whether changes are needed to current contract law doctrines governing contract formation, effectiveness of contract terms, choice of law and forum provisions, special protections for consumers, and signature and writing requirements, revisions in these areas have all proved controversial. Even in those areas where a consensus may be emerging on whether law reform may be appropriate in some form, consensus is often still lacking with regard to the specific legislation …

The Hedgehog And The Fox: Distinguishing Public And Private Sector Approaches To Managing Risk For Internet Transactions, Jane Kaufman Winn

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In his essay The Hedgehog and the Fox, Isaiah Berlin used an ancient Greek proverb comparing these animals as a metaphor to express a deep division among thinkers and writers in their understanding of the human condition. In this essay, I extend the metaphor to contrast the differing approaches to risk management taken by the public sector in the exercise of its sovereign functions and that taken by members of the private sector in the conduct of commercial transactions. In light of the differences in these basic approaches to questions of risk management, I will evaluate some widely discussed …

Managing State Trust Lands For Ecosystem Health: The Case Of Washington State's Range And Agricultural Lands, Gregory A. Hicks

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The protection of ecosystem health and wildlife habitat on state trust lands has received increasing attention in public lands literature. This article is meant to contribute to that discussion. It is focused on recently adopted land management policies in Washington state which are intended to restore ecosystem health and wildlife habitat on the 1.1 million acres of range and agricultural trust lands in the upland interior of the state's Columbia Plain. The lands in question are lands originally granted to Washington at statehood by the federal government for the support of the common schools and other public institutions. Those lands …

From Office Ladies To Women Warriors?: The Effect Of The Eeol On Japanese Women, Jennifer S. Fan

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In this Article, Jennifer Fan argues that existing laws in Japan do not adequately protect working women from sex discrimination. Specifically, Fan examines the Equal Employment Opportunity Law (EEOL), a law designed to prevent discrimination against women in the workplace, and concludes that the EEOL is little more than a paper tiger that preserves the status quo. After briefly discussing the legal sources of protection for working women in Japan before the passage of the EEOL, Fan examines the creation of the EEOL, its substantive provisions, and its legal impact. Through her analysis of recent sexual harassment cases in light …