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Series

Faculty Scholarship

Intellectual Property Law

1994

Articles 1 - 10 of 10

Full-Text Articles in Law

Assertive Modesty: An Economics Of Intangibles, Wendy J. Gordon Dec 1994

Assertive Modesty: An Economics Of Intangibles, Wendy J. Gordon

Faculty Scholarship

At the center of our Symposium stand two papers: "A Manifesto Concerning the Legal Protection of Computer Programs" (Manifesto) and "Legal Hybrids: Between the Patent and Copyright Paradigms" (Legal Hybrids). Both are stimulating. Both are lengthy. As a result, my primary role is that of a guide: this Comment will summarize the authors' proposals, analyze certain aspects in greater detail, and outline their explicit and implicit methodologies. Part I of the Comment describes the papers' positions and methodologies. Part II highlights some of the papers' many contributions to the literature, and offers some other evaluative observations.

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Counter-Manifesto: Student-Edited Reviews And The Intellectual Properties Of Scholarship, Wendy J. Gordon Apr 1994

Counter-Manifesto: Student-Edited Reviews And The Intellectual Properties Of Scholarship, Wendy J. Gordon

Faculty Scholarship

In the great scheme of things, how important are the problems with law reviews? Jim Lindgren's essay is a bit overheated, even for someone enamored f polemic as a literary form. But he does have a point: if law reviews are going to be published, the task should be done better than it is. That does not mean getting rid of student law reviews. Not even for Jim - but it does require patience and further inquiry into the nature of legal scholarship.

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Virtual Reality, Appropriation, And Property Rights In Art: A Roundtable Discussion: April 12, 1994, Beryl Jones-Woodin Jan 1994

Virtual Reality, Appropriation, And Property Rights In Art: A Roundtable Discussion: April 12, 1994, Beryl Jones-Woodin

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

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Commentary: Authority Of The Commissioner Over The Board Of Patent Appeals And Interferences, R. Carl Moy Jan 1994

Commentary: Authority Of The Commissioner Over The Board Of Patent Appeals And Interferences, R. Carl Moy

Faculty Scholarship

On August 3, 1992, the United States Patent and Trademark Office published a notice in the Federal Register requesting public comments on the PTO's appeal procedures. Taken in context, then, the notice can be fairly said to raise the issue whether, under the existing statute, the Board is subservient to the Commissioner. It also raises the broader question of whether such a subservient arrangement is desirable or, alternatively, whether the statute should be modified if necessary to give the Board decisional independence from the Commissioner. This Commentary is directed primarily to this latter point. In summary, it concludes that the …

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The Unnatural Expansion Of Trademark Rights: Is A Federal Dilution Statute Necessary?, Kenneth L. Port Jan 1994

The Unnatural Expansion Of Trademark Rights: Is A Federal Dilution Statute Necessary?, Kenneth L. Port

Faculty Scholarship

This article is a systematic review of proposed section 43(c ). Proposed section 43(c ) would create a federal cause of action for trademark dilution and would grossly expand trademark rights. The article reviews both the practical implications and theoretical underpinnings of the dilution concept. Part II describes the basic origins and history of the dilution debate. Part IV(A) presents the practical problems that proposed section 43(c ) raises. Part IV(B) critiques some of the more popular theoretical justifications that are typically used to support granting intellectual property rights and concludes that no satisfactory theoretical justification exists to warrant an …

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Surveying The Borders Of Copyright, Jane C. Ginsburg Jan 1994

Surveying The Borders Of Copyright, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

The copyright course I teach at Columbia Law School begins with a survey of what copyright is not: it is not a patent, a trademark, or an object of physical property. Nor, as the course examines a little later on, does copyright protect every object of economic value whose worth might be further enhanced were it to be shielded from unauthorized copying. However, the frontiers between copyright and mere commercial value have never been well defined. Not only may the same item be simultaneously the object of copyright and of other legal rights, but copyright increasingly covers – or is …

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Virtual Reality, Appropriation, And Property Rights In Art: A Roundtable Discussion, Wendy J. Gordon Jan 1994

Virtual Reality, Appropriation, And Property Rights In Art: A Roundtable Discussion, Wendy J. Gordon

Faculty Scholarship

Virtual reality is user-interfacing technology that tracks the kinetic movement, changes, and reactions in the body of an operator using devices that provide comprehensive and exclusive sensory excitation (in the sense that perceptual input from outside the system is excluded as much as possible). The technology simultaneously allows information and commands to be input back into the system as effortlessly as possible. Virtual reality can be thought of as total sensory immersion in the input and output of a computer system: everything one sees, feels, and hears comes from the computer, and everything the user does goes back in. It's …

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Four Reasons And A Paradox: The Manifest Superiority Of Copyright Over Sui Generis Protection Of Computer Software, Jane C. Ginsburg Jan 1994

Four Reasons And A Paradox: The Manifest Superiority Of Copyright Over Sui Generis Protection Of Computer Software, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

The "Manifesto Concerning the Legal Protection of Computer Programs" offers an extensive and challenging critique of current intellectual property protection of software. The authors argue strongly that the law should focus on the value of the know-how embodied in programs and the importance of protecting it, rather than on the particular means which might be used to appropriate it. The authors seek to compel reconceptualization of the place of computer programs, and of software authors' creativity, within the domain of intellectual property. However, their brief for change manifests several flaws. Paradoxically, it comes at once both too soon and too …

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Textualism And The Future Of The Chevron Doctrine, Thomas W. Merrill Jan 1994

Textualism And The Future Of The Chevron Doctrine, Thomas W. Merrill

Faculty Scholarship

The last decade has been a remarkable one for statutory interpretation. For most of our history, American judges have been pragmatists when it comes to interpreting statutes. They have drawn on various conventions – the plain meaning rule, legislative history, considerations of statutory purpose, canons of construction – "much as a golfer selects the proper club when he gauges the distance to the pin and the contours of the course." The arrival of Justice Scalia on the Supreme Court has changed this. Justice Scalia is a foundationalist, insisting that certain interpretational tools should be permanently banned from judicial use. What …

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Product Definition, Product Information, And Market Power: Kodak In Perspective, Mark R. Patterson Jan 1994

Product Definition, Product Information, And Market Power: Kodak In Perspective, Mark R. Patterson

Faculty Scholarship

In Eastman Kodak Co. v. Image Technical Services, Inc., product information, market costs, market information the United States Supreme Court held that market power sufficient to impose an illegal tying arrangement can, at least in theory, derive from buyers' uncertainty regarding a product's costs and quality. Although commentators disagree on the implications of the Kodak decision, all seem to agree that the opinion's emphasis on product information costs is a departure from previously accepted economic analysis of antitrust law. In this Article, Mark R. Patterson argues that the Kodak decision is, in fact, economically reasonable, incorporating into antitrust law previously …

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