Law Commons^™

Update On Patent-Related Cases In Computers And Electronics, Karishma Jiva Cartwright, Timothy T. Hsieh, Saurabh Vishnubhakat

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This paper provides an overview of patent cases relating to computer and electronics technology that were not taken up by the Supreme Court during the October 2022 term. As of this writing, the Supreme Court has not granted certiorari in any patent-related cases for its October 2021 Term. The Court has, however, called for the views of the Solictor General in four cases, indicating higher interest and raising the possibility that one or more of these cases may appear on the Court's merits docket for the October 2022 Term. Additionally, though the Court denied certiorari in Baxter v. Becton, Dickinson, …

The Coming Copyright Judge Crisis, Saurabh Vishnubhakat, Dave Fagundes

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Commentary about the Supreme Court's 2021 decision in United States v. Arthrex, Inc. has focused on the nexus between patent and administrative law. But this overlooks the decision's seismic and as-yet unappreciated implication for copyright law: Arthrex renders the Copyright Royalty Board ("CRB") unconstitutional. The CRB has suffered constitutional challenge since its 2004 inception, but these were seemingly resolved in 2011 when the D.C. Circuit held that the CRB's composition did not offend the Appointments Clause as long as Copyright Royalty Judges ("CRJs") were removable atwill. But when the Court invalidated the selection process for administrative patent judges on a …

Functionality Screens, Christopher Buccafusco, Mark A. Lemley

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Among intellectual property (IP) doctrines, only utility patents should protect function. Utility patents offer strong rights that place constraints on competition, but they only arise when inventors can demonstrate substantial novelty after a costly examination. Copyrights, trademarks, and design patents are much easier to obtain than utility patents, and they often last much longer. Accordingly, to prevent claimants from obtaining “backdoor patents,” the other IP doctrines must screen out functionality. As yet, however, courts and scholars have paid little systematic attention to the ways in which these functionality screens operate across and within IP law.We have four tasks in this …

Policy Considerations & Industry Perspectives On 3d Printing, Greg Boyd, Martin Galese, John Knapp, Natalia Krasnodebska, Michael Weinberg, Aaron Wright

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The Cardozo Arts and Entertainment Law Journal hosted its Spring Symposium on Monday, February 2nd, 2015. The heavy precipitation and frigid temperatures did not stop practitioners, scholars and students alike from coming together in impressive numbers to engage in a discussion about the intellectual property issues surrounding 3D printing.

Liability Issues And 3d Printing, Mark Bartholomew, Gianni P. Servodidio, Katherine Strandburg, Felix Wu

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No abstract provided.

Innovation Heuristics: Experiments On Sequential Creativity In Intellectual Property, Stefan Bechtold, Christopher Buccafusco, Christopher Jon Sprigman

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All creativity and innovation build on existing ideas. Authors and inventors copy, adapt, improve, interpret, and refine the ideas that have come before them. The central task of intellectual property (IP) law is regulating this sequential innovation to ensure that initial creators and subsequent creators receive the appropriate sets of incentives. Although many scholars have applied the tools of economic analysis to consider whether IP law is successful in encouraging cumulative innovation, that work has rested on a set of untested assumptions about creators’ behavior. This Article reports four novel creativity experiments that begin to test those assumptions. In particular, …

Patent Markets: A Framework For Evaluation, Michael J. Burstein

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Patents have become financial assets, in both practice and theory. A nascent market for patents routinely produces headline-grabbing transactions in patent portfolios, and patent assertion entities frequently defend themselves as sources of liquidity essential for a patent market to function. Much of the discourse surrounding these developments assumes that a robust, liquid market for patents would improve the operation of the patent system. In this Essay, I challenge that assumption and systematically assess the cases for and against patent markets. I do so by taking seriously both the underlying innovation promotion goal of the patent system and the lessons of …

Rethinking Standing In Patent Challenges, Michael J. Burstein

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No abstract provided.

What's A Name Worth?: Experimental Tests Of The Value Of Attribution In Intellectual Property, Christopher Jon Sprigman, Christopher Buccafusco, Zachary Burns

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Despite considerable research suggesting that creators value attribution – i.e., being named as the creator of a work – U.S. intellectual property (IP) law does not provide a right to attribution to the vast majority of creators. On the other side of the Atlantic, however, many European countries give creators, at least in their copyright laws, much stronger rights to attribution. At first blush it may seem that the U.S. has gotten it wrong, and the Europeans have made a better policy choice in providing to creators a right that they value. But for reasons we will explain in this …

Reexamining Intellectual Property Concepts: A Glimpse Into The Future Through The Prism Of Chakrabarty, Monroe E. Price

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No abstract provided.

Enforceability Of Agreements To Arbitrate: An Examination Of The Public Policy Defense, Stewart E. Sterk

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This Article seeks to demonstrate that the public policy of doctrine should be, and in general has been, limited to two types of cases. First, as already discussed, an agreement to arbitrate should not be enforced when the statute or case law principle at issue has aims other than promoting justice between the parties. Second, when a party to the agreement belongs to a class peculiarly subject to imposition by the class to which the other party belongs, an agreement to arbitrate will not and should not be enforced.

In the latter class of cases, the susceptibility to imposition may …