Law Commons^™

Semiotics 101: Taking The Printed Matter Doctrine Seriously, Kevin Emerson Collins

Indiana Law Journal

The printed matter doctrine is a branch of the section 101 doctrine of patent eligibility that, among other things, prevents the patenting of technical texts and diagrams. The contemporary formulation of the doctrine is highly problematic. It borders on incoherency in many of its applications, and it lacks any recognized grounding in the Patent Act. Yet, despite its shortcomings, courts have not abandoned the printed matter doctrine, likely because the core applications of the doctrine place limits on the reach of the patent regime that are widely viewed as both intuitively "'correct" and normatively desirable. Instead of abandoning the doctrine, …

Patent Challenges And Royalty Inflation, Michael Risch

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Thwack!! Take That, User-Generated Content!: Marvel Enterprises V. Ncsoft, Carl Michael Szabo

Federal Communications Law Journal

Comic-book heroes show us how to be valiant, how to fight for those less fortunate, and, in some circumstances, how to combat those who break the law. Such is the situation in the case of Marvel Enterprises, Inc. v. NCSofl Corp., a battle between user-generated content and the copyright violations that resulted.

While the issue of copyright liability has been seen in hundreds of comments and notes from courts and attorneys alike, the issue of copyright liability on the internet remains an open question that if not addressed, could endanger the protection afforded to authors. Federal and state suits have …

The Sound Of Money: Securing Copyright, Royalties, And Creative "Progress" In The Digital Music Revolution, Armen Boyajian

Federal Communications Law Journal

Academics and popular critics alike want to distill, reform, or altogether destroy U.S. copyright law as we know it. Much of this stems from animosity toward the old-guard record industry's alleged practices of overcharging consumers, underpaying royalties to artists, and suing teenagers and grandmas. But what those calling for reform all seem to neglect is a tiny but inevitable fact: for the first time in history, composers and recording artists can keep their copyrights.

Tangible media sales are being replaced by P2P file sharing, retail downloads, and streaming Webcasts. Digital technologies and wireless networks have opened prime channels for music …

Dynamic Federalism And Patent Law Reform, Xuan-Thao Nguyen

Indiana Law Journal

Patent law is federal law, and the normative approach to patent reform has been top down, looking to Congress and the Supreme Court for changes to the broken and complex patent system. The normative approach thus far has not yielded satisfactory results. This Article challenges the static approach to patent reform and embraces the dynamic-federalism approach that patent reform can be an overlapping of both national and local efforts. Patent reform at the local level is essential as locales can serve as laboratories for changes, vertically compete with national government to reform certain areas of the patent system, and become …

A Cause Of Action For "Passing Off/Associational Marketing", Margreth Barrett

IP Theory

The Trademark Scholars Roundtable participants discussed a wide range of approaches to understanding and limiting the ever-increasing sprawl of trademark rights. It was a productive and stimulating discussion. In this essay, I would like to combine some of my own ideas with points and suggestions made by the other participants, to sketch out a possible judicial approach to regulating the sprawl. Before discussing a potential solution, however, it is important to understand the nature of the problem, and some of its primary causes.

Section I will discuss the problem and set the stage for my proposal. Section II will then …

Substantive Claim Construction As A Patent Scope Lever, Peter Lee

IP Theory

No abstract provided.

Complex Economics And Patent Remedies, John M. Golden

IP Theory

No abstract provided.

Even More Complex After All These Years: What The Complexity Of The “How?” Question Of Tailoring Claim Scope Has To Say About The “Who?” Question, Kevin E. Collins

IP Theory

No abstract provided.

Formalism, Realism, And Patent Scope, Tun-Jen Chiang

IP Theory

No abstract provided.

Markets For Patent Scope, Ted M. Sichelman

IP Theory

A recurring issue in intellectual property theory is how the scope of patent rights affects invention and commercialization. Traditionally, there has been a dichotomous debate: one view stemming from Ed Kitch, promoting broad “prospect”-style patents in the hands of a single inventor, and another view from Robert Merges and Richard Nelson, advocating relatively narrow scope to encourage competition in innovation. More recently, a variety of scholars have set forth more nuanced positions. My thesis here is that the variance in these views can be traced to differing empirical attitudes about how well the market functions relative to a patent system …

Life In The Fast Lane: Of Presumptions, Defenses, And Burdens, William Mcgeveran

IP Theory

No abstract provided.

Patent Claiming In The United States: Central, Peripheral, Or Mongrel?, Martin J. Adelman

IP Theory

No abstract provided.

Whose Burden Is It Anyway? Addressing The Needs Of Content Owners In Dmca Safe Harbors, Greg Janson

Federal Communications Law Journal

Much of today's network neutrality debate addresses concerns that cable providers will limit access to competing Web-based services delivering multimedia content. While proposals to mandate nondiscrimination for all Internet traffic surely will help create a competitive environment where online entertainment providers can prosper, ISP interference is not the only threat. Online entertainment sites that relay user-generated content are threatened by crippling litigation brought by copyright holders for actions taken by third parties using their services. Reliance on the safe harbors provided in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act has, in most cases, proved unsuccessful. This Note addresses the concerns of both …

Statute Of Anne: Today And Tomorrow, Marshall Leaffer, Peter Jaszi, Craig Joyce, Tyler Ochoa

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Patent Eligibility In Policing Claim Scope, Christopher M. Holman

IP Theory

No abstract provided.

Patent Misuse And Innovation, Marshall Leaffer

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Panel Ii: The Global Contours Of Ip Protection For Trade Dress, Industrial Design, Applied Art, And Project Configuration, Mark D. Janis, Susan Scafidi, Orit Fischman Afori, Wendy J. Gordon, Jonathan Moskin

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Cooling-Off And Secondary Markets: Consumer Choice In The Digital Domain, Michael Mattioli

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This article studies the law and economics of cooling-off periods and secondary markets for online media. The discussion is fueled by a current debate: In July 2009, the online retail juggernaut, Amazon.com, remotely deleted literary classics from consumers’ portable “Kindle” reading devices. The public outcry and class-action lawsuit that followed have reinvigorated an ongoing debate about how much control digital media distributors should wield. Pundits and plaintiffs argue that too often, digital distributors like Amazon impair consumer freedom by misusing Digital Rights Management (DRM) software systems. However, these same systems could also provide significant benefits that have largely gone ignored. …