Law Commons^™

Toward An Ecology Of Intellectual Property: Lessons From Environmental Economics For Valuing Copyright's Commons, Frank Pasquale

Faculty Scholarship

The fair use defense in copyright law shields an intellectual commons of protected uses of copyrighted material from infringement actions. In determining whether a given use is fair, courts must assess the new use's potential effect on the market for the copyrighted work. Fair use jurisprudence too often fails to address the complementary, network, and long-range effects of new technologies on the market for copyrighted works. These effects parallel the indirect, direct, and option values of biodiversity recently recognized by environmental economists. Their sophisticated methods for valuing natural resources in tangible commons can inform legal efforts to address the intellectual …

Keeping Up To Date With Ip News Services And Blogs: Drowning In A Sea Of Sameness?, Jon R. Cavicchi

Law Faculty Scholarship

It seems like so many IP related Websites you visit invite you to join their free email list to keep you up to date. Sources span a wide spectrum including governmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, educational institutions, consulting services, law firms, commercial publishers and more. These sources span the spectrum from free, to low fee to premium pricing. With all of this information overload and choices, how do you differentiate and choose news sources?

The goals of this article are twofold. Goal one is to present a survey of types and categories of IP news tools available to IP researchers. Since …

Fair Use And The Fairer Sex: Gender, Feminism, And Copyright Law, Ann Bartow

Law Faculty Scholarship

Copyright laws are written and enforced to help certain groups of people assert and retain control over the resources generated by creative productivity. Because those people are predominantly male, the copyright infrastructure plays a role, largely unexamined by legal scholars, in helping to sustain the material and economic inequality between women and men. This essay considers some of the ways in which gender issues and copyright laws intersect, proposes a feminist critique of the copyright legal regime which advocates low levels of copyright protections, and asserts the importance of considering the social and economic disparities between women and men when …

Digital Rights Management And The Process Of Fair Use, Timothy K. Armstrong

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

Producers of digital media works increasingly employ technological protection measures, commonly referred to as "digital rights management" (or "DRM") technologies, that prevent the works from being accessed or used except upon conditions the producers themselves specify. These technologies have come under criticism for interfering with the rights users enjoy under copyright law, including the right to engage in fair uses of the DRM-protected works. Most DRM mechanisms are not engineered to include exceptions for fair use, and user circumvention of the DRM may violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act even if the use for which the circumvention occurs is itself …

Intellectual Property: Trade Secrets And The Federal Tort Claims Act/Dd Form 882 Over Substance: Caveat Forfeiture, Katherine E. White

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Intellectual Property Research: From The Dustiest Law Book To The Most Far Off Database, Jon R. Cavicchi

Law Faculty Scholarship

This issue of IDEA introduces a regular series of articles on intellectual property research tools and strategies based on my experience for over a decade as Intellectual Property Librarian and Research Professor at Franklin Pierce Law Center. Pierce Law is consistently ranked among the top law schools training IP professionals. I have taught IP legal research, patent, trademark and copyright searching to hundreds of students and IP professionals in Pierce Law Graduate Programs. I have tackled hundreds of reference and research questions as well as working on countless projects requiring IP information. So I have been faced with challenges and …

Creative Industries In Developing Countries And Intellectual Property Protection, Lauren Loew

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

International intellectual property law (hereafter referred to as IP law) has an increasingly important significance for international trade and relations. From the music industry to the drug industry, intellectual property is a lucrative market, and both individuals and corporations have a lot to lose from the infringement of intellectual property rights. For example, music is a $40 billion worldwide industry. According to the Recording Industry Association of American (RIAA), the music industry loses approximately $4.2 billion each year to worldwide piracy. Although these facts bring to light the economic losses of industries and individuals from IP infringement, the global community …

Digital Copyright, Jessica D. Litman

Books

In 1998, copyright lobbyists succeeded in persuading Congress to enact laws greatly expanding copyright owners' control over individuals' private uses of their works. The efforts to enforce these new rights have resulted in highly publicized legal battles between established media and new upstarts.

In this book, law professor Jessica Litman questions whether copyright laws crafted by lawyers and their lobbyists really make sense for the vast majority of us. Should every interaction between ordinary consumers and copyright-protected works be restricted by law? Is it practical to enforce such laws, or expect consumers to obey them? What are the effects of …

Why Sell What You Can License?, Contracting Around Statutory Protection Of Intellectual Property, Elizabeth I. Winston

Scholarly Articles

Historically, the transfer of goods has been through sale, a model regulated by public legislation. Increasingly, however, the transfer of goods is occurring through licensing, a model regulated by private legislation. Privately-legislated licenses - for such chattels as musical and written works and agricultural goods - are being used to circumvent publicly-legislated restrictions on intellectual property. Private legislation should not circumvent public legislation, and intellectual property owners should not be allowed to circumvent the statutory scheme for protection of intellectual property. Licenses that augment publicly-legislated protection of intellectual property support the traditional role of contracts and should be enforced. Licenses …

Electronically Stored Information: The December 2006 Amendments To The Federal Rules Of Civil Procedure, Kenneth J. Withers

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

“One For All: The Problem Of Uniformity Cost In Intellectual Property Law.” American University Law Review 55, No.4 (May 2006): 845-900., Michael W. Carroll

American University Law Review

Intellectual property law protects the owner of each patented invention or copyrighted work of authorship with a largely uniform set of exclusive rights. In the modern context, it is clear that innovators' needs for intellectual property protection vary substantially across industries and among types of innovation. Applying a socially costly, uniform solution to problems of differing magnitudes means that the law necessarily imposes uniformity cost by underprotecting those who invest in certain costly innovations and overprotecting those with low innovation costs or access to alternative appropriability mechanisms. This Article argues that reducing uniformity cost is the central problem for intellectual …

From Pirates To Partners (Episode Ii): Protecting Intellectual Property In Post-Wto China, Peter K. Yu

American University Law Review

In From Pirates to Partners: Protecting Intellectual Property in China in the Twenty-First Century, I criticized the ineffectiveness and short-sightedness of the U.S.-China intellectual property policy. As I argued, the approach taken by the administration in the 1980s and early 1990s had created a cycle of futility in which China and the United States repeatedly threatened each other with trade wars only to back down in the eleventh hour with a compromise that did not provide sustainable improvements in intellectual property protection. Since I wrote that article five years ago, China has joined the WTO and undertook a complete overhaul …

Patent Donations And Tax Policy, Xuan-Thao Nguyen, Jeffrey A. Maine

Faculty Publications

To achieve the policy goals of ultimate innovation, the government should provide incentives to encourage the patentees to donate, rather than abandon, their "orphan" patents to universities, hospitals, and other nonprofit organizations with research and development facilities that can properly exploit the patents. The authors advocate for the implementation of incentives that would encourage donors to surrender their monopolistic ownership of patents for the benefit of charitable organizations and, in tum, the development and growth of society.

Taxing Trademarks And Domain Names, Xuan-Thao Nguyen, Jeffrey A. Maine

Faculty Publications

With the arrival of global electronic commerce transactions on the Internet, new forms of intellectual property rights, such as Internet domain names, have emerged. Today, Internet domain names are some companies' most valuable assets. Yet law professors, attorneys, and judges struggle with the legal nature of domain names, which is far from settled. Questions drawing recent attention include: How should domain names be valued? Can domain names be used as collateral in secured transactions, and how does one perfect a security interest in domain names? What will happen to domain names in bankruptcy?

Propertization, Contract, Competition, And Communication: Law's Struggle To Adapt To The Transformative Powers Of The Internet, David R. Barnhizer

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This Symposium focuses in part on the ideas of Margaret Radin as a point of departure for the various contributions. A key part of the analysis includes the process she calls propertization in the context of intellectual property rules and the Internet. The approach taken in this introductory essay is twofold. The first part presents some key points raised by the Symposium contributors. Of course, that overview is necessarily incomplete, because the contributions represent a rich group of analyses about vital concerns relating to how our legal system should respond to the challenge of the Internet and information systems through …

Propertization, Contract, Competition, And Communication: Law's Struggle To Adapt To The Transformative Powers Of The Internet, David Barnhizer

Cleveland State Law Review

This Symposium focuses in part on the ideas of Margaret Jane Radin as a point of departure for the various contributions. A key part of the analysis includes the process she calls propertization in the context of intellectual property rules and the Internet. The approach taken in this introductory essay is twofold. The first part presents some key points raised by the Symposium contributors. Of course, that overview is necessarily incomplete, because the contributions represent a rich group of analyses about vital concerns relating to how our legal system should respond to the challenge of the Internet and information systems …

The Patent Cooperation Treaty: At The Center Of The International Patent System, Jay Erstling

Faculty Scholarship

In view of the fact that the PCT is composed of almost 130 countries and that more than 100 national and regional patent offices, as well as WIPO itself, perform PCT functions, it is remarkable that the system operates so smoothly and continues to gain momentum. Perhaps the system’s greatest strength comes from the immense diversity of legal, linguistic, and national cultures that constitute the PCT. While the system has served to harmonize divergent practices, it has also been obliged to accommodate to the sometimes inflexible peculiarities of national law and procedure. The PCT’s ability to strike a balance between …

Beyond Patents: The Cultural Life Of Native Healing And The Limitations Of The Patent System As A Protective Mechanism For Indigenous Knowledge On The Medicinal Uses Of Plants, Ikechi Mgbeoji

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

The question that this paper seeks to tackle is whether in the contest of allegations of biopiracy and in the search for effective mechanisms for the protection of indigenous knowledge of the medicinal uses of plants possessed by traditional healers of southern Nigeria, there is any role for the patent regime. Given the popularity of alternative forms of health care, this question is of importance in contemporary discourse.

Intellectual Property Protection In China: Enforcing Trademark Rights, Anne M. Wall

Marquette Sports Law Review

No abstract provided.

Refusals To Deal With Competitors By Owners Of Patents And Copyrights: Reflections On The Image Technical And Xerox Decisions, Joseph P. Bauer

Journal Articles

Under the patent and copyright laws, the owner of a patent for an invention or of a copyright for a work has the right to sell, license or transfer it, to exploit it individually and exclusively, or even to decide to withhold it from the public. By contrast, under the antitrust laws, a unilateral refusal to deal may constitute an element of a violation of Section 2 of the Sherman Act, and the courts may then impose a duty on the violator to deal with others, including possibly with its actual or would-be competitors.

The central question addressed by this …

Intellectual Property, Privatization And Democracy: A Response To Professor Rose, Mark P. Mckenna

Journal Articles

The broad thesis of Professor Rose's article Privatization: The Road to Democracy? is an important reminder that no institution deserves all the credit for democratization, and that the success of any particular institution in promoting democracy depends to a greater or lesser extent on the existence and functioning of other political institutions. While protection of private property has proven quite important to successful democratic reform, we should not be lulled into thinking private property can carry the whole weight of reform. That lesson has particular significance in the context of intellectual property, given proponents general tendency to overstate the significance …

The Rehnquist Court And The Groundwork For Greater First Amendment Scrutiny Of Intellectual Property, Mark P. Mckenna

Journal Articles

This contribution to the Washington University School of Law conference on the Rehnquist Court and the First Amendment addresses the Rehnquist Court's view of the role of the First Amendment in intellectual property cases. It argues that, while the Rehnquist Court was not eager to find a conflict between intellectual property laws and the First Amendment, there is reason to believe that it set the stage for greater First Amendment scrutiny of intellectual property protections. At the very least, the Court left that road open to future courts, which might be inclined to view intellectual property more skeptically.

Cracks In The Great Wall: Why China's Copyright Law Has Failed To Prevent Piracy Of American Movies Within Its Borders, Jordana Cornish

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

This note examines the current state of China's intellectual property rights protection as it relates to movie piracy. Part I examines the different types of film piracy occurring in China and the current severity of the problem for the United States motion picture industry. Part II traces the history of copyright law in China and examines China's commitments under the international copyright treaties it has signed with the United States and other nations through its recent accession to the WTO. Part III discusses why movie piracy in China is still on the rise despite these commitments and highlights why cultural, …

Trademark Dilution In Japan, Kenneth L. Port

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

Piracy: Twelve Year-Olds, Grandmothers, And Other Good Targets For The Recording Industry's File Sharing Litigation, Matthew Sag

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

Evaluating The Proposed Changes To Federal Rule Of Civil Procedure 37: Spoliation, Routine Operation And The Rules Enabling Act, Nathan D. Larsen

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

A New Economics Of Trademarks, David W. Barnes

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

Conventional wisdom holds that trademarks are nothing like other intellectual property. Copyright and patent law are theoretically based in public goods theory and are designed to promote creation and disclosure of original expressions and novel, useful innovations. By contrast, trademarks are private goods and trademark law is designed to promote trade and encourage competition.

This article challenges conventional wisdom by demonstrating that trademarks are a type of public good that contributes to the public stock of useful ideas just as patented and copyrighted works do. This economic perspective suggests, again contrary to conventional trademark theory, that competitive markets fail to …

Easing The Claim Construction Blow With Early-Discovery Markman Hearings That Are Appealable To The Federal Circuit On An Interlocutory Basis, Srikanth K. Reddy

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

"Consumer Protection:" Consumer Strategies And The European Market In Genetically Modified Foods, Johanna Gibson

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

A New Tool For Analyzing Intellectual Property, Stephen M. Mcjohn

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.