Law Commons^™

Acting Like An Administrative Agency: The Federal Circuit En Banc, Ryan G. Vacca

Ryan G. Vacca

When Congress created the Federal Circuit in 1982, it thought it was creating a court of appeals. Little did it know that it was also creating a quasi-administrative agency that would engage in substantive rulemaking and set policy in a manner substantially similar to administrative agencies. In this Article, I examine the Federal Circuit's practices when it orders a case to be heard en banc and illustrate how these practices cause the Federal Circuit to look very much like an administrative agency engaging in substantive rulemaking. The number and breadth of questions the Federal Circuit agrees to hear en banc …

A Critique Of Mark Lemley’S “The Myth Of The Sole Inventor”, John Howells, Ron D. Katznelson

Ron D. Katznelson

In a forthcoming article in the Michigan Law Review, Professor Mark Lemley advances a thesis that “the canonical story of the lone genius inventor is largely a myth” and describes a selection of pioneer inventions to support his thesis. We show that Lemley has many of his facts wrong. We examine his assertions and set the record straight in the pioneer invention cases of Edison, the Wright brothers, the Selden automobile patent vis a vis Ford, Watt and the steam engine and Fleming and penicillin. We are concerned with the errors in alleged historical and legal facts in what Lemley …

Sampling, Looping, And Mashing … Oh My!: How Hip Hop Music Is Scratching More Than The Surface Of Copyright Law, Tonya M. Evans

Tonya M. Evans

This article examines the deleterious impact of copyright law on music creation. It highlights hip hop music as an example of a genre significantly and negatively impacted by 1) the per se infringement rule applied in some instances to cases involving unauthorized sampling of sound recordings; and 2) traditional (and arguably erroneous) assumptions in copyright law and policy of independent creation and Romantic authorship.

For decades hip hop producers have relied on the innovative use of existing recordings (most of which are protected by copyright), to create completely new works. Specifically, cuttin’ and scratchin’, digital sampling, looping and (most recently) …

Whose Body Is It Anyway? Human Cells And The Strange Effects Of Property And Intellectual Property Law, Robin C. Feldman

Robin C Feldman

One For All: The Problem Of Uniformity Cost In Intellectual Property Law, Michael W. Carroll

Michael W. Carroll

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 …

Food And Drug Law As Intellectual Property Law: Historical Reflections, Kara Swanson

Kara W. Swanson

No abstract provided.

The Creativity Effect (With C. Sprigman), Christopher J. Buccafusco

Christopher J. Buccafusco

No abstract provided.

The Creativity Effect, Christopher Sprigman, Christopher Buccafusco

Christopher Sprigman

This paper reports the first experiment to demonstrate the existence of a valuation anomaly associated with the creation of new works. To date, a wealth of social science research has shown that substantial valuation asymmetries exist between owners of goods and potential purchasers of them. The least amount of money that owners are willing to accept to part with their possessions is often far greater than the amount that purchasers would be willing to pay to obtain them. This phenomenon, known as the endowment effect, may create substantial inefficiencies in many markets. Our experiment demonstrates the existence of a related …

Overcoming The “Impossible Issue” Of Nonobviousness In Design Patents, Daniel Harris Brean, Janice M. Mueller

Daniel Harris Brean