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Full-Text Articles in Law
Slanting Trademark Choices In The Right Direction: Why Section 2(A) Of The Lanham Act Promotes The Interests Of Consumers, Zachary Kasnetz
Slanting Trademark Choices In The Right Direction: Why Section 2(A) Of The Lanham Act Promotes The Interests Of Consumers, Zachary Kasnetz
Missouri Law Review
Part II discusses the case’s factual and procedural background. Part III provides background on the relevant aspects of federal trademark law governing registration and the constitutional doctrines relevant to the instant decision. Part IV lays out the court’s decision and its reasoning. Finally, Part V critiques the majority’s analysis, particularly its application of the doctrine of unconstitutional conditions. It then argues that, under the legal doctrines relied upon by the majority, section 2(a) of the Lanham Act is constitutional.
A Fresh Look At Copyright On Campus, Jacob H. Rooksby
A Fresh Look At Copyright On Campus, Jacob H. Rooksby
Missouri Law Review
This Article reviews developments in these three areas of higher education through the lens of copyright, examining, in particular, the copyright ownership – as opposed to use – questions they present. In these emerging contexts, institutional claims to copyright often work to the detriment of students, faculty, and the public. Also harmful are campus copyright policies that are ambiguously worded or inappropriately purport to vest ownership interests in colleges and universities.
Copyright Protection: The Force Could Not Keep Han Solo Alive, But Can It Protect Him From Authors’ Derivative Works?, Micah Uptegrove
Copyright Protection: The Force Could Not Keep Han Solo Alive, But Can It Protect Him From Authors’ Derivative Works?, Micah Uptegrove
Missouri Law Review
This Note is meant to address the issues surrounding the rights copyright holders have in their characters and what rights they should be given. These existing rights are so valuable that it is likely that major companies such as Disney are going to continue to try to extend copyright duration; this method has worked repeatedly in the past to protect their fictional characters. The extension of copyright duration through statutes is an attempt to navigate the issue that the U.S. Constitution technically only allows for copyrights to be protected for a “limited time.” If companies such as Disney can get …
Notice And Remedies In Copyright Licensing, B. J. Ard
Notice And Remedies In Copyright Licensing, B. J. Ard
Missouri Law Review
Copyright owners claim the power to designate practically any term of a copyright license as a “condition” enforceable in copyright. In doing so, these licensors purport to translate breach of the most trivial or idiosyncratic term into the basis for a copyright infringement suit. This Article argues that these licenses are most problematic when licensors provide inadequate notice of unexpected terms. License conditions are typically buried in boilerplate that no reasonable consumer reads, and licensors have few incentives to make them more salient. These circumstances not only threaten unwitting users with copyright liability, but also impede copyright’s own goals by …
Homelessness At The Cathedral, Marc L. Roark
Homelessness At The Cathedral, Marc L. Roark
Missouri Law Review
This Article argues that legal restraints against homeless persons are resolved by applying certain nuisance-like approaches. By drawing on nuisance restraints that adopt property-based and social-identity information, courts and decision-makers choose approaches that create conflict between homeless identities and adopted social identities. These approaches tend to relegate the social choice of whether to tolerate homeless persons to one of established social order (property) or broadly conceived notions of liberty (constitutional rights or due process rights). This Article argues for a broader conception of social identity, which may force parties to internalize certain costs of action, tolerate certain uses, or abate …
Takings Care Of Business: Using Eminent Domain For Solely Economic Development Purposes, Garreth Cooksey
Takings Care Of Business: Using Eminent Domain For Solely Economic Development Purposes, Garreth Cooksey
Missouri Law Review
The controversial ruling in the case of Kelo v. City of New London, Connecticut was an impetus for a nationwide discourse on eminent domain reform. Most of the public strongly condemned Kelo, which allowed the city of New London, Connecticut, to strip Susette Kelo of her home for the development of a Pfizer plant. Political fallout from Kelo ushered in a surge of state legislation that restrained the taking of private property by eminent domain. Some states completely banned condemnation for economic development and for blight. Missouri, like several other states, took a less strict route and banned eminent domain …
“We Buy Houses”: Market Heroes Or Criminals?, Cori Harvey
“We Buy Houses”: Market Heroes Or Criminals?, Cori Harvey
Missouri Law Review
The residential sale/leaseback/buyback (“RSLB”) transaction is a socially beneficial foreclosure rescue transaction that is being regulated increasingly by the criminal courts to the detriment of the homeowners, investors, and society at large. Because the transaction is being regulated more aggressively with the criminal law, peculiar outcomes arise, which include investors being sentenced, in some cases, to draconian sentences – a trend that will eviscerate the transactions rather than improving them.
Proposal For A National Mortgage Registry: Mers Done Right, A , Dale A. Whitman
Proposal For A National Mortgage Registry: Mers Done Right, A , Dale A. Whitman
Missouri Law Review
In this Article, Professor Whitman analyzes the existing legal regime for transfers of notes and mortgages on the secondary market, and concludes that it is highly inconvenient and dysfunctional, with the result that large numbers of market participants simply did not observe its rules during the huge market run-up of the early and mid-2000s. He also considers Mortgage Electronic Registration System (MERS), which was designed to alleviate the inconveniences of repeatedly recording mortgage assignments, but concludes that it was conceptually flawed and has proven to be an inadequate response to the problem. For these reasons the legal system was ill-prepared …
Cloaking A Challenge To Missouri's Marriage Amendment With A Challenge For Survivor Benefits, Benjamin S. Harner
Cloaking A Challenge To Missouri's Marriage Amendment With A Challenge For Survivor Benefits, Benjamin S. Harner
Missouri Law Review
This Law Summary focuses on Glossip’s ongoing challenge to receive survivor benefits. The case not only implicates the Missouri Constitution’s equal protection and due process clauses, but it is also controversial because it involves the same-sex marriage issues that have stirred national debate for quite some time. This Law Summary will discuss each of these issues. Specifically, Part II provides the legal background for Missouri’s equal protection and substantive due process clauses and provides case law pertaining to situations similar to Glossip’s that have arisen in other states. Part III provides a more in-depth background of Glossip’s lawsuit, focusing on …
Taking Nature Back: Why Tax Strategy Law Is Relevant To Gene Patents, Amy E. Sestric
Taking Nature Back: Why Tax Strategy Law Is Relevant To Gene Patents, Amy E. Sestric
Missouri Law Review
On July 29, 2011, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld the validity of several controversial patents in Association for Molecular Pathology v. United States Patent and Trademark Office.' The patents, exclusively assigned to Myriad Genetics, Inc. (Myriad), claim two human genes fundamental to understanding, researching, and diagnosing common strains of familial breast and ovarian cancers. Patients expressed concern that Myriad's exclusivity over the two genes made diagnosis excessively expensive and precluded the availability of independent second opinion testing. Although the Supreme Court of the United States vacated and remanded the Federal Circuit's decision, the Federal …
Echoes From The Past: How The Federal Circuit Continues To Struggle With Patentable Subject Matter Post-Bilski, Jeff Thruston
Echoes From The Past: How The Federal Circuit Continues To Struggle With Patentable Subject Matter Post-Bilski, Jeff Thruston
Missouri Law Review
This Note will examine whether the cases comprising the eligible subject matter trio are inherently inconsistent. In looking at this issue, this Note will ask if Classen Immunotherapies can be reconciled with the patent eligibility trio, or if both the case and Judge Rader's concerns could have been dealt with more effectively by applying 35 U.S.C. § 101 as a last resort, and instead determining patent eligibility via 35 U.S.C. §§ 102, 103, and 112. It is fundamentally more difficult, expensive, and time consuming to ascertain which category of patentable subject matter a claimed invention falls into, or if the …
Forward: Symposium On Evolving The Court Of Appeals For The Federal Circuit And Its Patent Law Jurisprudence, Dennis D. Crouch
Forward: Symposium On Evolving The Court Of Appeals For The Federal Circuit And Its Patent Law Jurisprudence, Dennis D. Crouch
Missouri Law Review
As I discuss below, conditions on the ground have changed in the few short months following the Symposium. Congress has now acted, and the Patent Office will soon have additional authority. These changes play directly into the arguments of our Symposium authors and make their results even more important.
Crafting A 21st Century United States Patent And Trademark Office, David Kappos
Crafting A 21st Century United States Patent And Trademark Office, David Kappos
Missouri Law Review
Good morning. It is a privilege to be here representing the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). I want to thank the Missouri Law Review for the invitation and for hosting me here today. Moreover, I want to commend the University of Missouri for convening this important conference. These are critical topics, and today I want to focus on the key role the USPTO will play in shaping patent protections in the future. But let me first congratulate the members from the Federal Circuit who are present today for thirty years of excellence in addressing the most fundamental of …
Unpredictability In Patent Law And Its Effect On Pharmaceutical Innovation, Christopher M. Holman
Unpredictability In Patent Law And Its Effect On Pharmaceutical Innovation, Christopher M. Holman
Missouri Law Review
Part II of this Article summarizes the current R&D crisis confronting the pharmaceutical industry and the accompanying drop-off in innovative output from this important technological sector. Part III explains Mr. Armitage's "view from industry," which attributes a significant causative effect to unpredictability in the patent system. Part IV provides two Lilly case studies involving generic challenges to two of the company's important drugs, Gemzar and Strattera, in which the company has suffered as a result of this unpredictability. Part V identifies three distinct forms of unpredictability in patent law: unpredictability caused by the proliferation of loosely defined standards rather than …
Cotenants Trumping Cotenants: The Eighth Circuit Takes A Diverse Stance On Cotenants' Authority Under The Fourth Amendment, Benjamin M. Johnston
Cotenants Trumping Cotenants: The Eighth Circuit Takes A Diverse Stance On Cotenants' Authority Under The Fourth Amendment, Benjamin M. Johnston
Missouri Law Review
Reluctantly, John Adams mailed the envelope addressed to his wife, Abigail, knowing the contents could bring about his death. This letter, mailed to his "dear friend," contained a description of his pleas for independence to the Continental Congress, a description that if located by the British, would most certainly subject him to charges of treason. Immediately after Mr. Adams dispatched his letter, he was approached by a British intelligence officer requesting to review the letter. Mr. Adams denied the officer's request and sent him on his way. Later, when the letter arrived to the unsuspecting Abigail, it was accompanied by …
Teaching Property - A Conceptual Approach, Dale A. Whitman
Teaching Property - A Conceptual Approach, Dale A. Whitman
Missouri Law Review
The property course has shrunk. This fact is well-documented, and is obvious to anyone who has taught the course over any appreciable length of time. For many decades, Property received six credits in most law schools - typically three in the Fall and three in the Winter semester of the first year. Now, few schools give the course more than four or five credits, and some have cut it to three. The change seems to have occurred mainly over the last two decades. While it is doubtful that many Property teachers would have chosen this reduction, it is now an …
Boundaries Of Exclusion, Geogrette Chapman Phillips
Boundaries Of Exclusion, Geogrette Chapman Phillips
Missouri Law Review
This article is a story about boundaries and exclusion and about how - or whether - there is a community based right to exclude nonresidents. The right of the individual to own property, to defend that property and to exclude others from entering that property are sticks in the bundle of rights enshrined in US property law. The limitations on that exclusion are determined by the creation of a legally defined property line that bounds these rights. That part of our story is relatively straightforward. However, we do not live our lives in isolation. We surround ourselves with a chosen …
Real Estate Practice In The Twenty-First Century, Ann M. Burkhart
Real Estate Practice In The Twenty-First Century, Ann M. Burkhart
Missouri Law Review
The next century will bring profound changes in real estate law and in the ways that it is practiced. This prediction may seem rather unremarkable for any area of law or for almost any other area of human endeavor. But the changes in real estate law will be exceptional because of their relative rapidity and comprehensiveness. Real estate law, perhaps more than any other area, has changed very slowly since the beginning of the common law legal system. The mortgage, which will be the engine for this century's developments, is a particularly striking example of this slow rate of evolution.' …
And Into The Maelstrom Steps The United States Supreme Court: Licenses Are Not Property For Purposes Of The Mail Fraud Statute - Cleveland V. United States, Hadi S. Al-Shathir
And Into The Maelstrom Steps The United States Supreme Court: Licenses Are Not Property For Purposes Of The Mail Fraud Statute - Cleveland V. United States, Hadi S. Al-Shathir
Missouri Law Review
This Note will begin by providing a summary of the fact surrounding Cleveland v. United States. Following this synopsis is a brief discussion of the mail fraud statute, the property dilemma arising under the mail fraud statute, and issues relating to the federalization of crime. This Note will conclude by exploring the federalism implication of the Supreme Court’s holding in Cleveland v. United States, licenses are not property for purposes of the mail fraud statue.