Computer Law Commons^™

Table Of Contents

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

No abstract provided.

E Wars - Episode One: The Patent Menace, Raymond Van Dyke

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

With the advent of the Information Age and the resulting transformation of our society, information companies are beginning to protect their business methodologies. As with any technological revolution, competition between the players is intense. In this new arena of business, competitors have turned patents into a weapon of choice. Businesses need new strategies to avoid becoming unnecessary casualties of war.

Table Of Contents

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

No abstract provided.

Patent Exhaustion, Implied Licenses, And Have-Made Rights: Gold Mines Or Mine Fields?, Amber L. Hatfield

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

Hard-fought patent battles may rage for years, only to settle quietly with a mutual exchange of patent rights. A notable example is the settlement between cellular industry rivals Ericsson and Qualcomm, who reached an agreement in March 1999 settling more than two years of intense litigation. That agreement marked a significant reversal in the parties' litigious posture, calling for the exchange of patent licenses and further paving the way for future collaborative efforts. But with relatively few reported decisions on the possible implications of third-party immunities, many modem agreements often fail to effectively anticipate and address them.

Depending on your …

Direct Public Offerings On The Internet: A Viable Means Of Obtaining Capital?, Jack A. Rosenbloom

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

The high cost of capital has stymied many businesses in their attempts to survive and prosper. But the emergence of the Internet and the explosive growth of e-commerce have created new opportunities for some businesses to explore different sources of additional capital. Many small-to-medium-sized companies have not yet fully appreciated the potential of this rapidly growing global network.

In 1998, 33% of American households were online - a percentage that by 2003, should increase to 51%.] More important, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) estimated that, at the end of 1999, as many as ten million investors had bypassed brokers …

Table Of Contents

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

No abstract provided.

Free Speech On The Internet: Regulating Web Authorship By Students, Rhoda J. Yen

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

As Internet use increases, more websites authored by students will populate the World Wide Web (WWW). Indeed, about one-third of all personal websites now belong to students, who are mostly minors.' Students' increasing use of the web raises new questions about free speech. This article addresses one of them: May schools censor student-created websites? If so, under what circumstances may they delete pages, edit pages, or discipline students for website speech?

In answering this question, this article looks for guidance to the history of free speech in the classroom. And examining the problem from a free-speech perspective is appropriate. If …

Table Of Contents

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

No abstract provided.

A Proposed Defense To Patent Infringement, Alfonso Garcia Chan

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

The American patent system is a major catalyst for technological progress and economic growth. In most cases, the system works well to achieve those ends. In rare but significant circumstances, however, the patent system can be manipulated to suppress technological progress. Unlike patent rights in other nations, the American patent grant is a negative right to exclude others. Thus, the patent owner need not practice or license others to practice the invention. Indeed, a patent owner has the right to do nothing for the lifetime of the patent. A patent owner's lack of action, however, could prevent progress in a …

Courting Cyberspace, Al Harrison

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

Having the ability to practice law in cyberspace has virtually metamorphosed the legal landscape into an amorphous mass. In this murky region, trying to apply well-established legal principles creates a colloidal covering of uncertainty. Besides compelling changes in the way legal services are delivered, this metamorphosis has introduced numerous practical and ethical concerns for lawyers and law firms. For example, consider the following questions:

• With whom are you communicating by sending e-mail?
• Are you inadvertently providing free legal advice to an unknown person in an unknown venue?
• Have you inadvertently established an attorney-client relationship?
• Are you licensed in the state …

Capital Formation And The Internet: An Alternative Source Of Equity Financing For Small Businesses, Brandon W. Freeman

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

Traditional methods of equity financing are unrealistically expensive for most small companies with capital needs. Under federal and state disclosure laws, start-up ventures must pay for printing a prospectus, advertising, and mailing, along with legal fees and other expenses, which are often beyond their means. But the Internet is expanding to enable small companies in their early growth stages to raise money from outside equity investors. By accommodating new technologies, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and state regulators have aided the Internet's expansion into equity financing.

In October 1995, through a Securities Act Release, the SEC endorsed and encouraged …

Saving Trees And Saving Time: Researching Environmental Law On The Internet, Jennifer Hodgkins

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

Conducting research on environmental law typically involves using federal and state statutes, administrative regulations, caselaw, law reviews, journals, and other resources in highly technical and scientific areas. Many of these resources are now available on the Internet, enabling lawyers to take advantage of free and convenient access to information. This paper focuses on sites specifically pertaining to environmental law; it will not address more general sites that provide statutes, administrative regulations, and caselaw. Internet sites that may be useful to environmental lawyers are grouped into the following twelve categories:

(1) Federal Government Agencies (page 38)

(2) Texas Government Agencies (page …

Dickinson V. Zurko: Limits On The Federal Circuit's Standard Of Review, Sue Ann Mota

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

Standards ofreview matter -or at least we think they do. After receiving an unfavorable decision from an administrative agency, a party faces a high hurdle on appeal if the standard of review is quite deferential. In Dickinson v. Zurko, the Supreme Court recently held that decisions of the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) must be reviewed under the relatively lax scrutiny required by the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). In contrast, the Federal Circuit had claimed the right to use the tougher "clearly erroneous" standard in Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 52(a).

Rejecting the historical, statutory, and policy reasons of …

The Ghost In The Computer: Radio Frequency Interference And The Doctrine Of Federal Preemption, Ralph H. Brock

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

The "Police Blotter" feature in a local Texas newspaper sets the scene. A man had reportedly complained to the police that a neighbor's use of a citizens' band (CB) radio was interfering with his business. He could hear the neighbor's CB radio transmissions on his telephone and through his computer speakers. After installing filters on his telephone and complaining to the FCC, the man had filed a criminal mischief complaint with the local police. Unfortunately for him, though, the local police have no jurisdiction.

Drafting A Patent Noninfringement Opinion Letter In Light Of Markman And Warner-Jenkinson, Barry Dove

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

This article provides a practical guide to drafting a patent noninfringement opinion letter in light of two recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions: Markman v. Westview Instruments, Inc. and Warner-Jenkinson Co. v. Hilton Davis Chemical Co. The guidelines offered here do not represent the only way to write a noninfringement opinion letter. But if they are followed, the opinion letter should protect the interests of both the client and the patent attorney.

Table Of Contents

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

No abstract provided.

The Domain Name Game: Applying Trademark Law To An Internet Tug Of War, Deanna L. Kendall

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

This article focuses on the unique problems that the domain name registration system creates for traditional trademark law. First, the article discusses the Internet and explains how the domain name system works. Next, it identifies the trademark law that is implicated by the domain name system, paying particular attention to the FTDA. Then, it discusses nonjudicial remedies that may be used by trademark owners and domain name holders to resolve disputes. Finally, it analyzes the current caselaw in the area of domain name disputes and predicts what courts will do when faced with these novel and complex issues.

Cd-Rom Filings At Trial And Beyond, Clint F. Sare

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

For motions and briefs, using digital formats - such as a CD-ROM format - may provide significant benefits. Very few courts, however, accept electronic documents for filing in place of paper documents. Thus, for now, computer media may be used only to supplement those traditional filings. This paper discusses the following issues related to CD-ROM filings: (1) when CDROM filings may be allowed in trial and appellate courts; (2) what the disk may and should contain; and (3)whattechnical requirements may apply to such CDROM filings.

Because CD-ROM filings are far from standard, and are sometimes unacceptable, this article is necessarily …

Gambling On The Internet, Aaron Craig

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

This article analyzes current proposals to regulate gambling on the Internet and suggests that their flaws stem primarily from a failure to appreciate the complexity of the vice/economic gain dichotomy that has been incorporated in American gambling regulatory policy. Americans have historically prohibited some forms of gambling while tolerating others. An Internet gambling regulatory system should view the Internet as a medium across which current gambling policies should be extended. Regimes that legalize all forms of gambling on the Internet are politically untenable and unwise. Proposals to outlaw all forms of gambling fail to recognize the Government's interest in permitting …

Contracting In Cyberspace, Jeff C. Dodd, James A. Hernandez

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

Cyberspace law has started to take some shape as lawyers and merchants increasingly look to the same models and structures for guidance. Proposed statutes dealing directly with cyberspace contracting issues are working their way through the process of uniform and legislative law making. A few of these statutory laws have already made it through the gauntlet.4 Although this unsystematic growth through practice has led to a motley collection of legal standards governing cyberspace contracting, most of the issues that these standards purport to deal with relate to only five root problems:

(a)   Authority. When is the contract "my" contract? What …

The International Enforcement Of Software Copyrights And Patents, Siehnai F. Williamson

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

Upon graduating with a computer science degree, Shannon Smith and her classmates started their own educational computer software firm called ABC Software (ABC). ABC observed that the computer software industry had grown exponentially since the 1980s due in part to industry-wide standards (like the Windows® platform) and the declining costs in computer hardware that have increased demand for computer products. Because ABC believes the software industry is knowledge-based, ABC need incur little research and developmental costs. ABC's ability to protect its software will be the determining factor in deciding where to distribute its products. Since the very nature of computer …

U.S. Subject Matter Jurisdiction For Copyright Infringements On The Internet, Christian M. Reider

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

Copyright infringement is currently the most important substantive legal issue in online communication. Many copyright owners, a handful of authors, and an increasing number of courts realize that the Internet, more than any other medium, will challenge the enforcement of copyright infringement in the international context. The threshold issue in copyright enforcement is the question of subject matter jurisdiction over the Internet, a digital world without significant national boundaries.

Determining subject matter jurisdiction has great economic and legal impact on the parties. The exposure of any individual Internet user or any local company to foreign as well as multiple jurisdictions …

Table Of Contents

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

No abstract provided.

Neither Dead Nor Forgotten: The Past, Present, And Future Of The Communications Decency Act In Light Of Reno V. Aclu, Sue Ann Mota

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

The Communications Decency Act (CDA) was enacted by Congress in February of 1996 as part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The goal of the CDA was to limit children's exposure to sexually explicit online materials. President Clinton signed the bill into law on February 8, 1996, and the CDA was immediately challenged.  A three-judge federal district court panel in ACLU v. Reno held that certain provisions of the CDA violate the U.S. Constitution. On June 26, 1997, the Supreme Court handed down its decision, affirming that certain provisions of the CDA violate the First Amendment. The provisions held to …

Courting Cyberspace, Al Harrison

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

Internet has changed and will continue to change many aspects of the practice of law. Besides affording unlimited opportunity for gathering information on a world-wide scale and communicating quickly across time and geographical boundaries, the Internet provides access to multifaceted tools for performing legal and related research. A law firm should equip its lawyers and staff with suitable computer hardware and software to effectively avail itself of the myriad of online resources. By keeping in step with technological developments, efficiencies may be realized in the practice of law that were heretofore inconceivable. This article includes (1) a review of Outlook …

Table Of Contents

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

No abstract provided.

Legal Protection Of Collections Of Facts, Charles Brill

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

Database compilers traditionally have used copyright and trade secret laws to protect their databases from appropriation by competitors. A 1991 Supreme Court decision, however, casts some doubt on the copyright protection extended to databases in the United States. In response to the Supreme database industry has launched a worldwide effort to encourage legislation to provide strong protection of databases, especially electronic databases.These efforts have borne fruit in Europe where Great Britain has passed laws protecting databases from unfair extraction and the European Union has mandated a sui generisprotection which, in conjunction with existing copyright laws, will provide very strong protection …

Copyrighting Cyberspace: Unweaving A Tangled Web, Robert N. Diotalevi

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

The Internet, which began as a research project, is now the largest computer system in the world. Commonly known as the net or cyberspace, this superhighway offers a variety of useful information through its ocean of URL's, browsers and hyperlinks. Although to some people this new generation of technology may seem intimidating or even far-fetched, the reality is that its opportunities are vital to nearly every facet of modem life. With advancing technology comes new legal battles. The age of information has exposed and tested many limitations of copyright law. This work attempts to explain present copyright law as it …

Telephone Companies Go To Battle Over The Internet, Peter C. Salaverry

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

Entering the twenty-first century, Americans, like most people around the world, regard the Internet as a free and unregulated means of communication. Naive to its origins, many individuals surf the Internet unaware of the debates concerning its regulation.

In March 1996, America's Carriers Telecommunication Association (ACTA), a trade association of roughly 130 long-distance carriers, petitioned the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to confirm "its authority over interstate and international telecommunications services using the Internet." More specifically, the ACTA petition requested that the FCC enjoin software distributors of long-distance telephone software and other providers of non-tariffed and uncertified entities, compelling them to …