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Full-Text Articles in Contracts

Copyright As Contract, Jeffrey L. Harrison Oct 2015

Copyright As Contract, Jeffrey L. Harrison

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

Copyright is essentially a contract between the author and the public with the government acting as the agent of the public. The consideration received by authors is defined by duration and breadth of exclusivity. The consideration for the public is the creation of a "work" that will be available on a limited basis for the life of the author plus 70 years and then available without limit after that. If there were no transaction costs at all, it would be possible to "pay" authors different amounts of exclusivity. Perhaps a greeting card would get one holiday season of exclusivity, if …


Crossing Parallel Lines: The State Of The First Sale Doctrine After Costco V. Omega, 8 Buff. Intell. Prop. L.J. 26 (2012), Maureen Collins Jul 2015

Crossing Parallel Lines: The State Of The First Sale Doctrine After Costco V. Omega, 8 Buff. Intell. Prop. L.J. 26 (2012), Maureen Collins

Maureen B. Collins

No abstract provided.


Foreign Investment In The People's Republic Of China: Compensation Trade, Joint Ventures, Industrial Property Protection And Dispute Settlement, Kevin K. Maher May 2015

Foreign Investment In The People's Republic Of China: Compensation Trade, Joint Ventures, Industrial Property Protection And Dispute Settlement, Kevin K. Maher

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.


Legal Nature And Contractual Conditions In Know-How Transactions, Carlos M. Correa May 2015

Legal Nature And Contractual Conditions In Know-How Transactions, Carlos M. Correa

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.


Invisible Labor, Invisible Play: Online Gold Farming And The Boundary Between Jobs And Games, Julian Dibbell Apr 2015

Invisible Labor, Invisible Play: Online Gold Farming And The Boundary Between Jobs And Games, Julian Dibbell

Julian Dibbell

When does work become play, and play work? Courts have considered the question in a variety of economic contexts, from student athletes seeking recognition as employees to professional blackjack players seeking to be treated by casinos just like casual players. Here I apply the question to a relatively novel context: that of online gold farming, a gray-market industry in which wage-earning workers, largely based in China, are paid to play online fantasy games (MMOs) that reward them with virtual items their employers sell for profit to the same games’ casual players. Gold farming is clearly a job (and under the …


Licensing Of Intellectual Property Rights, Mark Joelson Mar 2015

Licensing Of Intellectual Property Rights, Mark Joelson

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.


Annual Survey Of Developments In International Trade Law: 1983, Georgia Journal Of International And Comparative Law Mar 2015

Annual Survey Of Developments In International Trade Law: 1983, Georgia Journal Of International And Comparative Law

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.


Constructive Ambiguity: Ip Licenses As A Case Study, Michal Shur-Ofry, Ofer Tur-Sinai Feb 2015

Constructive Ambiguity: Ip Licenses As A Case Study, Michal Shur-Ofry, Ofer Tur-Sinai

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Ambiguity in contracts is often perceived as undesirable. A certain level of ambiguity, however, can have significant virtues: reducing transaction costs associated with foreseeing and negotiating remote contingencies; facilitating the closing of efficient transactions that would not otherwise close; increasing the adaptability and “anti-fragility” of contracts in the face of unforeseen developments; and preserving trust between the parties. Some contracts are more likely to benefit from a certain degree of ambiguity. Relying on multi-disciplinary literature, this Article systematically analyzes ambiguity’s merits and identifies three principal features of transactions that are positively correlated to the virtues of ambiguity: (1) long duration, …


No Todo Lo Que Brilla Es Oro, Pero Podría Serlo… Sobre El Nuevo Precedente Del Tribunal De Indecopi Sobre La Evaluación De Acuerdos De Coexistencia Marcaria, Javier André Murillo Chávez Feb 2015

No Todo Lo Que Brilla Es Oro, Pero Podría Serlo… Sobre El Nuevo Precedente Del Tribunal De Indecopi Sobre La Evaluación De Acuerdos De Coexistencia Marcaria, Javier André Murillo Chávez

Javier André Murillo Chávez

No abstract provided.


Work Made For Hire – Analyzing The Multifactor Balancing Test, Ryan G. Vacca Jan 2015

Work Made For Hire – Analyzing The Multifactor Balancing Test, Ryan G. Vacca

Akron Law Faculty Publications

Authorship, and hence, initial ownership of copyrighted works is oftentimes controlled by the 1976 Copyright Act’s work made for hire doctrine. This doctrine states that works created by employees within the scope of their employment result in the employer owning the copyright. One key determination in this analysis is whether the hired party is an employee or independent contractor. In 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court, in CCNV v. Reid, answered the question of how employees are distinguished from independent contractors by setting forth a list of factors courts should consider. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court did not give further guidance on …


Work Made For Hire – Analyzing The Multifactor Balancing Test, Ryan G. Vacca Jan 2015

Work Made For Hire – Analyzing The Multifactor Balancing Test, Ryan G. Vacca

Ryan G. Vacca

Authorship, and hence, initial ownership of copyrighted works is oftentimes controlled by the 1976 Copyright Act’s work made for hire doctrine. This doctrine states that works created by employees within the scope of their employment result in the employer owning the copyright. One key determination in this analysis is whether the hired party is an employee or independent contractor. In 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court, in CCNV v. Reid, answered the question of how employees are distinguished from independent contractors by setting forth a list of factors courts should consider. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court did not give further guidance on …


Work Made For Hire – Analyzing The Multifactor Balancing Test, Ryan G. Vacca Jan 2015

Work Made For Hire – Analyzing The Multifactor Balancing Test, Ryan G. Vacca

Law Faculty Scholarship

Authorship, and hence, initial ownership of copyrighted works is oftentimes controlled by the 1976 Copyright Act’s work made for hire doctrine. This doctrine states that works created by employees within the scope of their employment result in the employer owning the copyright. One key determination in this analysis is whether the hired party is an employee or independent contractor. In 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court, in CCNV v. Reid, answered the question of how employees are distinguished from independent contractors by setting forth a list of factors courts should consider. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court did not give further guidance on …


The Problem With Frand: How The Licensing Commitments Of Standard-Setting Organizations Result In The Misvaluing Of Patents, David Arsego Jan 2015

The Problem With Frand: How The Licensing Commitments Of Standard-Setting Organizations Result In The Misvaluing Of Patents, David Arsego

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Standard-setting organizations (SSOs) are bodies that oversee the development of technical standards. Technical standards are common technological designs that are used across a variety of platforms, for instance LTE, which is utilized throughout the mobile phone industry. Members of SSOs contribute different pieces of technology to an ultimate design, and if a patent covers the technology, it is called a standard-essential patent (SEP). SSOs require their members to license these patents to each other on fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory (FRAND) terms. This Note analyzes the FRAND requirement and the different ways that courts and private parties interpret it. The ambiguity …


Private International Law Aspects Of Authors' Contracts: The Dutch And French Examples, Jane C. Ginsburg, Pierre Sirinelli Jan 2015

Private International Law Aspects Of Authors' Contracts: The Dutch And French Examples, Jane C. Ginsburg, Pierre Sirinelli

Faculty Scholarship

Copyright generally vests in the author, the human creator of the work. But because, at least until recently, most authors have been ill-equipped to commercialize and disseminate their works on their own, the author has granted rights to intermediaries to market her works. Since most authors are the weaker parties to publishing, production, or distribution contracts, the resulting deal may favor the interests of the intermediary to the detriment of the author’s interests. Many national copyright laws have introduced a variety of corrective measures, from the very first copyright act, the 1710 British Statute of Anne, which instituted the author’s …