Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

Recent Decisions, John J. Curry, Jr., Dan T. Carter, Melissa Gallivan, James A. Delanis

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

ANTITRUST--Import Restrictions--Import Ban Ordered as Equitable Relief for Violation of Section 7 of the Clayton Act Must Not Discriminate Against Foreign Producers or Reduce Competition

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European Communities--Restrictive Trade Practices--Patent Licensing Agreements that Restrict Competition between Member States Without Improving Production or Distribution or Promoting Technical or Economic Progress Violate Article 85

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JURISDICTION--CONTINENTAL SHELF--ABANDONED VESSEL SALVAGED FROM THE SURFACE OF THE UNITED STATES CONTINENTAL SHELF BEYOND TERRITORIAL WATERS IS NOT UNDER JURISDICTION OF UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT

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IMMIGRATION--A STATE MAY PROHIBIT THE EMPLOYMENT OF ILLEGAL ALIENS

Patent-Antitrust: Patent Dynamics And Field Of Use Licensing, Martin J. Adelman, Friedrich K. Juenger

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Goldstein V. California And The Protection Of Sound Recordings: Arming The States For Battle With The Pirates

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Economic Pressure And Antitrust (With James A. Wilkinson), Henry H. Perritt Jr.

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Patents And Antitrust Law, Merrill N. Johnson

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Patents and Antitrust Law by Ward S. Bowman, Jr.

Abuse Of Trademarks: A Proposal For Ompulsory Licensing, Mara L. Babin

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This article neither deals with the propriety of the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) proposed order nor evaluates the effectiveness of compulsory trademark licensing as a remedy for unfair trade practices.8 Rather, the pending cereal industry case is used as a point of departure for an examination of the problem of trademark abuse and the responses of the courts, the Congress, and the FTC to it. Acknowledging the legality of compulsory licensing of trademarks, the article suggests legislation which will incorporate licensing and standards for its application. Such legislation would make licensing an accessible remedy for trademark abuse while accommodating both …

The Integrity Of The Administrative Process, Sherman Section 2 And The Per Se Rules - Lessons Of Fraud On The Patent Office, Martin J. Adelman, Ernie L. Brooks

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Recent Cases, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Antitrust--Horizontal Territorial Restraint--Allocation of Territories Among Members of Cooperative Purchasing Association Is Per Se Violative of Section 1 of the Sherman Act

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Antitrust--Robinson--Patman Price Discrimination Act--Complaint Charging That Profits Derived from Interstate Sales Were Used To Underwrite Allegedly Discriminatory Intrastate Price-Cutting Practices States a Cause of Action Under Section 2(a)

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Bankruptcy--Corporate Reorganization-Trustee in Reorganization Lacks Standing To Sue Indenture Trustee on Behalf of Debenture Holders

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Constitutional Law--Commerce Clause--Exactions on Airport Users by Local Governments Measured by Number of Enplaning Passengers Are Constitutionally Valid

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Constitutional Law--Right to Speedy Trial--State-Imposed Five-Year Delay Does Not Abridge Right to Speedy …

Patent Law - License Agreements - Royalties Paid Are Not Recoverable By Licensee Upon Showing Of Patent Invalidity, Richard B. Hardt

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

United States V. Glaxo Group Ltd., Lewis F. Powell Jr.

Supreme Court Case Files

No abstract provided.

The Patent-Antitrust Balance: Proposals For Change, N.R. Powers

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Patent-Antitrust Law: A New Theory, Martin J. Adelman, Robert P. Jaress

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Inventions And The Law Of Trade Secrets After Lear V. Adkins, Martin J. Adelman, Robert P. Jaress

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Fraud On The Patent Office: A Source Of Antitrust Litigation, Dennis P. Mankin

Duquesne Law Review

Recent decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States in Walker Process Equipment, Inc. v. Food Machinery and Chemical Corp., and the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in American Cyanamid Co. v. Federal Trade Commission, holding that fraud on the Patent Office may give rise to a hazard of liability under Section 2 of the Sherman Act and Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act, raise several questions. It is the function of this paper to inquire into Patent Office procedure as it relates to possibilities for fraudulent conduct, and then to consider the …

Antitrust-Patents-Licenses-Regulation Of Patent License Royalty Rates Under The Antitrust Laws, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Neither the Constitution nor federal legislation defines a patentee's licensing rights; consequently, it has devolved upon the courts to control patent marketing practices. A patentee is entitled to a limited monopoly on his invention, and proper use of this grant is not a violation of any law regulating trade practices. Yet licensing affords an opportunity to enlarge the scope of this monopoly, and courts using various rationales have declared illegal different forms of patent licensing arrangements found to be outside the protective coverage of the patent grant. Until recently, however, the courts have not dealt with the problem of whether …

Post Expiration Royalty Payments And Mandatory Package Licensing As Patent Misuses, Thomas C. Sickman

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Territorial Trademark Rights And The Antitrust Laws, Richard F. Dole

Michigan Legal Studies Series

Trademarks are devises used by business men to distinguish their goods from those of others. The utility of trademarks to purchasers lies in the identification of different lines of merchandise by different trademarks. On the other hand, perhaps the greatest advantage of trademarks to business derives from the connotations associated with marks by skillful advertising. Legal protection of trademark rights thus has a dual aspect: preventing others from copying marks both guards the identification function of trademarks and maintains exclusive rights in the commercial value of trademarks created by advertising. A Senate committee described the hybrid nature of trademark protection …

Tying Arrangement With Trademark As The Tying Item Is Not A Per Se Violation Of The Antitrust Laws-Susser V. Carvel Corp., Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Several independent franchised soft ice-cream outlets brought suit for treble damages against Carvel Corporation, the franchising company, alleging that the contract between them constituted an illegal tying arrangement in violation of section 3 of the Clayton Act and sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act. The contract bound the dealers to purchase from Carvel-appointed suppliers all commodities sold as part of the retail dairy composite. Plaintiffs stipulated that they would rely on per se violations at trial. The district court found that the plaintiffs had failed to show the alleged violations and, in any case, the defendant had proved …

Antitrust Laws And Public Policy In Relation To Patents, Raymond C. Nordhaus

Duquesne Law Review

The purpose of this paper is to briefly review, first, basic antitrust, misuse and other public policy considerations as they relate to patents and patent agreements, and secondly, techniques and related problems of correcting or purging illegal activities.

Know-How Licensing And The Antitrust Laws, David R. Macdonald

Michigan Law Review

The purpose of this article is to re-analyze the present antitrust status of know-how licensing for the purpose of clarifying the extent of the protection which the exploiter of know-how may accord himself without abusing the public interest in unfettered competition.

Comments, Various Editors

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Patents - Licensing - Legality Of Grant-Back Clauses, Eric E. Bergsten S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

There is no authoritative definition of the term "patent grant-back." It has been defined as a clause in a patent license which provides "for license or assignment to the licensor of any improvement patented by the licensee in the products or processes of the licensed patent." In litigated cases grant-back clauses usually appear either in basic patent licenses or in licenses of the products or processes of an industry which the licensor dominates through control of a multitude of overlapping patents.

Patents - Misues Doctrine - Multiple Licenses With Price-Fixing Provisios As Shermen Act Violation, Herbert A. Bernhard S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

In a suit for infringement of a moire process patent, relief was denied by the trial court partially on the ground that plaintiff had misused its patent by violating section 1 of the Sherman Act. Plaintiff had licensed two other moire finishers to use the patented process. Each license contained a proviso that plaintiff could specify the prices the licensee was to charge its customers for finishing cloth with the patented process. On appeal, held, affirmed. It is a violation of the antitrust laws for a patentee to issue more than one license containing price-fixing provisions. Newburgh Moire Co. …

Regulation Of Business - Sherman Act - Patent Pool Agreements Which Restricts Fields Of Use, Martin F. Roston S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

DeVlieg, the owner of three major patents in the machine tool field, licensed his inventions to several machine tool manufacturers. Subsequently, he and the licensees formed a new corporation, Associated Patents, Inc., a patent holding company, to which he assigned his patents. Each party to the agreement owned an equal share of API. The agreement contained provisions for the granting back to API of any improvement patents acquired by the parties and it also restricted the use of the patents by each party to carefully circumscribed fields of use. Held, a patent pool agreement restricting fields of use is …

Patents And Antitrust: Peaceful Coxeistence?, S. Chesterfield Oppenheim

Michigan Law Review

My thesis for this paper is based upon developments which appear, as of 1955, to bring into clearer focus the process by which the earned differential advantages of patent rights are being adjusted to the prohibitory dixits of antitrust law. This is part of the never-ending governmental function of balancing stability of legal rights against the desired flexibility resulting from evolutionary growth. We can only chart the directions of the current trends. Generalizations from this panorama should not be overdrawn or artificially simplified. Both the patent and antitrust spectra are arranged in degrees. The edges of certainty are blurred in …

The Patent-Antitrust Problem, Bartholomew Diggins

Michigan Law Review

The Patent-Antitrust section of the Report of the Attorney General's National Committee to Study the Antitrust Laws is an excellent analysis of the existing law and is an invaluable handbook for practitioners in this difficult field. The writer's approach to the problem is different from that of the committee and before commenting specifically on the Report it is only fair to state the writer's views of the problem lest differences in viewpoint give the impression of criticism of the Report.

In any approach to the patent-antitrust problem there is a basic question: does a "patent-antitrust problem" exist? The Report …

Patent Royalties As Capital Gains Under I.R.C., Section 117(A), Ruth E. Riddell

Michigan Law Review

With the incidence of high personal surtax rates, a patentee is ordinarily interested in deriving the greatest monetary return after taxes, measured in proportion to the extent of use over what he expects to be the increasingly productive life of the intangible right evidenced by his patent, without surrendering his option to reclaim the patent in event of insolvency or lack of diligence on the part of the person to whom he transfers the patent for exploitation. Although ideal for these purposes, the favorable capital gain status under section 117(a) of the Internal Revenue Code, requiring recognition of only fifty …

Coming Into Equity With Clean Hands, Zechariah Chafee, Jr.

Michigan Law Review

The preceding article proposed to examine eighteen differing groups of cases which are commonly supposed to present the clean hands doctrine as a maxim of equity, and then proceeded to consider eight such groups. Ten groups still require attention. The first five of those already considered fell within the exclusive jurisdiction of equity, and the next three within the concurrent jurisdiction, which is continued for a considerable part of the present article. After discussing suits for specific performance of unfair contracts and of illegal contracts, I dealt with miscellaneous tort suits by a person charged with crime. We now turn …

Trade Restraints--Anti-Trust Laws-Tying Contracts--Right Of Selection Of Customers, John F. Buchman, Iii

Michigan Law Review

Defendant, one of the country's largest producers of salt for industrial uses, held patents on two machines for utilization of salt products. It leased these machines on condition that the lessee purchase from defendant all the salt (an unpatented product) to be used with the machines unless salt should become available elsewhere at a lower price. The federal government brought suit under the Sherman and Clayton Acts to enjoin the continued observance of these provisions of the lessee. The district court granted the injunction and ordered that defendant, if offering any machines at all for lease, offer the same to …

Trade-Marks: Monopoly Or Competition?, Leslie Davidson Taggart

Michigan Law Review

Three articles have appeared in the Georgetown Law Journal in which the thesis is asserted that trade-marks are monopolies in restraint of trade under the Anti-Trust Acts. Their publication seems to have been caused in part by the proposed revision of the United States Trade-Mark Statutes, which was started by a bill originally introduced into the House on January 19, 1938. The thesis of this present article is that a trade-mark in fact distinguishes one man's product from the products of his competitors, with the result that the consumer can make a choice among them.