Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

Rock And Roll Royalties, Copyrights And Contracts Of Adhesion: Why Musicians May Be Chasing Waterfalls, 1 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 163 (2001), Starr Nelson

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

Copyrights form the basis of every recording contract. When a recording artist signs his or her first recording contract, the artist retains the copyright in the musical work but transfers ownership of the sound recording to the record company. With respect to any subsequent recording contract, the artist is not on equal bargaining footing with the record company because the record company already owns certain copyrights in the previous recording. This Comment proposes that courts recognize this unequal bargaining power when construing what is, in effect, a contract of adhesion.

Preserving The Collaborative Spirit Of American Theater: The Need For A "Joint Authorship Default Rule" In Light Of The Rent Decision's Unanswered Question, Paulette S. Fox

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Recording Artist Agreement: Does It Empower Or Enslave, Lynn Morrow

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

In June 2000, Courtney Love, the controversial lead singer of the rock group Hole, lambasts, among other things, record company profits. In an essay entitled "Courtney Love Does the Math," she maintains that a recording artist agreement is itself a form of music piracy. She tells a compelling story about a band and a record company. As a result of a bidding war between the major labels, the band was given what is considered a huge deal-a twenty percent artist royalty and a million dollar advance. Providing a breakdown of how the million dollars was spent, Ms. Love calculates that, …

The Screenwriter's Indestructible Right To Terminate Her Assignment Of Copyright: Once A Story Is "Pitched," A Studio Can Never Obtain All Copyrights In The Story, Michael H. Davis

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Optimal Standardization In The Law Of Property: The Numerus Clausus Principle, Thomas W. Merrill, Henry E. Smith

Faculty Scholarship

A central difference between contract and property concerns the freedom to "customize" legally enforceable interests. The law of contract recognizes no inherent limitations on the nature or the duration of the interests that can be the subject of a legally binding contract. Certain types of promises – such as promises to commit a crime – are declared unenforceable as a matter of public policy. But outside these relatively narrow areas of proscription and requirements such as definiteness and (maybe) consideration, there is a potentially infinite range of promises that the law will honor. The parties to a contract are free …

How To Do Things With Hegel, David G. Carlson

Articles

The article argues that contract is not merely a tool for pre-existing personalities but is instead constitutive of personality itself. It challenges the conventional view that personality exists prior to law, instead positing that contract is necessary for the emergence and recognition of personality. The author contends that contract is foundational to legal and personal identity, as it establishes mutual recognition and rights between individuals.

Legal Aspects Of International Transfer Of Technology, Anna Mikhailovna Otkina

LLM Theses and Essays

For any international law practitioner issues relating to technology and proprietary information can arise in a number of a different situation. For example, transactions involving foreign distribution and sales rights relating to domestic products are a common part of the day-to-day practice of anyone engaged in the multinational business arena. Many of those transactions involve a contractual agreement in the form of a license, which is intended to transfer to the licensee the technology and related information, and the legal rights therewith, necessary to complete successfully the objective of the transaction: the distribution and sale of the domestic product at …

Privately Legislated Intellectual Property Rights: Reconciling Freedom Of Contract With Public Good Uses Of Information, J.H. Reichman, Jonathan A. Franklin

Librarians' Articles

In an age of omnipresent clickwrap licenses, we acknowledge the need for a uniform set of default rules that would validate non-negotiable licenses as a mechanism for minimizing transaction costs likely to hinder economic development in a networked environment. However, we contend that any model of contract formation not driven by the traditional norms of mutual assent requires specially formulated doctrinal tools to avoid undermining long-established public good uses of information for such purposes as education and research, technical innovation, free speech, and the preservation of free competition.

With the convergence of digital and telecommunications technologies, creators and innovators who …

A Wayward Notion In New York’S Law: The Unique Employee Rationale For Enforcing Non-Competes, Steven M. Kayman, John Siegel

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

"Just Say Never?" Poison Pills, Deadhand Pills, And Shareholder-Adopted Bylaws: An Essay For Warren Buffett, Jeffrey N. Gordon

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Duration Of Copyright And The Limits Of Cultural Policy, J. H. Reichman

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

A New Use For An Old License: Who Owns The Right?, Barbara D. Griff

Cardozo Law Review

In order to establish this referential background, this Note begins in Part I with a look at historic new use cases focusing on whether a grant of dramatic rights included motion picture rights, whether a grant of silent motion picture rights included rights to talkies, and whether motion picture rights included television rights. Part I continues with a survey of the current landscape and provides an overview of cases involving a grant of motion picture or television rights seeking to include videocassette rights when the original contract was signed prior to the invention or popularization of the video cassette recorder …

Intellectual Property And The Costs Of Commercial Exchange: A Review Essay, Robert P. Merges

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The Commercial Law of Intellectual Property by Peter A. Alces and Harold F. See

Contracts, Copyright And Preemption In A Digital World, I Trotter Hardy

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

Copyright is designed to provide some form of protection against unauthorized use of original informational materials. The rapid shift of information production and distribution to electronic form, with its corresponding ease of copying, naturally makes copyright-dependent industries nervous. Much talk in the news and on the "net" these days is about the future of copyright law, a law developed in an age of print and now perhaps too tied to that medium to have ready application to today's information technology.

Will The Copyright Office Be Obsolete In The Twenty-First Century?, Pamela Samuelson

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

A Commentary On The Harmonization Of European Private Law, George A. Bermann

Faculty Scholarship

The idea behind bringing together these papers on harmonization in three such distinct fields as contract, copyright and telecommunications, and securities law must be that they may have something to tell us generally about the processes of harmonization in European private law. Each paper tells a story fascinating in its own right, but whether they in fact add up to something more, with implications for private law harmonization as a whole, is the question I naturally want to take up in this commentary.

Hungarian Legal Reform For The Private Sector, Cheryl W. Gray, Rebecca J. Hanson, Michael A. Heller

Faculty Scholarship

Hungary is in the midst of a fundamental transformation toward a market economy. Although Hungary has long been in the forefront of efforts to reform socialism itself, after 1989 the goals of reform moved from market socialism toward capitalism, as the old Communist regime lost power and the idea of widespread private ownership gained acceptance. The legal framework – the "rules of the game – is now being geared toward encouraging, protecting, and rewarding entrepreneurs in the private sector.

This Article describes the evolving legal framework in Hungary in several areas: constitutional, real property, intellectual property, company, foreign investment, contract, …

Licenses, Trademarks, And Bankruptcy, Oh My: Trademark Licensing And The Perils Of Licensor Bankruptcy, 25 J. Marshall L. Rev. 143 (1991), David M. Jenkins

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Badlands: Artist-Personal Manager Conflicts Of Interest In The Music Industry, Hal I. Gilenson

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Offers Users Can't Refuse: Shrink-Wrap License Agreements As Enforceable Adhesion Contracts, Michael G. Ryan

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Bankruptcy Code, The Copyright Act, And Transactions In Computer Software, 7 Computer L.J. 327 (1987), Thomas M.S. Hemnes, Susan Barbieri Montgomery

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Arbitration In The Resolution Of Patent Disputes, Mark A. Farley

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Compulsory License Redux: Will It Survive In A Changing Market?, Ralph Oman

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Book Review Of Passion: An Essay On Personality , Richard F. Devlin Frsc

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Passion is a cogently structured, compel Jingly argued and seductively enthralling masterpiece which, in years to come, will undoubtedly stand out as an inspirational source for many who seek social transformation. Unger's style, in this essay at least, is lucid and inviting. Substantively, Passion demonstrates not only the depth of his penetrating intellect but also his command of an array of' disciplines. Unger's polymathy is all the more impressive when we remember that ours is an era in which idiosyncratic specialization is the norm.

Bankruptcy: The Death Of Recording Contracts, Mitchell R. Julis, Ricardo A. Baez

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

A Quick Point Regarding Perpetual Trade Secret Royalty Liability, 13 J. Marshall L. Rev. 127 (1979), Louis Altman

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Aronson V. Quick Point Pencil Company, Lewis F. Powell Jr.

Supreme Court Case Files

No abstract provided.

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.

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

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Licenses, Contracts And Assignments Of Intellectual Property, Frederic B. Schramm

Cleveland State Law Review

Among the significant aspects of property or "ownership" are the rights to determine the use of it and the right to dispose of it. What has been referred to as "intellectual property," if it may truly be referred to as property, must therefore be capable of becoming the subject matter of agreements of various kinds-licenses, contracts and assignments. The lawyer is consequently concerned with applicability of the law of contracts as well as of the law of property to intellectual property.