Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

The U.S. Drug Policy Hamster Wheel: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Seattle’S New Drug Ordinance, Hallie Conyers-Tucker

Seattle University Law Review

The author critically examines Seattle’s new drug ordinance using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to reveal how legislative language influences the policy's actual effect. Although the ordinance claims to prioritize diversion and community health, the use of permissive language such as “may” and “shall” grants broad discretionary power to law enforcement and undermines the stated intent. The author situates the ordinance within a broader historical context, highlighting how drug policy in the United States has consistently been shaped by racialized and stigmatizing narratives. Additionally, the author argues that meaningful reform requires reframing the discourse around substance use to support public health …

Stolen Humanity On Display: Lacking Legislation For Human Remains In U.S. Museums, Sarah M. Fassio

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

In museums across the United States, displays of human remains are not rarities. Yet few attendees stop to consider the provenance behind those once-living parts of our ancestors. To do so, one would have to contend with an unpleasant history rife with scientific racism and graverobbing for the personal collections of society’s upper crust. Considering the origins of such displays reveals that the labels and names attached to human remains in museums often serve more to alienate them from their humanity than they do to connect or contextualize.

Legal regulations pertaining to displayed human remains are piecemeal. There are federal …

Precise Operations, Imprecise Laws: How Nebulous Laws Wreak Havoc In Outer Space, Matthew H. Ormsbee, Harine Raaj

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

As space operations advance with unprecedented precision, the laws governing these activities remain outdated, vague, and incapable of addressing contemporary challenges. The Outer Space Treaty (OST) and the Liability Convention, drafted in the Cold War era, fail to adequately define fundamental terms such as damage, fault, and compensation. This lack of legal precision creates significant liability gaps, particularly as space debris, mega-constellations, and private-sector actors reshape the space landscape. This article explores how these ambiguities hinder legal predictability and fair compensation for victims of space-related harm. By analyzing real-world space incidents, including the Cosmos 954 reentry, the Iridium-Cosmos collision, and …

Redefining Child Pornography In An Age Of Technological Advancement: The Concept Of Avoidable Harm, Debra D. Burke, Christopher N. Doval

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

In 2020, Netflix released on its streaming service the movie Cuties, a coming-of-age story about an 11-year-old Senegalese immigrant who joined a dance group. The film is a commentary against the hyper-sexualization of children and the pressure young girls face from social media and society and received a director’s award at the Sundance Film Festival. Its release, however, kicked off a culture war, prompting a movement to cancel Netflix subscriptions in response to the film’s sexually provocative imagery of young girls. The movie’s award-winning director defended the film’s message, explaining that the film was her own story, struggling as a …

Tailoring The Law: Protecting Fashion In The Future, Imaad Huda

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

This article identifies how the current legal system in the United States harms fashion designers and the art they produce. It explains how fashion as an industry lacks a system of law that best fits the issues posed by design theft due to fast fashion. Fast fashion companies, through modern technology, are able to reproduce stolen designs with haste. Currently, there are a few notable cases that have spawned from design theft, but their verdicts may be limited in their ability to change policy or raise significant legal issues. This article analyzes both current federal enforcement mechanisms and design practices …

Cox Communications, Inc. V. Sony Music Entertainment, No. 24-171 (U.S. June 30, 2025), Charles Duan

Amicus Briefs & Court Filings

Under the Copyright Act, “[a]nyone who violates any of the exclusive rights of the copyright owner . . . is an infringer of the copyright." 17 U.S.C. §501(a). This Court has also recognized two categories of secondary liability, which means liability for the copyright infringement of another. Those two categories are “contributory” liability and “vicarious” liability. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd., 545 U. S. 913, 930. This case concerns contributory liability, which requires that a provider intended its service to be used for infringement. A copyright owner can show the requisite intent in two ways. First, it can show …

No Lawyer, No Jail: A Critical Case Study Of Pragmatism And The Flaws Of “Purposeful” Decision Making In Argersinger V. Hamlin, Alisa Smith, Sarah K. Stice

Seattle University Law Review

By releasing conference notes and internal communications, Supreme Court Justices provide insight into the otherwise private decisionmaking process, shedding light on how case outcomes and legal reasoning are framed and negotiated. The watershed case of Argersinger v. Hamlin (1972) extended the constitutional right to counsel to some, but not all, misdemeanor defendants. The case was argued twice, and the Court relied on empirical and authoritative sources to answer complex and practical questions about requiring counsel. This case study employs critical discourse analysis to uncover what influenced the Justices’ decisions and how they framed, shaped, and constructed social realities to foreground …

When You’Re Arrested For A Felony In Seattle, You’Ll Meet Me., Austin Field

Seattle University Law Review

In this Essay, Austin Field, a practicing public defender, uses a first-person perspective to describe what it is like to meet a criminal defendant for the first time. He explains the process from start to finish, detailing everything from the way he introduces himself to how bail works.

"I’ll ask you for your name. Most of the time, you tell me. I check your name against my list. On any given day I’m supposed to interview between five and fifteen people. I have a lot of questions for you. We only have about ten minutes."

Modern Day Colonialism Through HawaiʻI’S Quiet Title And Partition Laws, Cheyann Fujii

Seattle University Law Review

This Note will attempt to highlight important aspects of Hawaiian history to provide readers with a clear picture on how Native Hawaiians are still impacted by colonialism, specifically when plaintiffs bring a quiet title or partition action against Native Hawaiian owners of kuleana lands. Before colonization, the concept of private land ownership did not exist in Hawai‘i, and Native Hawaiians adopted a feudal system by dividing land into geographical areas. Missionaries and businessmen brought Western ideas to Hawai‘i and influenced legislation such as the Great Māhele and the Kuleana Land Act of 1850, which solidified the concept of private property. …

Data Advantage And Merger Review: Can Entrenchment Theory Reform Antitrust Enforcement?, Shin-Ru Cheng

Seattle University Law Review

A merger involving giant digital companies is likely to dampen competition, as it allows those companies to combine and control data access, enabling them to entrench their dominant positions in relevant markets and extend those positions into related markets. While competition law in many jurisdictions aims to prohibit mergers that may substantially lessen competition or create a monopoly, arguably the review of digital mergers is failing because antitrust agencies lack an effective approach to identify data-generated anticompetitive harms. This Article demonstrates that entrenchment theory, recently reintroduced in the 2023 U.S. Merger Guidelines, would help reform the process of antitrust enforcement. …

Defining Deference: Impacts Of Abandoning Chevron On Emerging Technology Governance And Administrative Law, R. Aubrey Davis Iii

Seattle University Law Review

Emerging technologies, particularly Artificial Intelligence (AI), often lead to unforeseen legal outcomes. Notable abuses in areas such as facial recognition, employment bias, and housing discrimination are well known. However, legislative responses to these issues either have been largely reactive or there has been no legislative response at all. In lieu of legislation, agencies have sought to fill the gap. For example, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently proposed a rule mandating voter notification for all AI-generated political phone calls citing the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) of 1991 as authority. However, the TCPA was originally passed to curtail telemarketing, not …

Intellectual Property Or Modern Folklore? The Problem With Open Gaming Licenses In Tabletop Gaming, Rosie Midget

Seattle University Law Review

This Note addresses how courts and legislatures should address “Open Gaming Licenses” commonly attached to tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs), which game publishers use to promote a false image of accessibility—misleading consumers and building goodwill from the misunderstanding. Part I discusses what TTRPGs are, including the defining features of the hobby and culture surrounding it, as well as the unique interplay between publishers and players. Part II explores the question of which elements in a TTRPG system may be subject to copyright protection. Part III examines these elements in practice using Wizards of the Coast’s Dungeons and Dragons TTRPG as a …

The Public Square In A Private-Property Obsessed Country: What New York City’S Pops Regulations Get Right And Why Other Cities Should (Mostly) Copy Them, Carson Mcgregor

Seattle University Law Review

When New York City (NYC) was first becoming the metropolitan monolith it is today, it had a problem: the city streets were chock full of skyscrapers, and sunlight, air, and usable open space were at a premium. In response, the City promulgated its first Privately Owned Public Spaces (POPS) regulations, which allowed developers to build skyward in exchange for providing public space on the street level. Unfortunately, in July of 2023, the New York Times (NYT) discovered that New Yorkers received only a fraction of what they were promised. Building owners received billions of dollars’ worth of added floor space, …

The Race To Erase: Destruction Of Government Documents Undermines Freedom-Of-Information Laws, Frank D. Lomonte

Seattle University Law Review

In August 2019, reporters with Chattanooga’s daily newspaper, the Times Free Press, filed what seemed to be a routine request for access to emails and other public records held by their local county government. The seemingly unremarkable request set the newspaper’s staff on a months-long journey of unpleasant surprises. The first was a demand to pay the county $717 in advance before being allowed to inspect the documents. The second was that—during prolonged haggling over the fee assessment— the county attorney’s office simply destroyed almost all of the disputed records. Third, and most glaringly, the journalists discovered that Tennessee law …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Volume 48 Masthead, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Volume 48 Masthead

Caution: Potholes In E-Scooter Data Collection, Dakota Rakestraw

Seattle University Law Review

Lime scooters keep ending up in major waterways in Washington state metro areas, a testament to the ubiquity of e-scooters in the metropolitan landscape. How they get there is unclear. Why they get there is even murkier. Perhaps the answer lies in the implications of modern geolocation data collection through e-scooters and gaps in current data collection regulation curbing individual liberties.

Since September 2020, electric scooters have run Seattle’s streets and have dramatically overtaken ridesharing bike trips. For example, from September 2020 to September 2021, there were about 1.4 million scooter and bike trips with September 2021 seeing 300,000 scooter …

Machinists Preemption In The New Administrative Law, Andrew J. Ziaja

Seattle University Law Review

This Article assesses Machinists preemption—a labor-specific form of implied field preemption—while freshly considering implications both for and of new developments in administrative law. The radical transformation of administrative law in the Supreme Court, particularly its newfound emphasis on clear-statement rules, provides opportunities to reconsider the Machinists rationale. Aligning with scholars who have called to question the doctrine’s “ossifying” influence on labor and employment policy, it argues that the modern-day version of Machinists preemption clashes with the Supreme Court’s newly constrained view of delegated power and its differing conceptions of the major questions doctrine.

On the other hand, Machinists preemption might …

The Choice Of Law For Nazi-Looted Art Restitution: Cassirer V. Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation, California Assembly Bill 2867, And The Balance Between State, Federal, And Foreign Law, Alexander Stanfield

DePaul Journal of Art, Technology & Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

A Deep Fake Dilemma: The Battle Over Keeping It Real, Tyler Gollin

DePaul Journal of Art, Technology & Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

Machine Learned Misogyny: Gender Bias In Ai, Niria Rodriguez-Davila

DePaul Journal of Art, Technology & Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

Training Your Large Language Model How To Speak "Human": A Transformative Public Necessity Or Copyright Infringement?, Isabelle Nasser

DePaul Journal of Art, Technology & Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

Renaissance Of Inequitable Conduct: Luv N' Care, Ltd. V. Laurain And The Affirmative Egregious Misconduct Exception To But-For Materiality, Katherine Reich

DePaul Journal of Art, Technology & Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

Unravelling The Metaverse Matrix: Navigating Privacy Protection Within Modelling And Simulation Platforms, Eugenia Georgiades, James Birt

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

This article examines how personal data are regulated in emerging modelling and simulation environments, including computer games, mobile apps, and digital twin platforms. This article centers on a specific type of simulated and modelling environment, namely the metaverse. This article considers the privacy issues that arise when people subscribe to and participate in modelling and simulation platforms where vast amounts of data are collected, disclosed and stored. Such data may be vulnerable to misuse by the platform and third parties. This article considers Meta’s “horizons metaverse” platform as a case study for an immersive modelling and simulation platform. It examines …

Infringing Information Architectures, Michael Goodyear

Articles & Chapters

Information architectures—systems that facilitate storing and sharing data and content—underpin daily life, from streaming sites like Netflix and Hulu to social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok. Since the printing press, these systems and their novel features have challenged the bounds of copyright law, leading to accusations that providers and users directly infringe others’ copyrights. Almost fifty years ago, however, a largely unexplored paradigm shift occurred. Copyright owners started to allege that information architecture providers should be broadly secondarily liable for all their users’ infringements. These claims, which this Article terms architectural infringement claims, pose an acute challenge to the …

Deepfakes And Shallow Laws: Regulating Distorted Narratives In The Political Cyberspace, Shimona Mohan, Sarthak Wadhwa

Indian Journal of Law and Technology

With a sizable section of the global population witnessing electoral churn, protests, and resistance movements in the past couple of years, this is clearly a watershed moment for modern democracies vis-à-vis technological advancements. Electoral canvassing in these democracies has expanded its footprint in the digital space, be it through social media or navigating the general contours of anonymity, engagement, and misinformation that govern our online worlds. In this context, the advent of deepfakes in the recent past, and the exponential evolution of the technology both for outreach and disruption, has invited acute regulatory attention and intervention. However, traditional policy design …

Tying, Self-Preferencing And The Digital Competition Bill: A Changing Landscape For Competition Intervention?, Pankhudi Khandenwal

Indian Journal of Law and Technology

The dominance of a few major entities in digital markets has led to stricter enforcement under competition law. Many jurisdictions have developed an ex-ante regulatory framework, such as the Digital Markets Act (DMA) in the EU. The need for an ex-ante regulation has also been highlighted in India, where the Committee on Digital Competition Law has issued the Draft Digital Competition Bill (“DDCB”). Some of the prohibitions included in the bill are tying, bundling, self-preferencing, restricting third-party applications, and steering. There have been opinions by various scholars on the impact of such legislation on the Indian economy, comparing the same …

Goods And Service Tax On Online Skill Gaming: A Constitutional Perspective, Eeshan Sonak, Saranya Ravindran

Indian Journal of Law and Technology

In light of the rapid growth and the consequent regulatory focus on the taxing of online gaming in India, this paper discusses the CGST (Amendment) Act, 2023 and the amendment in CGST Rules that mark a shift from a Gross Gaming Revenue model to a turnover model of taxation and impose a uniform tax on games of skill and chance. It analyses the compatibility of this shift with our GST regime, undertakes a policy analysis of its economic desirability by drawing from the experiences of other jurisdictions, and challenges its constitutionality by showing that imposing an onerous burden that could …

The Perils And Promises Of Artificial Intelligence In Criminal Sentencing, Tasnimul Hassan Md

Indian Journal of Law and Technology

The proliferation of technology has resulted in an increased reliance of individuals on technological devices. The world is progressively being automated using Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems that are implemented to achieve specific objectives. Automation is now an important part of people’s lives, and it could heavily change the criminal justice system. This article looks at the use of AI in criminal sentencing in India, arguing that AI-based sentencing can reduce sentencing disparity, either if it is subject to a human element or it is fed with ample data that no case-fact is left out. The paper argues that since AI …

Digital Child Labor Exploitation In Sharenting: Proposing Legislative Solutions For Enhanced Child Protection, Joana Guzman Gonzalez

University Honors Theses

This thesis explores the implications of sharenting -- the practice of sharing children's information on mass media--raises urgent concerns about child safety and potential human rights violations -- and the exploitation of children in digital spaces, focusing on the risks of privacy, safety and mental health pose by the rise of kidfluencers – children influencers under the age of 18 – and family vlog channels. Through a comprehensive literature review, the research examines children's online presence's emotional, legal, and societal impacts, drawing from case studies such as Sheri Franke, Wren Eleanor, Ryan Kaji, and JoJo Siwa. The analysis reveals a …