Intellectual Property Law | Open Access Articles

The Transformation Of Originality In The Progressive-Era Debate Over Copyright In News, Robert Brauneis

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

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The Sony Legacy: Secondary Liability Perspectives, Robert I. Reis

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

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Book Review: Stephen Hopgood, 'Keepers Of The Flame: Understanding Amnesty International', Kenneth Anderson

Book Reviews

This brief review (1100 words) examines Stephen Hopgood's half journalism-half anthropological journey inside the world of Amnesty International. The book is an outstanding piece of both reportage and analysis, and the review discusses the various pressures, political and ideological and social, on AI and those that work in its International Secretariat. As the review notes, AI is more like a religious order than anything else, and that observation has ramifications for the NGO world beyond AI.

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Legal Approaches To Promote Technological Solutions To Climate Change, Daniel Van Fleet

Duke Law & Technology Review

Technological advancement is widely viewed as an essential component to any effective climate change strategy. However, there is no consensus as to the degree to which the law should promote technological innovation and development. This iBrief analyzes government involvement in encouraging such technology and divides the various policies into four categories. On one end are policies that rely mainly on market forces to encourage scientific advancement naturally, requiring minimal government involvement. A second category of policies involves technological development promoted indirectly through laws addressing climate change generally. A third type of policy involves directly offering government funding and financing for …

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Race-Specific Patents, Commercialization, And Intellectual Property Policy, Shubha Ghosh

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

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Internet File-Sharing: Swedish Pirates Challenge The U.S., Ulric M. Lewen

Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law

The note examines the challenges of enforcing copyright laws in the digital age, focusing on the contrasting approaches of the U.S. and Sweden in addressing peer-to-peer file sharing. It critiques the U.S. for its aggressive legal strategy, which may prove counterproductive, while highlighting Sweden's potential as a model for alternative solutions. The analysis underscores the need for a balanced approach that protects copyright holders without stifling innovation.

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Turned On Its Head?: Norms, Freedom, And Acceptable Terms In Internet Contracting, Richard Warner

All Faculty Scholarship

Is the Internet turning contract law on its head? Many commentators contend it is. Precisely this issue arises in current controversies over end user license agreements (EULAs) and Terms of Use agreements (TOUs, the agreements governing our use of web sites). Commentators complain that, in both cases, the formation process unduly restricts buyers’ freedom; and, that sellers and web site owners exploit the process to impose terms that deprive consumers of important intellectual property and privacy rights. The courts ignore the criticisms and routinely enforce EULAs and TOUs. There is truth on both sides of this court/commentator divide. EULAs and …

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Viewing Virtual Property Ownership Through The Lens Of Innovation, Ryan G. Vacca

Law Faculty Scholarship

Over the past several years scholars have wrestled with how property rights in items created in virtual worlds should be conceptualized. Regardless of how the property is conceptualized and what property theory best fits, most agree the law ought to recognize virtual property as property and vest someone with those rights.

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Rediscovering The Doctrine Of Marking Estoppel After Medimmune: Balancing The Public Interest And Private Rights, 7 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 573 (2008), Michael D. Karson

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

Marking is the act of placing a patent number on a product or its packaging. The doctrine of marking estoppel deals with whether the act of marking will preclude denials of patent infringement or patent validity challenges. This comment reviews the history of marking estoppel and determines that although the Federal Circuit has expressed reservations about the doctrine, marking estoppel remains viable. This comment argues that marking estoppel should preclude a marking party from denying patent infringement when the marking party has acted with scienter and the asserting party has come to court with clean hands. However, because of the …

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Potential Pitfalls In High-Tech Copyright Litigation, 25 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 513 (2008), Peter J. Shurn Iii

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

Alleging software and data-base infringement is probably the most common offensive strategy currently seen in high-tech copyright litigation. In the context of a hypothetical factual setting, this article explores three potential pitfalls attendant to such a strategy, and suggests ways to minimize those risks.

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Dead Ends And Dirty Secrets: Legal Treatment Of Negative Information, 25 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 619 (2008), John T. Cross

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

This article discusses the process of innovation and releasing so-called negative information to help others in the process to innovate. The article focuses on patent law and asks the questions: Why do people innovate? Does the legal system really reflect how the process of innovation actually occurs?

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Convergence And Incongruence: Trademark Law And Icann's Introduction Of New Generic Top-Level Domains, 25 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 625 (2008), Christine Haight Farley

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

The author demonstrates how problematic the convergences between Internet technology, the demands of a burgeoning e-market, and trademark laws have created a myriad of issues in international governance of domain names. While the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (“ICANN”) has been tasked with resolving some of the most problematic information ownership issues in e-commerce, she demonstrates that current changes in domain name registries ignore the real world problems posed by these convergences.

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The Supreme Court's Trademark Jurisprudence: Categorical Divergence In The Interest Of Information Convergence, 25 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 635 (2008), Sheldon Halpern

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

The author shows that convergence has placed trademark law in the center of some of the hard-fought battles over information ownership in intellectual property. From fights over moral rights, to collisions with patents, trademarks in the new technological age have raised questions that he suggests might be better analyzed if the associative nature of trademarks were recognized and applied.

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Access To Computer Programs Under The Dmca, 25 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 641 (2008), Dennis S. Karjala

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

The author explores the convergences between technology and information in the critical area of computer programs and the DMCA. Examining recent attempts to raise protected access control measures under the DMCA to non-communication related content, he demonstrates that not all fears of unlimited expansion of copyright are justified. To the contrary, courts are showing a remarkable sensitivity to the problem.

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When Worlds Collide: The Uneasy Convergence Of Creativity And Innovation, 25 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 653 (2008), Doris E. Long

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

The author contends that in the area of computer software protection convergence has resulted in confusion in the goals of copyright and patent laws to the detriment of both. By confusing “innovation” with “creativity,” she contends that copyright protection has been strained by its efforts to fit the demands of functional code within its expressive protection goals. She concludes by suggesting that we go “back to the future” to resurrect an international sui generis system for software and allow both copyright and patent to go back to their original, and distinctly different, policy goals.

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State Sovereign Immunity: States Use The Federal Patent Law System As Both A Shield And A Sword, 8 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 134 (2008), Nicholas Dernik

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

A number of states currently rely on Eleventh Amendment immunity to defend against infringement actions by the patentees during research and development of new technologies. Some of these states then evoke the federal patent system to exclude private parties from infringing state patented subject matter. Ultimately, states enjoy all of the benefits of the federal patent system but states are not limited by any of its restrictions. This comment proposes a remedy to the states’ unfair tactical advantage of using the federal patent system as both a shield and a sword.

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Justice Breyer's Bicycle And The Ignored Elephant Of Patent Exhaustion: An Avoidable Collision In Quanta V. Lge, 7 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 245 (2008), John W. Osborne

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

The Supreme Court held in United States v. Univis Lens Co. that the authorized disposition of an article embodying the essential features of a patent claim exhausts that claim. The Federal Circuit’s LGE v. Bizcom decision, currently under review by the Supreme Court in Quanta v. LGE, improperly held that patent exhaustion could be disclaimed by contract. Patent exhaustion is a limitation on statutory rights which cannot be expanded by contract. Moreover, Quanta v. LGE is governed by the contributory infringement statute. Contributory infringement and exhaustion are opposite ends of the same principle in the Quanta v. LGE factual scenario. …

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Duty To Disclose: Dayco Products V. Total Containment, 7 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 325 (2008), Tom Brody

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

The duty to disclose, as set forth by 37 C.F.R. § 1.56 and case law from the Federal Circuit, should be followed during the prosecution of all patent applications. This duty requires that inventors and their attorneys provide the United States Patent and Trademark Office with a list identifying relevant publications, patent applications, patents, legal proceedings, written rejections from patent examiners, and sales, both public and confidential. “Relevant” means relevant to the claims. The consequences of failing in this duty can be severe, namely, a holding of inequitable conduct. Inequitable conduct, in the patenting context, requires two prongs—materiality of the …

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Three Questions That Will Make You Rethink The U.S.-China Intellectual Property Debate, 7 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 412 (2008), Peter K. Yu

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

Commentators have attributed China’s piracy and counterfeiting problems to the lack of political will on the part of Chinese authorities. They have also cited the many political, social, economic, cultural, judicial, and technological problems that have arisen as a result of the country’s rapid economic transformation and accession to the WTO. This provocative essay advances a third explanation. It argues that the failure to resolve piracy and counterfeiting problems in China can be partly attributed to the lack of political will on the part of U.S. policymakers and the American public to put intellectual property protection at the very top …

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The Paradox Of Confucian Determinism: Tracking The Root Causes Of Intellectual Property Rights Problem In China, 7 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 454 (2008), Wei Shi

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

This article attempts to track China’s intellectual property rights (“IPR”) enforcement problem through exploring its fundamental institutional defects that fuels impunity of, or at least fails instilling an ethos hostile to, IPR infringements. By examining China’s philosophical and institutional predisposition, this article argues that counterfeiting and piracy are not problems caused by the Confucian ethics, as the conventional wisdom underscores, but rather, among other things, a unique political phenomenon resulting from the systemic dystrophy fundamental to the institutional development. This article concludes that, to a large extent, the IPR enforcement problems in China are attributed to its unique bureaucracy characterized …

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A Comparison Between The Judicial And Administrative Routes To Enforce Intellectual Property Rights In China, 7 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 529 (2008), Jeffery M. Duncan, Michelle A. Sherwood, Yuanlin Shen

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

Over the past two decades, a sophisticated intellectual property law system has developed in support of China’s transition to economic superpower. In today’s global economy, it is crucial that international marketers understand how to navigate this new system to best protect their intellectual property rights. China allows for two distinct procedures by which intellectual property assets may be protected, one judicial and the other administrative. Each choice holds distinct advantages and disadvantages for a party seeking to enforce its rights. Making the best choice involves familiarization with the particulars of each procedure and gauging the likelihood of a successful outcome. …

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Ksr And Standards Of Inventive Step: A European View, 8 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 14 (2008), Paul Cole

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

The United States Supreme Court decision in KSR International Co. v. Teleflex Inc. raises many questions, most importantly, how the test for obviousness applied in the United States (“U.S.”) now compares with that applied in the United Kingdom (“U.K.”) and by the European Patent Office (“EPO”). In seeking to answer those questions, this article explores the history of obviousness and the tests for inventive step in the United States, the U.K. and the European Patent Office. A comparison of the United States Patent and Trademark Office and EPO examination guidelines, suggests that it would have been a good idea to …

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Intellectual Property Enforcement: A Reality Gap (Insufficient Assistance, Ineffective Implementation)?, 8 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 47 (2008), Timothy P. Trainer

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

The World Trade Organization’s (“WTO”) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (“TRIPS”) promised to standardize world-wide intellectual property rights (“IPR”) enforcement procedures, and thus, facilitate trade and commerce between member nations. However, the TRIPS implementation transition of many less developed and developing nations has resulted in a much lower IPR enforcement standard than the drafters of TRIPS envisioned. This, coupled with increased world-wide trade in counterfeit goods, has created friction between the developing nations with lower IPR enforcement and the developed nations with higher IPR enforcement. Consequently, many nations, including the United States, have entered into Free Trade …

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The "Reasonable Plant" Test: When Progress Outruns The Constitution, Max Oppenheimer

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

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Trademarks And The Beijing Olympics: Gold Medal Challenges, 7 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 433 (2008), Doris E. Long

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

There is no question that the Summer Olympics in Beijing pose a tremendous marketing opportunity. They also pose a great opportunity for the development of effective techniques for enforcing intellectual property rights. China has already enacted special regulations governing the protection of Olympic symbols and has established special regulations governing the enforcement of those regulations. Yet many of the cultural and political issues that impact China’s enforcement activities in other arenas (including counterfeiting and piracy of IP protected goods and services) remain problematic. Furthermore, while the Olympic symbols may be the subject of heightened protection, cultural perceptions of the differences …

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Virtual China, 7 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 469 (2008), Steven Hetcher

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

Although the Chinese government has devoted significant resources to censoring the online activities of its citizens, it may soon be facing a new challenge. Virtual-world computer games in which player controlled personas interact in cyberspace are growing in both sophistication and popularity. In such games, the very actions of the characters may represent banned themes which unfold in real time. These lucrative games do not lend themselves to the traditional text-based censorship techniques and site blocking may not be feasible for economic reasons. A deeper understanding of the threat virtual-world gaming represents to Chinese censorship efforts can be gained by …

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Striking The "Rights" Balance Among Private Private Incentives And Public Fair Uses In The United States And China, 7 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 488 (2008), Llewellyn Joseph Gibbons, Xiao Li Wang

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

Any economically efficient intellectual property rights system must contain a balance between the required creativity and innovation needed to obtain the intellectual property rights and the economic investment needed to obtain that level of creativity. Most intellectual property rights systems are uniform across all industries. However, this results in inefficiencies in certain industries that may need more or less intellectual property rights protection than others. Governments that attempt to correct the inefficiencies can create long-term consequences in the quality or quantity of new creative works. On one hand, granting more intellectual property rights to certain industries may result in spoilage …

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The Controversy Surrounding Continuing Applications And Requests For Continued Examination, 7 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 545 (2008), Scott D. Barnett

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

On August 21, 2007, the USPTO published new rules altering the manner in which continuing applications and requests for continued examination could be filed. These new rules represented a drastic departure from traditional practice, and consequently, generated a considerable reaction from the patent community. While some members of the patent community supported the new rules, many others felt that the rules would be insufficient in promoting the USPTO’s goals, and served mainly as an unnecessary roadblock to good-faith patent prosecution. Prior to the rules going into effect, they were challenged in the case Tafas v. Dudas. In Tafas, the district …

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Why Pay For What's Free?: Minimizing The Patent Threat To Free And Open Source Software, 7 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 595 (2008), Kirk D. Rowe

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

The growing popularity of free and open source software as a viable alternative to proprietary software has made it an unwitting participant in an inevitable intellectual property law confrontation that will pit patent against copyright. Where proprietary software is primarily protected by patents, which seek to exclude others from the use of specific ideas, open source software utilizes a variation of copyright protection, which seeks to force the inclusion rather than the exclusion of third parties’ access to expression. Because these methods of protection are as different as the software models themselves, it is difficult to predict the outcome of …

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Copyright Misuses, Fair Use, And Abuse: How Sports And Media Companies Are Overreaching Their Copyright Protections, 7 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 621 (2008), Cory Tadlock

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

A recent FTC complaint has generated questions about the legality and effects of blanket copyright warnings issued by large sports and media companies. Copyright warnings from the NFL, MLB, and major motion picture studios often assert that no use whatsoever of their materials can be made without express permission, contrary to several provisions of U.S. copyright law. This comment proposes limiting the content and language of such warnings so consumers have a clearer view of what copyright law allows, and are not intimidated into foregoing their rights to use protected works. Exceptions like fair use and the idea-expression dichotomy prevent …

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Full-Text Articles in Intellectual Property Law

The Transformation Of Originality In The Progressive-Era Debate Over Copyright In News, Robert Brauneis

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

The Sony Legacy: Secondary Liability Perspectives, Robert I. Reis

Journal Articles

Book Review: Stephen Hopgood, 'Keepers Of The Flame: Understanding Amnesty International', Kenneth Anderson

Book Reviews

Legal Approaches To Promote Technological Solutions To Climate Change, Daniel Van Fleet

Duke Law & Technology Review

Race-Specific Patents, Commercialization, And Intellectual Property Policy, Shubha Ghosh

Buffalo Law Review

Internet File-Sharing: Swedish Pirates Challenge The U.S., Ulric M. Lewen

Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law

Turned On Its Head?: Norms, Freedom, And Acceptable Terms In Internet Contracting, Richard Warner

All Faculty Scholarship

Viewing Virtual Property Ownership Through The Lens Of Innovation, Ryan G. Vacca

Law Faculty Scholarship

Rediscovering The Doctrine Of Marking Estoppel After Medimmune: Balancing The Public Interest And Private Rights, 7 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 573 (2008), Michael D. Karson

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

Potential Pitfalls In High-Tech Copyright Litigation, 25 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 513 (2008), Peter J. Shurn Iii

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

Dead Ends And Dirty Secrets: Legal Treatment Of Negative Information, 25 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 619 (2008), John T. Cross

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

Convergence And Incongruence: Trademark Law And Icann's Introduction Of New Generic Top-Level Domains, 25 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 625 (2008), Christine Haight Farley

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

The Supreme Court's Trademark Jurisprudence: Categorical Divergence In The Interest Of Information Convergence, 25 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 635 (2008), Sheldon Halpern

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

Access To Computer Programs Under The Dmca, 25 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 641 (2008), Dennis S. Karjala

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

When Worlds Collide: The Uneasy Convergence Of Creativity And Innovation, 25 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 653 (2008), Doris E. Long

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

State Sovereign Immunity: States Use The Federal Patent Law System As Both A Shield And A Sword, 8 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 134 (2008), Nicholas Dernik

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

Justice Breyer's Bicycle And The Ignored Elephant Of Patent Exhaustion: An Avoidable Collision In Quanta V. Lge, 7 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 245 (2008), John W. Osborne

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

Duty To Disclose: Dayco Products V. Total Containment, 7 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 325 (2008), Tom Brody

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

Three Questions That Will Make You Rethink The U.S.-China Intellectual Property Debate, 7 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 412 (2008), Peter K. Yu

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

The Paradox Of Confucian Determinism: Tracking The Root Causes Of Intellectual Property Rights Problem In China, 7 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 454 (2008), Wei Shi

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

A Comparison Between The Judicial And Administrative Routes To Enforce Intellectual Property Rights In China, 7 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 529 (2008), Jeffery M. Duncan, Michelle A. Sherwood, Yuanlin Shen

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

Ksr And Standards Of Inventive Step: A European View, 8 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 14 (2008), Paul Cole

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

Intellectual Property Enforcement: A Reality Gap (Insufficient Assistance, Ineffective Implementation)?, 8 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 47 (2008), Timothy P. Trainer

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

The "Reasonable Plant" Test: When Progress Outruns The Constitution, Max Oppenheimer

All Faculty Scholarship

Trademarks And The Beijing Olympics: Gold Medal Challenges, 7 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 433 (2008), Doris E. Long

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

Virtual China, 7 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 469 (2008), Steven Hetcher

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

Striking The "Rights" Balance Among Private Private Incentives And Public Fair Uses In The United States And China, 7 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 488 (2008), Llewellyn Joseph Gibbons, Xiao Li Wang

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

The Controversy Surrounding Continuing Applications And Requests For Continued Examination, 7 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 545 (2008), Scott D. Barnett

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

Why Pay For What's Free?: Minimizing The Patent Threat To Free And Open Source Software, 7 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 595 (2008), Kirk D. Rowe

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

Copyright Misuses, Fair Use, And Abuse: How Sports And Media Companies Are Overreaching Their Copyright Protections, 7 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 621 (2008), Cory Tadlock

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law