Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

Discipline And Nourish: On Constructing Commons, Wendy J. Gordon

Faculty Scholarship

Scholarship has examined many possible ways to encourage the creation and dissemination of art, works of authorship, ideas, and inventions: rights of exclusion (copyrights and patents), prizes, governmental subsidies, private subsidies (including both foundations and patronage), reputation, and so forth. Legal scholars have long recognized that copyright and patent are not the only options. And while some legal academics have mentioned the possibility of groups of users and creators interacting on a voluntary but structured basis, legal scholars did not give much sustained attention to such possibilities until fairly recently.

Panel Ii: The Global Contours Of Ip Protection For Trade Dress, Industrial Design, Applied Art, And Product Configuration, Wendy J. Gordon, Orit Fischman Afori, Mark Janis, Susan Scafidi, Jonathan Moskin

Faculty Scholarship

Before beginning, let me mention that I will confine myself to a limited number of arenas. Thus, for example, I'm not going to discuss design patents, which will be the focus of another speaker's remarks. I will also not discuss the doctrine of aesthetic functionality. My primary goal will be to compare trademark's doctrine of utilitarian "functionality" with copyright's domain of "separability," and to show how for at least two circuit court opinions, the two doctrines may be converging. I hope to stimulate discussion of whether such convergence would be a good idea.

Copyright's Derivative Works Doctrine And An Upside-Down Proviso, Wendy J. Gordon

Scholarship Chronologically

It is sometimes observed that questions of "justice in acquisition" do not much arise any more. However, judges face those questions on a daily basis in courtrooms adjudicating copyright and patent matters. In United States copyright law, for example, an intriguing dilemma regarding derivative works has developed that raises what appears to be a new issue regarding John Locke's sufficiency proviso.

Draft Of Copyright's Derivative Works Doctrine And An Upside-Down Proviso - 2010, Wendy J. Gordon

Scholarship Chronologically

It is sometimes observed that questions of'justice in acquisition" do not much arise any more. However, judges face those questions on a daily basis in courtrooms adjudicating copyright and patent matters. In United States copyright law, for example, an intriguing dilemma regarding derivative works has developed that raises what appears to be a new issue regarding John Locke's sufficiency proviso.

Trademark Remedies And Online Intermediaries, Stacey Dogan

Faculty Scholarship

For several years now, courts and commentators have tussled over the question of whether online intermediaries can face liability under trademark law. Because both case law and commentary have largely focused on the threshold question of "trademark use, " we know little about what specific behavior will subject intermediaries to liability and what remedies might follow. This Essay takes some preliminary steps toward addressing those questions.

Review Of The Rhetoric Of Intellectual Property: Copyright Law And The Regulation Of Digital Culture, By Jessica Reyman, Jessica Silbey

Faculty Scholarship

A short book review of Jessica Reyman’s, The Rhetoric of Intellectual Property: Copyright Law and the Regulation of Digital Culture.

Current Patent Laws Cannot Claim The Backing Of Human Rights, Wendy J. Gordon

Faculty Scholarship

In the dispute over the enforcement of pharmaceutical patents, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights is sometimes cited as giving patent protection the status of a 'human right'. It is true that the ICESCR provides for ‘the right of everyone’ ‘[t]o benefit from the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author’. But that does not mean that patent protection is a human right. Patent fails as a human right for many reasons, one of which is the lack of fit between current patent …

Comparative Tales Of Origins And Access: Intellectual Property And The Rhetoric Of Social Change, Jessica Silbey

Faculty Scholarship

This Article argues that the open-source and anti-expansionist rhetoric of current intellectual-property debates is a revolution of surface rhetoric but not of deep structure. What this Article terms “the Access Movements” are, by now, well-known communities devoted to providing more access to intellectual-property-protected goods, communities such as the Open Source Initiative and Access to Knowledge. This Article engages Movement actors in their critique of the balance struck by recent law (statutes and cases) and asks whether new laws that further restrict access to intellectual property “promote the progress of science and the useful arts.” Relying on cases, statutes and recent …

Imperfect Property Rights, James Bessen

Faculty Scholarship

In theory, property rights allow markets to achieve Pareto optimal allocations. But the literature on contracting largely ignores what happens when property rights are imperfectly defined and enforced. Although some models include weak enforcement or poorly defined rights or "anticommons," this paper develops a general model that includes all of these possibilities. I find that combinations matter: Policy prescriptions to remedy individual imperfections are sometimes inappropriate under other conditions. For example, stronger penalties for violating rights can decrease Pareto efficiency, contrary to a common view. Also, collective rights organizations, such as patent pools, sometimes worsen problems of overlapping claims.

Nonpatentability Of Business Methods: Legal And Economic Analysis, Peter Menell, Michael J. Meurer

Faculty Scholarship

In this brief filed in Bilski vs. Kappos, pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, we argue that the "useful Arts" limitation of the the Intellectual Property Clause of the U.S.Constitution restricts the scope of Congress's patent power to technological advances. Beyond this constitutional limitation, Congress has not extended patent protection to business methods. The subject matter provision of the 1952 Patent Act merely codified existing subject matter categories and limitations, including the exclusion of business methods. The First Inventor Defense Act of 1999 did not alter this limitation on patentable subject matter. It did not amend the subject matter provision. …

Harmless Use: Gleaning From Fields Of Copyrighted Works, Wendy J. Gordon

Faculty Scholarship

I will first provide a brief comment about what I think brings us all together. Second, I will talk about a particular project - something that has preoccupied me ever since I entered the field - namely, the distinction between what I will call, for sake of abbreviation, harmful use and harmless use.

Handwritten Notes On Art And The Intrinsic Worth Of A Human Life - 2009, Wendy J. Gordon

Scholarship Chronologically

At fifteen I found myself looking at a tree against the sky and being filled up with something bigger than I could contain. It was a sensation that demanded to be poured into something. The best label I could find for the emotion was "gratitude": Gratitude for the world I had not made, but had been given.

Lecture Draft Of Art And The Intrinsic Worth Of A Human Life - 2009, Wendy J. Gordon

Scholarship Chronologically

I've taken advantage of Tom's invitation to write a paper on religion and copyright that was "informal in format, in keeping with the informal nature of this gathering". What I have had to say on the Jewish law of gleaning is already on record; 1 what you'll read here are more like meditations. Thinking about the connections between art, spirituality and law has touched some very personal issues for me. Further, I know that everything I have to say is partial. I hope what I am about to give you will nevertheless raise some questions of interest.

Notes On Gift Failure Versus Market Failure: Analyzing The Generation And Circulation Of Intellectual Products - 2009, Wendy J. Gordon

Scholarship Chronologically

Gifts and gift exchanges can serve a combination of economic, personal, social and humanitarian ends. This article explores how intellectual products are unusually capable of serving these ends through gift relations, and suggests ways in which the law can assist in this process.

Outline Of Art And The Intrinsic Worth Of A Human Life - 2009, Wendy J. Gordon

Scholarship Chronologically

We want to believe we have intrinsic importance. We want to believe our loved ones do too. That's one of the things that makes age and death so scary: at some point no one will know that green dress was the one grandma wore to your parents' wedding, all that matters to you will no longer matter to anyone. But we want to feel that living DID matter.

Notes On Art And The Intrinsic Worth Of A Human Life - 2009, Wendy J. Gordon

Scholarship Chronologically

Recall Tina Turner's famous song, where the singer pounds the audience repeatedly with the insistent apparent question: "what's love got to do with it!?" We know she's not really asking, "What's love got to do with it"; she's making a statement. What she wants to do is deny love's force, and free herself from its disappointment. The singer's seeming repudiation of love is an attempted eradication of something that is definitely still part of her.

Sequential Innovation, Patents, And Imitation, James Bessen, Eric Maskin

Faculty Scholarship

How could such industries as software, semiconductors, and computers have been so innovative despite historically weak patent protection? We argue that if innovation is both sequential and complementary--as it certainly has been in those industries--competition can increase firms' future profits thus offsetting short-term dissipation of rents. A simple model also shows that in such a dynamic industry, patent protection may reduce overall innovation and social welfare. The natural experiment that occurred when patent protection was extended to software in the 1980?s provides a test of this model. Standard arguments would predict that R&D intensity and productivity should have increased among …

Trespass-Copyright Parallels And The Harm-Benefit Distinction, Wendy J. Gordon

Faculty Scholarship

Currently, the elements of a plaintiff’s cause of action for copyright largely follow the tort of trespass to land in that volitional entry (for land) or volitional copying (for copyright) gives rise to liability regardless of proof of harm and without any need for the plaintiff to prove the defendant acted unreasonably. Many scholars have criticized copyright law for following the strict liability model of real property trespass, and have suggested alternatives that would more resemble conditional causes of action such as unfair competition, nuisance, or negligence. In Foreseeability and Copyright Incentives, Professor Shyamkrishna Balganesh argues that copyright plaintiffs …

Of Patents And Property, James Bessen, Michael J. Meurer

Faculty Scholarship

Do patents behave substantially like property rights in tangible assets, in that they encourage development and innovation? This article notes that historical evidence, cross-country evidence, economic experiments, and estimates of net benefits all indicate that general property rights institutions have a substantial direct effect on economic growth. Conversely, with a few important exceptions like chemicals and pharmaceuticals, empirical evidence indicates that intellectual property rights have at best only a weak and indirect effect on economic growth. Further, it appears that for public firms in most industries today, patents may actually discourage investment in innovation for fear of winding up on …

Death From The Public Domain?, Kevin Outterson

Faculty Scholarship

In his recent article in the Texas Law Review, Ben Roin advances the claim that pharmaceutical innovation and the public’s health are harmed by the doctrines of non-obviousness and novelty. He does not mince words, labeling the nonobvious requirement as “perversity” with a “pernicious” effect on drug development. In his view, these standards pose an insurmountable barrier for drug companies seeking to commercialize inventions already in the public domain. He claims that valuable, life-saving drug ideas languish in the public domain because the companies face high barriers to entry from the FDA, but potential free riders are encouraged through the …

Keynote Lecture For Harmless Boundary Crossings: Their Role In Comparative Institutional Analysis - 2008, Wendy J. Gordon

Scholarship Chronologically

One of the things that unifies many of the scholars in IP generally, and in this room in particular, is an interest in what you might call noncommercial models cooperative sharing, peer-to-peer creativity-a yearning for a different kind of life, perhaps, one that's less commercial, more focused on dialogues, both democratic and personal, and a mode of life that emphasizes the process and product of work rather than its monetary payoff. We all know from the work of Teresa Amabile and Alfie Cohen and our own experience that if you are keeping your eye on a monetary goal or getting …

Harmless Boundary Crossings: Their Role In Comparative Institutional Analysis - Lecture Transcript - 10-31-2008, Wendy J. Gordon

Scholarship Chronologically

I also thank this morning's panelists. What I'm going to do is, first, say a little bit of an overview about what brings us all together and then talk about a particular project that many of you already have heard about, but it is something that has bothered me ever since I entered the field. It is the problem of harmless use, or what you might call a beneficial spillover that causes no loss to the person who is causally responsible for it, either in whole or in part.

Draft For Harmless Use: Gleaning From Fields Of Copyrighted Works - 2008, Wendy J. Gordon

Scholarship Chronologically

My inquiry is into whether harmless uses of property should give the property owner a right to sue. Under current law, harmless trespasses to land and to copyrights and patents do indeed give rise to liability. Should they? Neither moral philosophy, political science nor economics deals well with the harmless free-rider. The possibility I'm exploring-- just exploring at this stage-- is the following: that where inexhaustible products like information become a primary source of value, our institutions might serve us better if instead of mandating payment for harmless use via legal compulsion, payment for harmless use be left to the …

Email To Bob Bone Re: Idea Expression Dichotomy, Wendy J. Gordon

Scholarship Chronologically

This is to recap our discussion, to make sure we're on the same page, and carry this a bit further. I'm very excited.

Current Patent Laws Cannot Claim The Backing Of Human Rights - 2008, Wendy J. Gordon

Scholarship Chronologically

The majority of the world's countries (one exception being the United States) have undertaken a commitment at the level of human rights to protect the interests of persons who author 'scientific ... production[s]'. This commitment is embodied in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), which recognizes in Article 15.1.(c) the rights of everyone 'to benefit from the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.'

Should Access To Medicines And Trips Flexibilities Be Limited To Specific Diseases?, Kevin Outterson

Faculty Scholarship

From the perspective of public health, limiting access programs and TRIPS flexibilities to particular diseases would be quite dangerous and unnecessary. Dangerous because the diseases of the world's rich and poor countries are converging, including non-communicative diseases such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer and depression. Radically cheaper medicines for these conditions could significantly improve health in LMICs. Limitation is also unnecessary because proven tools can be deployed to preserve high-income markets while LMICs pursue equitable flexibilities.

To date, the important global legal texts retain broad application to all relevant diseases, but the some parties continue to propose disease-specific limitations, …

The Lawful Acquisition And Exercise Of Monopoly Power And Its Implications For The Objectives Of Antitrust, David S. Evans, Keith N. Hylton

Faculty Scholarship

The antitrust laws of the United States have, from their inception, allowed firms to acquire significant market power, to charge prices that reflect that market power, and to enjoy supra-competitive returns. This article shows that this policy, which was established by the U.S. Congress and affirmed repeatedly by the U.S. courts, reflects a tradeoff between the dynamic benefits that society realizes from allowing firms to secure significant rewards, including monopoly profits, from making risky investments and engaging in innovation; and the static costs that society incurs when firms with significant market power raise price and curtail output. That tradeoff results …

Inventors, Entrepreneurs, And Intellectual Property Law, Michael J. Meurer

Faculty Scholarship

I am not sure why small business concerns have not had more influence on IP law. Perhaps the sentiment prevailing in antitrust law spilled over into IP law. American antitrust law has reached a near consensus that small firms get no special treatment under a law designed to protect competition, not competitors. ° In contrast, European competition law regulators are more likely to protect small business, and European patent policymakers openly fret about how to reform their patent law to promote small business.²

Regardless, my concern in this Article is mostly with the normative question: Should IP law favor …

Do Patents Perform Like Property?, Michael J. Meurer, James Bessen

Faculty Scholarship

Do patents provide critical incentives to encourage investment in innovation? Or, instead, do patents impose legal risks and burdens on innovators that discourage innovation, as some critics now claim? This paper reviews empirical economic evidence on how well patents perform as a property system.

Moral Philosophy, Information Technology, And Copyright, Wendy J. Gordon

Faculty Scholarship

A plethora of philosophical issues arise where copyright and patent laws intersect with information technology. Given the necessary brevity of the chapter, my strategy will be to make general observations that can be applied to illuminate one particular issue. I have chosen the issue considered in MGM v. Grokster,² a recent copyright case from the U.S. Supreme Court Grokster, Ltd., provided a decentralized peer-to-peer technology that many people, typically students, used to copy and distribute music in ways that violated copyright law. The Supreme Court addressed the extent to which Grokster and other technology providers should be held …