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Intellectual Property Law Commons

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Articles 1 - 18 of 18

Full-Text Articles in Intellectual Property Law

Domain Tasting Is Taking Over The Internet As A Result Of Icann’S “Add Grace Period”, Christopher Healey Dec 2007

Domain Tasting Is Taking Over The Internet As A Result Of Icann’S “Add Grace Period”, Christopher Healey

Duke Law & Technology Review

When a domain name is registered, the registrant is given five days to cancel for a full refund. While the purpose of this grace period is to protect those who innocently err in the registration process, speculators have taken advantage of the grace period through a process called "domain tasting." These "domain tasters" register hundreds of thousands of domain names and cancel the vast majority of them within the five-day grace period, keeping only those that may be valuable as placeholder advertising websites or to holders of trademark rights. This iBrief will outline the "domain tasting" process, analyze why it …


Operation Restoration: How Can Patent Holders Protect Themselves From Medimmune?, Stephanie Chu Nov 2007

Operation Restoration: How Can Patent Holders Protect Themselves From Medimmune?, Stephanie Chu

Duke Law & Technology Review

The Supreme Court’s recent decision in MedImmune v. Genentech shifts the balance of power in license agreements from patent holders to their licensees. This iBrief outlines the potential implications of the new rules on all stages of patent prosecution and protection. Further, it evaluates remedial contract provisions patent holders may include in future license agreements and how these provisions may mitigate the decision’s effects on preexisting commercial relationships.


Encouraging Corporate Innovation For Our Homeland During The Best Of Times For The Worst Of Times: Extending Safety Act Protections To Natural Disasters’, Ava A. Harter Nov 2007

Encouraging Corporate Innovation For Our Homeland During The Best Of Times For The Worst Of Times: Extending Safety Act Protections To Natural Disasters’, Ava A. Harter

Duke Law & Technology Review

This article first analyzes the innovative tort reform of the SAFETY Act and then argues for expansion of SAFETY Act type risk protection to natural disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes and wildfires. The SAFETY Act was drafted to stimulate the development and deployment of technologies that combat terrorism by providing liability protection. Applying the same type of legislation to natural disasters will provide a commensurate benefit of encouraging preparedness and development of technologies that could mitigate harms resulting from natural disasters. The Department of Homeland Security voiced a desire to increase the use of the SAFETY Act by private industry. …


A Budding Theory Of Willful Patent Infringement: Orange Books, Colored Pills, And Greener Verdicts, Christopher A. Harkins Oct 2007

A Budding Theory Of Willful Patent Infringement: Orange Books, Colored Pills, And Greener Verdicts, Christopher A. Harkins

Duke Law & Technology Review

The rules of engagement in the brand-name versus generic-drug war are rapidly changing. Brand-name manufacturers face increasing competition from Canadian manufacturers of generic drugs, online drug companies, and Wal-Mart® Super Centers deciding to cash in by turning a piece of the generic prescription drug business into a huge marketing campaign with offerings of generic drugs for four dollar prescriptions. Other discount drug providers are likely to follow suit in hopes of boosting customer traffic and sales of their generic drugs. Now, more than ever before, attorneys representing owners of pharmaceutical patents need to be creative with their damages theories to …


This Town Ain’T Big Enough For The Both Of Us—Or Is It? Reflections On Copyright, The First Amendment And Google’S Use Of Others’ Content, David Kohler Jun 2007

This Town Ain’T Big Enough For The Both Of Us—Or Is It? Reflections On Copyright, The First Amendment And Google’S Use Of Others’ Content, David Kohler

Duke Law & Technology Review

Using a variety of technological innovations, Google became a multi-billion dollar content-delivery business without owning or licensing much of the content that it uses. Google’s principal justification for why this strategy does not contravene the intellectual property rights of the copyright owners is the doctrine of fair use. However, over the last several years, some copyright owners began to push back and challenge Google’s strategy. Much of this litigation presents the courts with something of a conundrum. On the one hand, it is beyond dispute that Google’s services have great social utility. By organizing and making accessible an enormous volume …


Walking The Line: Why The Presumption Against Extraterritorial Application Of U.S. Patent Law Should Limit The Reach Of 35 U.S.C. § 271(F), Jennifer Giordano-Coltart Apr 2007

Walking The Line: Why The Presumption Against Extraterritorial Application Of U.S. Patent Law Should Limit The Reach Of 35 U.S.C. § 271(F), Jennifer Giordano-Coltart

Duke Law & Technology Review

The advent of the digital era and the global market pose unique challenges to intellectual property law. To adapt, U.S. patent laws require constant interpretation in the face of rapidly changing technological advances. In AT&T Corp. v. Microsoft Corp., the Federal Circuit interpreted 35 U.S.C. § 271(f) in a technology-dependent manner in order to effectuate the purpose of the law with respect to global software distribution. However, the Federal Circuit failed to consider the presumption against extraterritorial application of U.S. law, and its decision now risks international discord and harm not only to the American software industry, but other U.S. …


Where Will Consumers Find Privacy Protection From Rfids?: A Case For Federal Legislation, Serena G. Stein Mar 2007

Where Will Consumers Find Privacy Protection From Rfids?: A Case For Federal Legislation, Serena G. Stein

Duke Law & Technology Review

With the birth of RFID technology, businesses gained the ability to tag products with practically invisible computer chips that relay information about consumer behavior to remote databases. Such tagging permits retailers and manufacturers to track the purchases, identities, and movements of their customers. In the absence of enforceable regulations, society risks being subjected to an unprecedented level of Orwellian surveillance. This iBrief addresses consumer privacy concerns stemming from the proliferation of RFID technology. It discusses why tort law, state legislation, FTC guidelines, and proposed regulations are insufficient methods to alleviate consumer privacy concerns and suggests amending various federal privacy laws, …


Is Kelly Shifting Under Google’S Feet? New Ninth Circuit Impact On The Google Library Project Litigation, Cameron W. Westin Mar 2007

Is Kelly Shifting Under Google’S Feet? New Ninth Circuit Impact On The Google Library Project Litigation, Cameron W. Westin

Duke Law & Technology Review

The Google Library Project presents what many consider to be the perfect fair-use problem. The legal debate surrounding the Library Project has centered on the Ninth Circuit’s Kelly v. Arriba Soft. Yet recent case law presents new arguments for both sides of the Library Project litigation. This iBrief analyzes two Ninth Circuit district court decisions on fair use, Field v. Google, Inc. and Perfect 10 v. Google, Inc., and their impact on the Library Project litigation.


Does Information Beget Information?, Dennis S. Karjala Feb 2007

Does Information Beget Information?, Dennis S. Karjala

Duke Law & Technology Review

Using the language of mathematics, Professor Polk Wagner has recently argued that the impossibility of fully appropriating the value of information in a rightsholder leads to the surprising conclusion that expanding the degree of control of intellectual property rights will, in the long run, increase the sum total of information not subject to ownership claims and therefore available as part of the cultural and technological base on which new growth and development can occur. Indeed, he claims that open information will grow according to the formula for compound interest, where the interest rate is 100% plus or minus a factor …


Book Review, Jennifer L. Behrens Jan 2007

Book Review, Jennifer L. Behrens

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Synthetic Biology: Caught Between Property Rights, The Public Domain, And The Commons, Arti K. Rai, James Boyle Jan 2007

Synthetic Biology: Caught Between Property Rights, The Public Domain, And The Commons, Arti K. Rai, James Boyle

Faculty Scholarship

Synthetic biologists aim to make biology a true engineering discipline. In the same way that electrical engineers rely on standard capacitors and resistors, or computer programmers rely on modular blocks of code, synthetic biologists wish to create an array of modular biological parts that can be readily synthesized and mixed together in different combinations. Synthetic biology has already produced important results, including more accurate AIDS tests and the possibility of unlimited supplies of previously scarce drugs for malaria. Proponents hope to use synthetic organisms to produce not only medically relevant chemicals but also a large variety of industrial materials, including …


A Reverse Notice And Takedown Regime To Enable Public Interest Uses Of Technically Protected Copyrighted Works, Jerome H. Reichman, Graeme B. Dinwoodie, Pamela Samuelson Jan 2007

A Reverse Notice And Takedown Regime To Enable Public Interest Uses Of Technically Protected Copyrighted Works, Jerome H. Reichman, Graeme B. Dinwoodie, Pamela Samuelson

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


On The Legal Consequences Of Sauces: Should Thomas Keller’S Recipes Be Per Se Copyrightable?, Christopher J. Buccafusco Jan 2007

On The Legal Consequences Of Sauces: Should Thomas Keller’S Recipes Be Per Se Copyrightable?, Christopher J. Buccafusco

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Synthetic Biology: The Intellectual Property Puzzle, Arti K. Rai, Sapna Kumar Jan 2007

Synthetic Biology: The Intellectual Property Puzzle, Arti K. Rai, Sapna Kumar

Faculty Scholarship

Synthetic biology, which operates at the intersection of biotechnology and information technology, has the potential to raise, in a particularly acute manner, the intellectual property problems that exist in both fields. A preliminary patent landscape reveals problematic foundational patents that could, if licensed and enforced inappropriately, impede the potential of the technology. The landscape also reveals a proliferation of patents on basic synthetic biology "parts" that could create transaction cost heavy patent thickets. Both foundational patents and patent thickets are likely to be particularly problematic to the extent they read on standards that synthetic biologists would like to establish. Synthetic …


The Demise And Rebirth Of Plant Variety Protection: A Comment On Technological Change And The Design Of Plant Variety Protection Regimes, Laurence R. Helfer Jan 2007

The Demise And Rebirth Of Plant Variety Protection: A Comment On Technological Change And The Design Of Plant Variety Protection Regimes, Laurence R. Helfer

Faculty Scholarship

In 'Technological Change and the Design of Plant Variety Protection Regimes', Mark Janis and Stephen Smith make two novel and provocative claims. They first argue that the legal regime for protecting new plant varieties has become hopelessly outdated in light of recent changes in technology. They next assert that the fate of the plant variety protection (PVP) system illustrates a broader and more disturbing phenomenon in intellectual property law: the potential for sui generis, industry-specific intellectual property regimes to become increasingly ineffective over time. In this brief essay, I offer three points to amplify the authors' contributions and highlight the …


Knowledge Commons: The Case Of The Biopharmaceutical Industry, Arti K. Rai Jan 2007

Knowledge Commons: The Case Of The Biopharmaceutical Industry, Arti K. Rai

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


“An Ingenious Man Enabled By Contract”: Entrepreneurship And The Rise Of Contract, Catherine Fisk Jan 2007

“An Ingenious Man Enabled By Contract”: Entrepreneurship And The Rise Of Contract, Catherine Fisk

Faculty Scholarship

A legal ideology emerged in the 1870s that celebrated contract as the body of law with the particular purpose of facilitating the formation of productive exchanges that would enrich the parties to the contract and, therefore, society as a whole. Across the spectrum of intellectual property, courts used the legal fiction of implied contract, and a version of it particularly emphasizing liberty of contract, to shift control of workplace knowledge from skilled employees to firms while suggesting that the emergence of hierarchical control and loss of entrepreneurial opportunity for creative workers was consistent with the free labor ideology that dominated …


Mertonianism Unbound?: Imagining Free, Decentralized Access To Most Cultural And Scientific Material, James Boyle Jan 2007

Mertonianism Unbound?: Imagining Free, Decentralized Access To Most Cultural And Scientific Material, James Boyle

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.