Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

3c Copyright Law Session. U.S. Copyright Developments, David O. Carson, Ralph Oman, Nick Bartelt, Steven Tepp, Kevin Madigan, Robert J. Bernstein, Jonathan Band

28th Annual Intellectual Property Law & Policy Conference (2021)

No abstract provided.

4a Trademark Law Session. Eu Trademark Law Update, James Nurton, Tobias Timmann, Peter Reuss, David Stone, Christina Münter, Anke Nordemann-Schiffel

28th Annual Intellectual Property Law & Policy Conference (2021)

No abstract provided.

1b Plenary Session. Key Current Ip Issues, Hugh C. Hansen, Kathleen M. O'Malley, Colin Birss, Antony Taubman, Michele Woods, Allen Dixon, Jane C. Ginsburg, Annsley Merelle Ward

28th Annual Intellectual Property Law & Policy Conference (2021)

No abstract provided.

1a Plenary Session. Government Leaders’ Perspectives On Ip, Hugh C. Hansen, Daren Tang, António Campinos, Shira Perlmutter, Marco Giorello, Pauline Newman, Brian H. Pandya

28th Annual Intellectual Property Law & Policy Conference (2021)

No abstract provided.

Copyright Fair Use And The Digital Carnivalesque: Towards A New Lexicon Of Transformative Internet Memes, David Tan, Angus J. Wilson

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

The influence of social media in the 21st century has led to new social norms of behavior with individuals presenting themselves to others, whether physically or virtually, on various social media platforms. As a result, these new trends have led recent society to be characterized as a “presentational cultural regime” and a “specular economy.” In a Bakhtinian digital carnivalesque, internet memes present a feast of challenges to exceptions and limitations in copyright law. Memes encompass a wide range of expression about the human experience, while also existing as a playful mode of culturally permissible expression in online social communications rather …

Designing Dupes: A Legislative Proposal For Holding Online Marketplaces Contributorily Liable For Counterfeit Goods, Gina Boone

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

With a simple click on your favorite online marketplace, any consumer can unknowingly buy counterfeit goods. Counterfeits are no longer limited to fake luxury bags on the streets of Chinatown. These dupes can be roller skates, children’s toys, and even car tires. However, counterfeit products’ impact reaches far beyond just consumer health and safety. Counterfeiting negatively affects small businesses, imposes financial burdens, and causes reputational damage. Online marketplaces are aware of the increase of counterfeit products on their websites. Yet, they continue to facilitate its growth because it is unlikely the online platforms will be held liable for the sale …

Algorithmic Parenting, Eldar Haber, Tammy Harel Ben Shahar

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

Growing up in today’s world involves an increasing amount of interaction with technology. The rise in availability, accessibility, and use of the internet, along with social norms that encourage internet connection, make it nearly impossible for children to avoid online engagement. The internet undoubtedly benefits children socially and academically and mastering technological tools at a young age is indispensable for opening doors to valuable opportunities. However, the internet is risky for children in myriad ways. Parents and lawmakers are especially concerned with the tension between important advantages and risks technology bestows on children.

New technological developments in artificial intelligence are …

Cartouches, Catalogs, & Courtrooms: Using A Recent Legal Challenge In Egyptian Court To Examine Unanswered Questions In Cultural Heritage, Lawrence Keating

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

Ancient Egypt is known to the world for its rich culture steeped in arcane mysticism and for the dazzling treasures it left behind, which now populate the world’s most prominent cultural institutions. These and other cultural heritage objects, which capture and inspire masses as easily today as they did in their own time, are subject to growing controversy over their protection and utilization. As this debate moves from academic circles to the arena of public discourse, the need to revise legislation controlling cultural heritage objects is becoming increasingly clear. This Note uses a recent law- suit concerning an international exhibition …

Plus Or Minus America: Spanski, Geoblocking Technology, And Personal Jurisdiction Analysis For Nonresident Defendants, Daniel Canedo

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

The use of a geoblock—technology that restricts access to websites based on user location—is a controversial topic, and one that plays a role in defining the scope under which nonresident defendants may be subjected to the personal jurisdiction of U.S. courts in copyright infringement cases. For example, a recent D.C. Court of Appeals case, Spanski Enterprises, Inc. v. Telewizja Polska, S.A., involved a Polish television network whose geoblock setting, known as “minus America,” failed to restrict website access in violation of a Canadian company’s exclusive rights under the U.S. Copyright Act. Cases like Carsey-Werner Co., LLC v. British Broadcasting Corp. …

Conventional Protections For Commercial Fan Art Under The U.S. Copyright Act, Rachel Morgan

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

For many years, artists and consumers of pop culture have channeled their artistic skills into creating derivative works of their favorite fictional stories and characters. In the United States, fans of Japanese anime and manga have made a living selling artwork of their favorite characters at anime conventions, large gatherings that bring in fellow fans from all around the country. Despite the prevalence of this practice, there is a glaring legal issue: these fictional characters are the intellectual property of the authors who created them, and fan art is blatant copyright infringement. However, there are still many economic advantages to …

Fairness, Copyright, And Video Games: Hate The Game, Not The Player, Shani Shisha

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

Creative communities often rely on social norms to regulate the production of creative content. Yet while an emerging body of literature has focused on isolated accounts of social norms operating in discrete, small-scale creative industries, no research to date has explored the social norms that pervade the world’s largest content microcosm—the sprawling video game community.

Now a veritable global phenomenon, the video game industry has recently grown to eclipse the music and motion picture industries. But despite its meteoric rise, the video game industry has provoked little attention from copyright scholars. This Article is the first to explore the shifting …

Mark Of The Devil: The University As Brand Bully, James Boyle, Jennifer Jenkins

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

In recent years, universities have been accused in news stories of becoming “trademark bullies,” entities that use their trademarks to harass and intimidate beyond what the law can reasonably be interpreted to allow. Universities have also intensified efforts to gain expansive new marks. The Ohio State University’s attempt to trademark the word “the” is probably the most notorious. There has also been criticism of universities’ attempts to use their trademarks to police clearly legal speech about their activities. But beyond provocative anecdotes, how can one assess whether a particular university is truly bullying, since there are entirely legitimate reasons for …

Defensive Patent Litigation Strategy For Chinese Companies: A Review Of The Extraterritorial Reach Of The United States Patent Laws, Lisa D. Zang

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

China has experienced an extraordinary transformation from a poor, developing nation into a global economic power. With China becoming one of the U.S.’s largest trading partners, however, Chinese companies have become increasingly enmeshed in U.S. patent litigations. Although the U.S. patent laws are intended only to govern conduct within the nation’s borders, the line between domestic and foreign economic activities has become increasingly blurred. Modern sales transactions often span multiple countries, and in such situations, it may not be clear whether the U.S. patent laws apply. For Chinese companies facing exposure to U.S. patent litigations, it is critical to understand …

Free Speech In The Modern Age, [email protected]

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Author And The Other: Reexamining The Doctrine Of Joint Authorship In Copyright Law, Tehila Rozencwaig-Feldman

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

Over the years, there has been an increase in the importance and prevalence of the joint authorship doctrine resulting from the internet evolution and globalization processes which allow quick sharing of content and information among various creators from around the world. The collaborations that increased and intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic occurred across a wide variety of creative areas. Today, many types of works such as songs, movies, software, and computer games are created regularly through joint authorship. However, current copyright law regimes relate to this complex and fascinating phenomenon in a limited way, leading to courts’ inconsistent interpretation of …

Targeting Exceptions, Michal Lavi

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

On May 26, 2020, the forty-fifth President of the United States, Donald Trump, tweeted: “There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent. Mail boxes will be robbed, ballots will be forged & even illegally printed out & fraudulently signed.” Later that same day, Twitter appended an addendum to the President’s tweets so viewers could “get the facts” about California’s mail-in ballot plans and provided a link. In contrast, Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg refused to take ac- tion on President Trump’s posts. Only when it came to Trump’s support of the Capitol riot did …

Bringing Clout To The Masses: An In-Depth Look At The “Legal Fake” Phenomenon, Nicole Kim

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

A snaking line of customers that wraps around the block leading to a minimalist, yet iconoclastic store can only mean one thing: drop day. Rain or shine, devoted fans of brands such as Supreme, Palace, and Off-White, among others, are willing to spend their time and money for the opportunity to cop the latest and most exclusive items. In recent years, the rise of streetwear has projected once-underground skater labels to the forefront of youth culture, mainstream society, and high fashion. Not only has this movement affected niche designers and traditional luxury names, but streetwear has also reshaped the consumer …

Casting Light On The Shade: Using Securities Laws To Draw New Contours In Art Investment Regulation, Emma Snover

Fordham Law Review

The disparate treatment of art investments under the Internal Revenue Code and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 poses a problem. This disparity generates inequities among art investors and between art investors and investors in traditional securities markets. The Internal Revenue Code considers both art and traditional securities to be capital assets with no material distinction. For example, prior to the 2017 tax act, art investors could defer the realization of capital gains through like-kind exchanges of works of art under section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code. Currently, under section 1400Z-2, an addition to the Internal Revenue Code through …

Fame: Ownership Implications Of Intellectual Property And Agency Law, Max Stul Oppenheimer

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

In the pre-internet era, it was difficult to reach a wide audience without the help of a professional organization, so as a practical matter control typically rested with distributors rather than with talent. Now that direct public distribution is easy and inexpensive, distributors’ practical control has greatly diminished, and it is therefore important to consider the legal principles that govern the control of the use of “fame.” This Article defines fame as a bundle of intellectual property rights and analyzes the ownership of those rights under intellectual property and agency theories.

Down The Rabbit Hole: Applying A Right To Be Forgotten To Personal Images Uploaded On Social Networks, Eugenia Georgiades

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

The right to be forgotten has been the subject of extensive scrutiny in the broad context of data protection. However, little consideration has been given to the misuse of personal images that are uploaded on social networks. Given the prevalent use of online and digital spaces, social networks process and use various forms of data, including personal images that are uploaded by individuals. The potential for misuse of images is particularly acute when users upload images of third parties. In light of the European Union’s enshrinement of the “right to be forgotten” amid provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation …

Bounty Hunters For Algorithmic Cartels: An Old Solution For A New Problem, Aleksandra Lamontanaro

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

In light of the reality that pricing algorithms allow commercial actors to perform all phases of their price-fixing conspiracies without leaving behind trails of traditional incriminating evidence, the scarcity of algorithmic cartels prosecutions is hardly surprising. Given well-documented evidence that the authorities struggle in their efforts to detect even conventional price-fixing cartels, it is imperative to come up with new tools for detecting algorithmic cartels, which have unprecedented potential to harm consumers if left ignored. This Note investigates algorithmic capabilities to collude, as well as legal and technical challenges that governmental authorities face in confronting such collusion. This Note then …

Fiddling With Federal Circuit Precedent: The Commercial And Qualitative Impact Of Recent Supreme Court Reversals On The U.S. Patent System, Christopher J. Hamersky

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

Prior to 2006, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit enjoyed a fairly laissez-faire relation with the Supreme Court of the United States, enabling it to develop a patent law jurisprudence that patent practitioners could confidently rely on given that it had remained relatively stable for several decades. However, in 2006, the Supreme Court reviewed eBay v. MercExchange and subsequently began a string of frequent Federal Circuit reversals that have caused significant change to the U.S. patent system. Whereas the Supreme Court rarely took up patent appeals in the Federal Circuit’s early history, it now routinely reviews patent questions …

Double Jeopardy: Patents Of Invention As Contracts, Invention Disclosure As Consideration, And Where Oil States Went Wrong, N. Scott Pierce

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

Patents in England were once favors granted by the King with the requirement that the subject matter be practiced, or worked, for the benefit of the public. However, by the late eighteenth century patents were viewed as contracts with the government. Concomitant with this shift, the requirement to practice an invention was replaced by submission of a written specification disclosing to the public how to work the subject matter of the patent. In essence, advancement of the public good by grant of an exclusionary right to practice an invention at royal discretion was substituted with public disclosure as consideration for …

Fashion's Destruction Of Unsold Goods: Responsible Solutions For An Environmentally Conscious Future, Ariele Elia

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

Over the past two years, headlines of fast-fashion and luxury brands burning their merchandise have flooded media outlets. While this came as a shock to the general public, it has actually been a standard industry practice for decades. As societal norms are leaning more towards environmentally conscious practices, destroying unsold products is no longer viewed as an acceptable option. Brands are facing increased scrutiny related to their environmental impact—such as the amount of textile waste that ends up in a landfill—and how they address the issue. While the media have criticized brands for these practices, they have not suggested long-term …

An Instance Of Open Hardware: A Different Approach To Free And Open Source Hardware Licensing, Timothy Murphy

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

As open source software (“OSS”) has become more prevalent, and more widely accepted, many different OSS licenses have proliferated to provide different licensing constructs for licensors and licensees. The most popular OSS license is the GNU General Public License (“GPL”), which is protective of author rights and intended to foster an open software community. Because software source code and object code files are primarily protected by copyright, the options for license terms are relatively straightforward and well-known. To the extent patent rights become an issue, various additional provisions have been proposed to address that issue in the context of the …

The New Cybersquatters: The Evolution Of Trademark Enforcement In The Domain Name Space, Michael Karanicolas

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

The domain name space has become a particularly contentious area of trademark enforcement as a result of the growth of online commerce, an intense competition for popular domain names, and new conceptual challenges stemming from the borderless and textual nature of the medium. In response, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (“ICANN”), a global non-profit which oversees the domain-name space, has implemented a highly sophisticated set of rights-protection mechanisms. This Article examines the scope of trademark protections applied under ICANN’s rights protection mechanisms to demonstrate that they have evolved far beyond their traditional consumer protection function; indeed, they …

Should The Ncaa Have To Pay? Long-Term Injuries In College Athletics, Improper Assumptions Of Risk, And Coverage Of Medical Expenses After College, Alexandrea Jacinto

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

Student-athletes spend years training, perfecting their sport, and working hard in school in order to make it to the big leagues: Division I College Athletics. However, when student-athletes finally get there, they are met with empty promises, and often leave with injuries that no one took the time to warn them about. That is because, despite being told that they must sign an agreement with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (“NCAA”) which binds them to the organization’s rules, athletes learn quickly that the other side of that agreement is rarely, if ever, upheld when they need it. Courts fail to …

Movements, Moments, And The Eroding Antitrust Consensus, Michael Wolfe

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

Timothy Wu, The Curse of Bigness: Antitrust in the New Gilded Age (Columbia Global Reports, 2018). $14.99.

Timothy Wu’s book, The Curse of Bigness, offers a brief history on and critical perspective of antitrust law’s development over the last century, calling for a return to a Brandeisian approach to the law. In this review-essay, I use Wu’s text as a starting point to explore antitrust law’s current political moment. Tracing the dynamics at play in this debate and Wu’s role in it, I note areas underexplored in Wu’s text regarding the interplay of antitrust law with other forms of …

Creation, Destruction, And The Future Of Fashion, Susan Scafidi

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Fashion(Ing) A Political Statement: A Review Of The Legal & Social Issues That Arise From Banned Political Clothing And Other Controversial Fashion Items In Light Of The U.S. Supreme Court’S Decision In Minnesota Voters Alliance V. Mansky, Joyce Boland-Devito

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

Does the U.S. Supreme Court believe that the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment includes freedom of expression in our clothing? The answer is yes! This Article will show that fashion can make a strong political statement (or misstatement) in the court of law as demonstrated by the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision striking down Minnesota’s ban on wearing “political apparel” to vote in Minnesota Voters Alliance v. Mansky. The discussion of this case will include quotes from J. David Breemer, Esq., the attorney who represented the Minnesota Voters Alliance. This Article will examine related U.S. Supreme Court …