Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

The Domino Effect: How Inadequate Intellectual Property Rights In The Fashion Industry Affect Global Sustainability, Cassandra Elrod

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

This note discusses an unexplored problem at the nexus of fashion and intellectual property law: how "fast fashion" leads to unsustainability of global resources and human rights issues pertaining to overseas manufacturing facilities. This unnecessary chain of events could be avoided if fashion designers were granted more substantial intellectual property rights rather than an overall lack of protection. Instead of turning a blind eye to the consequences of consumer demand and "fast fashion," Congress needs to address these issues head on through legislation that mirrors some of the copyright protections afforded fashion designers overseas

A Picture's Worth: The Future Of Copyright Protection Of User-Generated Images On Social Media, Elizabeth Tao

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

In the current digital age, the internet is teeming with personal websites and social media posts. As more people around the world are becoming and staying connected to the internet, more stories and photos are sharing over social networking sites each second. Social media presents a ubiquitous platform to share one's life with others, but this accessibility comes at a price. This Note examines the history and present state of copyright law, within the framework of photography, to highlight the gaps within these laws as applied to personal works of art, like personal photographs, posted to social media sites. Social …

Trust: A Model For Disclosure In Patent Law, Ari Ezra Waldman

Indiana Law Journal

How to draw the line between public and private is a foundational, first-principles question of privacy law, but the answer has implications for intellectual property, as well. This project is one in a series of papers about first-person disclosures of information in the privacy and intellectual property law contexts, and it defines the boundary between public and nonpublic information through the lens of social science —namely, principles of trust.

Patent law’s public use bar confronts the question of whether legal protection should extend to information previously disclosed to a small group of people. I present evidence that shows that current …

A Comparative Study Of Trade Dress In The U.S. And South Korea: Rethinking On The Laws And Precedents In The Apple V. Samsung, Sukchan Sim

Maurer Theses and Dissertations

Trade dress originally included the packaging or dressing of products, however in this time it has been extended to put together the impression of design of products. Product configuration, the design and shape of the product itself, may also be considered a form of trade dress. The Lanham Act protects trade dress if it serves the same source-identifying function as a trademark. In U.S., trade dress was developed continuously for a long time and some significant case suggested guidelines reflecting the modern industry. In Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v Samara Brothers, Inc., or TrafFix Devices, Inc. v. Marketing Displays, Inc., …

The Data-Pooling Problem, Michael Mattioli

Articles by Maurer Faculty

American innovation policy as expressed through intellectual property law contains a curious gap: it encourages individual research investments, but does little to facilitate cooperation among inventors, which is often a necessary precondition for innovation. This Article provides an in-depth analysis of a policy problem that relates to this gap: increasingly, public and private innovation investments depend upon the willingness of private firms and institutions to cooperatively pool industrial, commercial, and scientific data. Data holders often have powerful disincentives to cooperate with one another, however. As a result, important research that the federal government has sought to encourage through intellectual property …

Measuring The Costs And Benefits Of Patent Pools, Michael Mattioli, Robert P. Merges

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This Article addresses a policy question that has challenged scholars and lawmakers since the 1850s: Do the transaction cost benefits of patent pools outweigh their potential for consumer harm? This question has special importance today. Patent pools are on the increase, due to large numbers of patents in critical industries such as software and mobile phones. In this Article, we present the first empirically-based estimate of the transaction costs savings engendered by patent pools. Drawing on interviews with administrators of prominent pools, we document the costs of assembling and administering a functioning pool. We then estimate the transaction costs that …

Sheldon Halpern And The Right Of Publicity, Marshall A. Leaffer

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Mr. Nicolson's Cane, Mark D. Janis

Articles by Maurer Faculty

One of the most widely-recognized artifacts in American patent law iconography is also among its most peculiar: Samuel Nicolson’s cane. The cane played a leading role in the Court’s analysis in American Nicholson v. City of Elizabeth, a nineteenth-century decision that has become a fixture in the patent law canon. The case is the leading enunciation of the doctrine of experimental use, which spares inventors from forfeiting patent rights when they can show that otherwise disqualifying sales or uses were undertaken as experiments to perfect their inventions. This paper argues that the modern experimental use doctrine needs to rediscover its …

Evaluating The Legal Issues Of Internet Service Providers In China -- A Comparative Copyright Analysis Of Chinese Isps, The U.S. Isps, And Japanese Isps, Yifan Huang

Maurer Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is motivated by a legal challenge in the area of Chinese copyright protection: Baidu, which was considered a disaster by the copyright owners in China. To solve this legal challenge, the Chinese could learn from the legal experience of Japan and the U.S. regarding this issue.

The traditional ISP legal system provides a passive-reactive approach to the secondary copyright liability of ISPs. However, the Baidu issue in China indicates that a passive-reactive ISP model is not able to prevent copyright infringement. Recent cases in China and the U.S. reflect a new trend that the judicial branch adopts an …

A Comparative Law Perspective On Intermediaries' Direct Liability In Cloud Computing Context -- A Proposal For China, Shi Xu

Maurer Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is motivated by two questions: How does the emergence of cloud-computing technology impact major countries’ copyright law regarding the issue of intermediaries’ direct liability? What should Chinese legislature body learn from those countries regarding this issue? Answering the first question lays a foundation for answering the second question.

Usually, a cloud-computing intermediary’s specific activity may possess risk of violating a copyright holder’s right of reproduction, right of communication to the public and right of distribution. Comparatively, that intermediary can raise defenses under the exhaustion doctrine and the fair use doctrine. Analysis on these two topics consists of two …

Innovation Heuristics: Experiments On Sequential Creativity In Intellectual Property, Stefan Bechtold, Christopher Buccafusco, Christopher Jon Sprigman

Indiana Law Journal

All creativity and innovation build on existing ideas. Authors and inventors copy, adapt, improve, interpret, and refine the ideas that have come before them. The central task of intellectual property (IP) law is regulating this sequential innovation to ensure that initial creators and subsequent creators receive the appropriate sets of incentives. Although many scholars have applied the tools of economic analysis to consider whether IP law is successful in encouraging cumulative innovation, that work has rested on a set of untested assumptions about creators’ behavior. This Article reports four novel creativity experiments that begin to test those assumptions. In particular, …

Mannington Mills, Inc. V. Congoleum Corp.: A Perfect Storm Of Extraterritoriality In Patent And Antitrust Law, Benjamin Holt

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

The invention of chemically embossed cushioned vinyl flooring revolutionized the flooring industry in the mid-1900s, and the patents on this technology became the basis for large-scale litigation between two of the industry's leaders. This is the story of Mannington Mills, Inc. v. Congoleum Corp.-a case that implicated foreign patent rights and the territorial nature of patent law, the extraterritorial scope of U.S. antitrust law (at a time when this scope was changing and uncertain), competing doctrines of jurisdiction and abstention, and emerging international comity concerns. These legal issues combined to create a perfect storm of extraterritoriality by presenting unique, complex …

University Ip: The University As Coordinator Of The Team Production Process, Samuel Estreicher, Kristina A. Yost

Indiana Law Journal

This Article focuses on intellectual property (IP) issues in the university setting. Often, universities require faculty who have been hired in whole or in part to invent to assign inventions created within the scope of their employment to the university. In addition, the most effective way to secure compliance with the Bayh-Dole Act, which deals with ownership of inventions involving federally funded research, is for the university to take title to such inventions. Failure to specify who has title can result in title passing to the government. Once the university asserts ownership, it then decides whether to process a patent …

Color Blocking: How The Harmonization Of Color Protection May Catalyze Color Depletion In Global Markets, Arsha Hasan

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

The Qualitex decision in 1995 inspired trademark reformation and harmonization worldwide for the protection of color marks. While protecting color trademarks has not created issues of market entry in domestic markets, the growth in the number of transnational market participants and an increased utilization of non-traditional branding may catalyze color depletion in international trade. After exploring how current advertising expenditure requirements and distinctiveness requirements affect the registrability and protection of a color mark, this Note offers potential global reforms to help minimize hurdles for small scale transnational participants and the threat of international color depletion. Specifically, due to consumers' increasing …

Disclosing Designs, Mark D. Janis, Jason Du Mont

Articles by Maurer Faculty

While patent scholars have subjected disclosure doctrines to considerable scrutiny in the context of utility patent law, very little has been written about the role of those doctrines in design patent law. At first blush, this is not surprising: modern design patent documents usually contain short disclosures comprised primarily of drawings, accompanied by very little text. Although this might suggest limited aspirations for design patent disclosures, the story is more complex. Design patents contain only a pro forma claim; it is the disclosure that defines the scope of the protected design. Moreover, although the modern practice of relying primarily on …

Wiggle Room: Problems And Virtues Of The Inwood Standard, Rian C. Dawson

Indiana Law Journal

This Note investigates the origins of Inwood that led to the slim opinion with wide influence. It argues that the very vagueness for which scholars and practitioners have decried Inwood is the case's greatest virtue: Inwood provides a flexible standard that has allowed the common law to evolve and address new business models. Part I discusses the origins of contributory infringement in intellectual property. Part II investigates the Inwood case and the climate of trademark law at the time Inwood was litigated. It also dissects the majority opinion and Justice White's concurrance. Part III examines the Inwood standard's evolution at …

How Malleability Matters, Jason Rantanen

IP Theory

In The Malleability of Patent Rights^₁, I developed the concept that patent rights are malleable rather than static and fixed, distinguishing malleability from the idea that patent rights are merely uncertain. Malleability refers to the idea that the strength and scope of patent rights can be altered by the actors who interact with a patent well after it has issued. Patent law is full of mechanisms that allow for these post-issuance changes, yet there seems to be no good theoretical argument that supports malleability. At best, I concluded, the costs of malleability must be weighed against the doctrinal …

Content-Based Copyright Denial, Ned Snow

Indiana Law Journal

No principle of First Amendment law is more firmly established than the principle that government may not restrict speech based on its content. It would seem to follow, then, that Congress may not withhold copyright protection for disfavored categories of content, such as violent video games or pornography. This Article argues otherwise. This Article is the first to recognize a distinction in the scope of coverage between the First Amendment and the Copyright Clause. It claims that speech protection from government censorship does not imply speech protection from private copying. Crucially, I argue that this distinction in the scope of …

International Trade V. International Property Lawyers: Globalization And The Brazilian Legal Profession, Vitor Martins Dias

Maurer Theses and Dissertations

This work analyzes a distinctive characteristic of the globalizing Brazilian legal profession. Namely, intellectual property (IP) lawyers who once were leaders in opening the Brazilian economy and were key players in cross-border transactions are now losing ground to their peers with an expertise in international trade. The thesis of this article is that the manner in which Brazilian lawyers are being educated is in shambles. Generally speaking, Brazilian legal education has, overall, become degraded and provincial. Yet, Brazilian international trade lawyers, unlike Brazilian IP-lawyers, have overcome their deficient legal training by seeking legal education abroad. By traveling overseas, especially to …

Copyright Complements And Piracy-Induced Deadweight Loss, Jiarui (Jerry) Liu

Indiana Law Journal

Conventional wisdom suggests that copyright piracy may in effect reduce the deadweight loss resulting from copyright protection because it allows the public unlimited access to information goods at a price closer to marginal cost. It has been further contended that lower copyright protection would benefit society as a whole, as long as authors continue to receive sufficient incentives from alternative revenue streams in ancillary markets, for example, touring, advertising, and merchandizing. By evaluating the empirical evidence from the music, performance, and video game markets, this Article highlights a counterintuitive yet important point: copyright piracy, while decreasing the deadweight loss in …

Anatomy Of A Design Regime, Kathryn C. Moore

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Since the European Union adopted uniform sui generis design rights, an increasingly complex system of cumulative and overlapping intellectual property rights has emerged. While such harmonization offers several benefits, analyzing the interpretation and application of narrow legal requirements within the EU Community Design Rights may indicate whether such benefits will actually be realized. This paper examines Regulation 6/2002's definitions of "informed user" and "overall impression" as they apply to registered designs. After summarizing relevant case law and considering underlying policy goals of the EU Community design legislation, this paper explores whether these definitions could be more efficient and intellectually honest …

Kamil Kubik: The Artist And Copyright Observed, Elizabeth Townsend Gard, Yvette J. Liebesman

IP Theory

For over 60 years—from the time he fled his native Czechoslovakia in 1948 until his death in August 2011—Kamil Kubik created amazing oil paintings and pastels. His art graces the walls of The Breakers in Palm Beach, Florida, the Old Ebbett Grill in Washington, DC, and the homes of Presidents, Governors, and celebrities. Many of his works were also printed as lithographs and serigraphs, and sold at more affordable prices than the four-to-five figures that he received for the originals. Fortunately, he was not dependent on the sale of these prints, as most of the original works were unprotected by …

The Federal Question In Patent-License Cases, Amelia Smith Rinehart

Indiana Law Journal

The patent law has long recognized a patent owner’s ability to license some interest in the patent by granting to others permission to tread upon the patent owner’s property rights without legal consequence. When one of the parties to a patent license decides to seek remedies from the other party for a license harm, the resulting litigation may be a patent-infringement case with a contract issue or a contract case with a patent issue. In most cases, the patent owner brings her suit against the licensee in federal court, alleging that the licensee breached the license contract and, as a …

The Protection Of Performers Under U.S. Law In Comparative Perspective, Daniel Gervais

IP Theory

The majority opinion of the Ninth Circuit panel in Garcia v. Google, Inc. stands for the proposition that an actor has copyright in her performance. The case was described as horrific and generated a significant amount of traffic on listservs and social media.

In the opinion, Chief Judge Kozinski made three key points. First, that there was originality in the performance, as required under Feist. The Feist court found that creative choices were necessary to generate sufficient originality to warrant copyright protection. Using Feist as backdrop, the Garcia majority found that:

An actor’s performance, when fixed, is copyrightable if …

Copyright And Cross-Cultural Borrowing: Indo-Western Musical Encounters, Arpan Banerjee

IP Theory

This article traces the history of how Western rock musicians and hip-hop musicians, separated by many decades, have borrowed elements from Indian music. Conversely, the article also discusses how Indian film music composers have frequently, and rather blatantly, copied Western melodies. While cross-cultural borrowing raises complex socio-political questions, this article focuses on some practical legal questions that arise from such borrowing. The article discusses lawsuits filed by artists in India and the United States — from a much-publicized lawsuit against Dr. Dre by the Indian film music composer Bappi Lahiri, to a more recent lawsuit against another Indian film composer …

No Comment: Will Cariou V. Prince Alter Copyright Judges’ Taste In Art?, Christine Haight Farley

IP Theory

Even before Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc. made transformativeness the name of the game in fair use law, judges have been in search of artistic speech in their copyright fair use determinations, especially in appropriation art cases. Judges often find themselves ascribing meaning both to the defendant’s work and the plaintiff’s work when comparing the two in order to determine whether defendant’s art is new. So while many commentators attribute appropriation artist Jeff Koons’s victory in Blanch v. Koons after a string of losses to the development in fair use law contributed by Campbell, I instead argue that …

Are The Courts Singing A Different Tune When It Comes To Music?: What Ever Happened To Fair Use In Music Sampling Cases?, Michael B. Landau

IP Theory

As "fair use" has become more common as a defense to copyright infringement, often successfully, it has not gained any ground in cases involving music sampling. In the years since Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc., we have seen the introduction of "transformative use" to fair use analysis. "Transformative use" has led to the holdings that thumbnail reproductions of photographs, parodies of novels, parodies of advertisements, changed artworks, the inclusion of legal briefs in searchable databases, the inclusion of music in film, and the mass digitization of millions of books are all "fair use." Almost every day we read of …

Commentary: Revisiting The Derivative Works Exception Of The Copyright Act Thirty Years After Mills Music, Robert S. Meitus

IP Theory

No abstract provided.

Living Gardens, Living Art, Living Tradition, Roberta R. Kwall

IP Theory

Copyright protection in the United States begins from the moment of a work’s “creation.”1 Although this rule is codified in the statute, the underlying issues of how and when “creation” occurs are rarely, if ever, explored. Under the current law, as soon as an author creates a copyrightable work of authorship and fixes that work in a tangible medium of expression, the work is entitled to protection. This formulation ignores the critical issues of whether fluid works of authorship that are constantly evolving can be subject to copyright protection and, if so, what is the scope of such protection. Not …

Are We Serious About Performers’ Rights?, Mary Lafrance

IP Theory

Do performers have rights in the expressive works they help to create? Historically, the rights of performers have received far less attention that the rights of traditional authors. The law has been reluctant to recognize performers as authors and, to the extent that performers’ rights are recognized, they are secondary to, and more limited than, the rights of traditional authors. Recent developments, however, have brought performers’ intellectual property rights to the forefront. For a number of reasons, performers in the United States have increasingly begun to assert authorship rights in the works they help to create. In addition, recent international …