Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Intellectual Property Law Commons™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

University of Michigan Law School

Discipline
Keyword
Publication Year
Publication
Publication Type

Articles 391 - 420 of 595

Full-Text Articles in Intellectual Property Law

Opinion Letter As To The Patentability Of Certain Inventions Associated With The Identification Of Partial Cdna Sequences, Rebecca S. Eisenberg, Robert P. Merges Jan 1995

Opinion Letter As To The Patentability Of Certain Inventions Associated With The Identification Of Partial Cdna Sequences, Rebecca S. Eisenberg, Robert P. Merges

Articles

You have asked for our legal opinion on the patentability of inventions claimed in U.S. patent applications 07/716,831, filed June 21, 1991 (the '831 application, or .'831"), 07/837,195, filed September 25, 1992 ("'195"), and 07/952,911, filed February 12, 1993 (."911"), all filed in the name of Craig Venter and others and assigned to the National Institutes of Health "(NIH)." We understand that NIH has abandoned these patent applications and has no present intention of filing similar applications in the future, but that NIH remains interested in the patenting of human DNA sequences from a broader public policy perspective. We have …

Go to article

Limiting The Role Of Patents In Technology Transfer, Rebecca S. Eisenberg Jan 1994

Limiting The Role Of Patents In Technology Transfer, Rebecca S. Eisenberg

Other Publications

Federal policy since 1980 has reflected an increasingly confident presumption that patenting discoveries made in the course of government-sponsored research is the most effective way to promote technology transfer and commercial development of those discoveries in the private sector. Policymakers in the past may have thought that the best way to achieve widespread use of government-sponsored research was to make the results freely available to the public; the new pro-patent policy stresses the need for exclusive rights as an incentive for industry to invest in bringing new products to market.

Go to article

A Technology Policy Perspective On The Nih Gene Patenting Controversy, Rebecca S. Eisenberg Jan 1994

A Technology Policy Perspective On The Nih Gene Patenting Controversy, Rebecca S. Eisenberg

Articles

This article will use the NIH patent controversy as a focal point for considering when the results of government-sponsored research should be patented and when they should be dedicated to the public domain. First, this article will review the recent history of federal government policy on patenting the results of government-sponsored research. Next, this article will highlight some of the complexities involved in achieving technology transfer from the public sector to the private sector that current policy may oversimplify. With this background, this article will return to a more detailed analysis of the NIH cDNA patenting controversy and consider the …

Go to article

Intellectual Property And The External Power Of The European Community: The New Extension, A. David Demiray Jan 1994

Intellectual Property And The External Power Of The European Community: The New Extension, A. David Demiray

Michigan Journal of International Law

"[T]heory is somewhat lagging behind the facts and developing only in reaction to these facts," argues C.W.A. Timmermans regarding the European Community's (the EC or the Community) legal basis for extending its external power. The Community tends to extend its external competence before having a clear authority for doing so and only later provides a post hoc rationale. This observation suggests that the justification, not the propriety, of a newly acquired external competence is the question. Nowhere is this modus operandi better illustrated, or more sorely tested, than by the Community's growing involvement with and pursuit of international intellectual property …

Go to article

Limiting The Role Of Patents In Technology Transfer, Rebecca Sue Eisenberg Jan 1993

Limiting The Role Of Patents In Technology Transfer, Rebecca Sue Eisenberg

Articles

Federal policy since 1980 has reflected an increasingly confident presumption that patenting discoveries made in the course of government-sponsored research is the most effective way to promote technology transfer and commercial development of those discoveries in the private sector. Whereas policymakers in the past may have thought that the best way to achieve widespread use of government-sponsored research was to make the results freely available to the public, the new propatent policy stresses the need for exclusive rights as an incentive for industry to undertake the further investment to bring new products to market. Although this propatent policy may make …

Go to article

Limiting The Role Of Patents In Technology Transfer, Rebecca S. Eisenberg Jan 1993

Limiting The Role Of Patents In Technology Transfer, Rebecca S. Eisenberg

Articles

Federal policy since 1980 has reflected an increasingly confident presumption that patenting discoveries made in the course of government-sponsored research is the most effective way to promote technology transfer and commercial development of those discoveries in the private sector. Whereas policymakers in the past may have thought that the best way to achieve widespread use of government-sponsored research was to make the results freely available to the public, the new propatent policy stresses the need for exclusive rights as an incentive for industry to undertake the further investment to bring new products to market. Although this propatent policy may make …

Go to article

Protecting Biodiversity: Recognizing International Intellectual Property Rights In Plant Genetic Resources, Rebecca L. Margulies Jan 1993

Protecting Biodiversity: Recognizing International Intellectual Property Rights In Plant Genetic Resources, Rebecca L. Margulies

Michigan Journal of International Law

Accelerating deforestation in many tropical countries with the concomitant loss of plant species diversity incites increasing international concern. Until very recently, international environmental law tended to regard natural plant species as a "common heritage," a universal resource immune to private property claims. This common heritage approach to the problem of biodiversity loss has left the majority of plant species in a jurisprudential void, unprotected by property rights and subject to conflicting claims by countries with divergent goals. Unrelieved economic pressures force impoverished peoples in species-rich developing nations to resort to activities that ravage the forests, and the tragedy of biodiversity …

Go to article

Defining Computer Program Parts Under Learned Hand's Abstractions Test In Software Copyright Infringement Cases, John W.L. Ogilive Dec 1992

Defining Computer Program Parts Under Learned Hand's Abstractions Test In Software Copyright Infringement Cases, John W.L. Ogilive

Michigan Law Review

This Note proposes a set of computer program part definitions that develop Learned Hand's abstractions test to make it more useful in software infringement cases. The Note takes no position on the proper scope of protection for software under copyright law, but argues that no consensus is possible on which program parts deserve copyright protection until courts recognize that computer programs are composed of components whose definition lies beyond judicial control. Program parts defined in conclusory legal terms will never provide a stable basis for reasoned debate over the conclusions presumed in the definitions.

Go to article

Does A Copyright Coowner's Duty To Account Arise Under Federal Law?, Craig Y. Allison Jun 1992

Does A Copyright Coowner's Duty To Account Arise Under Federal Law?, Craig Y. Allison

Michigan Law Review

This Note discusses both the source of the accounting rule and the proper forum for applying the rule. Part I provides a general history of joint ownership and the duty to account and suggests that the number of litigants presenting joint ownership claims will probably increase. Part II discusses joint ownership case law chronologically. This Part shows that the case law is consistent with the view that the duty to account was a creation of the federal courts. Part III argues that the accounting rule is federal common law and that federal jurisdiction necessarily follows for all copyright accounting cases. …

Go to article

The Nature Of Copyright: A Law Of Users' Rights, Lydia Pallas Loren May 1992

The Nature Of Copyright: A Law Of Users' Rights, Lydia Pallas Loren

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The Nature of Copyright: A Law of Users' Rights by L. Ray Patterson and Stanley W. Lindberg

Go to article

U.S.-Thailand Trade Disputes: Applying Section 301 To Cigarettes And Itellectual Property, Ted L. Mcdorman Jan 1992

U.S.-Thailand Trade Disputes: Applying Section 301 To Cigarettes And Itellectual Property, Ted L. Mcdorman

Michigan Journal of International Law

Irrespective of the close economic and strategic relationship between Thailand and the United States, the United States has utilized Section 301 (and Special 301), and the consequent threat of trade retaliation, in its relations with the Land of Smiles. The purpose of this article is to examine the operation of Section 301 and Special 301 regarding trade in cigarettes and intellectual property.

Go to article

Patent Rights In The Human Genome Project, Rebecca S. Eisenberg Jan 1992

Patent Rights In The Human Genome Project, Rebecca S. Eisenberg

Book Chapters

The various research efforts that comprise the Human Genome Project will inevitably both draw on and yield a multitude of patentable inventions. The broad subject matter of the patent laws potentially reaches every phase of the Genome Project, from the discovery of new research technologies, such as techniques and equipment for DNA sequencing, through the ultimate development of new products, such as screening tests for genetically transmitted diseases. Even bits and pieces of the human genome itself may be, and sometimes have been, patented.' Nor does the fact that the public is paying for the Genome Project through federal funding …

Go to article

Personal Jurisdiction Over Aliens In Patent Infringement Actions: A Uniform Approach Toward The Situs Of The Tort, David Wille Dec 1991

Personal Jurisdiction Over Aliens In Patent Infringement Actions: A Uniform Approach Toward The Situs Of The Tort, David Wille

Michigan Law Review

This Note examines current approaches to the question of personal jurisdiction over alien patent infringers. Part I describes personal jurisdiction requirements in the context of patent infringement suits against aliens. The leading case addressing these requirements has been interpreted differently by several courts, thus resulting in conflicting outcomes. Part II explains the current controversy over the locus of the tort of patent infringement. The three different modes of reasoning currently used by courts to determine the locus of the tort would allow immunity from suit for the alien in at least two hypothetical cases. This Part concludes that in order …

Go to article

Copyright As Myth, Jessica D. Litman Sep 1991

Copyright As Myth, Jessica D. Litman

Articles

It has become fashionable to seek to formulate, or reformulate, copyright law as an expression of overarching grand theory. Perhaps the most prominent manifestation of this trend has been the recasting of copyright law in the mold of economic incentives; a more recent upstart competitor seeks to reclaim the debate by invoking the philosophical precepts of Hohfeld, Hegel and Locke. Occasionally, the literature gives us polite debates about which of the competing theoretical models is more misguided. Meanwhile, another voice in the copyright literature has been complaining that the law is remarkably unaccommodating of the actual process of creating works …

Go to article

Copyright, Computer Software, And Work Made For Hire, Matthew R. Harris Dec 1990

Copyright, Computer Software, And Work Made For Hire, Matthew R. Harris

Michigan Law Review

Prior to the Supreme Court's 1989 decision in Community for Creative Non-Violence v. Reid, the Circuits had disagreed over the question of whether independent contractors could qualify as "employees" under the doctrine. The Fifth, Ninth, and D.C. Circuits defined "employee" narrowly, thereby excluding the majority of commissioned works from potential work for hire status. Applying a much broader definition of the term, the Second and Seventh Circuits included virtually all commissioned works as work for hire. The disagreement was not surprising, since the copyright statute does not include a definition of the term, and the legislative history fails to …

Go to article

Idea, Process, Or Protected Expression?: Determining The Scope Of Copyright Protection Of The Structure Of Computer Programs, Steven R. Englund Feb 1990

Idea, Process, Or Protected Expression?: Determining The Scope Of Copyright Protection Of The Structure Of Computer Programs, Steven R. Englund

Michigan Law Review

Courts considering the alleged copying of the structure, rather than literal copying of the text, of a computer program have usually concerned themselves with whether protected expression or an unprotected idea was copied. Courts have seldom suggested that it might be an unprotected process that was copied. However, this Note concludes that the legislative history of the 1976 Act indicates that that legislation's drafters envisioned a far more prominent role for the process-expression dichotomy than it has played to date. The process inquiry is at least as important as the idea inquiry in striking the proper balance between promoting progress …

Go to article

Intellectual Property In The Uruguay Round- Negotiating Strategies Of The Western Industrialized Countries, Frank Emmert Jan 1990

Intellectual Property In The Uruguay Round- Negotiating Strategies Of The Western Industrialized Countries, Frank Emmert

Michigan Journal of International Law

The purpose of this article is not simply to add just another opinion to the debate on international IP protection. Nor does it aim to rally blind support for the position of the Western industrialized countries. Rather, this report attempts to present an objective analysis of all the important arguments of the developed and developing countries, and to evaluate in like manner all major aspects of traditional IP protection and potential regulation in GATT.

Go to article

The Public Domain, Jessica D. Litman Jan 1990

The Public Domain, Jessica D. Litman

Articles

This article examines the public domain by looking at the gulf between what authors really do and the way the law perceives them. Part I outlines the basics of copyright as a species of property and introduces the public domain's place within the copyright scheme. Copyright grants authors" ' rights modeled on real property in order to encourage authorship by providing authors with markets in which they can seek compensation for their creations. Because parcels of authorship are intangible, however, the law faces *problems in determining the ownership and boundaries of its property grants. In particular, the concept of "originality," …

Go to article

Patenting The Human Genome, Rebecca S. Eisenberg Jan 1990

Patenting The Human Genome, Rebecca S. Eisenberg

Articles

The increasing promise of federal funding for mapping and sequencing the human genome has brought with it renewed attention in the research science community to issues of intellectual property protection for products of biotechnology research. Echoing concerns raised a decade ago in the debate over commercialization of academic biomedical research, scientists have called for the free availability of all information generated through the Human Genome Project and have argued against allowing private intellectual property rights in such knowledge. Meanwhile, private parties have quietly been obtaining patents on bits and pieces of the human genome from the Patent and Trademark Office …

Go to article

Copyright Legislation And Technological Change, Jessica D. Litman Jan 1989

Copyright Legislation And Technological Change, Jessica D. Litman

Articles

Throughout its history, copyright law has had difficulty accommodating technological change. Although the substance of copyright legislation in this century has evolved from meetings among industry representatives whose avowed purpose was to draft legislation that provided for the future,6 the resulting statutes have done so poorly. The language of copyright statutes has been phrased in fact-specific language that has grown obsolete as new modes and mediums of copyrightable expression have developed. Whatever copyright statute has been on the books has been routinely, and justifiably, criticized as outmoded.7 In this Article, I suggest that the nature of the legislative process we …

Go to article

Patents And The Progress Of Science: Exclusive Rights And Experimental Use, Rebecca S. Eisenberg Jan 1989

Patents And The Progress Of Science: Exclusive Rights And Experimental Use, Rebecca S. Eisenberg

Articles

In this article I analyze the proper scope of an experimental use exemption from patent infringement liability by comparing the rationales behind promoting technological progress through granting exclusive patent rights in inventions with competing arguments for promoting scientific progress by allowing all investigators to enjoy free access to the discoveries of other scientists. I begin by reviewing key features of the patent laws and theoretical justifications for granting patent monopolies in order to clarify the implications of existing patent doctrine and theory for an experimental use exemption. I then look to the literature in the sociology, history, and philosophy of …

Go to article

Performer's Rights And Digital Sampling Under U.S. And Japanese Law, Jessica D. Litman Jan 1988

Performer's Rights And Digital Sampling Under U.S. And Japanese Law, Jessica D. Litman

Articles

A year or two ago, one of my copyright students called to my attention a problem that seemed to him to pose unique difficulties for the copyright statute. The problem arises because of a technology called digital sampling.' Digital sampling is a new threat to performers' rights that has grown out of the combination of digital recording technology with music synthesizer technology. This threat is a very recent one. Indeed, the digital sampling problem is so new that copyright lawyers haven't yet figured out how to think about it.

Go to article

Proprietary Rights And The Norms Of Science In Biotechnology Research, Rebecca S. Eisenberg Dec 1987

Proprietary Rights And The Norms Of Science In Biotechnology Research, Rebecca S. Eisenberg

Articles

As basic research in biotechnology yields increasing commercial applications, scientists and their research sponsors have become more eager to protect the commercial value of research discoveries through intellectual property law. Some scientists fear that these commercial incentives will weaken or even undermine the norms that have traditionally governed scientific research. In this Article, Professor Eisenberg examines the interaction of proprietary rights in inventions with these traditional scientific norms. Trade secrecy, she argues, is an undesirable strategy for protection of basic research discoveries because it impedes dissemination of new knowledge to the scientific community. She finds that patent law is in …

Go to article

The New World Of Patents Created By The Court Of Appeals For The Federal Circuit, Martin J. Adelman Jun 1987

The New World Of Patents Created By The Court Of Appeals For The Federal Circuit, Martin J. Adelman

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The purpose of this Article is to outline the creation of this new circuit and to analyze its position on several substantive issues. Part I discusses the origin and power of the Federal Circuit. Part II analyzes the court's recent decisions on the issues of nonobviousness, infringement, inequitable conduct, patent misuse, and jury trials. This Article concludes that the Federal Circuit has in general performed well, but there are areas of patent law that must be refined for the court to further its intended goals.

Go to article

A Proposal To View Patent Claim Nonobviousness From The Policy Perspective Of Federal Rule Of Civil Procedure 52(A), Bradley G. Lane Jun 1987

A Proposal To View Patent Claim Nonobviousness From The Policy Perspective Of Federal Rule Of Civil Procedure 52(A), Bradley G. Lane

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note analyzes the scope of appellate review that should be accorded to a trial judge's determination of nonobviousness. Part I details the condition of nonobviousness and how it has evolved into the principal obstacle to patentability. Part II analyzes the Supreme Court and appellate precedents on the scope of review on this issue. Part III evaluates the policy underpinnings of Rule 52(a) and applies a two-pronged analysis to the nonobviousness requirement to determine whether the clearly erroneous standard of review is appropriate. This Note concludes that the treatment of the nonobviousness determination as a question of law cannot be …

Go to article

Recognition Of Proprietary Interests In Software In Korea: Programming For Comprehensive Reform, Byoung Kook Min, Gary Sullivan Jan 1987

Recognition Of Proprietary Interests In Software In Korea: Programming For Comprehensive Reform, Byoung Kook Min, Gary Sullivan

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article will review the legal environment and major issues concerning software protection in the Republic of Korea, and will describe the existing applicable laws and regulations and the trend towards software protection in the region. In addition, the implications of Korea's pending accession to the Universal Copyright Convention will be analyzed. Finally, this article will conclude with a discussion of the current reforms and their implications for Korean international trade law.

Go to article

Computer Technology And Copyright- A Review Of Legislative And Judicial Developments In Japan, Teruo Doi Jan 1987

Computer Technology And Copyright- A Review Of Legislative And Judicial Developments In Japan, Teruo Doi

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article discusses and evaluates the legislative and judicial developments after the enactment of the Copyright Law which apply to computer programs and other computer-related technology. It examines: (1) the 1985 amendment to the Copyright Law enacted to protect computer programs, including the history of discussions by government agencies and judicial determinations that led to the amendment; (2) the 1986 Program Registration Law which supplements the existing provisions of the Copyright Law concerning registration; (3) the protection of databases under a new amendment to the Copyright Law; (4) the regulation of software rental business by the establishment of a public …

Go to article

Some Problems Of Legal Regulation Of The Use Of Computer Technology In Czechoslovakia, Viktor Knapp Jan 1987

Some Problems Of Legal Regulation Of The Use Of Computer Technology In Czechoslovakia, Viktor Knapp

Michigan Journal of International Law

Technical progress is one of the most important elements of social development which necessarily causes change in the law. In the past few decades computer technology has become very important. As a component of technical progress, computer technology has given rise to new social relations which require legal regulation. Such regulation, however, is not provided adequately by existing legal rules in the contemporary Czechoslovak legal system.

Go to article

The Limitations On The Protection Of Program Works Under Japanese Copyright Law, Dennis S. Karjala Jan 1987

The Limitations On The Protection Of Program Works Under Japanese Copyright Law, Dennis S. Karjala

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article examines these problems in the light of the program language, rule, and algorithm limitations on program protection under the Japanese Copyright Act. Section II sets forth the relevant statutory language, and Sections III and IV apply the program language and rule limitations to operating systems software and microcode. Section V considers the scope of protection under Japanese law in applications programs under the algorithm limitation on program protection. Finally, Section VI takes up the problem of whether copying for purposes of reverse engineering can be justified under the Act.

Go to article

Copyright, Compromise And Legislative History, Jessica D. Litman Jan 1987

Copyright, Compromise And Legislative History, Jessica D. Litman

Articles

Copyright law gives authors a "property right." But what kind of property right? Indeed, a property right in what? The answers to these questions should be apparent from a perusal of title seventeen of the United States Code-the statute that confers the "property" right.' Courts, however, have apparently found title seventeen an unhelpful guide. For the most part, they look elsewhere for answers, relying primarily on prior courts' constructions of an earlier and very different statute on the same subject. 2

Go to article

First Prev Next Last