Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

Who Owns "The Law"? The Effect On Copyrights When Privately-Authored Works Are Adopted Or Enacted By Reference Into Law, Katie M. Colendich

Washington Law Review

The law," including judicial opinions and statutes, is not copyrightable because neither individuals nor organizations own the law. This longstanding principle is supported by the public's due process right to access the law. The United States Supreme Court has never determined the status of a private organization's copyright on model codes or standards when a legislature adopts those materials into law. Federal courts have taken several different approaches to resolving this issue; however, their decisions are in direct conflict with each other. The Second and Ninth Circuits permit private authors to retain copyrights of materials subsequently enacted into law, while …

The Experimental Use Exception In Japan: A Model For U.S. Patent Law?, Jennifer A. Johnson

Washington International Law Journal

The patent laws of the United States and Japan contain provisions that permit the experimental use of patented inventions. In the United States, the common law experimental use exception has been utilized to permit the use of a patented invention to satisfy intellectual curiosity, as long as the use is not commercial. In 1984, the Hatch-Waxman Act provided a statutory experimental use exception in 35 U.S.C. § 271(e)(1). It amended the Patent Act to allow a generic drug company to experiment with a pioneer drug during the pioneer drug's patent term to generate data for obtaining regulatory approval. In contrast, …

The Experimental Use Exception In Japan: A Model For U.S. Patent Law?, Jennifer A. Johnson

Washington International Law Journal

The patent laws of the United States and Japan contain provisions that permit the experimental use of patented inventions. In the United States, the common law experimental use exception has been utilized to permit the use of a patented invention to satisfy intellectual curiosity, as long as the use is not commercial. In 1984, the Hatch-Waxman Act provided a statutory experimental use exception in 35 U.S.C. § 271(e)(1). It amended the Patent Act to allow a generic drug company to experiment with a pioneer drug during the pioneer drug's patent term to generate data for obtaining regulatory approval. In contrast, …

The Best Patent Practice Or Mere Compromise? A Review Of The Current Draft Of The Substantive Patent Law Treaty And A Proposal For A "First-To-Invent" Exception For Domestic Applicants, Toshiko Takenaka

Articles

Part I of this paper I review the past efforts of patent harmonization. In Part II, I review the current draft of the Substantive Patent Law Treaty (SPLT) and compare its major articles with Title 35 of the United States Code, the European Patent Convention (EPC), and Japanese Patent Law (JPL). In Part III, I analyze the changes expected by the integration of the SPLT into U.S. patent practice and examine if such changes would result in the best patent practice. I propose that the best practice takes into account underlying patent policies in such instances in which the changes …

The Digital Trademark Right: The Troubling New Extraterritorial Reach Of National Law, Xuan-Thao Nguyen

Articles

The Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act authorizes the development of the digital trademark right. Under this new right, a trademark owner can petition a domestic court to transfer a foreign registrant's domain name to the trademark owner. The trademark owner does not need to travel to the foreign land for the litigation or to petition a foreign court for enforcement of the domestic court's decision. The property transfer order has a global effect, enjoining the foreign registrant from further use of its property in its home country. Is such extraterritorial extension of national law permissible? Does the new digital trademark right …

Protection Of Artists' Rights Under The Korean Copyright Law, Chung Hwan Choi, Minsu Kyeong

Washington International Law Journal

The term "artists" includes film, television ("TV"), stage, and musical actors and actresses ("actors"), pop singers and musicians, dancers, fashion models, and classical musicians. Although the same analysis can be applied to all of the categories above mentioned, this article solely focuses on pop singers and actors. The Copyright Act of Korea ("Copyright Act") defines Siryun ("public performance") as the entertainment activities of artists, and uses Siryunja ("performer") instead of "entertainer" as a legal term for artists.

Squeezing The Juice® Out Of The Washington Redskins®: Intellectual Property Rights In "Scandalous" And "Disparaging" Trademarks After Harjo V. Pro-Football Inc., Cameron Smith

Washington Law Review

In Harjo v. Pro-Football Inc., the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board cancelled the federally registered trademarks THE WASHINGTON REDSKINS, REDSKINS, and REDSKINETIES after finding them to be disparaging matter under section 2(a) of the Lanham Act. Pro-Football has appealed the Board's decision to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. This Note argues that Harjo's adoption of the "substantial composite" standard for analyzing disparaging trademarks potentially ignores the majority of the implicated group members' viewpoints and promotes section 2(a) trademark cancellations. In addition, the liberal standing requirements for opposition and cancellation proceedings combined with Harlo's disparagement doctrine …

The Attibution Right In The United States: Caught In The Crossfire Between Copyright And Section 43(A), Roberta Rosenthal Kwall

Washington Law Review

The human impulse for attribution symbolizes the linkage between an author and her creative work. In many countries, authors are afforded a right of attribution as part of a broader doctrine known as moral rights. The United States, however, does not adequately protect moral rights. This Article focuses exclusively on the right of attribution as one component of the moral rights doctrine. Initially, it examines the connection between copyright law and the right of attribution and establishes the inadequacy of the current copyright law as a means of safeguarding the right of attribution. Next, it addresses why section 43(a) of …

How Wide Should The Gate Of "Technology" Be? Patentability Of Business Methods In China, Joy Y. Xiang

Washington International Law Journal

China regards business methods to be a form of mental activity, and consequently excludes them from patent protection. In recent years, along with the proliferation of computer, telecommunication, and Internet technologies, the line between business methods and technology has blurred. As a result, other patent systems, such as U.S. patent law, have modified or are re-evaluating their patent treatment of business methods. The Chinese patent system is designed to promote the progress of science and technology. Business methods having no technical characters are not technological art. It would thus be overly inclusive to regard every business method as "technology" and …

A Comparative Analysis Of Selected Aspects Of Patent Law In China And The United States, Louis S. Sorell

Washington International Law Journal

China's recent admission to the World Trade Organization will bring increased attention to China's patent law, especially as foreign companies expand their technology-based presence in China. This Article summarizes the development of patent law in the United States and China, and compares various aspects of Chinese and American patent law. These aspects include the administrative and judicial hierarchy of the American and Chinese patent systems, patentability requirements, infringement and validity issues, the availability of injunctive relief, and the determination of monetary damages. The Article also discusses the compulsory licensing provisions of China's patent law. Similarities and differences of each patent …

Just Who Is The Person Having Ordinary Skill In The Art? Patent Law's Mysterious Personage, Joseph P. Meara

Washington Law Review

Various patent validity and infringement questions are decided against the standard of the "person having ordinary skill in the art" (Phosita). For example, under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a), an invention must be nonobvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to be granted a patent. In this context, the Federal Circuit has set out six factors for measuring the level of skill of Phosita, yet the court has provided remarkably little guidance in their use and their relationship to nonobviousness. This situation has led to confusion and difficulties among courts trying to assess Phosita's skill. This Comment argues that …

Patent Protection For Pharmaceuticals: A Comparative Study Of The Law In The United States And Canada, Mary Atkinson

Washington International Law Journal

A fundamental purpose of patent law is to encourage the development of new inventions by granting to the inventor exclusivity in the marketplace for a limited period of time. Patent law in the area of pharmaceuticals is complicated by the responsibility of governments not only to encourage research and development of new drugs, but also to assure that new drugs are widely available and affordable, as well as safe and effective. Governments, influenced by market and political philosophies, design patent laws and drug regulatory schemes to meet these responsibilities. The United States has a well-developed pharmaceutical industry and private-payer health …

Legal Protection For Software: Still A Work In Progress, Robert W. Gomulkiewicz

Articles

Software began as geekware-something written by programmers for programmers. Now, software is a business and consumer staple. Cryptic character-based user interfaces have given way to friendly graphical ones; multi-media is everywhere; people own multiple computers of varying sizes; computers are connected to one another across the globe; email and instant electronic messages have replaced letters and telephone calls for many people.

The issue of whether the law should protect software seems quaint to us now. Over the past twenty-five years, legislatures and courts have concluded that copyright, patent, trade secret, trademark, and contract law all can be used to protect …

Cyberproperty And Judicial Dissonance: The Trouble With Domain Name Classification, Xuan-Thao Nguyen

Articles

The nature of cyberspace continues to be woven into the fabric of our daily existence. Not surprisingly, cyberspace and the expansion of e-commerce pose challenges to existing law, particularly the legal definition of cyberproperty domain names. The nature of cyberspace allows many e-companies to possess no traditional assets such as buildings and inventories. Some e-companies own few computers, often using service providers to maintain their web sites. In the virtual space that e-companies inhabit, the primary assets that e-companies own are intangibles such as domain names, customer information, and intellectual property that includes business method patents, copyrights, and trademarks.

Domain …

Commercial Law Collides With Cyberspace: The Trouble With Perfection – Insecurity Interests In The New Corporate Asset, Xuan-Thao Nguyen

Articles

The recent downturn in the economy, particularly in the e-commerce sector, reveals many e-companies heading toward bankruptcy with cyberassets, such as domain names, as their most valuable corporate assets. Lending institutions and other creditors that have extended loans to such e-companies obviously want to get their hands on these bankrupt estates. Which creditor will have priority in the new cybercollateral of domain names? The answer to creditor priority questions may depend on whether domain names are intangible property for purposes of secured transactions. If so, should security interests in domain names be perfected under the Uniform Commercial Code or under …

Rethinking The United States First-To-Invent Principle From A Comparative Law Perspective: A Proposal To Restructure § 102 Novelty And Priority Provisions, Toshiko Takenaka

Articles

This Article first examines the novelty and priority provisions of first-to-file countries, and then compares them with U.S. counterparts to identify major differences and determine why these differences result. The Article discusses the origins of the complex structure adopted by § 102 to define prior art and the difficult interpretation given to terms used in the novelty definition. This Article then reviews the USPTO's practice of the novelty examination and the priority determination in interference proceedings. This review confirms the first-to-file patent professional's perception that the United States, in fact, follows the first-to-file principle, although it also provides an exception …

International Jurisdiction And Enforcement Of Judgments In The Era Of Global Networks: Irrelevance Of, Goals For, And Comments On The Current Proposals, Jonathan A. Franklin, Roberta J. Morris

Librarians' Articles

Last fall a Symposium at Chicago-Kent College of Law entitled "Constructing International Intellectual Property Law: The Role of National Courts," held on October 18-19, 2001, brought together scholars interested in a group of problems related to the relationship between harmonized rules of international civil procedure and diverse nationally-based rules of intellectual property. Subsequently, extensive discussions between the authors developed this Article into its present form.

De-Bugging Open Source Software Licensing, Robert W. Gomulkiewicz

Articles

Home computer users and businesses often rely on software developed by unconventional programmers known as "hackers." Hackers claim that the code they develop is superior in quality to the code developed by commercial software firms because hackers freely share the code they develop. This code sharing enables a multitude of programmers from around the world to rapidly find and fix bugs. The legal mechanism that enables hackers to deploy this worldwide team of de-buggers is a license agreement or, to be more precise,an assortment of license agreements known as "open source" licenses.

Although open source software developers may regularly fix …

Festo'S Effect On After-Arising Technology And The Doctrine Of Equivalents, Anthony H. Azure

Washington Law Review

In Festo Corp. v. Shoketsu Kinzoku Kogyo Kabushiki Co., the Federal Circuit adopted a strict approach to prosecution history estoppel and thereby limited the availability of the doctrine of equivalents to patentees suing for infringement by after-arising technology. The court held that when a narrowing claim amendment creates prosecution history estoppel, the amended claim element maintains no range of equivalents and therefore the patentee is completely barred from applying the doctrine of equivalents. The court rejected the flexible approach, which allows a scope of equivalents even after a narrowing claim amendment. This Note argues that the Supreme Court should …

Japan's New Patent Attorney Law Breaches Barrier Between The "Legal" And "Quasi-Legal" Professions: Integrity Of Japanese Patent Practice At Risk?, Lee Rousso

Washington International Law Journal

In order to increase the quantity of intellectual property related legal services made available to the public, the Japanese Diet enacted a complete revision of Japan's eighty-year-old Patent Attorney Law. Under the terms of the new law, which became effective on January 6, 2001, benrishi (patent attorneys) have authority to greatly expand their range of professional activities. The newly recognized activities encroach upon the statutory monopoly long enjoyed by Japan's bengoshi (attorneys). Furthermore, the new legislation gives the benrishi a professional domain that is inconsistent with the profession's credential requirements. This Comment argues that the revision is likely to have …

Blame It On The Cybersquatters: How Congress Partially Ends The Circus Among The Circuits With The Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act?, Xuan-Thao Nguyen

Articles

Congress blamed the cybersquatters for the need to pass another trademark cyberlaw. Congress enacted the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (“ACPA”) on November 29, 1999. The ACPA aimed to protect consumers and businesses, to promote the growth of electronic commerce, and to provide clarity in the law for trademark owners by prohibiting cybersquatting activities on the Internet. Prior to the enactment of the ACPA, the Federal Trademark Dilution Act (“FTDA”), which was passed by Congress in 1995 and became effective on January 16, 1996, was hailed as a powerful tool to combat cybersquatters on the Internet. That presumed powerful tool turned …

Shifting The Paradigm In E-Commerce: Move Over Inherently Distinctive Trademarks, The E-Brand, I-Brand And Generic Domain Names Ascending To Power?, Xuan-Thao Nguyen

Articles

“What's in a name!” laments Juliet at her Shakespearean balcony. Four hundred years later, in the world of e-commerce, Juliet's question would be “What's in a domain name?” After spending all of the Montague's wealth, Romeo might be able to respond, “Call me but love.com.” The price tag for some generic domain names cost a small fortune: Sex.com for $250 million, Business.com for $7.5 million, Broadband.com for $6 million, Loans.com for $3 million, Flu.com for $1.4 million, and Bingo.com for $1.1 million.

In 1995, Procter and Gamble registered hundreds of generic domain names and offered them for sale at auction …

Should It Be A Free For All? The Challenge Of Extending Trade Dress Protection To The Look And Feel Of Web Sites, Xuan-Thao Nguyen

Articles

In the e-commerce world, a company's web site becomes the primary communication center with the customer. The web site is where the company displays products, presents marketing materials, and provides sales and post-sales support. Increasingly, companies are spending valuable resources to build and maintain their web sites. With the rapid change in web technology, many web sites now feature more than just ordinary text. Color, clipart, graphics, designs, animations, and sounds are now part of the overall appearance of web sites. Yet copying an image from a web site is just one click away. What protection is available to the …

Commentary: International And Comparative Law Perspectives On Internet Patents, Toshiko Takenaka

Articles

The Internet and e-commerce have created a borderless market. Goods and services sold on the Internet are subject to the patent statutes and regulations of all countries in which customers have access. Because the presence or absence of patent protection—or variations in that protection—hinders the movement of goods and services throughout the Internet, it is necessary to harmonize the protection afforded by Internet patents in their early stages of development. Among the three papers, however, only Professor Chiappetta touched upon the problem of compliance with the provisions in TRIPS. None of the papers paid attention to the feasibility of harmonizing …

International And Comparative Law Perspectives On Internet Patents, Toshiko Takenaka

Articles

This commentary will focus on the participants' proposals relative to the laws of other countries. Particularly, assuming that the same proposals were to be made in an international negotiation, my commentary reflects potential reactions and responses from Japanese and European delegates.

No "Dilettante Affair": Rethinking The Experimental Use Exception To Patent Infringement For Biomedical Research Tools, Janice M. Mueller

Washington Law Review

Scientists who require multiple "research tools" (i.e., laboratory resources such as transgenic animals and biological receptors) to develop new drugs and medical diagnostic products are frequently finding that these tools are patented or subject to other proprietary constraints. Stacking royalty obligations and heightened transaction costs resulting from the proliferation of patents on research tools threaten to slow or stop the development of new drugs and devices critical to public health. Because U.S. courts have very narrowly interpreted the common law "experimental use" defense of patent law as limited to "dilettante" uses of inventions for mere "amusement" or "philosophical" inquiry, scientists …

The Battle Against Software Piracy: Software Copyright Protection In The Philippines, Grace P. Nerona

Washington International Law Journal

The Philippines enacted the Intellectual Property Code ("IPC") on June 6, 1997 to comply with its World Trade Organization ("WTO") treaty obligations and to respond to U.S. concerns regarding intellectual property protection in the Philippines. The IPC streamlines administrative procedures, increases criminal penalties for copyright infringement, and provides copyright protection for computer software. Despite the enactment of the IPC, the United States has kept the Philippines on its Special 301 "Watch List" of intellectual property rights violators. The United States maintains that the level of intellectual property protection in the Philippines is inadequate and ineffective, particularly in the areas of …

Actual Versus Legal Control: Reading Vicarious Liability For Copyright Infringement Into The Digital Millennium Copyright Act Of 1998, Charles S. Wright

Washington Law Review

Title 11 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 purports to limit the liability of Internet service providers that have been found vicariously liable for copyright infringement. However, by basing this limitation on the absence of the "benefit" and "control" elements of the common law test for vicarious liability, the plain language of Title II, codified at 17 U.S.C. § 512, appears to preclude statutory protection once a court has found a service provider vicariously liable. This Comment argues that courts must read a narrow definition of "actual" control into 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(1)(B) in order to preserve the …

The U.S. Push For Worldwide Patent Protection For Drugs Meets The Aids Crisis In Thailand: A Devastating Collision, Rosemary Sweeney

Washington International Law Journal

In response to pressure from the United States, Thailand amended its Patent Act in 1992 and 1999 to provide patent protection for drugs and to limit its control on the pricing, importation, and compulsory licensing of patented drugs. These amendments and, perhaps even more importantly, the threat of U.S. trade sanctions, will probably ensure continued high prices and thus restricted access to new, patented Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome ("AIDS") drugs in Thailand. These drugs have dramatically changed the length and quality of life of patients infected with Human Immunodeficieny Virus ("HIV") in developed countries. About one million Thais are infected …

Copyright Statutes That Regulate Technology: A Comparative Analysis Of The Audio Home Recording Act And The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Benton J. Gaffney

Washington Law Review

Over the past two decades, as the presence of digital technology has become more and more ubiquitous, its tremendous capabilities of reproduction and distribution have created difficult issues for copyright law. Recently, Congress has addressed some of these issues by taking the nontraditional approach of directly regulating the manufacture, development, and distribution of technology. In 1992, Congress enacted the Audio Home Recording Act, requiring that all digital audio recording devices possess a serial copy management system to limit the copying of digital music recordings. Six years later, Congress passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, making it a crime to manufacture …