Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

Striking A Delicate Balance: Intellectual Property, Antitrust, Contract And Standardization In The Computer Industry, Maureen A. O'Rourke

Faculty Scholarship

Shortly before the Second Intermational Harvard Conference on Internet & Society, the Department of Justice ("DOJ") brought a widely publicized suit against the Microsoft Corporation. In its complaint, the DOJ charged Microsoft with engaging in a variety of antitrust wrongs connected with its alleged monopoly position in the market for personal computer ("PC") operating system software. The Conference panel on Antitrust and the Internet, which had planned to focus on how antitrust law affects standard-setting efforts and the implications for the Intermet, quickly abandoned that topic in favor of discussion of the Microsoft suit.

Can Patents Deter Innovation? The Anticommons In Biomedical Research, Michael Heller, Rebecca S. Eisenberg

Faculty Scholarship

The "tragedy of the commons" metaphor helps explain why people overuse shared resources. However, the recent proliferation of intellectual property rights in biomedical research suggests a different tragedy, an "anticommons" in which people underuse scarce resources because too many owners can block each other. Privatization of biomedical research must be more carefully deployed to sustain both upstream research and downstream product development. Otherwise, more intellectual property rights may lead paradoxically to fewer useful products for improving human health.

Adjudicating Copyright Claims Under The Trips Agreement: The Case For A European Human Rights Analogy, Laurence R. Helfer

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Introduction To Keynote Address: Symposium: The First Amendment And The Media: Convergence--Necessary, Evil, Or Both? The Legal, Economic, And Cultural Impacts Of Mega Media Mergers, Joel R. Reidenberg

Faculty Scholarship

It is my pleasure today to introduce our keynote speaker, Professor Larry Lessig. Professor Lessig is the Jack and Lillian Berkman Professor of Entrepreneurial Legal Studies at Harvard Law School and is a renowned scholar in intellectual property, constitutional, Internet, and new media law. Indeed, the last time Professor Lessig spoke here at Fordham, he was focusing on his pioneering work addressing fidelity in constitutional interpretation. Of course, not the sort of fidelity that the Senate is debating this afternoon.

Price Discrimination, Personal Use And Piracy: Copyright Protection Of Digital Works, Michael J. Meurer

Faculty Scholarship

The growth of digital information transmission worries copyright holders who fear the new technology threatens their profits because of greater piracy and widespread sharing of digital works. They have responded with proposals for expanded protection of digital works. Specifically, they seek restrictions on personal use rights regarding digital works provided by the fair use and first sale doctrines. The proposed changes in the allocation of property rights to digital information significantly affect the ability of copyright holders to practice price discrimination. Broader user rights make discrimination more difficult; broader producer rights make discrimination easier. I argue that more price discrimination …

Rethinking Remedies At The Intersection Of Intellectual Property And Contract: Toward A Unified Body Of Law, Maureen A. O'Rourke

Faculty Scholarship

As society continues to move "on-line"' and technology advances in fields such as biotechnology, a paradigm shift is occurring. Investors are focusing less on asset valuations based on the physical goods owned by a particular firm and more on the value of intangibles-the information and know-how possessed by the firm and embodied in its intellectual property rights. Firms and even entire industries have grown up with the primarily paper assets of patents and copyrights.

An Artist's Privilege, Niels Schaumann

Faculty Scholarship

This article examines visual art in light of the letter and the spirit of the Constitution's Copyright Clause and the Copyright Act of 1976 (“Act”) and concludes that artists should have the freedom to copy works, not only of popular culture, but of all kinds. In other words, people creating art should be permitted to copy anything and everything. This is not to suggest that copyright serves no purpose: destroying the copyright edifice merely to protect the ability of certain artists to create would be dangerous and foolhardy. Practical limitations on an artist's privilege to copy can be imposed to …

Extraterritoriality And Multiterritorality In Copyright Infringement, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

Extraterritorial application of U.S. law, as Professor Curtis Bradley demonstrates, is highly suspect, if not illegitimate, unless clearly authorized by Congress. The apparently “extraterritorial” character of much recent copyright litigation has led some U.S. courts to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction or on grounds of forum non conveniens when the cases present offshore points of attachment. As copyright commerce becomes increasingly international, some of these dismissals may be unwarranted. They also may be incorrect in their refusal to apply U.S. law or retain U.S. jurisdiction over the parties: the decisions may be too quick to perceive "extra"-territoriality in …

Deregulatory Takings, Breach Of The Regulatory Contract, And The Telecommunications Act Of 1996, William J. Baumol, Thomas W. Merrill

Faculty Scholarship

Professors Baumol and Merrill reply to Deregulatory Takings and Breach of the Regulatory Contract, published last year in this Review, which argued that the price incumbents may charge potential competitors for bottleneck facilities under the Telecommunications Act of 1996 should be based not on forward-looking costs but on historical costs. Professors Baumol and Merrill contend that pricing with reference to historical costs would depart from the principles called for by economic analysis for efficient pricing and they further argue that neither the Takings Clause nor the regulatory contract precludes the use of forward-looking costs in setting prices. If a taking …

Protection Of Famous Trademarks In Japan And The United States, Kenneth L. Port

Faculty Scholarship

The concepts of trademark jurisprudence in Japan and the United States differ drastically. This difference is apparent in many aspects of trademark protection in both countries and is most evident in the treatment of famous marks. Although Japan and the United States share elements of trademark law that cause some observers to claim that Japan is legally the fifty-first State, the conceptual differences at the foundation of trademark law in each country are so significant that such a claim seems inaccurate and misleading.

Copyright, Common Law, And Sui Generis Protection Of Databases In The United States And Abroad, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

What protection remains for compilations of information, particularly digital databases, since the United States Supreme Court swept away "sweat copyright" in its 1991 Feist decision? "Thin" copyright protection is still available, but it covers only the original contributions (if any) that the compiler brings to the public domain information. Moreover, Feist makes clear that padding the compilation with original added value will not flesh out the skeletal figure beneath: the information, stripped of selection, arrangement, or other copyrightable frills, remains free for the taking.

If copyright is unavailing, contract is appearing more promising, as mass-market, "shrinkwrap" and "click-on" licenses gain …

Authors And Users In Copyright, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

It has become fashionable, among some thinkers and activists in copyright and related fields, to disparage or to deplore copyright protection. For one drawn to copyright both for its intellectual fascination and its inspiring goals of fostering creativity and protecting authorship, I am distressed to learn that I am among the defenders of a fallen faith, that authors' rights are misguided (if not pernicious) impediments to technological progress, and, worst of all, that copyright blocks freedom of thought and speech in cyberspace. Digital agendas notwithstanding, some of this derogatory discourse is not new; infringers have long found eloquent, if somewhat …

Copyright Without Borders? Choice Of Forum And Choice Of Law For Copyright Infringement In Cyberspace, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

The disjunction between territorial treatment of copyright claims and the ubiquity of cyberspace has led some commentators to urge abandonment of landlocked notions of judicial and legislative competence. Since digital communications resist grounding in particular fora, or governance by individual national laws, these writers contend it would be best to devise a cyberian legal system that would supply cyber-specific substantive copyright law, and/ or virtual dispute settlers whose competence – and whose determinations – would transcend national borders.

My analysis will be more earthbound. This is not to belittle the important ongoing efforts to achieve international harmony of substantive copyright …

Protecting A Piece Of American Folklore: The Example Of The Gusset, Jo Carrillo

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Protecting Software And Information On The Internet, Ronald Cass, Steve Bauer, Pamela Samuelson, Maureen A. O'Rourke, Omar Khudari, George S. Takach

Faculty Scholarship

Welcome. My name is Ron Cass. I am Dean of the Law School here at Boston University. This is part of an ongoing series of symposia on the Internet and Internet law. The program has been put together by Michael Baram, of our Center for Law and Technology, and Steve Bauer, of the law firm Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault, which has contributed generously to the series and made it possible to line up a number of speakers. I am going to turn over the program now, but I wanted to take this opportunity to thank both Mr. Baram and Mr. …

On The Economics Of Copyright, Restitution And "Fair Use": Systemic Versus Case-By-Case Responses To Market Failure, Wendy J. Gordon

Faculty Scholarship

The 'public goods' characteristics possess by intangible works of authorship and invention present the basic market failure problem usually relied on to justify intellectual property rights. What is ordinarily less emphasized is that such market failure is no more than half of the prerequisite for an economically desirable copyright or patent system: another requisite condition is that there be less costly market imperfections after intellectual property is instituted than there would have been in the absence of the intellectual property regime. Intellectual property rights are best justified in the presence of "asymmetric market conditions", that is where (1) in the …

Foucault In Cyberspace: Surveillance, Sovereignty, And Hardwired Censors, James Boyle

Faculty Scholarship

This is an essay about law in cyberspace. I focus on three interdependent phenomena: a set of political and legal assumptions that I call the jurisprudence of digital libertarianism, a separate but related set of beliefs about the state's supposed inability to regulate the Internet, and a preference for technological solutions to hard legal issues on-line. I make the familiar criticism that digital libertarianism is inadequate because of its blindness towards the effects of private power, and the less familiar claim that digital libertarianism is also surprisingly blind to the state's own power in cyberspace. In fact, I argue that …

1995 Patent Law Decisions Of The United States Court Of Appeals For The Federal Circuit, Lawrence M. Sung

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Small Business And Copyright Ownership, Niels Schaumann

Faculty Scholarship

This article attempts to facilitate the recognition of situations involving copyright and the appropriate arrangements regarding ownership of the right. Part II briefly outlines some copyright basics, including the varieties of copyrightable subject matter under the Copyright Act of 1976. Part III describes copyright ownership, focusing on the kinds of transactions most likely to take place in the context of small business, including the “work for hire” doctrine. Armed with these fundamentals, the small-business lawyer may find that copyright litigation will rarely become necessary.

U. S. Federalism And Intellectual Property, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

The federal structure of the U.S. government presents interesting questions for intellectual property. Which government, national or state, exercises regulatory authority? Or do both governments play a significant role? Questions of this order cannot be addressed unless one first analyzes what the term "intellectual property" comprehends. Intellectual property includes well-recognized regimes of exclusive rights in inventions (patents), literary, artistic and musical creations (copyrights), and trademarks. But it also covers more elusive, and evolving, interests, such as exploitation of one's personal name and image (right of publicity), trade secrets, and a generalized concern with prevention of acts amounting to unlicensed appropriation …

Combating Impunity: Some Thoughts On The Way Forward, Naomi Roht-Arriaza

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Of Seeds And Shamans: The Appropriation Of The Scientific And Technical Knowledge Of Indigenous And Local Communities, Naomi Roht-Arriaza

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Norms Of Communication And Commodification, Wendy J. Gordon

Faculty Scholarship

Around the laws that regulate information and communication swarm a host of related nonlegal norms: norms of secrecy, confidentiality, and privacy; of anonymity, source-identity, and citation; of quotation, paraphrase, and hyperbole; norms of free copying and norms of obtaining permission; norms of gossip and of blackmail. The articles by Saul Levmore and Richard McAdams provide useful windows on some of the ways these laws and norms interact. The two articles also provide insight into the comparative advantage possessed in some circumstances by law and by nonlegal norms, respectively, when information and communication are at issue. In my brief Comment I …

La Protection Aux Etats-Unis Des Oeuvres D'Art, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

In French
Les Etats-Unis sont un marche important d'oeuvres d'art, non seulement pour la vente des tableaux, mais aussi pour !'exploitation de reproductions et d'adaptations des images. Par exemple, en dehors des reproductions traditionnelles telles que celles contenues dans des catalogues et livres d'art et des reproductions sous forme de cartes postales et affiches, une oeuvre d'art originairement corn;ue comme une expression des beaux arts peut s'exploiter telle par exemple une sortie de bain, du papier peint, voire un decor de poubelle. Dans quelle mesure un artiste peut-il etre remunere ou meme s'opposer a J'exploitation commerciale de son oeuvre aux …

Remembering Melville Nimmer: Some Cautionary Notes On Commercial Speech, William W. Van Alstyne

Faculty Scholarship

This examination concerns itself with two main questions: what qualifies as commercial speech and how much protection does commercial speech enjoy under the First Amendment when compared to other forms of speech. The trend of the Court indicates that commercial speech enjoys protections similar to political speech.

Intellectual Property Policy Online: A Young Person’S Guide, James Boyle

Faculty Scholarship

This is an edited version of a presentation to the "Intellectual Property Online" panel at the Harvard Conference on the Internet and Society, May 28-31, 1996. The panel was a reminder of both the importance of intellectual property and the dangers of legal insularity. Of approximately 400 panel attendees, 90% were not lawyers. Accordingly, the remarks that follow are an attempt to lay out the basics of intellectual property policy in a straighforward and non-technical manner. In other words, this is what non-lawyers should know (and what a number of government lawyers seem to have forgotten) about intellectual property policy …

From Free Riders To Fair Followers: Global Competition Under The Trips Agreement, Jerome H. Reichman

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

International Copyright: An Unorthodox Analysis American Association Of Law Schools' Intellectual Property Section's Symposium On Compliance With The Trips Agreement, Hugh C. Hansen

Faculty Scholarship

Professor Hansen reviews the development of copyright from its traditional domestic orientation to the modern emphasis on globalization and harmonization. His commentary analogizes modem trends in international copyright to religious equivalents. He notes that the current players include a "secular priesthood" (the traditional copyright bar and academics), "agnostics and atheists" (newer academics and lawyers, particularly those concerned with technology and the culture of the public domain) and "missionaries" (whose task it is to increase copyright protection around the world and who are primarily driven by trade considerations). The copyright "crusade" has been driven by this last group. The author compares …

Exploiting The Artist's Commercial Identity: The Merchandizing Of Art Images, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

"Merchandizing properties" are not a recent arrival on the copyright and trademark scene. As early as the 1930s, the Walt Disney Company foresaw the substantial economic gains from licensing the images of its animated motion picture characters in a variety of consumer media, from publications, to soft toys, clothing and household items. Most recently, the World Intellectual Property Organization has prepared a substantial comparative law study of "Character Merchandising." The merchandizing of fine arts images, however, is a more recent development, and is one that has so far received less attention from academic commentators. This article offers some preliminary observations, …

Putting Cars On The "Information Superhighway": Authors, Exploiters, And Copyright In Cyberspace, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

The advent of the "Information Superhighway" has sparked much speculation about the roles of authorship, of readership, and of literary property in the vast system of interlinked computer networks that has come to be known as "cyberspace." Through computers linked to a digital network, users can access and add to vast quantities of material. At least in theory, every computer user can become his, or her own publisher, and every terminal can become a library, bookstore, or audio and video jukebox.

The prospect of pervasive audience access to and ability to copy and further disseminate works of authorship challenges the …