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Full-Text Articles in Intellectual Property Law
Reinventing Copyright And Patent, Abraham Bell, Gideon Parchomovsky
Reinventing Copyright And Patent, Abraham Bell, Gideon Parchomovsky
Michigan Law Review
Intellectual property systems all over the world are modeled on a one-size-fitsall principle. However important or unimportant, inventions and original works receive the same scope of protection, for the same period of time, backed by the same variety of legal remedies. Essentially, all intellectual property is equal under the law. This equality comes at a heavy price, however. The equality principle gives all creators access to the same remedies, even when those remedies create perverse litigation incentives. Moreover, society overpays for innovation through more monopoly losses than are strictly necessary to incentivize production. In this Article, we propose a solution …
Fixing Patent Boundaries, Tun-Jen Chiang
Fixing Patent Boundaries, Tun-Jen Chiang
Michigan Law Review
The claims of a patent are its boundaries, defining the scope of exclusion. This boundary function of claims is undermined by the fact that claims can be changed throughout the life of the patent, thereby moving the patent boundary. A boundary that can be moved at-will is one that the public cannot rely upon. This Article explores the problems of malleable patent boundaries. If a claim can be amended to permit a patentee to capture something he did not foresee when filing the patent application, the amendment confers an unexpected windfall that did not contribute to incentives to invent before …
Independent Invention As A Defense To Patent Infringement, Samson Vermont
Independent Invention As A Defense To Patent Infringement, Samson Vermont
Michigan Law Review
Under current law, independent invention is no defense to patent infringement. This Article argues that independent invention should be a defense, provided the independent inventor creates the invention before receiving actual or constructive notice that someone else already created it. The defense reduces wasteful duplication of effort and enhances dissemination of inventions without lowering the incentive to invent below the necessary minimum. To be sure, the defense lowers the incentive for inventions that face significant odds of being invented by more than one inventor By enabling a second inventor to compete with a first inventor the defense essentially breaks up …
Patents And Antitrust Law, Merrill N. Johnson
Patents And Antitrust Law, Merrill N. Johnson
Michigan Law Review
A Review of Patents and Antitrust Law by Ward S. Bowman, Jr.
Unreduced Royalty Arrangements And Packaged Patents: An Improper Extension Of The Patent Monopoly?, Michigan Law Review
Unreduced Royalty Arrangements And Packaged Patents: An Improper Extension Of The Patent Monopoly?, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
This Comment will examine the merits of Brulotte and the propriety of extending its rule to the package licensing context. In order to do this it is necessary to consider the Brulotte and Rocform decisions in somewhat greater detail.
Recent Developments In Patent Law, Arthur M. Smith
Recent Developments In Patent Law, Arthur M. Smith
Michigan Law Review
The framers of the Federal Constitution shared with Thomas Jefferson his "wish to see new inventions encouraged, and old ones brought again info useful notice." Their concern for the public welfare caused many, including Jefferson, to question the wisdom of using a limited monopoly to encourage such inventions.
Patents - Estoppel Of Licensee To Deny Validity - Restrictions On Licensee's Sale Prices
Patents - Estoppel Of Licensee To Deny Validity - Restrictions On Licensee's Sale Prices
Michigan Law Review
Plaintiff sued to recover royalties alleged to be due under a contract licensing defendant to manufacture articles covered by a patent owned by the plaintiff. The agreement provided that defendant licensee should not sell embodiments of the invention manufactured under the license at prices or under conditions more favorable to its customers than those prescribed by the licensor for its own customers. The defendant set up the defense that plaintiff "by reason of the price control provisions of the licensing contract and the invalidity of [the patent]" was not entitled to recover the royalties. The district court and the circuit …
Patents - Right Of Patentee To Restrict Manufacture, Use, And Sale Of Patented Device, Collins E. Brooks
Patents - Right Of Patentee To Restrict Manufacture, Use, And Sale Of Patented Device, Collins E. Brooks
Michigan Law Review
The patent laws of the United States grant to a patentee the "exclusive right to make, use, and vend the invention or discovery . . . throughout the United States and the Territories thereof . . . . " Much litigation has arisen over the extent of the monopoly thus granted a patentee, but even at this late date it is not too clearly defined. The question came up anew in the case of General Talking Pictures Corp. v. Western Electric Co., where the owner of a patent on a device used in sound reproduction and broadcast reception had …
Trade-Marks -- Map As A Trade-Mark Registerable Under Act Of 1905, Philip A. Hart Jr.
Trade-Marks -- Map As A Trade-Mark Registerable Under Act Of 1905, Philip A. Hart Jr.
Michigan Law Review
Canada Dry Ginger Ale filed an application for the registration, under the Trade-Mark Act of February 20, 1905, as amended, of a colored map of Canada used by it as a trade-mark for maltless beverages sold as soft drinks. The Commissioner of Patents ruled the mark was not a valid trademark at common law and was intended to fall within the statutory prohibition against the registry of "merely a geographical name or term." On appeal, Canada Dry asserted that the mark was a valid common-law trade-mark, and that even though not otherwise registerable, it became so by virtue of a …