Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

Introduction: The Triangulation Of International Intellectual Property Law: Cooperation, Power, And Normative Welfare, Peter M. Gerhart

Faculty Publications

Introduction to the symposium "The Future of International Intellectual Property: The International Relations of Intellectual Property Law," Cleveland, Ohio March 26,2004.

European Community Compulsory Licensing Policy: Heresy Versus Commen Sense Symposium On European Competition Law , Frank Fine

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

There is a growing trend to limit the rights of intellectual property owners when the public interest warrants. Until very recently, this phenomenon has been manifested only at a transnational level.1 For example, the World Trade Organization, as recently as November 2001, in its Doha Agreement ("Doha"),2 enabled certain nations of the Asian and African subcontinents to obtain compulsory licenses to manufacture and distribute domestically certain anti-retroviral drugs by declaring a state of national health emergency. Doha raises an intriguing question: if limited intrusions into valuable intellectual property rights may be justified on public health grounds, should not such intrusions …

Introduction: Contains Cover, Table Of Contents, Letter From The Editor, And Masthead, Edwin E. Wallis Iii

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

On behalf of the 2003-2004 Editorial Board, I would like to welcome you to the third issue of the Richmond Journal of Law & Technology’s 2003-2004 publication term! This issue includes three articles covering the AOL Instant Messenger restriction before the FCC, online alternative dispute resolution, and a proposal for regulating Internet gambling.

Introduction: Contains Cover, Table Of Contents, Letter From The Editor, And Masthead, Edwin E. Wallis Iii

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

On behalf of the 2003-2004 Editorial Board, it is my pleasure to welcome you to the fth and nal issue of the Richmond Journal of Law & Technology’s 2003-2004 publication term! This issue represents another “ first” for the Journal – the world’s first Annual Survey dedicated to e-Discovery law. For more information on this Issue, I invite you to read the Letter from the Annual Survey Editor and the article, A Topic Both Timelyand Timeless, prepared by Professor James Gibson.

Introduction: Contains Cover, Table Of Contents, Letter From The Editor, And Masthead, Sean Sullivan Kumar

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

On behalf of the Editorial Board and Staff, I would like to welcome you to Volume XI of the Richmond Journal of Law & Technology. As we look ahead to the coming year, and particularly to our tenth anniversary this April, we would like to thank you for your continued support. The Richmond Journal of Law & Technology would not be what it is today without quality submissions from practitioners, positive feedback from our readers, and the diligent efforts of so many who have worked to make the Journal a success over the past ten years. In this first issue, …

An Introduction To Artificial Intelligence And Legal Reasoning: Using Xtalk To Model The Alien Tort Claims Act And Torture Victim Protection Act, Eric Allen Engle

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

This paper presents an introduction to artificial intelligence for legal scholars and includes a computer program that determines the existence of jurisdiction, defences, and applicability of the Alien Tort Claims Act and Torture Victims Protection Act. The paper includes a discussion of the limits and implications of computer programming in formal representations of the law. Concluding that formalization of the law reveals implicit weaknesses in reductionist legal theories, this paper emphasizes the limitations in practice of such theories.

Arrgh! Hollywood Targets Internet Piracy, Anna E. Engelman, Dale A. Scott

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

As technology advances, the threat of rampant and unprecedented theft of digital media continues to grow. The music industry has already faced, and continues to face, this threat, but has largely failed in defending musicians’ intellectual property.

Proving Dilution, Lee Goldman

University of Miami Law Review

No abstract provided.

Innovations Palpitations: The Confusing Status Of Geographically Misdescriptive Trademarks, Mary Lafrance

Scholarly Works

The United States' two major international trade agreements of the 1990s—the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)—included intellectual property provisions that led Congress to amend a number of federal intellectual property statutes, including, inter alia, the Lanham Act provisions dealing with federal registration of trademarks. Specifically, pursuant to Article 1712 of NAFTA, Congress revised the rules that determine whether, and under what circumstances, federal registration is permitted for trademarks that contain geographical indications of origin. In the decade since these enactments, it appeared that the courts had reached a reasonable interpretation …

The "Terminator" Patent And Its Discontents: Rethinking The Normative Deficit In Utility Test Of Modern Patent Law, Ikechi Mgbeoji

Articles & Book Chapters

Arguably, no other biotechnological invention has been excoriated with so much confused rhetoric on “utility” as the invention relating to Genetic Use Restriction Technologies (“GURTs”) patented in the United States, Canada, Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark and many other countries. Otherwise known by their rather inflammatory nickname of both “terminator patents,” GURTs have become the lightning rod for both technophiles and Luddites. At the heart of the controversy is a misunderstanding of the changed meaning of the concept of utility in patent law. This paper argues that while the public understanding of utility as social usefulness is well grounded in history …

Counterclaims, The Well-Pleaded Complaint, And Federal Jurisdiction, Christopher A. Cotropia

Law Faculty Publications

This Article proceeds as follows: Part I of the Article begins by laying the statutory and constitutional foundation of "arising under" jurisdiction. The current connection between "arising under" jurisdiction and federal question jurisdiction is discussed. Part I also fully sets forth the well-pleaded complaint rule, and discusses removal jurisdiction, which is governed by the concept of "arising under" jurisdiction. As necessary background to understanding the Court's reasoning in Holmes and why the case prompts a general discussion on federal jurisdiction implications, Part I concludes by defining a district court's jurisdiction over patent cases, the Federal Circuit's appellate jurisdiction over patent …

Copyright Class War, Niels Schaumann

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Something Borrowed, Something New: The Changing Role Of Novelty In Idea Protection Law, Mary Lafrance

Scholarly Works

Ideas that do not qualify for legal protection, it is well settled, are free to the world once they have been disclosed. Yet states vary considerably in the scope of, and prerequisites for, legal protection granted to ideas. Variations in state approaches to idea protection are well documented. The states most often highlighted for their contrasting approaches are New York and California. Idea protection doctrine in these two jurisdictions differs primarily in the role played by the concept of “novelty.” There is no one authoritative definition of novelty in this context; indeed, courts typically use the term without defining it. …

Trademarks And Consumer Search Costs On The Internet, Stacey Dogan, Mark A. Lemley

Faculty Scholarship

In theory, trademarks serve as information tools, by conveying product information through convenient, identifiable symbols. In practice, however, trademarks have increasingly been used to obstruct the flow of information about competing products and services. In the online context, in particular, some courts have recently allowed trademark holders to block uses of their marks that would never have raised an eyebrow in a brick-and-mortar setting - uses that increase, rather than diminish, the flow of truthful, relevant information to consumers. These courts have stretched trademark doctrine on more than one dimension, both by expanding the concept of actionable "confusion" and by …

Consolidating The Diffuse Paths To Trade Dress Functionality: Encountering Traffix On The Way To Sears, Margreth Barrett

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Biotechnology Law: A Tale Of Peptides And Lasers: Is Integra Lifesciences I, Ltd. V. Kgaa The End Of The Experimental Use Defense For Biomedical Innovation, Or Does § 271(E)(1) Of The Patent Act Save The Day, Melissa J. Alcorn Ph.D.

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Topic Both Timely And Timeless, James Gibson

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

The courtroom is the crucible of the law, where the fire of litigation tests the intellectual and political forces that inform social policy. Discovery - the process by which litigants identify and assemble their evidence - provides the fuel for the fire. Indeed, not long ago most of the evidence that the discovery process produced was, quite literally, flammable: boxes upon boxes of paper documents.

An Analysis Of The Factors That Determine When And How To Resolve A Trademark Dispute, Thomas J. Speiss, Stephen M. Levine

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

Business and war have one thing in common: strategy. “Never to be undertaken thoughtlessly or recklessly, [strategy is] to be preceded by measures designed to make it easy to” obtain the desired outcome. “A skilled general must be master of the complementary arts of simulation and dissimulation; while creating shapes to confuse and delude the [negotiating adversary] he conceals his true dispositions and ultimate intent.” His actions “are designed to entice the [adversary], to unbalance him, and to create a situation favourable for a decisive counter-stroke.”

Ulysses, Bloomsday, And Copyright, Robert Spoo

Articles, Chapters in Books and Other Contributions to Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

The Implementation Of Fda Determinations In Litigation - Why Do We Defer To The Pto But Not To The Fda?, William G. Childs

Faculty Scholarship

This Article examines the possible inequity of the treatment of licensees' rights in tort litigation in comparison to patent rights in patent litigation. In particular, this Article presents the presumptions afforded from issued patents as a valid model for the proper treatment of FDA approval in litigation. Presently, most academic discussion proposes either preclusion of tort claims or leaving the system more or less as it stands. This Article, on the other hand, proposes a middle ground.

This Article begins by examining the differences between the USPTO and the FDA. In particular, the quantity and quality of the review provided …

Bankrupting Trademarks, Xuan-Thao Nguyen

Articles

The explosive growth of technology in the last two decades has vastly expanded intellectual property jurisprudence and elevated intellectual property to a heightened status in the marketplace. Indeed, a company's intellectual property assets may now be its most valuable corporate assets. Moreover, the property value of some trademarks is significantly greater than that of the trademark owner's physical assets.

The term “intellectual property” is commonly understood to include patents, trade secrets, copyrights, and trademarks. Yet a paradigm has been constructed and enforced over the last fifteen years wherein only patents, trade secrets, and copyrights are included. The paradigm specifically excludes …

Taxing The New Intellectual Property Right, Xuan-Thao Nguyen, Jeffrey A. Maine

Articles

Current, albeit arbitrary, rules exist governing the tax treatment of traditional forms of intellectual property, such as patents, trade secrets, copyrights, trademarks, and trade names. While tax principles exist for these traditional intellectual property and intangible rights, specific tax rules do not exist for new intellectual property rights, such as domain names, that are emerging with the arrival of global electronic commerce transactions on the Internet. This article explores the proper tax treatment of domain name registration and acquisition costs, addressing these parallel questions? Are domain names merely variations of traditional forms of intellectual property and other intangible rights to …

Balancing Ease And Accuracy In Assessing Pharmaceutical Exclusion Payments, Mark D. Janis, Herbert Hovenkamp, Mark A. Lemley

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Panel Ii: Public Appropriation Of Private Rights: Pursuing Internet Copyright Violators, Rebecca Tushnet, Michael Carlinsky, Justin Hughes, Sonia Katyal

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

It seems to me that the story of music on the Internet over the past five or six years is the story of two fantasies colliding. The first fantasy is that information wants to be free, that with the Internet we can throwaway all the bottles and just have the wine and the free flow of data, which apparently was generated from somewhere and then circulated forever. So, there was that fantasy, that we would not need copyright anymore because everything would be available to everyone. The other fantasy is the record companies' fantasy of perfect control, that there would …

Copy This Essay: How Fair Use Doctrine Harms Free Speech And How Copying Serves It, Rebecca Tushnet

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Defenders of transformative uses have invoked the First Amendment to bolster claims that such uses should not be subject to the copyright owner’s permission. But this focus on transformation is critically incomplete, leaving unchallenged much of copyright’s scope, despite the large number of nontransformative copying activities that are also instances of free speech. The current debate leaves the way open for expansions of copyright that, while not targeted at dissenting viewpoints, nonetheless may have a profoundly negative effect on freedom of speech. In other words, transformation has limited our thinking about the free speech interests implicated by copying. This essay …

Even More Parodic Than The Real Thing: Parody Lawsuits Revisited, Bruce P. Keller, Rebecca Tushnet

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

An article focusing on a copyright decision initially may appear out of place in the pages of The Trademark Reporter®. Yet Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc., in which the U.S. Supreme Court held that a parodic, transformative use of a copyrighted work, even if commercial, could qualify as a fair use, is quite significant for trademark lawyers. As a practical matter, parody cases increasingly involve copyright as well as trademark claims, so practitioners often encounter both within the same case. As a doctrinal matter, Campbell also has proved legally significant in trademark cases because the free-speech concerns underlying protection for …

Albert Einstein, Esq., Steven Goldberg

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Albert Einstein’s 1905 paper setting forth the special theory of relativity is one of the most famous scientific articles ever written. Peter Galison’s influential book, Einstein’s Clocks, Poincaré’s Maps: Empires of Time (2003), demonstrates that Einstein’s paper was fundamentally shaped by his work as a patent examiner by showing that arguments previously seen as abstract thought experiments were instead derived from Einstein’s work on patent applications for devices that coordinate clocks. Moving beyond Galison’s insights, we can see portions of Einstein’s paper as reflecting the quasi-judicial role of a patent examiner. Like trial judges, patent examiners must apply settled legal …

Obvious To Whom? Evaluating Inventions From The Perspective Of Phosita, Rebecca S. Eisenberg

Articles

In this Article, I consider the possibility of giving the USPTO input from currently active technological practitioners in evaluating the obviousness of claimed inventions. Such input could potentially serve three useful functions. First, it could improve the accuracy of USPTO decisionmaking by providing access to the perspective of actual practitioners as to the obviousness of inventions from the perspective of the hypothetical PHOSITA. Second, it could help the USPTO document the evidentiary basis for rejections that rest in part upon tacit knowledge within technological communities. Third, it could provide a quality control mechanism that would improve the credibility of USPTO …

The Treaty Power And The Patent Clause: Are There Limits On The United States' Ability To Harmonize?, Timothy R. Holbrook

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Accommodating The Unauthorized Use Of Copyrighted Works For Religious Purposes Under The Fair Use Doctrine And Copyright Act § 110(3), Thomas F. Cotter

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.