Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

Proposal For A Green Patent System: Implications For Sustainable Development And Climate Change, Itaru Nitta

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Regulating The Regulators: The Impact Of Fda Regulation On Corporations' First Amendment Rights, 39 J. Marshall L. Rev. 95 (2005), Lisa M. Fealk-Stickler

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

American Courts Are Drowning In The "Gene Pool": Excavating The Slippery Slope Mechanisms Behind Judicial Endorsement Of Dna Databases, 39 J. Marshall L. Rev. 115 (2005), Meghan Riley

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Public Use Or Experimental Use: Are Clinical Trials Susceptible To Another Attack Similar To That In Smithkline Beecham Corp. V. Apotex Corp., 39 J. Marshall L. Rev. 149 (2005), Nimalka Wickramasekera

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

General Exclusion Orders Under Section 337, Gary M. Hnath

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Your company, Widgets Unlimited, imports foreign-made widgets into the United States. One day, you're informed that U.S. Customs & Border Protection (Customs) has detained your goods and is determining whether they infringe a patent owned by The American Widget Corporation, based on an exclusion order issued by the International Trade Commission (ITC) after a recent ITC investigation, titled Certain Widgets with Extra Shiny Surfaces. Since you were never a party to any proceeding at the ITC, and indeed, you never even knew American Widget had patents on its widgets, you conclude that there must be some mistake and wait for …

Staying Within The Negotiated Framework: Abiding By The Non-Discrimination Clause In Trips Article 27, Kevin J. Nowak

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Note argues that the Panel in Canada-Generic Medicines correctly decided that the non-discrimination clause in Article 27 applies to the exceptions of Articles 30 and 31. Because Article 27 is the guiding force of Section 5, any exceptions to the rights granted under Section 5 must comply with the requirements set forth in Article 27. Although extreme applications of the non-discrimination clause could be limiting upon some exceptions, Articles 30 and 31 were not placed into TRIPs as complete escape clauses from the framework of Section 5. Additionally, the application of the non-discrimination clause to Articles 30 and 31 …

Online Music Piracy: Can American Solutions Be Exported To The People's Republic Of China To Protect American Music?, Jolene Lau Marshall

Washington International Law Journal

Online music piracy is a major problem in the United States and a growing problem in the People's Republic of China ("PRC"). Despite awareness of the roots of the problem, the responses of the American government and recording industry have enjoyed only mixed success. The most effective ways of combating online music piracy have been the legal pursuit of individual copyright infringers and the emergence of fee-based download services. In light of the differences in social background, laws, enforcement structure, and cultural beliefs between the United States and the PRC, simply transplanting American responses to online music piracy to the …

Words Signifying Nothing - The Evolution Of 315(A) In An Age Of Deregulation And Its Effect On Television News Coverage Of Presidential Elections, Colin Vandell

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

Focusing on private networks' television news coverage of presidential campaigns, this Note addresses the enactment and rise of Section 315(a) of the Communications Act of 1934 (the equal time rule) and the fairness doctrine that it officially operated in conjunction with for forty years. The Note then turns to the deregulation trend that abolished the fairness doctrine and took much of the bite out of Section 315(a). The Note concludes by examining the rise of ideology-driven and also of marketdriven political coverage that a laxly-enforced Section 315(a) has allowed.

No Animals Were Harmed...: Protecting Chimpanzees From Cruelty Behind The Curtain, Lorraine L. Fischer

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

Many people, interested in the way animals are treated in the entertainment industry, rely on the American Humane Association's end credit disclaimer, "No Animals Were Harmed During the Making of this Production" to quiet their concerns about animal mistreatment and to avoid supporting films or television programs that injure animals. However, the AHA's end credit disclaimer is misleading because it suggests that projects with the disclaimer are cruelty free. Even if a film or television show receives the "No Animals Were Harmed..." designation, chimpanzees cannot become "actors" and appear on the stage or screen without being subject to severe physical …

Why Protect Political Art As Political Speech, David Greene

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

Politics and art make for a volatile combination both socially and jurisprudentially. Although the capacity of artistic expression to relay political ideas was one of the driving forces behind the recognition of strong First Amendment rights for artistic expression, governmental officials tend toward the censorious when art communicates too much and "offends" or causes "controversy." Indeed, when art is "public," that is funded or exhibited by a governmental entity, public officials would often prefer that it contain no message at all. This article reviews the evolution of First Amendment protection for artistic expression, discusses why artistic expression is protected by …

Leveling The Ip Playing Field: Conditional Waiver Theory And The Intellectual Property Protection Restoration Act, Jason Karasik

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

In 1999 and 2000, a group of federal court decisions ruled that the Eleventh Amendment precludes Congress from holding states and their institutions liable in damages for infringing federal intellectual property protection laws. These rulings have created a marked imbalance in the American intellectual property system, in which states can fully protect their own intellectual property yet freely infringe on the intellectual property rights of others. Private intellectual property owners argue that this imbalance increasingly threatens the health of the American economy. In response, Congressional reformers enacted the Intellectual Property Protection Restoration Act. The legislation uses a conditional waiver scheme …

Undermining The Initial Allocation Of Rights: Copyright Versus Contract And The Burden Of Proof, Thomas A. Mitchell

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

Copyright law is designed to provide authors with incentives to create work. Publishers have usurped these incentives, however, by leveraging their superior bargaining power to contractually require authors to transfer all rights to a work. This Note argues that this problem could be resolved by a shifting the burden of proving that the contract was voluntary, and not coerced, from the author to the publisher. Proving that a contract was not voluntarily entered into forms an affirmative defense for a breach, which places the burden on the author. This Note will show that intellectual property cases are different, because, inter …

On A Clearplay, You Can See Whatever: Copyright And Tradmark Issues Arising From Unauthorized Film Editing, Gail H. Cline

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

A growing number of companies are offering "E-rated" versions of motion picture VHS tapes and DVDs-that is, versions which have been edited to remove nudity, sexual situations, and offensive or graphic language. These third-party editors do not own the copyrights or trademarks for the motion pictures they edit, nor do they have the permission of the owners. This article explains the processes that the thirdparty editors use to create the edited versions, as well as the copyright and trademark laws that apply, and analyzes the activities of the third-party editing companies actions in light of current copyright and trademark laws.

Reformulating The On Sale Bar, Frank Albert

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

The On Sale Bar has been construed narrowly to require that an invention be ready for patenting and that a commercial offer for sale be made in order for the Bar to apply. Although this approach provides certainty for patent applicants, it potentially increases monopoly profits for patentees by disregarding commercial activity designed to increase demand for an invention that is ready for patenting. This Note concludes that a broader formulation of the On Sale Bar that considers this type of activity is more in line with the relevant underlying policies.

A Bipolar Copyright System For The Digital Network Environment, Alexander Peukert

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

The widespread adoption of peer-to-peer software has allowed for fast, cheap, and easy distribution of content all over the world. Although this technology promises great advances for the global exchange of knowledge, it also greatly threatens copyright owners' interests. This article analyzes possible solutions to this conflict from an international copyright law prospective, considering requirements imposed by TRIPS, The Berne Convention, and The WIPO Copyright Treaty. This article proposes a flexible "bipolar" system, in which authors are allowed to choose between compensation provided by a levy-tax system and protection of their works through digital rights management technology, as a solution …

The Reporter's Privilege: The Necessity Of A Federal Shield Law Thirty Years After Branzburg, Leila Wombacher Knox

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

To date, thirty-one states and the District of Columbia have enacted shield laws that provide varying degrees of protection to reporters, their sources, and their notes. Several federal lawmakers have publicly considered whether a similar federal law would be appropriate. This note examines the roots of the reporter's privilege, surveys selected state shield laws, and considers the impact of the seminal Supreme Court case in the federal realm.

Do Patents Promote The Progress Of Justice? Reflections On Varied Visions Of Justice, Cynthia M. Ho

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Failure Of The Broadcast Flag: Copyright Protection To Make Hollywood Happy, Lisa M. Ezra

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

Digital online piracy of television programming is a growing problem that has the television industry, production studios, and the Motion Picture Association of America searching for a cure. The FCC's planned cure is the "broadcast flag," which requires manufacturers of television equipment to bear the burden of protecting broadcast programming from pirates. The FCC's scheme not only contains several loopholes allowing pirates to circumvent the flag technology, it also protects only a tiny fraction of digital television content, at the cost of consumers. This note explains the ineffectiveness of the "broadcast flag," and suggests an alternate scheme based around copyright …

Will Mechanicals Break The Digital Machine: Determining A Fair Mechanical Royalty Rate For Permanent Digital Phonographic Downloads, David Kostiner

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

Digital Downloading has become an exciting distribution model that has made large amounts of music available to consumers for a fraction of the price of a compact disc. However, if the mechanical royalty rate paid to composers for the reproduction of their work remains pegged to a fixed number, fluxuations in the retail price of downloads will either reduce or increase the relative value of the payment. To avoid smaller margins, which could dissuade independent labels from making masters available online, or a disproportionately low mechanical rate, the statutory mechanical royalty should be set as a percentage of wholesale receipts, …

As A Matter Of Fact, It's A Question Of Law: A Case For De Novo Review Of Likelihood Of Confusion In Trademark Cases, Richard A. Dilgren Iii

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

A stark circuit split mars the consistency of trademark infringement analyses within U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal; some circuits review likelihood of confusion as a matter of fact, while others review it as a matter of law. This disparity places appellants at a disadvantage in some circuits and unnecessarily hinders the function of appellate courts by constraining their review of a substantially subjective balancing of facts. This Note concludes that although the individual factors indicating a likelihood of confusion are issues of fact, the ultimate issue of likelihood of confusion should be reviewed as a matter of law, allowing Circuit …

When You Wish Upon Dastar: Creative Provenance And The Lanham Act, Mary Lafrance

Scholarly Works

This Article examines the application of section 43(a) of the Lanham Act to claims of reverse passing off through the lens of the Supreme Court's unpersuasive effort in Dastar Corp. v. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. to exclude a single class of reverse passing off-claims - those involving “expressive” works as opposed to physical commodities - from the scope of section 43(a). The Article critiques the Court's analysis of section 43(a) in light of case law and the pertinent legislative history, including, the Trademark Law Revision Act of 1988, the Berne Convention Implementation Act of 1988, and the Visual Artists …

A Comparative Study Of United States And Japanese Laws On Collaborative Inventions, And The Impact Of Those Laws On Technology Transfers, Mary Lafrance

Scholarly Works

This research examines United States and Japanese laws regarding patent rights in collaborative inventions, and inquires whether these laws may impede technology transfers by creating uncertainty regarding the ownership, validity, or enforceability of the resulting patents, or by imposing undue obstacles to the licensing or assignment of such patents.  Where the laws of the two countries differ, this paper compares the merits of each approach and also assesses whether the differing approaches could be troublesome for cross-border transactions.

One of the most significant differences between United States and Japanese law regarding joint inventions is in the requirement of consent for …

On The Causes Of Unpredictability Of Federal Circuit Decisions In Patent Cases, Paul M. Janicke

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

Trademarks Or Copyrights: Which Intellectual Property Right Affords Its Owner The Greatest Protection Of Architectural Ingenuity?, Rashida Y.V. Macmurray

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

The End Of Federalism In Telecommunication Regulations?, Douglas C. Sicker

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

High Plains Drifting: Wind-Blown Seeds And The Intellectual Property Implications Of The Gmo Revolution, Stephanie M. Bernhardt

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

Ambush Marketing: The Off-Field Competition At The Olympic Games, Jason K. Schmitz

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

Intellectual Property And Genetically Modified Seeds: The United States, Trade, And The Developing World, Haley Stein

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

A Comparative Analysis Of The Impact Of Experimental Use Exemptions In Patent Law On Incentives To Innovate, Kevin Iles

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

Free Radicals In Cyberspace: Complex Liability Issues In Information Warfare, Meiring De Villiers

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.