Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

Patents, Venture Capital, And Software Start-Ups, Ronald J. Mann, Thomas W. Sager

Faculty Scholarship

This paper analyzes the relation between the patenting behavior of startup firms and the progress of those firms through the venture capital cycle. Linking data relating to venture capital financing of software startup firms with data concerning the patents obtained by those firms, we find significant and robust positive correlations between patenting and several variables measuring the firm's performance (including number of rounds, total investment, exit status, receipt of late stage financing, and longevity). The data also show that (1) only about one in four venture-backed software firms acquired even one patent during the period of the study; (2) patenting …

A Choice-Of-Law Rule For Conflicts Involving Stolen Cultural Property, Symeon C. Symeonides

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Combating illicit trade in stolen cultural property is and will continue to be a serious problem. Of all the measures that various states can take in combating this trade, the adoption of a choice-of-law rule would rank very low in importance and effectiveness. Even if one thinks only in terms of legal rules, there is little question that international conventions and agreements, criminal and other public-law statutes, and uniform substantive rules would be far more direct and effective than choice-of-law rules. At the same time, these other rules are much more difficult to adopt precisely because they presuppose a degree …

Intellectual Property Rights And Stem Cell Research: Who Owns The Medical Breakthroughs?, Sean M. O'Connor

Articles

This article will not address the science and ethics of stem cell research—at least as far as those topics are normally addressed in the existing literature. Instead, this article argues that an even more contentious battle is looming on the horizon, with dire practical consequences: Namely, who will own the revolutionary medical breakthroughs that are supposed to emerge from this research? Along the way, this article will assume that stem cell research will progress in some fashion and that at least some of the purported benefits will materialize.

But the central premise is that the pitch of the ownership battle …

Holding Intellectual Property, Xuan-Thao Nguyen

Articles

The collapse of WorldCom, Inc., exposed a complex web of accounting irregularities. Within that web, recent filings by Dick Thornburgh, WorldCom's Bankruptcy Court Examiner, reveal a different type of scheme that involves the holding of intellectual property. Further scrutinizing the scheme reveals that WorldCom and its tax advisors, KPMG Peat Marwick LLP (KPMG), devised a tax avoidance scheme through the creation of an intellectual property holding company (IP holding company). This type of scheme has been widely and quietly utilized in the last twenty years by many corporations with substantial intellectual property.

Indeed, as state taxing authorities have become more …

Sanitizing The Obscene: Fighting For The Right To Edit Objectionable Film Content, Darcy Williams

Jeffrey S. Moorad Sports Law Journal (1994 - )

No abstract provided.

Introduction: The State Of Play, Beth Simone Noveck

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

The First Amendment's Biggest Threat, Michael J. Gerhardt

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Leveraging Knowledge Assets: Can Law Reform Help?, Margaret Ann Wilkinson, Mark Perry

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

This paper asks whether there is a need for law-makers to aid in the efficient transition to a new knowledge-based economic and social environment through the use of intellectual property devices. The use of such devices was effective in assisting with the transition to an industrial society that, combined with developments in commercial law and secured transactions, further fuelled economic growth in Canada. Can these disparate areas of law be brought together to provide opportunities for the growth of knowledge-based business? The Law Commission of Canada instigated a two-part investigation into these questions. The investigation culminated in the Commission's report …

Whazup With The Whois?, Sheldon Burshtein

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

The WHOIS is a database directory of domain names and relevant contact information maintained by each top-level domain (TLD) registry, which lists all relevant registrant contact information for each domain name registration. Through its contracts, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) requires registries and registrars to collect and display technical information and contact details for all registrants. The WHOIS is an important component of the domain name system (DNS). The WHOIS is used for a wide variety of purposes by registries, registrars, registrants, law enforcement authorities, consumers, and the general public. The WHOIS may enable identification of …

A Review Of Canadian Radiocommunications Law Around "Jammers", Tyson Macauley

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

This comment argues that the Radiocommunications Act should be amended to relax the prohibition on specific types of ‘‘smart’’ jamming in the Industry Science Medicine (ISM) bands. Specifically, the legislation requires increased flexibility and granularity to accom- modate new wireless technologies in the ISM bands — particularly wireless LAN (WLAN) technologies like IEEEE 802.11b/IEEE 802.11g (WiFi), and IEEE 802.11a (henceforth collectively know as ‘‘ISM radios’’).

The availability of cheap, mass-produced ISM radios hardware and the proliferation of applications using the ISM spectrum bands of 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz present a variety of security and privacy concerns that cannot be effectively addressed …

Fundamentals Of Information Technology By Sunny Handa (Markham: Lexisnexis Canada Inc., 2004), Barbara Darby

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

In the early 1990s, I purchased my first stereo with a CD player. I found myself trapped in a conversation with someone who tried to convince me that it was utter folly not to buy a turntable, because CD technology simply couldn’t replicate the ‘‘warmth’’ of vinyl. Had I only Handa’s book to hand, I could have provided a straight- forward and understandable explanation for why my records were well enough left in my parents’ basement; although ‘‘digitization . . . fails to record all characteristics of analog data, even at the highest finite sampling rate . . . Complete …

Making A Mark In The Internet Economy: A Trademark Analysis Of Search Engine Advertising, Mark Bartholomew

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Patenting The Minotaur, Bratislav Stanković

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

Half man, half bull, the Minotaur was the most fearsome monster in Greek mythology. Human torso and bull’s head, its horns were sharp as knives, its great hooves could kick the life out the strongest of heroes, and its food was human flesh. Yet under the surface, the Minotaur’s myth was sad; his insatiable existence originated in jealousy and lust.

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

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

I hope you enjoy the second issue of Volume XI of the Richmond Journal of Law & Technology. The Editorial Board and Staff worked diligently with four outstanding authors to prepare this issue. We are proud to present timely articles by two professors, a practitioner, and the winner of the Journal’s staff casenote competition.

A Case For Mediating Trademark Disputes In The Age Of Expanding Brands, David Allen Bernstein

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

This Note proposes that there is an alternative method that ensures the viability of brand names while avoiding litigation. Companies must be willing to enter a process which will explore the possibility of a mutually beneficial solution, perhaps in the form of a settlement agreement allowing both parties to use the mark or brand name. The process best suited to guide such parties and achieve such a result is mediation.

The Terminator As Eraser: How Arnold Schwarzenegger Used The Right Of Publicity To Terminate Non-Defamatory Political Speech, David Welkowitz, Tyler Ochoa

Faculty Publications

INTRODUCTION

While it is no longer unusual for a politician to have been a recent celebrity in the commercial world of entertainment, the Schwarzenegger bobblehead case is one of the rare cases in which a politician has filed a lawsuit asserting a right of publicity claim. However, the Schwarzenegger case and its settlement exposed some basic flaws in the analysis of celebrity rights problems, flaws that are not unique to its political context. Two of those flaws converged in this case and are the main subjects of this article. First, rights of publicity claims frequently are used as a "stealth" …

The Schwarzenegger Bobblehead Case: Introduction And Statement Of Facts, Tyler T. Ochoa

Faculty Publications

In May 2004, news media around the world buzzed after learning that Arnold Schwarzenegger, movie-star-turned Governor of California, had filed a lawsuit against an Ohio manufacturer of bobblehead dolls bearing his name and likeness. The case presented a seemingly stark choice between the right of a celebrity-politician to protect his image against commercial appropriation and the First Amendment rights of the public to lampoon that image, and commentators hoped that the case would set a precedent regarding how those rights should be balanced. Just three months later, however, before any court ruling had been made, the parties announced that they …

The Struggle For Music Copyright, Michael W. Carroll

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Inspired by passionate contemporary debates about music copyright, this Article investigates how, when, and why music first came within copyright's domain. Ironically, although music publishers and recording companies are among the most aggressive advocates for strong copyright in music today, music publishers in eighteenth-century England resisted extending copyright to music. This Article sheds light on a series of early legal disputes concerning printed music that yield important insights into original understandings of copyright law and music's role in society. By focusing attention on this understudied episode, this Article demonstrates that the concept of copyright was originally far more circumscribed than …

Title Blanding: How The Lanham Act Strips Artistic Expression From Song Titles, Lisa Tomiko Blackburn

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

What Is A Copy?, Jeffrey Malkan

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

Copyright law encourages artistic and literary expression by policing copying and embracing the value of originality. To some degree, however, originality comes into focus only through the lens of copying, its unacknowledged, dark twin. The questions I ask in this inquiy are both "what" and "why "? What is the difference between a work and a copy? If there is a difference, why is the copy less worthy than the original? In my consideration of these questions, I draw upon a body of theory that attempts to explain the unequal status conferred by the art world on perceptually indiscernible objects-authentic …

Rewriting Fair Use And The Future Of Copyright Reform, Michael J. Madison

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

A Comparative Law Analysis Of The Retained Rights Of Artists, W W. Kowalski

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article presents an analytical and theoretical discussion of how an artist's artwork should be treated once it enters the global marketplace. Considering only the visual arts, the answer is short and simple: this Author believes that all, or at least the better-known legal systems, uphold the rights granted to the artist when the work was created. Consequently, the artist retains some rights not only as the artist's intellectual property, but also in its tangible manifestation, for example, sculpture or painting--traditionally called corpus mechanicum--even though he does not own this particular sculpture or painting anymore. This, however, is only a …

Whose Idea Is It Anyway? Protecting Idea Purveyors And Media Producers After Grosso V. Miramax, Aileen Brophy

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Trend Forecast: Imitation Is A Legal Form Of Flattery-Louis Vuitton Malletier V. Dooney & Bourke, Inc., Sarah J. Kaufman

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Too Famous For The Right Of Publicity: Etw Corp. And The Trend Towards Diminished Protection For Top Celebrities, Michael Sloan

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Patent Claim Interpretation And Information Costs, Christopher A. Cotropia

Law Faculty Publications

The concept of invention is crucial to patent law. Inventions of patentable quality are what the patent system is trying to encourage. In order to provide this incentive to produce such inventions, the patent system must provide protection for the invention. The problem the patent system runs into is that inventions are dijjicult to define-the dijjiculty stemming in part from the intangible nature of inventions. As a result, patent law encounters an information cost problem. Everyone in the patent system needs information about the invention, but the invention's intangibleness makes this information costly to produce, collect, and comprehend. Patent law …

Publicity Rights As Property Rights, David Westfall, David Landau

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

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

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

A Comment: Riaa V. Verizon And How The Dmca Subpoena Power Became Powerless, Katherine Raynolds

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Judging Art, Christine Farley

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

What is art? Surprisingly, this question is addressed in various places in the law. At these junctures, courts typically attempt to avoid making a judgment. Indeed, the law generally resists any definition of art. The reasons given for this are that these determinations are too subjective for the courts and that judges lack proper training and expertise. Thus, the doctrine of avoidance is the most stable and explicitly stated proposition to be found in these encounters. However, the question of whether an object is a work of art for treatment under the law is often unavoidable. This question gets resolved …