Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

Help! My Intellectual Property Is Trapped: Second Life, Conflicting Ownership Claims And The Problem Of Access, Megan B. Caramore

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

The controversy over ownership of virtual “real” property and intellectual property rights within online games has existed for nearly as long as the technology to create such games. Previously, the owners of virtual worlds possessed sole control over everything within the world as a result of rather strict terms contained in their user licensing agreements. Lately, this controversy has acquired a new dimension in a rapidly expanding game called Second Life. Second Life is different from most online games because it expressly guarantees its users the rights to content they create within the game. To the extent that Second Life …

Introduction: Contains Cover, Table Of Contents, Letter From The Editor, And Masthead, Bridget Murray

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

The Richmond Journal of Law and Technology is proud to present the second issue of the 2008–2009 academic school year. Our authors analyze a variety of controversial legal topics that are at the forefront of debates regarding the intersection of technology and law.

Real Art Calls For Real Legislation: An Argument Against Adoption Of The Design Piracy Prohibition Act, Anya Jenkins Ferris

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Privacy From Photography: Is There A Right Not To Be Photographed Under New York State Law?, Ariella Goldstein

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Section 117 Adaptation Defense And Krause V. Titleserv, Inc.: An Analysis Of The Various Circuits' Approaches, Logan Marc

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Paparazzi/Blogger Face-Off: Opportunity Knocking For A Fair Use Limit?, Eaton O'Neill

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Defining Expeditious: Uncharted Territory Of The Dmca Safe Harbor Provision, Debra Weinstein

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

A Defense Of Patenting Human Gene Sequences Under U.S. Law: Support For The Patenting Of Isolated And Purified Substances, Lauren M. Nowierski

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Doubling Up The Horses In Midstream: Enhancing U.S. Patent Dispute Resolution By The Pto's Adoption Of The Jpo's Hantei Request System, Gino Cheng

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

For entities seeking to preempt or defend against adverse claims of infringement, navigating the present U.S. patent dispute resolution system is a thorny path. Judicial standing requirements hinder a potential defendant from fully assessing its risks before making and placing in jeopardy certain investments or assuming negotiation costs, thereby increasing its accountability, the financial stakes, and the probability of retaliation. While the standing doctrine has become more favorable to would-be licensees over time, a readily accessible opining mechanism for infringement would usher in still more benefits, including those unachievable through either litigation or conventional forms of alternative dispute resolution. Although …

Squeezing The Juice: The Failed Attempt To Acquire O.J. Simpson's Right Of Publicity, And Why It Should Have Succeeded, Tal Ganani

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Bilcare, Ksr, Presumptions Of Validity, Preliminary Relief, And Obviousness In Patent Law, Joshua D. Sarnoff

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Kant On Copyright: Rights Of Transformative Authorship, Kim Treiger-Bar-Am

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

What The Sioux Should Do: Lanham Act Challenges In The Post-Harjo Era, Jason Finkelstein

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Three-Dimensional Objects As Marks: Does A "Dark Shadow" Loom Over Trademark Theory?, Amir H. Khoury

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Evaluation Of The Dilution-Parody Paradox In The Wake Of The Trademark Dilution Revision Act Of 2006, Justin J. Gunnell

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Making Copyright Whole: A Principled Approach To Copyright Exceptions And Limitations, Daniel J. Gervais

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This Article suggests a path to develop a principled conceptualization for copyright of limitations and exceptions at the international level. The paper argues that, normatively, copyright has always sought to reflect a balance between protection and access. It demonstrates that this balance was present to the minds of the negotiators of the 1886 Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works and may have been somewhat overlooked in revisions of the Convention. It was ultimately replaced by a three-step test designed to restrict the ability of individual legislators to create limitations and exceptions. The article also considers the …

Patents: Hiding From History, Stephen M. Mcjohn

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

This essay considers how patent law doctrine clouds the historical record of technological development. The essay first surveys a recent book that relied heavily on patent records to reexamine acutely the role of intellectual property in economic development, "The Democratization of Invention," by B. Zorina Khan. The essay's second part discusses how patent law today likely distorts patents as primary historical sources. The law encourages an inventor not to accurately disclose her invention and its place in technological development, but rather to submit vague and overbroad invention descriptions and claims. In describing the invention, some case results perversely favor what …

Common Ground: The Case For Collaboration Between Anti-Poverty Advocates And Public Interest Intellectual Property Advocates, Deborah J. Cantrell

Publications

This article examines the previously unappreciated common ground between scholars and advocates who work to eliminate poverty, and scholars and advocates who work on intellectual property issues in the public interest. The article first illustrates how scholars and advocates working on poverty and on public interest intellectual property have relied on rights talk to frame their social movements. Under the conventional narrative, the framing has accentuated differences between the movements. As the Article explains, the two movements share core principles and should recognize shared interests and goals. By developing a new model of how to view public interest movements, the …

Should Access To Medicines And Trips Flexibilities Be Limited To Specific Diseases?, Kevin Outterson

Faculty Scholarship

From the perspective of public health, limiting access programs and TRIPS flexibilities to particular diseases would be quite dangerous and unnecessary. Dangerous because the diseases of the world's rich and poor countries are converging, including non-communicative diseases such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer and depression. Radically cheaper medicines for these conditions could significantly improve health in LMICs. Limitation is also unnecessary because proven tools can be deployed to preserve high-income markets while LMICs pursue equitable flexibilities.

To date, the important global legal texts retain broad application to all relevant diseases, but the some parties continue to propose disease-specific limitations, …

The Lawful Acquisition And Exercise Of Monopoly Power And Its Implications For The Objectives Of Antitrust, David S. Evans, Keith N. Hylton

Faculty Scholarship

The antitrust laws of the United States have, from their inception, allowed firms to acquire significant market power, to charge prices that reflect that market power, and to enjoy supra-competitive returns. This article shows that this policy, which was established by the U.S. Congress and affirmed repeatedly by the U.S. courts, reflects a tradeoff between the dynamic benefits that society realizes from allowing firms to secure significant rewards, including monopoly profits, from making risky investments and engaging in innovation; and the static costs that society incurs when firms with significant market power raise price and curtail output. That tradeoff results …

Inventors, Entrepreneurs, And Intellectual Property Law, Michael J. Meurer

Faculty Scholarship

I am not sure why small business concerns have not had more influence on IP law. Perhaps the sentiment prevailing in antitrust law spilled over into IP law. American antitrust law has reached a near consensus that small firms get no special treatment under a law designed to protect competition, not competitors. ° In contrast, European competition law regulators are more likely to protect small business, and European patent policymakers openly fret about how to reform their patent law to promote small business.²

Regardless, my concern in this Article is mostly with the normative question: Should IP law favor …

Do Patents Perform Like Property?, Michael J. Meurer, James Bessen

Faculty Scholarship

Do patents provide critical incentives to encourage investment in innovation? Or, instead, do patents impose legal risks and burdens on innovators that discourage innovation, as some critics now claim? This paper reviews empirical economic evidence on how well patents perform as a property system.

Moral Philosophy, Information Technology, And Copyright, Wendy J. Gordon

Faculty Scholarship

A plethora of philosophical issues arise where copyright and patent laws intersect with information technology. Given the necessary brevity of the chapter, my strategy will be to make general observations that can be applied to illuminate one particular issue. I have chosen the issue considered in MGM v. Grokster,² a recent copyright case from the U.S. Supreme Court Grokster, Ltd., provided a decentralized peer-to-peer technology that many people, typically students, used to copy and distribute music in ways that violated copyright law. The Supreme Court addressed the extent to which Grokster and other technology providers should be held …

The Mythical Beginnings Of Intellectual Property, Jessica Silbey

Faculty Scholarship

People commonly justify intellectual property protection with homage to utilitarianism (protecting the incentive to create, invent, or produce quality goods to maximize net social welfare) or natural rights (people should own the product of their creative, inventive, or commercial labor). Despite the ongoing dominance of these theories, a dissatisfying lack of a comprehensive explanation for the value of intellectual property protection remains. One reason for this failure is that economic analysis of intellectual property law tends to undervalue its humanistic element. Whereas utilitarianism and natural rights theories are familiar, at least one other basis for intellectual property protection exists. This …

Yours, Mine, And Ours: The Joint Authorship Conundrum For Sound Recordings, Abbott M. Jones

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

In 2013, authors of sound recordings will have their first opportunity to exercise their right to terminate assignments made to record companies. Congress has yet to settle just who may claim authorship in, and thus the right to terminate assignments of, sound recordings. Record companies have responded to this uncertainty by including language in standard recording contracts purporting to declare sound recordings made under the contracts works made for hire, such that authorship would vest initially in the record companies themselves. If sound recordings fit within the scope of a work made for hire, these recording contracts would seal the …

Sparing Internet Radio From The Real Threat Of The Hypothetical Marketplace, Mark D. Robertson

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

In early 2007, the newly minted Copyright Royalty Board(CRB) handed down its first ruling, which set royalty rates for the digital performance of sound recordings. The CRB's ruling ignited a firestorm of concern among Internet radio broadcasters (webcasters) and their listeners. For some webcasters, the change to royalty rates constituted a 300-1200% increase over what was due under the previous scheme. This massive increase in royalties is attributable to the willing buyer/willing seller standard that the CRB is statutorily required to employ. This standard directs the CRB to construct one hypothetical marketplace and establish rates to which most buyers and …

Creative Development: Helping Poor Countries By Building Creative Industries, Mark Schultz, Alec Van Gelder

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The True Colors Of Trademark Law: Greenlighting A Red Tide Of Anti Competition Blues, Ann Bartow

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Reconceptualizing Property In Designs, Orit Fischman Afori

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

"Copynorms," Black Cultural Production, And The Debate Over African-American Reparations, K. J. Greene

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.