Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

Technological Fair Use, Edward Lee

All Faculty Scholarship

The Article proposes a framework tailoring fair use specifically for technology cases. At the inception of the twenty-first century, information technologies have become increasingly central to the U.S. economy. Not surprisingly, complex copyright cases involving speech technologies, such as DVRs, mp3 devices, Google Book Search, and YouTube, have increased as well. Yet existing copyright law, developed long before digital technologies, is ill-prepared to handle the complexities these technology cases pose. The key question often turns, not on prima facie infringement, but on the defense of fair use, which courts have too often relegated to extremely fact-specific decisions. The downside to …

Strategies For Promoting Green Energy Innovation, Deployment, & Technology Transfer, Robert V. Percival

Faculty Scholarship

This paper surveys various strategies for promoting the development and deployment of green energy technologies.

D Is For Digitize: An Introduction, James Grimmelmann

Faculty Scholarship

This brief introductory essay reviews the history of D is for Digitize conference on the Google Books settlement and provides an overview of the seven articles in the symposium issue.

On Balance: General Casualty Co. V. Wozniak Travel, Inc., Kenneth L. Port

Journal of Law and Practice

No abstract provided.

Government Relations Office And Copyright Committee, Aall Issue Brief 2010-5, Roger V. Skalbeck, Jennifer Wondracek

Digital Preservation Publications

No abstract provided.

Storage And Privacy In The Cloud: Enduring Access To Ephemeral Messages, Sarah Salter

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

The paper examines the distinction between "stored communications" and the greater privacy protection given to communications in the process of transmission under U.S. federal law. The issue arises in the context of voice mail, text messages, and email. Statutes examined include the Stored Communications Act, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act ("ECPA"), the Wiretap Act, and the language amending the Wiretap Act to eliminate storage from the definition of wire communication in the USA Patriot Act. Case discussions examine the development of the concept of "stored" communications. The emphasis is on recent cases after the USA Patriot Act and a decision …

Shrinking The Commons: Termination Of Copyright Licenses And Transfers For The Benefit Of The Public, Timothy K. Armstrong

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

Federal law limits the free alienability of copyright rights to prevent powerful transferees from forcing authors into unremunerative bargains. The limiting mechanism is a statutory provision that permits authors or their heirs, at their sole election, to terminate any transfer or license of any copyright interest during a defined period. Indeed, the applicable provisions of the Copyright Act go so far as to invalidate purported waivers by authors of their statutory termination powers.

These statutory provisions may constitute an impediment to the effective grant of rights for the benefit of the public under widely used "open content" licensing arrangements, such …

Bloodsucking Copyrights, Ann Bartow

Law Faculty Scholarship

Some bloodsuckers live off the life-sustaining fluids of involuntary hosts and leave behind diseases or venom. Fleas, ticks, bedbugs, and mosquitoes are all bloodsuckers that are best avoided. Others, like the leech, suck blood in ways that can be very helpful to a host, promoting blood flow and healing. Vampires are fictional, sentient bloodsuckers that have populated various entertainment genres for centuries. Copyrights, too, can suck blood metaphorically in productive and destructive ways, or simply suck, period, when they senselessly impede free-flowing veins of information. And though they are not (yet) immortal, copyrights last a very long time. In Copyright’s …

Handcrafted Collaborative Copyright, Ann Bartow

Law Faculty Scholarship

Tribute essay to Dean Laura Gasaway's tenacious and fearless information access advocacy.

Algae And Biodiesel: Patenting Energized As Green Goes Commercial, Matthew R. Priess, Stanley P. Kowalski

Law Faculty Scholarship

In the twenty-first century, predominant dependence on fossil fuels as energy resources will not be sustainable. Developing and commercializing green energy innovations will be an essential component of the transition to a more diversified energy economy. Algal biodiesel is one of the most promising green fuels because of its potential as a renewable and sustainable fuel source without displacing food crops. Algal biodiesel research and development are necessary early steps towards a transition to a green energy economy. The strategic use of strong patent portfolios will drive this by attracting investment, incentivizing innovation and accelerating commercialization. Whereas algal biodiesel research …

Intellectual Property, Medicine And Health: Current Debates, Stanley P. Kowalski

Law Faculty Scholarship

Johanna Gibson’ s “Intellectual Property, Medicine and Health: Current Debates” is an ambitious attempt to bridge the gap between IPR (largely patents) and the ethical, moral and philosophical issues which should influence global access to innovations in health. This intent is noteworthy and timely, as the complexities are important to address and there is an urgent need for clear-headed strategy. However, disappointingly, the book largely fails, as it is a rambling polemic that lacks focus, clarity and originality. Wading through the thicket of verbiage becomes so daunting that whatever message might be present is lost. The book also is flawed …

Space Age Love Song: The Mix Tape In A Digital Universe, Megan M. Carpenter

Law Faculty Scholarship

Music sharing is one of the most controversial topics in copyright law. And mix tapes have been the classic, iconic form of music sharing for the last 30 years. Even in the face of technological development so rapid and far-reaching as to remove the literal “tape” from “mix tape,” there are nonetheless modern incarnations that crop up on a regular basis, from mix CDs to mix-sharing websites. Social norms permit and even encourage the creation of these modern mix tapes for such diverse reasons as wedding favors and birthday gifts.

If copyright law is meant to promote creativity and proscribe …

Joint Infringement After Bmc: The Demise Of Process Patents, Stacie L. Greskowiak

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Sequential Musical Creation And Sample Licensing, Peter Dicola

Faculty Working Papers

All musical creation builds on previous works. But using fragments of existing musical works in a new work can often constitute copyright infringement. Copyright law, in cases like Bridgeport Music v. Dimension Films (6th Cir. 2005), has recently increased its restrictions on musicians who wish to engage in sampling, defined as the practice of using other creators' sound recordings to create new music. The paper describes a model of copyright holders' and samplers' incentives to create in light of the need to negotiate licenses for sample-based works to avoid violating copyright law. Even in the absence of traditional transaction costs …

Federal Circuit Patent Precedent: An Empirical Study Of Institutional Authority And Ip Ideology, David Pekarek-Krohn, Emerson H. Tiller

Faculty Working Papers

In this paper, we aim to better understand the institutional authority of the Federal Circuit as a source of law as well as the influence of pro-patent and anti-patent ideological forces at play between the Supreme Court, Federal Circuit, and the district courts. Our specific focus is on the district courts and how they cite Federal Circuit precedent relative to Supreme Court precedent to support their decisions, whether they be pro-patent or anti-patent. Using a variety of citation approaches and statistical tests, we find that federal district courts treat the Federal Circuit as more authoritative (compared to the Supreme Court) …

In Defense Of Intellectual Property Anxiety, Aaron K. Perzanowski

Faculty Publications

In this Response to Professor Fagundes’s "Property Rhetoric and the Public Domain," Professor Perzanowski expresses skepticism about two assumptions underlying the argument for embracing property rhetoric to promote the public domain. This argument assumes, first, public recognition of social discourse theory as an account of property and, second, rhetorical advantages of social discourse theory that are comparable to those of more familiar notions of private property. Perzanowski concludes that the simple intuitive appeal of Blackstonian property cautions against styling the struggle for balanced copyright and patent policy as a debate over competing property interests.

A New Approach To Data Security Breaches, Gideon Emcee Christian

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

This article examines the problems associated with data security breaches from two different, but not mutually exclusive, perspectives. The first part of the article examines the need for notification in the event of a data security breach and proposes an amendment of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Document Act (PIPEDA) to create a legal, or statutory, obligation in Canada to compel disclosure or notification of data security breaches. My recommendations are based on the examination of legislation from other legal jurisdictions, highlighting, where necessary, the shortcomings of the legislation, which ought to be taken into consideration in amending PIPEDA …

Traditional Knowlege: Is Perpetual Protection A Good Idea?, J. Janewa Oseitutu

Faculty Publications

Most of the international dialogue about traditional knowledge has taken place within the context of an intellectual property framework with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) as the primary facilitator of the discussion. Following more than a decade of dialogue, the WIPO Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (WIPO IGC) has been given until the Fall of 2011 to come up with something concrete. Due to the intersection between traditional knowledge and intellectual property, the resulting text is likely to be a significant development for international intellectual property law.

Developing countries have long advocated …

In Search Of (Maintaining) The Truth: The Use Of Copyright Law By Religious Organizations, David A. Simon

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

The goal of this Article is to do what others have not: determine whether religious organizations should use copyright law to advance their goals of censorship and doctrinal purity. Answering this question entails a two-step analysis. First, the religious motivations must be compared with the underlying theories of, or justifications for, copyright law. Whether those principles align or conflict with religious motivations will inform our normative answer. Regardless of the answer to the aforementioned inquiry, the second step analyzes whether substantive copyright law doctrine facilitates or impedes the achievement of the ends advanced by these religious motivations. As a result …

Pioneers Versus Improvers: Enabling Optimal Patent Claim Scope, Timothy Chen Saulsbury

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

Arising most commonly as a defense to an infringement claim, enablement requires a patent to describe the claimed invention in sufficient detail to permit a person having ordinary skill in the relevant field to replicate and use the invention without needing to engage in "undue experimentation." If a patent claim is not "enabled"--i.e., if a person having ordinary skill in the art (PHOSITA) who studied the patent cannot make or use the invention without undue experimentation--the claim is invalid and can no longer be asserted. This penalty deters patent applicants from claiming more than they invented and allows others to …

The Cathedral And The Bizarre: An Examination Of The "Viral" Aspects Of The Gpl, 27 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 349 (2010), Michael F. Morgan

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

While there is a growing body of literature dealing with the General Public License (“GPL”), the potential viral effects of the GPL do not appear to have been analyzed in a detailed technical manner. This paper will attempt to demonstrate that a proper legal analysis of the viral effects of the GPL is dependent on a detailed technical understanding of the specific mechanisms used for each type of program-to-program interaction. Once these technical mechanisms are properly understood it will then be possible to identify the applicable copyright law needed to assess the viral effects of the GPL.

Increasing Access To Startup Financing Through Intellectual Property Securitization, 27 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 613 (2010), Kyle Tondo-Kramer

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

This paper will discuss how a private company running a single, nationwide database for filing financing agreements can ease the burden on creditors and pave the way for more creditors to enter this market. Part two offers a brief overview of how intellectual property securitization works and some of the impediments to using this type of securitization. Part three proposes a possible solution to the problem creditors face regarding the filing of a financing statement when attempting to securitize intellectual property, and provides an in depth analysis as to why the suggestion that a private company runs a single, nationwide …

300 Years Of Copyright Law? A Not So Modest Proposal For Reform, 28 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 1 (2010), James Gh Griffin

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

2010 sees the three hundredth anniversary of the U.K.'s Statute of Anne 1710. This paper suggests that with the increased ability of content recipients to re-use works, there is a need to readdress the concerns of stakeholders, namely authors, publishers and content recipients. The paper sets out in detail how this should be achieved. To do so, it utilises the notion of creativity as the benchmark by which to balance the interests of stakeholders. This has been used in early eighteenth century case law in the U.K., and there are also other historical and theoretical justifications. The paper then proceeds …

Safeguarding "The Precious": Counsel On Law Journal Publication Agreements In Digital Times, 28 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 217 (2010), Michael N. Widener

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

Heaping scholarship fills the academic print and online press about where legal scholars should publish and how to have one’s paper accepted for publication. But there is scarce writing about the contractual relationship between the law journal and the author of an accepted paper. This may be due in part to broadly misconstrued or ignored publication agrees, or perhaps that the business relationship is unworthy of scholarly attention. Regardless, this paper introduces a pragmatist’s perspective on evaluating and revising publication agreements, and informs student editors how publication agreements accomplish a journal’s objectives, based on current copyright law. Finally, this paper …

Table Of Contents

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

None.

Utilitarian Information Works - Is Originality The Proper Lens?, Dana Beldiman

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

As the information society advances, vastly increased numbers of utilitarian information works (UIW) are being produced. In general, these works are deemed protected by copyright law, even though the philosophical underpinnings of copyright law clash with the attributes of UIW. This Article examines the cause for the uneasy relationship between UIW and the concept of originality. Part I discusses the role of information and UIW as one of the core wealth-producing assets of the knowledge-based economy. This economy is characterized by a rapid pace of innovation, which in turn, requires unrestricted access to information. Part II examines copyright law as …

Fixing Our Broken Patent System, Jay Dratler

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

This short Article digests what the Author see as the most important substantive criticism and proposes specific solutions in the form of the "guts" of a new patent statute. Its statutory proposal tracks the current statute's organization and has numerous annotations explaining what is the same, what is changed and why, and what never-before-codified principles of judge-made law are explicitly codified. Among the proposed statute's fundamental changes are: (1) explicit restrictions on patentable subject matter to avoid patents on bare abstractions; (2) adoption of a first-to-file system requiring worldwide novelty; (3) abolition of the doctrine of constructive reduction to practice …

Generic Entry In A Rough Economy - Proposed Legislation May Ease Health Care Costs, Laura J. Grebe

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

When generic drugs seek FDA approval, the pharmaceutical company files an Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA), in which the generic company establishes bioequivalence to its usually patented counterpart. The ANDA filer must also certify that, to the best of the filer's knowledge, the generic will not infringe on a current patent-holder's rights. This can be done by showing (1) no patent on the product exists, (2) the patent is expired, (3) the patent will expire by the time the generic is marketed, or (4) the ANDA filer believes the patent is invalid - called a Paragraph IV certification. A Paragraph …

Complimentary Creation: Protecting Fan Fiction As Fair Use, Rachel L. Stroude

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

This Comment discusses, by focusing on the treatment of fan fiction, the tension a court faces each time it encounters a fair use doctrine analysis. First, this Comment describes the nature of fan fiction, the two types of fan fiction referential works and participatory works, and the potential commerciality of fan fiction. Second, this Comment analyzes courts' treatment of referential works and explains why courts have not encountered participatory works. Next, this Comment discusses that while courts have guided authors of referential works regarding how to create a non-infringing work, courts have yet to consider how to protect participatory works. …

Emerging Scholars Series: A Re-Examination Of The Original Foundations Of Anglo-American Trademark Law, Cesar Ramirez-Montes

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

Contemporary accounts of the normative basis of Anglo-American trademark law frequently describe the purpose of the legal doctrine as having developed to protect primarily the consumers from being misled. Recently, some commentators have offered a different account of the law, as having developed to protect mainly the interests of the traders in not having their trade diverted. Under this account, early trademark law served one master only, the producer, with any additional benefit or protection to consumers being unintended. In this Article, the Author challenges both accounts and suggest that early trademark law was not driven by any judicial desire …