Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

Intellectual Property And The Safeguarding Of Traditional Cultures, Molly Torsen, Jane Anderson

Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi)

No abstract provided.

The Creation Of University Intellectual Property: Confidential Information, Data Protection, And Research Ethics, Margaret Ann Wilkinson

Law Publications

Protection of commercial confidences is both required as part of the intellectual property provisions of current trade agreements and routinely prerequisite for achieving patent protection. This paper discusses the protection of such commercial confidences and the relationship of this protection with the statutory regime in Canada of personal data protection, but does so within the specific context of an examination of these matters in light of the governance of the processes of research conducted in universities. The nexus of university research and commercial research occurs frequently—for example, in the area of the development and testing of drugs in Canada. The …

Confidential Information And Privacy-Related Law In Canada And In International Instruments, Margaret Ann Wilkinson

Law Publications

Canadians like to think their country is law-abiding and honours its international commitments. Is Our House in Order? explores this public perception while considering whether or not it is correct in terms of domestic law.

Examining a range of topics such as treaty implementation, federal-provincial relations, the environment, international humanitarian law, and the protection of confidential information, contributors disentangle the complex processes involved in implementing international law in Canadian law. They highlight how the federal negotiation and ratification process has been opened up to the public, what is being done to give effect to custom in domestic law, and offer …

A National Security Puzzle: Mosaic Theory And The First Amendment Right Of Access In The Federal Courts, Michael P. Goodwin

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

This article examines the tension between sensitive national security information and transparency in the federal courts. Although courts are public institutions with long histories of public access, courts also have the power to restrict access to information if it poses a threat to national security. In a variety of contexts, restrictions on access have been justified by mosaic theory-the idea that even apparently innocuous information can be harmful to national security interests if pieced together by a knowledgeable observer, such as a foreign intelligence organization. This article traces the development of mosaic theory in the federal courts, and argues that …

Protecting A Jewel Of A Trademark: Lessons Learned From The Dae Jang Geum Litigation On Using U.S. Law To Protect Trademarks Based On Imported Popular Culture Icons, Robert J. Kang

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

U.S. trademark law protects trademarks that have achieved a sufficient degree of fame. This principle extends to trademarks based on foreign popular culture icons, such as Japan's "Hello Kitty." But while that principle seems obvious, caselaw on this subject has been minimal. Without clear judicial guidance confirming that such trademarks are protectable, American infringers may have felt emboldened to misappropriate them. However, in 2007 and 2008, a United States District Court presided over a trademark litigation involving "Dae Jang Geum," the name of the most popular Korean television drama in history. By analyzing the three most important orders issued in …

The Agony Of War And A World Without Law, Josh Zetlin

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

This note analyzes Lewis Milestone's classic film A//.Quiet on the Western Front in order to illustrate the importance of law in society. Philosophers and legal theorists have pondered endlessly on the importance of law and the roles it serves. Building upon the concepts such as the "social contract," the creators of our legal system carved out particular areas of laws to satisfy specific societal wants and needs. Milestone's war epic reveals how war destroys these legal institutions. The chaos of war and unaccountability for immoral acts shatters the foundation of law, bringing great suffering to the characters in the film. …

Judicial Kryptonite: Superman And The Consideration Of Moral Rights In American Copyright, Sean Mcgilvray

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

Superman is one of the most enduring and widely-recognized fictional characters of all time. But behind the scenes of his colorful adventures, a bitter struggle raged between his original creators and the publisher who currently owns the copyright. In a historic recent decision, the United States District Court for the Central District of California granted a summary judgment declaring that the heirs of the writer had recaptured a portion of the copyright in Superman through the Copyright Act's termination and recapture tight provisions. While, not expressly premised upon moral rights considerations, the judgment reflects many of the core values of …

The Wrong Tool For The Job: The Ip Problem With Non-Competition Agreements, Viva R. Moffat

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

In this article, I argue that non-competition agreements should be unenforceable. Although various attacks have been launched at non-competes, most of them have been aimed at reforming the doctrine rather than eliminating enforcement of the agreements entirely. This is because the justifications for non-competes have been left mostly unchallenged, and I undertake that task here.

The most problematic and least examined of these is the IP justification: in an increasingly knowledge-based economy, many argue that non-competes are necessary to protect trade secrets and other intangibles or that non-competes provide an incentive for invention and investment, a classic IP justification. Though …

Patent Law, Hippo, And The Biodiversity Crisis, 9 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 624 (2010), Andrew W. Torrance

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

Planet earth is host to a dazzling variety of living organisms. This diversity of life, or “biodiversity,” is vital to the survival and prosperity of humanity, supplying such vital amenities as food, clothing, shelter, natural biochemicals useful in medicine, industry, and agriculture, and even irreplaceable ecosystem services, such as clean air and water. Despite the prodigious amount of biodiversity on earth, human activities have been depleting it at an accelerating rate that has now reached the level of a mass extinction event. The five greatest threats to biodiversity can be summarized by the “HIPPO” acronym: (1) Habitat loss, (2) Invasives, …

Gene Patenting Debate: The Meaning Of Myriad, 9 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 953 (2010), Miri Yoon

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York recently held in Association for Molecular Pathology v. United States Patent & Trademark Office that Myriad’s patent claims directed to isolated DNA molecules encoding human breast cancer susceptibility genes BRCA1/2 are not patent-eligible subject matter. Even though the court construed that the patent claims are directed to tangible chemical compounds, the overriding importance of unclaimed DNA sequence information renders claimed molecules as unpatentable products of nature. While the immediate impact of this decision is limited to Myriad’s patents-in-suit, this decision reflects the concern about the adverse effects of …

American Exceptionalism, The French Exception, Intellectual Property Law, And Peer-To-Peer File Sharing On The Internet, 10 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 95 (2010), Lyombe Eko

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

A fundamental problem confronting policy makers is how to apply intellectual property rules and regulations developed for tangible intellectual property assets in real space to intangible,dematerialized intellectual property in cyberspace. The United States and France are self-described exceptionalist countries. American exceptionalism refers to the historical tendency of the United States to emphasize its unique status as the beacon of liberty, while l’exception française (the French exception) refers to the French ideological posture that emphasizes the specificity and superiority of French culture. American exceptionalism and l’exception française are functionally equivalent theoretical constructs that describe and explain how the United States and …

Volume 1, Issue 1 , Au Intellectual Property Brief

Intellectual Property Brief

No abstract provided.

Masthead & Table Of Contents , Au Intellectual Property Brief

Intellectual Property Brief

No abstract provided.

South Africa's Movie Piracy Challenges, Matilda Bilstein

Intellectual Property Brief

No abstract provided.

The Relationship Between The Access And Benefit Sharing International Regimen And Other International Instruments: The World Trade Organization And The International Union For The Protection Of New Varieties Of Plants, Jorge Cabrera Medaglia

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Special 301 Of The Trade Act Of 1974 And Global Access To Medicine, Sean M. Flynn

PIJIP Faculty Scholarship

Since its inception in 1988, the United States Trade Representative’s “Special 301” adjudication of foreign intellectual property law standards has been used to promote policies restricting access to affordable medications around the world. President-elect Obama released a platform promising to “break the stranglehold that a few big drug and insurance companies have on these life-saving drugs” and pledged support for “the rights of sovereign nations to access quality-assured, low-cost generic medication to meet their pressing public health needs.” The 2009 and 2010 Special 301 reports, however, indicate that the Obama Administration has not yet implemented this pledge into administration trade …

Regulation Of Medicine Patents By The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement To Broaden Access To Medicine, Daniel Lee

Intellectual Property Brief

No abstract provided.

Online Auction Sites And Inconsistencies: A Case Study Of France, China, And The United States, Won Hee Elaine Lee

Intellectual Property Brief

No abstract provided.

Volume 2, Issue 1 , Au Intellectual Property Brief

Intellectual Property Brief

No abstract provided.

Logorama: The Great Trademark Heist, Rose Lawrence

Intellectual Property Brief

No abstract provided.

The Communications Decency Act And New York Times V. Sullivan: Providing Public Figure Defamation A Home On The Internet, 43 J. Marshall L. Rev. 491 (2010), Chris Williams

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

From The Mouths Of Babes: Protecting Child Authors From Themselves, Julie Cromer Young

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Opportunistic Evolution: How State Legislation Is Seeking To Redefine Academic Freedom To Permit Intelligent Design In The Classroom, Crystal Canterbury

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Understanding And Regulating The Sport Of Mixed Martial Arts, Brendan S. Maher

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

The past fifteen years have seen the emergence of a new sport in America and around the world: mixed martial arts ("MMA'). MMA is an interdisciplinary combat sport where participants engage in and combine a variety of fighting disciplines (e.g., kickboxing, wrestling, karate, jiu-jitsu, and so on) in a single match. In this Article, Professor Maher examines and analyzes the sport's evolution, tracing it from its shaggy, brutish beginnings to its current incarnation; articulates a pragmatic and comparative theory of sporting legitimacy; reviews and describes the state-based and administrative nature of MMA regulation; and highlights two reform possibilities of interest …

Cutting Cupid Out Of The Workplace: The Capacity Of Employees' Constitutional Privacy Rights To Constrain Employers' Attempts To Limit Off-Duty Intimate Associations, Anna C. Camp

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

Romantic relationships among co-workers: should employers have the right to suppress such activity? Employers often view the widespread practice of dating among co-workers as highly problematic. In light of increased sexual harassment suits, many employers attempt to limit or eliminate intimate relationships among employees through the institution of "no-fraternization" policies. The strictest of these policies allow for legal termination of employees that violate the policy's terms, and can include total prohibition of intimate relationships among co-workers. Employees argue that such bans, which also affect employees' off-duty intimate association, should be held unconstitutionally invasive of employees' privacy rights or invalid on …

Technology And Copyright Law - Illuminating The Nfl's Blackout Rule In Game Broadcasting, Sonali Chitre

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

Copyright is critical to protecting sports broadcasts, and new technology has evolved to disseminate these broadcasts to the many people that enjoy professional sports. Because of new digital rights in the copyright statute, the NFL has very strong copyright protections that cover Internet, satellite, television, and radio licensing of its broadcasts. A "blackout" blocks certain programs from being broadcast in a particular market. Attempting to incentivize fans to come to football games, the NFL "blacks out" games that are not sold out within seventytwo hours of game time within a seventy-five-mile radius of the stadium. The "blackout rule" has been …

Free Speech Or Trademark Protections: Do Advocacy Groups And Government Agencies Deserve Extra Protection, Max Landaw

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

Since October 2009, the American judicial system has been posed with yet another lawsuit in the oft recurring battle between trademark protections and right to freedom of expression, specifically the right to parody. The Yes Men, a parody troop, in a stunt which confused numerous news outlets, held a press conference as "members" of the United States Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber responded by suing the Yes Men for, amongst other causes of action, trademark infringement pursuant to the Lanham Act. This note will first analyze the history of the debate between the conflicting right of free expression and consumer …

Will Twitter Be Following You In The Courtroom: Why Reporters Should Be Allowed To Broadcast During Courtroom Proceedings, Adriana C. Cervantes

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

Thanks to micro-blogging and social networking tools, we no longer have to pick up a phone to call our friends and ask them what they are doing. Instead we turn to our laptop, BlackBerry, or iPhone to get instant information available to us through the Internet. Twitter is a key player in the Internet information exchange line-up and has made its way into one of the oldest and most archaic forums: the courtroom. The current law does not properly address whether reporters should be allowed to tweet, but this trend is becoming more prevalent. Twitter needs to be addressed with …

Trademark Remedies And Online Intermediaries, Stacey Dogan

Faculty Scholarship

For several years now, courts and commentators have tussled over the question of whether online intermediaries can face liability under trademark law. Because both case law and commentary have largely focused on the threshold question of "trademark use, " we know little about what specific behavior will subject intermediaries to liability and what remedies might follow. This Essay takes some preliminary steps toward addressing those questions.

Expanding The Scope Of The Principles Of The Law Of Software Contracts To Include Digital Content, Nancy Kim

Faculty Scholarship

The Principles of the Law of Software Contracts, or the "Principles," seek to "unify and clarify" the law of software transactions. The drafters, however, excluded "digital content" from the scope of their project. This Essay explains why the scope of the Principles should encompass digital content. The exclusion of digital content creates two different but related problems. The first problem is that it creates what I refer to as "classification confusion." Given the complexity and speed of technological innovation, the task of distinguishing digital content from software may be difficult for courts. The second problem is that it fails to …