Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

A Twenty-Year Retrospective On United States Trademark Law In Ten Cases, Marshall Leaffer

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Self-Replicating Technologies And The Challenge For The Patent And Antitrust Laws, Daryl Lim

Faculty Scholarly Works

Few patented inventions challenge the traditional boundaries of the patent and antitrust laws like those that are capable of multiplying as they are used. These self-replicating technologies are embedded in our food, fortify our vaccines, and form the computer code upon which the information age is based. These inventions create an inherent conflict between patentees and their customers. The conflict arises because every customer could become competitors as the product replicates, potentially making every first sale the patentee's last. They also challenge how we think about fundamental issues of ownership as well as innovation and market competition, and make it …

Fracking The Oil And Gas Trade Secrets Of The Marcellus Shale Natural Gas Play, Jeremy I. Maynard

Kentucky Journal of Equine, Agriculture, & Natural Resources Law

No abstract provided.

The Tragedy Of The Commons: A Hybrid Approach To Trade Secret Legal Theory, Jonathan R. K. Stroud

Celebrating WCL Student Authors

No abstract provided.

Much Ado About Nexus: The States Struggle To Impose Sales Tax Obligations On Out-Of-State Sellers Engaged In E-Commerce, Sara Shoenfeld

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Patent Law Is, At Best, Not Worth Keeping, Richard Stallman

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

'Ah, You Publishing Scoundrel!' A Hauntological Reading Of Privacy, Moral Rights, And The Fair Use Of Unpublished Works, Robert Spoo

Articles, Chapters in Books and Other Contributions to Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

"Introduction: Futures Of Fair Use", Robert Spoo

Articles, Chapters in Books and Other Contributions to Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Crowdfunding: Fleecing The American Masses, Zachary J. Griffin

Journal of Law, Technology, & the Internet

No abstract provided.

Personal Health Information Shared Via Social Networking: The Gap Between Reality And Protection, Madison M. Pool

Journal of Law, Technology, & the Internet

No abstract provided.

A Trademark Justification For Design Patent Rights, Dennis D. Crouch

Faculty Publications

This article presents a new set of empirical results to support the theoretical construct that design patents fill a gap in trade dress law protection. Based on the data, I tentatively reject the oft-stated conventional wisdom that design patents are worthless for many because procurement is too slow, expensive, and difficult. Rather, based on a first-of-its-kind analysis of the prosecution history files of a large sample of recently issued design patents, I conclude that the current design patent examination system operates as a de facto registration system. Notably, more than ninety-eight percent (98%) of the patents in my study were …

Tattoos & Ip Norms, Aaron K. Perzanowski

Faculty Publications

The U.S. tattoo industry generates billions of dollars in annual revenue. Like the music, film, and publishing industries, it derives value from the creation of new, original works of authorship. But unlike rights holders in those more traditional creative industries, tattoo artists rarely assert formal legal rights in disputes over copying or ownership of the works they create. Instead, tattooing is governed by a set of nuanced, overlapping, and occasionally contradictory social norms enforced through informal sanctions. And in contrast to other creative communities that rely on social norms because of the unavailability of formal intellectual property protection, the tattoo …

Rethinking Innovation And Productivity Within The Workplace Amidst Economic Uncertainty, Shlomit Yanisky Ravid

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Lawyer With The Adr Tattoo, Jennifer W. Reynolds

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

This Article considers whether ADR presents a branding problem for legal professionals and, if so, how those professionals can reclaim the brand in productive, career-affirming ways. Whether one should self-identify as proponent, practitioner, or scholar of alternative practices implicates broad tensions not only around assimilating with integrity into any longstanding change-resistant profession, but also around the shortcomings of the adversarial system and the legitimacy of ADR.

People V. Diaz, Senate Bill 914 And The Fourth Amendment, Caitlin Keane

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

After the Diaz decision in January, Senator Mark Leno, a Democrat representing San Francisco, took matters into his own hands and drafted Senate Bill 914. In short, the bill would have overturned the Court's decision and required law enforcement to obtain a search warrant from a neutral magistrate before searching arrestees' portable electronic devices. The bill passed with overwhelming support from both political parties in the State Assembly and State Senate and needed only Governor Brown's signature or tacit approval to become law. Governor Brown vetoed the bill in October 2011, stating, "[t]he courts are better suited to resolve the …

Imposing A Duty In An Online World: Holding The Webhost Liable For Cyberbullying, Elizabeth M. Jaffe

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

In light of fettle attempts by state legislatures to subdue the growing cyberbullying epidemic, the time has come to create a civil duty upon those who can control the problem-web hosts and webservers. While the general "foreseeable plaintiff' duty set forth by then-Chief Judge Cardozo in PaIsgraf v. Long Island Railroad Co. has controlled the duty of care owed to the person of another for the last century, Judge Andrews' dissent may hold the key to unlock this new societal problem: "Every one owes to the world at large the duty of refraining from those acts that may unreasonably threaten …

Minor Changes: Altering Current Coogan Law To Better Protect Children Working In Entertainment, Danielle Ayalon

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

Coogan Law provides statutory authority designating income earned by a minor under an entertainment contract as the minor's property, rather than the property of the minor's parents. These statutes were first enacted in 1939, substantially revised in 2000, and subsequently amended in 2004. But despite these ongoing efforts to provide financial protection, the adverse interests of parents and their children persist. The concern that many child entertainers are not yet adequately protected invites close scrutiny of the law to assess whether changes are still required to assure children in the entertainment business have optimal protection.

This note examines the current …

Stars In Their Eyes: The Dominance Of The Celebrity Brand And Intellectual Property Norms Protection Through Fan Goodwill, Naeha Prakash

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

The widespread celebrity culture in today's society has signaled a shift from celebrity product endorsers to celebrity brands. Right of publicity and trademark laws leave a gap that does not adequately protect a brand as a whole. Rather, these laws make a distinction between the celebrity identity and the product, limiting protection of a brand that includes both components. Social norms found in the interaction between celebrities and fans can provide an alternate form of protection that reinforces ownership rights found in pure intellectual property. This article argues that a celebrity brand should foster fan goodwill to build a brand …

The Impact Of Local Patent Rules On Rate And Timing Of Case Resolution Relative To Claim Construction: An Empirical Study Of The Past Decade, Pauline M. Pelletier

Journal of Business & Technology Law

No abstract provided.

Self-Replicating Technologies And The Challenge For The Patent And Antitrust Laws, 32 Cardozo Arts & Ent. L.J. 131 (2013), Daryl Lim

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

Few patented inventions challenge the traditional boundaries of the patent and antitrust laws like those that are capable of multiplying as they are used. These self-replicating technologies are embedded in our food, fortify our vaccines, and form the computer code upon which the information age is based. These inventions create an inherent conflict between patentees and their customers. The conflict arises because every customer could become competitors as the product replicates, potentially making every first sale the patentee's last. They also challenge how we think about fundamental issues of ownership as well as innovation and market competition, and make it …

Then, You Had It, Now It’S Gone: Interspousal Or Community Property Transfer And Termination Of An Illusory Ephemeral State Law Right Or Interest In Copyright, Llewellyn Joseph Gibbons

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

Often in the case of a marriage where one partner is a creative spouse, the primary marital asset is a body of copyrighted works. In 2013, author-spouses entered the period when they may begin to terminate any putative copyright transfer to the community property estate or terminate other transfers that may be the basis for prenuptial or postnuptial agreements, property settlements, or dissolution decrees in divorce actions. Section 203 of the 1976 Copyright Act provides that an author may unilaterally terminate a transfer of copyright approximately thirty-five years after the initial transfer. In community property states, state law assumes that …

The Paradox Of Legal Equivalents And Scientific Equivalence: Reconciling Patent Law's Doctrine Of Equivalents With The Fda's Bioequivalence Requirement, Janet Freilich

Faculty Scholarship

Contrary to popular perception, generic drugs often enter the market before the patents covering their brand name counterparts have expired by making slight changes to the drug to avoid the brand name patent. These generics face a paradox: the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires that the generic "not show a significant difference" from the reference product, while patent law requires that the generic have "substantial differences" as compared to the reference product. The generic must be bioequivalent, but not legally equivalent, to the brand name drug. This paradox occurs frequently in the courts but has never been discussed …

Protect Yourself: Why The Eleventh Circuit's Approach To Sanctions For Protective Order Violations Fails Litigants, Adam J. Fitzsimmons

Georgia Law Review

Litigants commonly struggle to balance the need to comply with discovery requests and the desire to protect valuable trade secrets. Protective orders to help strike that balance. Questions arise, however, when one of the parties violates that protective order and discloses the opponent's confidential information. Chiefly, what remedies are available for a party whose invaluable intellectual property has been disclosed? At least one circuit has held the most common sanction, payment of attorney's fees, is unavailable for a violation of a protective order. Generally, Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37(b)(2) governs sanctions for violations of discovery orders, but the text …

The Great Bankrupt Divide: Amending The Rights Of Trademark Licensees Under The Code, Sumner R. Pugh Iv

Georgia Law Review

The federal circuit courts are split over whether a licensee has the right to continue using a licensed trademark after the license is rejected in bankruptcy. In Sunbeam Products, Inc. v. Chicago American Manufacturing, LLC, the Seventh Circuit held that rejection does not abrogate the licensee's right to use the licensed trademark, a decision that expressly rejects the Fourth Circuit's contrary holding that rejection ends a licensee's right to use the licensed mark. While this Note argues that the Fourth Circuit interpreted and applied the Bankruptcy Code accurately in Lubrizol Enterprises v. Richmond Metal Finishers, it finds that the effect …

Make Me Walk, Make Me Talk, Do Whatever You Please: Barbie And Exceptions, Rebecca Tushnet

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Barbie represents an aspiration to an ideal and also a never-ending mutability. Barbie is the perfect woman, and she is also grotesque, plasticized hyperreality, presenting a femininity exaggerated to the point of caricature. Barbie’s marketplace success, combined with (and likely related to) her overlapping and contradictory meanings, also allow her to embody some key exceptions to copyright and trademark law. Though Mattel’s lawsuits were not responsible for the initial recognition of those exceptions, they illuminate key principles and contrasts in American law. Mattel attempted to use both copyright and trademark to control the meaning of Barbie, reflecting a trend towards …

Dios Mio: The Kiss Principle Of The Ethical Approach To Copyright And Right Of Publicity Law, Michael D. Murray

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

To copy or not to copy, to exploit the famous celebrity image or not to exploit it; these are the questions. The message of the modern legal world communicated through multiple voices in the academy is that copying often is perfectly acceptable and even laudable. An artist or designer might conclude that it is both legal and ethical to use whatever you can, use whatever you can get away with, and use it until you get sued for using it. Yet plagiarism in the arts and sciences is nearly universally condemned. This Article proposes an ethical approach to the use …

Pushing Ahead With The Pro Bono Assistance Program, 12 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 286 (2013), John Calvert

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

Lawyers often contribute their time and energy helping the under-resourced through pro bono work, whether because it’s required of them or because of a personal desire to assist those less fortunate. But until 2011, few, if any programs were available for IP Professionals to volunteer their time for patent legal services, leaving them to contribute to areas of law outside their expertise. A group of IP law experts from LegalCORPS and a pro bono program created by the America Invents Act (AIA) has changed that. In this brief Article, John Calvert, author of the AIA provision that created the USPTO …

Patent Portfolio Strategy For The America Invents Act, 12 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 289 (2013), George Wheeler

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

The Leahy-Smith America Invents Act made significant changes to U.S. patent law when it was enacted on September 16, 2011. Some provisions did not immediately take effect, however, and arguably the most important of these delayed provisions are the new rules under section 102 relating to prior art and the transition from a “first to invent” system to a “first inventor to file” system. This Article provides a guide to understanding the new rules relating to prior art and the impact these changes have on patent prosecution. Then, several strategies and techniques are discussed for managing a patent portfolio in …

On Measuring The Expertise Of Patent-Pilot Judges: Encouraging Enhancement Of Claim-Construction Uniformity, 12 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 309 (2013), Etan S. Chatlynne

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

A Pilot Program to “encourage enhancement of expertise” in patent cases among district judges recently got underway in the federal courts. The program is designed to funnel patent cases to judges who volunteer to become “pilot judges.” The idea is that as these judges hear more patent cases and become more familiar with patent law, they will be able to craft claim constructions and opinions that are increasingly likely to survive the scrutiny of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Unfortunately, the Federal Circuit’s jurisprudence may itself encumber these efforts because of a split among the Federal Circuit …

The Trademark/Domain Name Protection War: A Comparative Study Of The U.S., Udrp And Taiwanese Law, 12 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 350 (2013), Chih-Hong (Henry) Tsai

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

Trademarks have ancient origins, and a long developmental history that has informed and shaped modern approaches to trademark disputes. Many of these disputes are familiar. Yet others are a product of technological developments, such as the threats modern trademark owners face as a result of young and vibrant domain names. The United States Congress and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) have each attempted to address conflicts between trademarks and domain names, while Taiwan has not. After surveying the U.S. and ICANN attempts, and comparing each to existing Taiwanese law, this Article provides a set of recommendations …