Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

Asking The Right Questions In Copyright Cases: Lessons From Aereo And Its International Brethren, Rebecca Giblin, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

Aereo was a US-based service that made unique copies of broadcast programs from individual antennae for each requesting user, for individual retransmission near-live or at some point in the future. To the uninitiated, it makes no sense for a company to design a television transmission service that utilises thousands of tiny antennae and thousands of copies to deliver signals to users. Wouldn’t it be much more efficient to use just one of each? And surely, when it comes to copyright liability, wouldn’t more copies result in more infringement, not less? However, Aereo’s strategy made a lot of sense when viewed …

We Need To Talk About Aereo: Copyright-Avoiding Business Models, Cloud Storage And A Principled Reading Of The "Transmit" Clause, Rebecca Giblin, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

Businesses are exploiting perceived gaps in the structure of copyright rights by ingeniously designing their technologies to fulfill demand for individual access through a structure of personalized copies and playback engineered in ways intended to implicate neither the public performance nor the reproduction rights. The archetypal example is Aereo Inc.’s system for providing online access to broadcast television. Aereo allows users to tune into individual antennae to stream TV to themselves, near-live, online. Aereo’s activities look a lot like the retransmission of broadcast signals, an activity which Congress has made very clear must result in remuneration for rightholders. However, Aereo’s …

Cease, Desist, And Laugh, James Gibson

Law Faculty Publications

Anyone who teaches intellectual property law knows how exciting the subject matter can be for students. They inundate professors not only with questions about the classroom material but also with news about emerging technologies, cutting-edge litigation, and legislative initiatives. And the attentive professor will seek to turn these exchanges into teaching moments.

One favorite of students involves a classic intellectual-property mechanism, the cease-and-desist letter. It’s a favorite, I think, because such correspondence can be over the top, and the responses can be quite funny – making this a perfect topic for this April Fool’s edition of IP Viewpoints. [...]

A Pre-History Of Performing Rights In Anglo-American Copyright Law, Derek Miller

Studio for Law and Culture

Statutes creating performing rights--the subset of copyright that secures the right to perform a work – first appeared in the United Kingdom in 1833, and in the United States in 1856. As I explore in the larger project of which this paper forms a part, during the decades that followed these laws’ passage, jurists and theater-makers defined performance as a marketable commodity, what I call the performance-commodity. They did so by negotiating between performance’s aesthetic value and its economic value. This commodity-centered approach was absent from most copyright lawsuits about performance before 1833 and 1856 because jurists and litigants did …

Out Of Tune: Why Copyright Law Needs Music Lessons, Carys Craig

Articles & Book Chapters

This chapter offers a critical analysis of copyright law that integrates insights from music. The authors argue that the unique qualities of musical works magnify the mismatch between creative practices and copyright doctrine, and suggest that an interdisciplinary analysis can shine a revealing light on both the problem and potential paths to improvement. Beginning with an overview of copyright doctrine in Canada in respect of musical works and music infringement claims, the authors then borrow analytical concepts from the discipline of music theory to problematize copyright’s “reasonable listener” test for determining substantial copying. Using a specially-designed musical composition, the authors …

Competing With The “Patent Court”: A Newly Robust Ecosystem, Arti K. Rai

Faculty Scholarship

In a provocative address, Chief Judge Wood of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals suggests exposing the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, created in 1982 to hear all appeals from patent cases, to competition from sister appellate courts. This response, published as part of a Symposium on Chief Judge Wood's address, argues that competition is indeed desirable. Whether such competition is best provided by other appellate courts is unclear, however. The more tractable approach is to improve competitive input from sources that have already emerged. These include dissenting Federal Circuit judges, parties and amici who are not "patent …

Ripple Effects In The Law: The Broadening Meaning Of An "Offer To Sell" In Patent Law, Lucas S. Osborn

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Patent Claim Interpretation Review: Deference Or Correction Driven?, Christopher A. Cotropia

Law Faculty Publications

This Article examines the Federal Circuit's review of claim constructions by lower tribunals to determine whether the Federal Circuit defers to lower court constructions or is making its own, independent determination as to the "correct" construction and ultimate result in the case.

The Fair Use Doctrine: Markets, Market Failure And Rights Of Use, Wendy J. Gordon

Faculty Scholarship

Markets are most acceptable when they serve efficiency and other goals. It is only under transaction-costless conditions of perfect knowledge, flawless and cost-free enforcement, full monetization, and instantaneous ability to organize and negotiate, that markets are guaranteed to generate efficient outcomes. And even then, markets could fall short as social tools, because goals other than allocative efficiency may fail to be met.

The Core Of Copyright: Authors, Not Publishers, Wendy J. Gordon

Faculty Scholarship

Copyright largely consists of alienable rights and correlative duties — rights of exclusion given to individuals, and correlative duties not-to-copy imposed on the public. This Article argues that such right/duty pairs arise out of authorial creation. A focus on creation is not very popular at the moment; a growing number of commentators take the position that copyright is “about” making publishing and other dissemination industries more efficient and stronger. The Article encourages the legal community instead to return to the focus that the Supreme Court articulated in Feist Publications, namely, that copyright must serve creative authorship rather than noncreative labor. …

Principled Standards Vs. Boundless Discretion: A Tale Of Two Approaches To Intermediary Trademark Liability Online, Stacey Dogan

Faculty Scholarship

Over the past decade, courts have developed two distinct approaches in evaluating trademark claims against online intermediaries. In one – contributory infringement – courts struggle with the tension between preserving legitimate, non-infringing uses of technologies, on the one hand, and minimizing infringement, on the other. In the other – direct infringement – liability turns on perceived wrongdoing by intermediaries whose own behavior increases the risk of consumer confusion. This second type of liability boasts neither a clear doctrinal framework nor a coherent normative vision. Most troublingly, the scant case law has paid little attention to issues at the core of …

Actavis, The Reverse Payment Fallacy, And The Continuing Need For Regulatory Solutions, Daniel A. Crane

Articles

The Actavis decision punted more than it decided. Although narrowing the range of possible outcomes by rejecting the legal rules at the extremes and opting for a rule of reason middle ground, the opinion failed to grapple with the most challenging issues of regulatory policy raised by pharmaceutical patent settlements. In particular, it failed to clearly delineate the social costs of permitting and disallowing patent settlements, avoided grappling with the crucial issues of patent validity and infringement, and erroneously focused on “reverse payments” as a distinctive antitrust problem when equally or more anticompetitive settlements can be crafted without reverse payments. …

How To Explain The "Implicit Exceptions" To Patent-Eligible Subject Matter, Wesley D. Markham

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

The Supreme Court has as of late taken renewed interest in what inventions or discoveries are deserving of entry into the patent system. Section 101 of Title 35 opens the door to "[w]hoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof." Certain things--now referenced by the Court as "laws of nature, natural phenomena, and abstract ideas"--necessarily fall outside the statute's scope. The question is, why? Not why as a matter of policy, but why as a matter of law. The Court has not yet picked (or at …

Copyright's Knowledge Principle, Jenny L. Sheridan

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

This Article argues that copyright jurisprudence has lost sight of the knowledge principle at the heart of the constitutional justification for copyright. The Framers envisioned the objective of copyright as promoting the advancement of knowledge for a democratic society by increasing access to published works. Under what is best termed the "knowledge principle," access to existing knowledge is a necessary condition for the creation of new knowledge. Copyright jurisprudence has largely protected the interests of producers--from early booksellers to modern Hollywood film companies--failing to notice the central role of access to works as a necessary pre-condition to the creation of …

Intellectual Asset Management At The Speed Of Business, Susan Prohofsky Krelitz, Alex Sellke

Cybaris®

No abstract provided.

Should All Drugs Be Patentable?: A Comparative Perspective, Cynthia M. Ho

Faculty Publications & Other Works

Although there has been substantial discussion of the proper scope of patentable subject matter in recent years, drugs have been overlooked. This Article begins to address that gap with a comparative perspective. In particular, this Article considers what is permissible under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), as well as how India and Canada have utilized TRIPS flexibilities in different ways to properly reward developers of valuable new drugs, while also considering the social harm of higher prices beyond an initial patent term on drugs.

This Article brings valuable insight into this area at a critical …

Drugged Out: How Cognitive Bias Hurts Drug Innovation, Cynthia M. Ho

Faculty Publications & Other Works

No abstract provided.

Aereo And Cablevision: How Courts Are Struggling To Harmonize The Public Performance Right With Online Retransmission Of Broadcast Television, Sam Méndez

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

Americans increasingly turn to the computer instead of the television to gain access to their favorite shows. With this in mind, Aereo allows its subscribers to stream broadcast television content to their computers, but does not compensate the broadcasters for these retransmissions. The broadcasters argue this violates their public performance right under the Copyright Act’s Transmit Clause, but because of Aereo’s curious technology platform, in which thousands of tiny antennas are each assigned to a unique subscriber, infringement is uncertain. The Supreme Court will soon hear American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. v. Aereo, Inc., arising out of the Second Circuit, …

Regulatory Monopoly And Differential Pricing In The Market For Patents, Neel U. Sukhatme

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Patents are limited-term monopolies awarded to inventors to incentivize innovation. But there is another monopoly that has been largely overlooked at the heart of patent law: the monopoly of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) over the granting of patents. This Article addresses this topic by developing the notion of a regulatory monopoly, where a single governmental actor has the power to set prices in a regulatory area.

The Article explains how regulatory monopolists like the PTO could enhance social welfare via differential pricing-by charging regulated entities differing fees based on their willingness and ability to pay. In particular, …

Pacific Nortwest Perspective: The Impact Of The America Invents Act On Nonprofit Global Health Organizations, John Morgan, Veronica Sandoval

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

The Leahy-Smith America Invents Act of 2011 (AIA) makes fundamental changes to the legislative landscape governing patent law in the United States and will bring about corresponding changes in the manner in which inventors and attorneys address patent issues. While the law is newly implemented, inventors in all sectors of the economy are eager to formulate reactions to it. In this Article, we explore the effects of the AIA on nonprofit research organizations dedicated to global health and life sciences. We report the perspectives of counsel representing such organizations throughout the Pacific Northwest. We also consider the patent system, and …

The Comprador Complex: Africa’S Iprs Elites, Neo-Colonialism And The Enduring Control Of African Ipr Agenda By External Interests, Ikechi Mgbeoji

Articles & Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Canadian Patent Law, Ikechi Mgbeoji

Articles & Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

Comment: 3d Printing, Sarah K. Wiant

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Fair Use And The Faces Of Transformation, Part I, James Gibson

Law Faculty Publications

The recent Kienitz v. Sconnie Nation case has been the focus of three recent posts in this Intellectual Property Issues series – from me, Doug Lichtman, and Rod Smolla. In Kienitz, the defendant changed a photograph of the mayor of Madison, Wisconsin, into a stylized, high-contrast image, printed on t-shirts that mocked the mayor’s policies. The U.S Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that the new image constituted a fair use and therefore did not infringe the photograph’s copyright. (The original photo and the stylized version on the t-shirt can be seen here.) …

Copyright Termination And Technical Standards, Jorge L. Contreras, Andrew T. Hernacki

University of Baltimore Law Review

Technical standards, which enable products manufactured by different vendors to work together, form the basis of the modem technological infrastructure. Yet an obscure provision of the U.S. Copyright Act, enacted to allow authors and composers to profit from the later success of their works, now threatens to disrupt this critical technological ecosystem. Enacted in 1976, Section 203 of the Copyright Act permits the author of a copyrighted work to revoke any copyright license or assignment between thirty-five and forty years after the grant was made. For grants made in 1978, the first year to which Section 203 applies, terminations could …

The Tangled Web: A Case Against New Generic Top-Level Domains, Joseph P. Smith Iii

Law Student Publications

This article’s purpose is to provide a general understanding of the legal and financial implications of the new generic top-level domains. By looking at the history and functionality of generic top-level domains, the reader will hopefully have the requisite background to understand the implications of adding new top-level domains.

Sharing Stupid $H*T With Friends And Followers: The First Amendment Rights Of College Athletes To Use Social Media, Mary Margaret Meg Penrose

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

No abstract provided.

Rethinking Trademark Functionality As A Question Of Fact, Yvette Joy Liebesman

All Faculty Scholarship

Trade dress functionality stands for a reasonable premise: features which are essential to the use or purpose of an article, which affect the cost or quality of the article, or whose exclusive use would put competitors at a significant non-reputation-related disadvantage, are not protectable as signifiers of source or sponsorship. Functionality has broad implications, as a product’s shape can be its most identifiable feature.

The problems plaguing the functionality doctrine have been examined from a substantive point of view; however until the standard by which functionality is determined is changed, these problems are likely to continue to persist. When adjudicating …

Judicial Capacities And Patent Claim Construction: An Ordinary Reader Standard, Greg Reilly

Faculty Scholarship

Patent claim construction is a mess. The Federal Circuit’s failure to provide adequate guidance has created significant problems for the patent system. The problems with claim construction result from the Federal Circuit’s inability to resolve whether claim terms should be given (1) the general, acontextual meaning they would have to a skilled person in the field; (2) the specific meaning they have in the context of the patent; or (3) some combination of the two. The claim construction debate largely overlooks the generalist judges who must implement claim construction. This Article fills that gap, concluding that existing approaches are difficult, …

Machine Learning And Law, Harry Surden

Publications

This Article explores the application of machine learning techniques within the practice of law. Broadly speaking “machine learning” refers to computer algorithms that have the ability to “learn” or improve in performance over time on some task. In general, machine learning algorithms are designed to detect patterns in data and then apply these patterns going forward to new data in order to automate particular tasks. Outside of law, machine learning techniques have been successfully applied to automate tasks that were once thought to necessitate human intelligence — for example language translation, fraud-detection, driving automobiles, facial recognition, and data-mining. If performing …