Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

From Incentive To Commodity To Asset: How International Law Is Reconceptualizing Intellectual Property, Rochelle Dreyfuss, Susy Frankel

Michigan Journal of International Law

The intellectual property landscape is changing. As Jerry Reichman once observed, intellectual property rights were islands in a sea of the public domain until domestic laws expanded to include such “innovations” as business methods, software, scents, and sounds and turned the public domain into a pond surrounded by a continent of rights. Reichman spoke towards the end of the 20th century, and whatever problems accompanied this change, in truth (to paraphrase Voltaire’s view of the Holy Roman Empire), the concept of “intellectual property rights” was predominantly about neither “property” nor “rights” (nor was it always “intellectual”). Rather, copyright, patent, and …

Emergency Takings, Brian Lee

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

School Boy's Tricks: Reasonable Cybersecurity And The Panic Of Law Creation, David S. Levine

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

No abstract provided.

The Psychology Of Patent Protection, Stephanie Plamondon Bair

Faculty Scholarship

This Article offers the first comprehensive assessment of the major justifications for our patent system using a behavioral psychology framework. Applying insights from the behavioral literature that I argue more accurately account for the realities of human action than previous analytical tools, I critically evaluate each of the major justifications for patents — incentive theory, disclosure theory, prospect theory, commercialization theory, patent racing theory, and non-utilitarian theories. I ask whether our current patent system is an effective regime for meeting the stated goals of these accounts. When the answer to this question is no, I again turn to the behavioral …

Network Neutrality And Consumer Demand For “Better Than Best Efforts” Traffic Management, Rob Frieden

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

INTRODUCTION The Internet increasingly offers a preferred medium for access to video and other types of high value content that may require Internet Service Providers (“ISPs”) to use special efforts to ensure superior quality of service (“QOS”). ISPs have made substantial investments in infrastructure upgrades to satisfy growing demand for networks capable of delivering bandwidth intensive traffic at higher transmission speeds. Additionally, they work to accommodate consumer expectations of having content access anytime, anywhere, through any medium, via any device, and in any screen presentation format. Early adopters of new video delivery technologies rely on both wireline and wireless alternatives …

Appropriate(D) Moments, Richard Chused

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

INTRODUCTION Quietly reading a book by a window in your apartment isn’t necessarily a “private” act. Many living in densely packed locations like Manhattan inevitably wonder whether eyes peering through telescopes or watching digital camera screens find them, linger for a time, capture images or generate fantasies about who and what they are. That appropriation reality popped into public view in 2013 when Martha and Matthew Foster discovered images of themselves and their children, Delaney and James, in Arne Svenson’s photography exhibition The Neighbors mounted at the Julie Saul Gallery in the Chelsea district of Manhattan. The Fosters lived in …

Sensationalism Falling Through The Cracks: Why The Legal Profession Must Broaden Ethical Standards For Legal Commentators, A. Augustus Lasala

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

INTRODUCTION Whether it was O.J. Simpson, Casey Anthony, or Scott Peterson, history has shown that Americans love an exciting criminal trial. As a result, in the United States, the coverage and analysis of high-publicity criminal cases is ever-growing, creating many opportunities for attorneys to work in media as legal commentators. The term “legal commentator” has no precise definition, but generally entails attorneys making statements in the media that contain legal analysis. When attorneys speak in the media they simultaneously act in two roles: as a licensed attorney who has professional responsibilities and as a journalist who must meet viewership requirements. …

Internet Privacy Enforcement After Net Neutrality, Thomas B. Norton

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

In March 2015, the Federal Communications Commission reclassified broadband Internet access service providers as “common carriers” subject to obligations under Title II of the Communications Act. One such obligation is to comply with the Act’s section 222 privacy provisions. As a result of reclassification, the Federal Communications Commission claims privacy enforcement jurisdiction over a broad swath of companies that formerly fell within the Federal Trade Commission’s regulatory reach. The Federal Trade Commission and industry players have been outwardly critical of this effect. This Note explores the resulting tension between the two agencies and proposes potential resolutions for it.

The Chicago School Trap In Trademark: The Co-Evolution Of Corporate, Antitrust, And Trademark Law, Deven R. Desai

Cardozo Law Review

The central claim of this Article is that, as a descriptive matter, trademark legislation and court interpretation is a close normative match with the Chicago School approach of scholars such as Robert Bork and Richard Posner. The organizing intellectual structure of modern trademark law, as developed in the law, has been freedom of action for the owner of the mark, not minimizing search costs as repeatedly stated in academic writing. This Article thus reveals that modern trademark law is a subset of the Chicago School's approach to the firm, deference to management, and competition. That view is not interested in …

Pay The Troll Toll: The Patent Troll Model Is Fundamentally At Odds With The Patent System's Goal Of Innovation And Competition, Grace Heinecke

Fordham Law Review

    Patent litigation has multiplied sixfold since the 1980s, with the last few years seeing an unprecedented number of patent lawsuits. When an inventor receives a patent, the U.S. Constitution grants him a monopoly for a limited number of years to reward him for his investment of time and resources and to incentivize him to continue innovating, which ultimately benefits society. However, the emergence of a litigious character, deemed the “patent troll,” has led to the patent system’s hindrance of innovation, a result that is at odds with the primary goal of patent law. Patent trolls exploit weaknesses in the patent …

Brief Of Amici Curiae Intellectual Property Law Professors In Support Of Appellees, Mark Mckenna

Court Briefs

The District Court correctly determined that Phoenix failed to state a trademark claim because Basket Case’s activities cannot have caused any relevant confusion.1 Phoenix’s fundamental complaint is about unauthorized use of its intangible content—karaoke tracks. Under Dastar v. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp., 539 U.S. 23 (2003), however, only confusion regarding the source of physical goods is actionable under the Lanham Act; confusion regarding the source of the karaoke tracks or their authorization is not actionable. Phoenix cannot avoid Dastar just because Basket Case creates digital copies of those tracks, as Basket Case does not sell digital files or …

Ex Parte Seizures And The Defend Trade Secrets Act, Eric Goldman

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

Congress is considering the Defend Trade Secrets Act, which would create a new federal trade secret civil cause of action. The Act includes a quirky and unprecedented ex parte procedure for trade secret owners to obtain a seizure order. The seizure provision applies in, at best, a narrow set of circumstances, and it oddly attempts to protect intangible trade secrets by seizing chattels. Despite procedural safeguards, the seizure provision also enables anti-competitive misuse.

More generally, the fact-based disputes that inevitably must be resolved in trade secret litigation make trade secrets an especially poor basis for ex parte actions. As a …

Introduction: The Defend Trade Secrets Act Of 2015, Christopher B. Seaman

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

This is an introduction to a Roundtable on the Defend Trade Secrets Act published by the Washington and Lee Law Review Online in 2015.

The Dtsa: The Litigator's Full-Employment Act, Sharon K. Sandeen

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

Civil litigation is expensive, both for the party bringing suit and the party that must defend against such claims. For a variety of reasons, not the least of which are the usual requests for preliminary relief and protective orders, trade secret litigation is particularly expensive. These costs can have a crippling effect on small businesses and start-up companies that are accused of trade secret misappropriation, often resulting in litigation expenses that exceed the alleged harm to the plaintiff. Such litigation is particularly costly and unjust in cases where the plaintiff asserts rights that, due to common misunderstandings about the limited …

Finders Keepers, Or Finders Weepers? A Proposed Answer To A Question Raised By Myriad Genetics, Jingshi Shi

Georgia Journal of Law & Technology

No abstract provided.

Trade Secret Rising: Protecting Equivalency Test Research And Development Investments After Momenta V. Amphastar, Hannah-Alise Rogers

Georgia Journal of Law & Technology

No abstract provided.

To Speak, Perchance To Have A Dream: The Malicious Author And Orator Estate As A Critique Of The Digital Millennium Copyright Act's Subversion Of The First Amendment In The Era Of Notice And Takedown, Michael Bradford Patterson

Georgia Journal of Law & Technology

No abstract provided.

Unauthorized Digital Sampling In The Changing Music Landscape, Ryan Lloyd

Georgia Journal of Law & Technology

No abstract provided.

Fault Lines In Trademark Default Judgments, David S. Welkowitz

Georgia Journal of Law & Technology

No abstract provided.

The Viability Of The $30 Casebook: Intellectual Property, Voluntary Payment, Open Distribution, And Author Incentives, Lydia Pallas Loren

Georgia Journal of Law & Technology

It is not uncommon for a new hardbound copy of today’s law school casebooks to exceed $200. And, each year, the prices inch ever higher. After exploring the various dynamics in the traditional publishing market that have led to the current prices for casebooks, this article describes the experiences of Semaphore Press, a publisher of law school casebooks that offers a very different approach to providing law school casebooks. Semaphore Press offers digital copies of required textbooks for law school classes, (in pdf format with no digit rights management (DRM) restrictions), at a suggested price of $30. In addition, students …

The Enforcement Challenges For Tattoo Copyrights, Yolanda M. King

Georgia Journal of Law & Technology

No abstract provided.

Patent Office Contested Proceedings And The Duty Of Candor, Lisa A. Dolak

Georgia Journal of Law & Technology

The implementation of post-grant trial proceedings in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is one of the most significant aspects of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act. Practitioners have a great deal of new subject matter to master, including the governing statutes and rules, and instructive Patent Trial and Appeal Board decisions. All of this new law is superimposed, however, on an existing legal landscape relating to the practitioner’s duty of candor and potential consequences for candor violations. Furthermore, the new law creates additional candor and disclosure obligations specifically applicable in post-grant contested proceedings.

This paper discusses the “old” and “new” …

Table Of Contents, Vol. 22:1, Journal Of Intellectual Property Law

Georgia Journal of Law & Technology

No abstract provided.

Noriega V. Activision/Blizzard: The First Amendment Right To Use A Historical Figure's Likeness In Video Games, Joshua Sinclair

Duke Law & Technology Review

Panama’s former dictator, Manuel Noriega, recently sued Activision Blizzard in the California Superior Court for using his likeness and image in the popular video game “Call of Duty: Black Ops II.” In his complaint, Noriega alleged that the use of his likeness violated his right of publicity. Former New York Mayor, Rudy Giuliani, came to Activision’s defense, and filed a motion to dismiss, which was granted. In granting Activision’s motion, the court held that Activision’s use of Noriega’s likeness was transformative and did not violate his right of publicity. This Issue Brief argues that the California Superior Court should not …

The Value Of A Life Story And Why The Right To An Individual's Life Story Should Not Escape Bankruptcy, Robert Sutton

Barry Law Review

No abstract provided.

Patent And Know-How Licensing In Japan And The United States, Terry K. Smith

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Do Abstract Ideas Have The Need, The Need For Speed?: An Examination Of Abstract Ideas After Alice, Maria R. Sinatra

Fordham Law Review

    Imagine you invented a way to perform mathematical calculations all over the world simultaneously. Now, imagine that you cannot patent your invention because it was compared to, and found to contain, the same idea as an abacus. This scenario was the outcome of Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International.

    In coming to its decision in Alice, the U.S. Supreme Court adopted a two-part test that it had previously utilized to analyze the patentability of laws of nature to determine whether the patent at issue met the subject matter patentability standards of § 101 of the Patent Act. Determining …

Time To Say Local Cheese And Smile At Geographical Indications Of Origin? International Trade And Local Development In The United States, Irene Calboli

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In this Article, I offer some considerations on a possible compromising solution for the controversy between the European Union (EU) and the United States (U.S.) on the regulation of geographical indications of origin (GIs) as part of the negotiations in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). Notably, I advocate that the EU and the U.S. consider adopting a solution similar to that adopted in the Canada and European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). In particular, I note that, even though CETA accepted several of the EU’s requests to claw-back names that were not previously protected in Canada, …

Property As Institutions For Resources: Lessons From And For Ip, Julie E. Cohen

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The idea of property in land as the paradigm case of property exercises despotic dominion over property thinking. From the perspective of evolving political economy, however, a land-centric model of property makes very little sense. Property institutions coordinate access to resources, and so it is reasonable to expect them to differ in ways that respond to the characteristics of those resources. The debate about whether intellectual property (IP) is property is instructive. IP scholars have pursued the property debate using a conceptual framework derived from common law real property doctrines and organized around the practical and theoretical problems associated with …

Intellectual Property Law’S Plagiarism Fallacy, Gregory N. Mandel, Anne A. Fast, Kristina R. Olson

BYU Law Review

Intellectual property law is caught in a widespread debate over whether it should serve incentive or natural rights objectives, and what the best means for achieving those ends are. This article reports a series of experiments revealing that these debates are actually orthogonal to how most users and many creators understand intellectual property law. The most common perception of intellectual property among the American public is that intellectual property law is designed to prevent plagiarism.

The plagiarism fallacy in intellectual property law is not an innocuous misperception. This fallacy likely helps explain pervasive illegal infringing activity on the Internet, common …