Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

Aesthetic Nondiscrimination & Fair Use, Brian L. Frye

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

While courts do not consider the aesthetic value of an element of a work in determining whether it is protected by copyright, they do consider the aesthetic value of the use of a copyrighted element of a work in determining whether that use is a fair use. This asymmetry improperly and inefficiently discriminates in favor of copyright protection and against fair use. Moreover, the fair use “transformativeness” inquiry discriminates against marginalized authors, because courts are less likely to appreciate the aesthetic value of their uses of copyrighted works.

Courts should apply the aesthetic nondiscrimination principle to both copyright and fair …

The Influence Of Special Interest Groups On Copyright Law And Policy—A Comparison Of The Legislative Processes In The United States And Switzerland, Michael P. Kunz

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

In April 2016, the Office of the United States Trade Representative placed Switzerland on the Watch List of its 2016 Special 301 Report, which contains an annual review of the state of intellectual property rights protection and enforcement in U.S. trading partners around the world. According to the Report, the decision to put Switzerland on the Watch List was premised on U.S. concerns regarding specific difficulties in Switzerland’s system of online copyright protection and enforcement, particularly the “Logistep” ruling issued by the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland in 2010. Although the Swiss authorities have acknowledged the difficulties mentioned in the …

Coordination-Focused Patent Policy, Stephen Yelderman

Journal Articles

This Article explores the practical consequences of an important shift that has recently taken place in patent theory. Although it was long agreed that the purpose of granting patents is to reward invention, today many scholars instead attempt to justify the patent system based on its role in facilitating information exchange and enabling technical coordination among firms. This change in justification is controversial, and its viability remains a fiercely contested question. But despite intense attention at the level of theory, little has been said about the consequences of this debate for patent policy itself. This Article addresses that void, developing …

Do Patent Challenges Increase Competition?, Stephen Yelderman

Journal Articles

This Article is the first to seriously scrutinize the claim that patent challenges lead to increased competition. It identifies a number of conditions that must hold for a patent challenge to provide this particular benefit, and evaluates the reasonableness of assuming that the pro-competitive benefits of patent challenges are generally available. As it turns out, there are a number of ways these conditions can and regularly do fail. This Article synthesizes legal doctrine, recent empirical scholarship, and several novel case studies to identify categories of challenges in which the potential benefits for competition are smaller than previously thought or, in …

Human Development As An Intellectual Property Metric, J. Janewa Osei-Tutu

Articles

No abstract provided.

The Copy Process, Joseph P. Fishman

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

There’s more than one way to copy. The process of copying can be laborious or easy, expensive or cheap, educative or unenriching. But the two intellectual property regimes that make copying an element of liability, copyright and trade secrecy, approach these distinctions differently. Copyright conflates them. Infringement doctrine considers all copying processes equally suspect, asking only whether the resulting product is substantially similar to the protected work. By contrast, trade secrecy asks not only whether but also how the defendant copied. It limits liability to those who appropriate information through means that the law deems improper.

This Article argues that …

Perverse Innovation, Dan L. Burk

William & Mary Law Review

An inescapable feature of regulation is the existence of loopholes: activities that formally comply with the text of regulation, but which in practice avoid the desired outcome of the regulation. Considerable ingenuity may be devoted to exploiting regulatory loopholes. Where technological regulation is at issue, such ingenuity may often be devoted to developing new technology that avoids the regulation; such innovation may be termed “perverse” because it is directed to avoiding the regulation that prompted it. Nonetheless, in this Article I argue that such regulatory circumvention may result in socially beneficial innovation. Drawing on insights from innovation policy in the …

Defending Breakthrough Innovation: The History And Future Of The State Of Patent Law, Max Oppenheimer

All Faculty Scholarship

Congress, while enacting at least six major revisions to patent law since 1793, has left the definition of patentable subject matter essentially unchanged. The Supreme Court, on the other hand, has been uncomfortable with the concept for more than a century. Despite this long-standing discomfort, it has struggled to advance a theoretical basis for its concern. In a series of recent cases, it has finally developed a theory as to why certain types of inventions, although embraced by the statutory definition, are nonetheless unpatentable. The theory, in effect, abandons the federal government’s role in protecting those inventions. This article explores …

Brief Of Amici Curiae - 56 Professors Of Law And Economics In Support Of Petition For Writ Of Certiorari In Tc Heartland Llc V. Kraft Foods Group Brands Llc, No. 16-341, Colleen V. Chien, Mark Lemley, Brian Love, Arti K. Rai

Historical and Topical Legal Documents

28 U.S.C. § 1400(b) provides that a defendant in a patent case may be sued where the defendant is incorporated or has a regular and established place of business and has infringed the patent. This Court made clear in Fourco Glass Co. v. Transmirra Prods. Corp., 353 U.S. 222, 223 (1957), that those were the only permissible venues for a patent case. But the Federal Circuit has rejected Fourco and the plain meaning of § 1400(b), instead permitting a patent plaintiff to file suit against a defendant anywhere there is personal jurisdiction over that defendant. The result has been rampant …

Apple, Inc. Vs. Deutsches Patent- Und Markenamt: Why The Court Got It Wrong, Joseph Dzida

Loyola of Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.

Insta-Appropriation: Finding Boundaries For The Second Circuit’S Fair Use Doctrine After Campbell, Anna Schuler

Fordham Law Review

Copyright law’s current fair use landscape is riddled with unclear standards and old considerations forced upon new media. This is especially problematic in the context of digital appropriation of art from online social media platforms—an issue highlighted by Richard Prince’s exhibit “New Portraits,” in which he appropriated strangers’ Instagram photos for his own profit. Unless this situation is remedied, digital content creators will effectively lose their statutory copyright protections. Thus, when considering digital appropriation cases, courts should require a transformation of content rather than purpose, should elevate the weight of the fourth statutory factor, and should reinstate the “comment upon” …

A Tri-Partite Classification Scheme To Clarify Conceptual Separability In The Context Of Clothing Design, Giovanna Marchese

Cardozo Law Review

The article examines the complexities of copyright protection for clothing designs under the 1976 Copyright Act, focusing on the challenges of applying the conceptual separability doctrine to determine when artistic elements of useful articles, like clothing, qualify for protection. It critiques the inconsistent judicial application of this doctrine and proposes a tripartite classification scheme—fabric pattern design, fabric graphic design, and garment design—to clarify and simplify the analysis of copyrightability. By addressing the ambiguity in current jurisprudence, the scheme aims to enhance predictability for the fashion industry and reduce judicial confusion.

Correlative Obligation In Patent Law: The Role Of Public Good In Defining The Limits Of Patent Exclusivity, Srividhya Ragavan

Faculty Scholarship

In light of the recent outrageous price-spiking of pharmaceuticals, this Article questions the underlying justifications for exclusive rights conferred by the grant of a patent. Traditionally, patents are defined as property rights granted to encourage desirable innovation. This definition is a misfit as treating patents as property rights does a poor job of defining the limits of the patent rights as well as the public benefit goals of the system. This misfit gradually caused an imbalance in the rights versus duties construct within patent law. After a thorough analysis of the historical and philosophical perspectives of patent exclusivity, this Article …

The Quest For A User-Friendly Copyright Regime In Hong Kong, Peter K. Yu

Faculty Scholarship

The quest for a user-friendly copyright regime began a decade ago when the Hong Kong government launched a public consultation on "Copyright Protection in the Digital Environment" in December 2006. Although this consultation initially sought to address Internet-related challenges, such as those caused by peer-to-peer file-sharing technology, the reform effort quickly evolved into a more comprehensive digital upgrade of the Hong Kong copyright regime.

A decade later, however, Hong Kong still has not yet amended its Copyright Ordinance. Thus far, three consultation exercises have been launched in December 2006, April 2008 and July 2013. Two bills have also been introduced …

United States Office Of The Director Of National Intelligence (Odni) Response To The Office Of Science And Technology Poilcy Memo, 2013: Public Access Plan (September 2016)

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

The United States Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) Plan for Increased Public Access to Scientific Scholarly Publications and Research Data, September 30, 2016.

Inter Partes Review: Current Thinking On What, When, Why, And How Much, Brian Love

Faculty Publications

Slide deck from a presentation as part of the Merchant & Gould's CLE program on Inter Partes Review.

Oh Bother: Milne, Steinbeck, And An Emerging Circuit Split Over The Alienability Of Copyright Termination Rights, Allison M. Scott

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

Reeling In The Patent Troll: Was Ebay V. Mercexchange Enough?, Damian Myers

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

Catwalk Copycats: Why Congress Should Adopt A Modified Version Of The Design Piracy Prohibition Act, Laura C. Marshall

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

Is Home Recording Dead? A Discussion Of The Atlantic V. Xm Satellite Radio Litigation And Audio Home Recording Rights, Kevin M. Dious

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

Alternative Business Strategies In Weak Intellectual Property Environments: A Law And Economics Analysis Of The Argo-Biotechnology Firm's Strategic Dilemma, A. Bryan Endres, Peter D. Goldsmith

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

The Infringement-Plus-Equity Model: A Better Way To Award Monetary Relief In Trademark Cases, David S. Almeling

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

We're Not Gonna Take It!: Limiting The Right Of Publicity's Concept Of Group Identity For The Good Of Intellectual Property, The Music Industry, And The People, Andrew W. Eaton

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

Reforming Copyright To Foster Innovation: Providing Access To Orphaned Works, Pamela Brannon

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

Searching For Substance In The Midst Of Formality: Copyright Registration As A Condition Precedent To The Exercise Of Subject-Matter Jurisdiction By Federal Courts Over Copyright Infringement Claims, Mose Bracey

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

Rules For Radicals: A Politics Of Patent Law, Kali N. Murray

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

Judging Expertise In Copyright Law, William K. Ford

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

Predictably Expensive: A Critical Look At Patent Litigation In The Eastern District Of Texas, Brian Love

Faculty Publications

In this Essay, we compare U.S. patent litigation across districts and consider possible explanations for the Eastern District of Texas’s popularity with patent plaintiffs. Rather than any one explanation, we conclude that what makes the Eastern District so attractive to patent plaintiffs is the accumulated effect of several marginal advantages — particularly with respect to the relative timing of discovery deadlines, transfer decisions, and claim construction — that make it predictably expensive for accused infringers to defend patent suits filed in East Texas. These findings tend to support ongoing efforts to pass patent reform legislation that would presumptively stay discovery …

Publishing Information For Authors, Paul Royster, Sue Ann Gardner, Linnea Fredrickson

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries: Presentations

Publishing: What Authors Ought to Know, by Paul Royster

Copyright for Scholarly Authors, by Sue Ann Gardner

Mechanics of the Manuscript: What Happens Next? by Linnea Fredrickson

Balancing A Right To Be Forgotten With A Right To Freedom Of Expression In The Wake Of Google Spain V. Aepd, Shaniqua Singleton

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.