Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

Judge Shopping In The Eastern District Of Texas, Jonas Anderson

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

Judge Rodney Gilstrap has a lot of patent cases on his docket. In fact, in 2015 there were 1,686 patent cases that were filed and assigned to Judge Gilstrap, an astronomical number for a single judge. Judge Gilstrap — one of eight federal judges who sit on the Eastern District of Texas — is so popular with patent plaintiffs that over one-fourth of all patent cases in the country are heard by him. This Article addresses the problems with allowing this judge shopping to occur. It reviews the scholarship on the topic that is almost universally opposed to judge shopping …

A Fresh Look At Copyright On Campus, Jacob H. Rooksby

Law Faculty Publications

The role of copyright on the modern college and university campus is overdue for fresh examination. Copyright ownership issues and related con- tests over rights risk impeding higher education’s ability to serve as a cultural and knowledge commons, a specially constructed space where human and artifactual resources interact in ways that benefit society at large. At present, copyright concerns raised by trends involving student entrepreneurship, the digital humanities, and the digitization of special collections material housed in campus libraries threaten higher education’s potential to benefit society to the fullest.

This Article reviews developments in these three areas of higher education …

What Notice Did, Jessica D. Litman

Articles

In the twenty-first century, copyright protection is automatic. It vests in eligible works the instant that those works are first embodied in a tangible format. Many Americans are unaware of that, believing instead that registration and copyright notice are required to secure a copyright. That impression is understandable. For its first 199 years, United States copyright law required authors to take affirmative steps to obtain copyright protection. The first U.S. copyright statute, enacted by Congress in 1790, required the eligible author of an eligible work to record the title of the work with the clerk of the court in the …

National Conference On Copyright Of State Legal Materials, Roger V. Skalbeck

Law Faculty Publications

A surge in legislation and the lawsuits on the copyright status of state legal materials raises concerns about principles of open government and free accessibility and use of these materials. On December 2, 2016, the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) and Boston University School of Law are convening the National Conference of Copyright in State Legal Materials at BU Law. At this conference, all participants will be able to explore the issues surrounding state legal materials access through parallel goals of: Education, Inspiration, and Conversation.

The Most Moral Of Rights: The Right To Be Recognized As The Author Of One's Work, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

The U.S. Constitution authorizes Congress to secure for limited times the exclusive right of authors to their writings. Curiously, those rights, as enacted in our copyright laws, have not included a general right to be recognized as the author of one's writings. Yet, the interest in being identified with one's work is fundamental, whatever the conception of the philosophical or policy basis for copyright. The basic fairness of giving credit where it is due advances both the author-regarding and the public regarding aspects of copyright.

Most national copyright laws guarantee the right of attribution (or “paternity”); the leading international copyright …

Preliminary Comments On Restatement Of Copyright, Draft 2, Jane C. Ginsburg, June M. Besek

Faculty Scholarship

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on Preliminary Draft 2 of the Restatement of Copyright. These are preliminary comments, given the short time frame provided to review the draft, and we anticipate sending further comments after we’ve had the opportunity to study the draft further, or as a follow-up to the Advisers’ meeting and the Consultative Group meeting on November 10 and 11, 2016, respectively.

Commentary To The U.S. Copyright Office Regarding The Section 512 Study: Higher Education And The Dmca Safe Harbors, Christopher A. Cotropia, James Gibson

Law Faculty Publications

The nearly twenty-year history of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s safe harbor provisions has been marked by criticism from content owners, online service providers, and end users. Content owners complain about the cost of monitoring online content and sending take-down notices. Online service providers complain about the cost of receiving and processing the notices. And end users complain about their legitimate use of copyrighted works being subject to DMCA take-down. Colleges and universities have been at the forefront of this controversy; as providers of online services to their students, they have been a focus of both Congress and copyright owners. …

The Questionable Origins Of The Copyright Infringement Analysis, Shyamkrishna Balganesh

Faculty Scholarship

Central to modern copyright law is the test for determining infringement, famously developed by Judge Jerome Frank in the landmark case of Arnstein v. Porter. The “Arnstein test,” which courts continue to apply, demands that the analysis be divided into two components: actual copying – the question whether the defendant did in fact copy – and improper appropriation – the question whether such copying, if it did exist, was unlawful. Somewhat counterintuitively, though, the test treats both components as pure questions of fact, requiring that even the question of improper appropriation go to a jury. This jury-centric approach …

Copyright And Good Faith Purchasers, Shyamkrishna Balganesh

Faculty Scholarship

Good faith purchasers for value – individuals who unknowingly and in good faith purchase property from a seller whose own actions in obtaining the property are of questionable legality – have long obtained special protection under the common law. Despite the seller’s own actions being tainted, these purchasers obtain valid title and are free to transfer the property without restriction. Modern copyright law, however, does just the opposite. Individuals who unknowingly, and in good faith, purchase property embodying an unauthorized copy of a protected work are altogether precluded from subsequently alienating such property without running afoul of copyright’s distribution right. …

Debunking The Myth Of The Copyright Troll Apocalypse, Shyamkrishna Balganesh, Jonah B. Gelbach

Faculty Scholarship

Professor Matthew Sag’s Copyright Trolling, An Empirical Study tells a riveting tale of a litigation system run amok.1 A plaintiff files suit in federal court. Each instance of alleged unlawful conduct targeted in the suit may well entail little in the way of actual damages, and for that reason the complaint demands statutory rather than actual damages. The conduct in question is as common as it is allegedly unlawful and, in some people’s views, this conduct isn’t particularly objectionable. And the economics of the litigation in question simply don’t make sense without the aggregation of claims related to many individuals. …

A Research Exemption For The 21st Century, Nicholas Short

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform Caveat

On March 20, 2015, Robert Kastenmeier, who represented Wisconsin’s Second Congressional District from 1959 to 1991, passed away at his home in Arlington, Virginia. Though Kastenmeier may not have been well known outside of legislative circles and his home state of Wisconsin, he was in fact one of the most prolific policy makers—if not the most prolific policy maker—in the field of intellectual property law in the 20th century. He is impressively credited with authoring more than forty-eight laws dealing with intellectual property matters during his legislative tenure, including the Copyright Act of 1976, which remains the primary legal framework …

Plagiarism Is Not A Crime, Brian L. Frye

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Copyright infringement and plagiarism are related but distinct concepts. Copyright prohibits certain uses of original works of authorship without permission. Plagiarism norms prohibit copying certain expressions, facts, and ideas without attribution. The prevailing theory of copyright is the economic theory, which holds that copyright is justified because it is economically efficient. This article considers whether academic plagiarism norms are economically efficient. It concludes that academic plagiarism norms prohibiting non-copyright infringing plagiarism are not efficient and should be ignored.

The Myths Of Data Exclusivity, Erika Lietzan

Faculty Publications

This article contributes to an ongoing academic and public policy dialogue over whether and on what terms U.S. law should provide “data exclusivity” for new medicines. Five years after a new drug has been approved on the basis of an extensive application that may have cost more than one billion dollars to generate, federal law permits submission of a much smaller application to market a duplicate version of the drug. This second application is a different type of application, and it may cost no more than a few million dollars to prepare. A similar sequence is true for biological medicines: …

International Intellectual Property Shelters, Sam F. Halabi

Faculty Publications

The battle over the reach and strength of international protections for intellectual property rights is one of the critical flashpoints between wealthy and low-income countries: those protections are perceived to obstruct access to essential medicines, thwart regulatory efforts to promote individual and population health, and undermine traditional forms of agriculture and food production. While scholars have thoroughly tracked the bilateral and multilateral trade and investment treaties responsible for the expansion of international intellectual property rights worldwide, they have paid significantly less attention to the strength and form that opposition to international intellectual property expansion has taken. This Article examines the …

The ‘Objectives’ And ‘Principles’ Of The Wto Trips Agreement: A Detailed Anatomy, Alison Slade

Osgoode Legal Studies Research Paper Series

Articles 7 and 8 of the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) are entitled ‘Objectives’ and ‘Principles’ respectively. These provisions occupy a prominent position within the text of the Agreement, yet have figured sparingly in the legal reasoning of the WTO Dispute Settlement Body (DSB). The illogical nature of this discrepancy is accentuated when considered in light of four key factors. First, the pioneering step taken by the negotiators of the TRIPS Agreement to include broad declarations of intent within the legally operative text. Second, the 2001 reinforcement given to the authority of these provisions through …

The ‘Objectives’ And ‘Principles’ Of The Wto Trips Agreement: A Detailed Anatomy, Alison Slade

Forthcoming Articles

Articles 7 and 8 of the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) are entitled ‘Objectives’ and ‘Principles’ respectively. These provisions occupy a prominent position within the text of the Agreement, yet have figured sparingly in the legal reasoning of the WTO Dispute Settlement Body (DSB). The illogical nature of this discrepancy is accentuated when considered in light of four key factors. First, the pioneering step taken by the negotiators of the TRIPS Agreement to include broad declarations of intent within the legally operative text. Second, the 2001 reinforcement given to the authority of these provisions through …

Dueling Interpretations: The Conflict Arising From Ptab’S Use Of Broadest Reasonable Interpretation For Claim Construction, 16 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 134 (2016), Andrew Martin

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

Claim Construction is the first hurdle in patent litigation to invalidate a patent. Traditionally, federal courts have interpreted claims in their plain and obvious meaning to a person skilled in the art. But a new avenue through post-grant proceedings at the patent office, such as inter-partes review, has created a worrying trend of increased patent invalidation. This comment will explore the consequences of the higher rate of invalidation, proposals suggested to solve the problem, and the actions of those who exploit it.

Apis And Copyright Protection: The Potential Impact On Software Compatibility In The Programming Industry, 16 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 153 (2016), Daria Vasilescu-Palermo

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

In Oracle v. Google, the Federal Circuit set precedent when it decided to grant copyright protection to APIs. This comment examines the potential impact the computer programming industry will face now that APIs are deemed copyrightable. This comment also discusses Google s success in using fair use as an affirmative defense in order to use copyrightable APIs and what that means for the rest of the computer programming industry. Due to the fast-paced and ever-changing world of technology, this comment also proposes that the abstract-filtration-comparison test is the appropriate test to be used in determining API copyrightability if the issue …

The Examination Effect: A Comparison Of The Outcome Of Patent Examination In The Us, Europe And Australia, 16 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 21 (2016), Andrew Christie, Chris Dent, John Liddicoat

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

The article provides an answer to a question that, rather surprisingly, has not been addressed in the academic literature to date: What is the practical effect of patent examination? It does so by undertaking an empirical analysis of the examination of nearly 500 patent applications, filed in identical form, in three patent offices: the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the European Patent Office (EPO), and the Australian Patent Office (APO). By comparing the form of claim 1 as granted with claim 1 in the patent application, we can identify whether there is any meaningful difference between the two …

Flexibilities Under Trips: An Analysis Of The Proposal For Reforming Brazilian Patent Law, 15 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 150 (2016), Roberto Romandini

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

This article analyses the proposal for reforming the Brazilian patent system pending before the Brazilian Parliament as Bill No. 5402/13. The proposed legislation addresses such issues as the assumed insufficiency of the inventive step requirement in preventing unjustified “monopolies,” the proliferation of so-called secondary patents, and the extension of market exclusivity positions through strategic filings, which are being debated also in Europe and the U.S. The proposed legislation offers an example for possible actions in these critical areas of the patent system. In doing so, it puts forward options that depart from consolidated Western normative patterns. In analyzing the reform …

A Study On The Legality Of Royalty Collection Clauses After Expiration Of Patent Rights, 15 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 213 (2016), Wei-Lin Wang

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

Whether a contract clause may permit a patent owner to continuously collect royalty payments from a licensee after the expiration of its patent rights is a highly controversial issue in practice. Some believe that because patent rights are a kind of monopoly granted by the government, it shall not be extended after expiration; otherwise, it shall be regarded as patent misuse and/or unfair competition as the case may be. Nonetheless, others believe that this kind of clause is actually beneficial to a licensee because the licensee is allowed to make royalty payments throughout the whole patent term and even after …

Issue Preclusion: The Effect B&B Hardware Will Have On Trademark Litigation, 15 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 257 (2016), Lian Osier

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

Trademark issues are frequently litigated in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, yet circuits were previously divided on how much weight to give those decisions. The Supreme Court provided the answer. B&B Hardware v. Hargis Indus. held that in certain circumstances, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board will have a preclusive effect on federal district courts. This comment looks at what effect this ruling will have on trademark litigation in district courts by examining the cases that caused the circuit split leading up to the Supreme Court’s decision.

The Invisible Defense Against Music Piracy, 15 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 297 (2016), Paige Clark

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

Music piracy has continued to affect the music industry. Specifically, music-streaming service providers that thought they were protected, such as Spotify, have suffered from music piracy as a result of innovative illegal downloading websites. Music pirates have created illegal downloading websites that provide detailed and efficient ways to download and sync music from Spotify without paying for the premium services or membership fees. As a result, illegal downloading has had an adverse impact on various music-streaming service providers’ copyrights. To obtain protection and diminish music piracy and liability to music artists and labels, these music-streaming sites should give thought to …

Providing Copyright Protection To Real Estate Listings: Protecting Brokers, Sellers, And Consumers, 15 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 318 (2016), Kathryn Robinson

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

In a technology-driven age, the Internet has changed how prospective homebuyers search for their new home. For many, a search on Google is the first step before hiring a broker or getting prequalified for a mortgage. Although the Internet is a powerful tool widely utilized by many, there has been a growing concern for managing and protecting the integrity of real estate listings. Data scraping of listing data has become problematic for the real estate industry; as a result, this has caused irreparable harm to everyone. This comment highlights the benefits of awarding copyright protection to all contents of the …

The Destruction Of Cultural Heritage: A Crime Against Property Or A Crime Against People?, 15 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 336 (2016), Patty Gerstenblith

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

The destruction of cultural heritage has played a prominent role in the ongoing conflicts in Syria and Iraq and in the recent conflict in Mali. This destruction has displayed the failure of international law to effectively deter these actions. This article reviews existing international law in light of this destruction and the challenges posed by the issues of non-international armed conflict, non-state actors and the military necessity exception. By examining recent developments in applicable international law, the article proposes that customary international law has evolved to interpret existing legal instruments and doctrines concerning cultural heritage in light of the principles …

Where Are We And Where Are We Going: Legal Developments In Cultural Property And Nazi Art Looting, 15 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 435 (2016), Thomas Kline

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

Cultural Plunder And Restitution And Human Identity, 15 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 460 (2016), Ori Soltes

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

Nagpra And Its Limitations: Repatriation Of Indigenous Cultural Heritage, 15 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 472 (2016), Kevin Ray

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

The historical conditions under which indigenous (and specifically Native American) cultural heritage objects have been collected present tremendous difficulties, since collecting efforts were frequently influenced, or even directed, by racist or colonialist ideologies. Recent decades have seen efforts to redress past wrongs, as well as to correct misunderstandings and misrepresentations. The restitution and repatriation processes of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990, enacted as human rights legislation, provide powerful, but imperfect tools for the protection of Native American cultural heritage. The challenges are both domestic and international. Recent French auction sales of Hopi, Zuni, and Navajo …

Illusory Borders: The Myth Of The Modern Nation-State And Its Impact On The Repatriation Of Cultural Artifacts, 15 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 486 (2016), Lubna El-Gendi

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

While the current world order of independent nation-states may seem like a natural state that has existed for centuries, in reality, it is a relatively new development that was forged after the demise of imperial rule. Yet, the nation-state is the foundational entity of our current international political and legal framework. International treaties and relations are structured around the nation-state, which is recognized as the core entity in which rights are vested and on which obligations are imposed. This prioritization of the nation-state leads to issues when we consider the repatriation of cultural heritage, particularly in light of the history …

Beyond The Destruction Of Syria: Considering A Future In Syria And The Protection Of The Right To Culture, Sarah Dávila-Ruhaak

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

Although the right to culture has been widely recognized under international human rights, its reach and practical application has been limited in cultural preservation efforts. Individuals and communities that attempt to be part of the decision-making process in preservation efforts often face barriers to access in that process. The need to re-conceptualize the right to culture is vital for its protection and preservation. This article proposes that the right to self-determination must be utilized as a core fundamental principle that enables a disenfranchised individual or community to have ownership in preservation efforts and decide how to shape their identity. It …