Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

Alice: The Status Quo Or Total Chaos?, Matthew Moldovanyi

Journal of Law, Technology, & the Internet

"On June 19, 2014 the Supreme Court handed down a highly important opinion discussing what is considered patentable subject matter in the United States. The case, Alice Corporation v. CLS Bank International, involved a group of patents for computer software that mitigated settlement risk in financial transactions. The Court held that these patents were not drawn to patent eligible subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101 (2012) because the claims were directed toward abstract ideas, which are unpatentable." "This ruling has drawn decidedly mixed reactions from commentators in the legal field. Moreover, this case leaves United States Patent and Trademark …

Trademarking Animal Abuse: Should The Tennessee Walking Horse Breeders' And Exhibitors' Association ("Twhbea") Lose The Twhbea Trademark Portfolio Under The Lanham Act For Failure To Comply With The Horse Protection Act?, Esther L. Roberts

Kentucky Journal of Equine, Agriculture, & Natural Resources Law

No abstract provided.

Legal Fictions And The Role Of Information In Patent Law, Craig Allen Nard

Faculty Publications

The common law plays a prominent role in the development of American patent law. Judicial stewardship of the patent space can be seen as an institutional advantage, one that compares favorably to punctuated, and potentially more distortive or inartful, congressional action. The common law allows for a certain flexibility, and despite its deep allegiance to tradition, crust forms more readily on statutory law than the common law. One of the tools that reflects this institutional litheness is the use of legal fictions, which have been employed by judges in various areas of the law seemingly since the beginning of the …

Creative Sparks: Works Of Nature, Selection, And The Human Author, Neal F. Burstyn

Kernochan Center for Law, Media, and the Arts

It is now common knowledge that if you put a bunch of monkeys in a room with a typewriter, they will eventually reproduce the works of Shakespeare. But according to the United States Copyright Office, if you give that same group of monkeys a camera, you do not get copyright in any pictures they may happen to take. In 2011, British wildlife photographer David Slater was in Indonesia when a group of crested black macaques began playing with his camera equipment and snapped some pictures, one of which went viral and proved temporarily profitable for Slater. The popular image, known …

Converting Scholarly Journals To Open Access: A Review Of Approaches And Experiences, David J. Solomon, Mikael Laakso, Bo-Christer Björk, Peter Suber Editor

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

This report identifies ways through which subscription-based scholarly journals have converted their publishing models to open access (OA). The major goal was to identify specific scenarios that have been used or proposed for transitioning subscription journals to OA so that these scenarios can provide options for others seeking to “flip” their journals to OA. The report is based on the published literature as well as “gray” literature such as blog posts and press releases. In addition, interviews were conducted with eight experts in scholarly publishing. The report identifies a variety of goals for converting a journal to OA. While there …

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 …

2015 Patent Decisions Of The Federal Circuit, Craig E. Countryman

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Collaborative Academic Library Digital Collections Post- Cambridge University Press, Hathitrust And Google Decisions On Fair Use, Michelle M. Wu

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Academic libraries face numerous stressors as they seek to meet the needs of their users through technological advances while adhering to copyright laws. This paper seeks to explore one specific proposal to balance these interests, the impact of recent decisions on its viability, and the copyright challenges that remain after these decisions.

"Loser Pays" In Patent Examination, Neel U. Sukhatme

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Many scholars and practitioners believe there are too many “weak” patents—those that should not have issued but somehow get approved by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO). To the extent they exist, such patents unnecessarily tax real innovation and generate welfare losses for society.

Some commentators have focused on the PTO’s failure to exclude weak patents, or the damage caused by these patents in litigation, often by patent trolls. But this scholarly discussion misses the point. The present Article argues that weak patents largely stem from a pricing problem: namely, a patent applicant pays higher patent fees when she …

Inefficiently Automated Law Enforcement, Woodrow Hartzog, Gregory Conti, John Nelson, Lisa A. Shay

Faculty Scholarship

For some crimes the entire law enforcement process can now be automated. No humans are needed to detect the crime, identify the perpetrator, or impose punishment. While automated systems are cheap and efficient, governments and citizens must look beyond these obvious savings as manual labor is replaced by robots and computers. Inefficiency and indeterminacy have significant value in automated law enforcement systems and should be preserved. Humans are inefficient, yet more capable of ethical and contextualized decision-making than automated systems. Inefficiency is also an effective safeguard against perfectly enforcing laws that were created with implicit assumptions of leniency and discretion. …

Branding Taxation, Xuan-Thao Nguyen, Jeffrey A. Maine

Georgia Law Review

Branding is important not only to businesses, but also to the economy. The intellectual property laws and tax laws should thus further the legitimate goals of encouraging and protecting brand investments while maintaining a sound tax base. Intellectual property protections for branding depend on advertisement and enforcement, both of which demand significant amounts of private investment by firms. Although one would expect similar tax treatments of both categories of investment, the categories are actually treated as vastly different for federal income tax purposes. Under the current tax system, advertising costs incurred to foster brand equality are generally expensed whereas litigation …

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 Irrelevance Of Nanotechnology Patents, Emily M. Morris

Faculty Publications

Although scientists have for decades now had the ability to manipulate matter at the atomic level, we have yet to see the nanotechnological revolution that these scientists predicted would follow. Despite the years of effort and billions of dollars that have been invested into research and development thus far, nanotechnology has yielded surprisingly few end-user applications. A number of commentators have blamed this lack of progress on the Bayh-Dole Act and other changes to patent law, arguing that, although these laws are supposed to stimulate technological development, they have in fact had the exact opposite effect when it comes to …

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 …