Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

Vaccine Licensure In The Public Interest: Lessons From The Development Of The U.S. Army Zika Vaccine, Ana Santos Rutschman

All Faculty Scholarship

Vaccines developed by the public sector are key to preventing future outbreaks of infectious diseases. However, the licensure of these vaccines to private-sector companies under terms that do not ensure both their availability and affordability compromises their development. This Essay analyzes the recent attempted licensing deal for a Zika vaccine between the U.S. Army and Sanofi, a French pharmaceutical company. The proposed grant of an exclusive license to Sanofi triggered widespread concern because none of its substantive terms were disclosed. While § 209 of the Patent Act imposes limitations on exclusive licensure, the Army released no information supporting its finding …

Brief Of Amici Curiae - Copyright And Intellectual Property Law Professors In Support Of Defendant-Petitioner Pandora Media, Inc., Tyler T. Ochoa, Joseph C. Gratz

Faculty Publications

Brief submitted to the Supreme Court of the State of California.

Case No. S240649 FLO & EDDIE, INC., Plaintiff-Respondent, v. PANDORA MEDIA, INC., Defendant-Petitioner.

Plaintiff Flo & Eddie, Inc., contends that the phrase “exclusive ownership” in California Civil Code section 980 includes all possible uses to which a copyrightable work may be put, including an exclusive right of public performance. At the time California Civil Code section 980 was first enacted in 1872, however, the phrase “exclusive ownership” in relation to a copyrightable work meant something different and much narrower: namely, the right of first publication (reproduction and sale) only. …

Powering Intellectual Property Sharing: How To Make Tesla’S Patent Pledge Effective, Benjamin M. Hill

Georgia Journal of Law & Technology

No abstract provided.

Insuring Failure: How Crowd-Sourcing Sites May Be Forced Into The Role Of Patent Insurance, Spencer S. Haley

Georgia Journal of Law & Technology

No abstract provided.

A Tale Of Two Composers: An Argument For A Limited Expansion Of Moral Rights For Composers, Cassidy Grunninger

Georgia Journal of Law & Technology

No abstract provided.

Official Code, Locked Down: An Analysis Of Copyright As It Applies To Annotations Of State Official Codes, Shellea Diane Crochet

Georgia Journal of Law & Technology

No abstract provided.

Backing Down: Blurred Lines In The Standards For Analysis Of Substantial Similarity In Copyright Infringement For Musical Works, Nicholas Booth

Georgia Journal of Law & Technology

No abstract provided.

Combating The Anti-Trade Movement: Evaluating The Trans-Pacific Partnership’S Place In International Patent Law, William G. Adams

Georgia Journal of Law & Technology

No abstract provided.

Discouraging Frivolous Copyright Infringement Claims: Fee Shifting Under Rule 11 Or 28 U.S.C. § 1927 As An Alternative To Awarding Attorney’S Fees Under Section 505 Of The Copyright Act, David E. Shipley

Georgia Journal of Law & Technology

The United States Supreme Court’s 2016 decision in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons resolved a disagreement over when it is appropriate to award attorney’s fees to a prevailing defendant under section 505 of the Copyright Act, and ended a perceived venue advantage for losing plaintiffs in some jurisdictions. The Court ruled unanimously that courts are correct to give substantial weight to the question of whether the losing side had a reasonable case to fight, but that the objective reasonableness of that side’s position does not give rise to a presumption against fee shifting. It made clear that other factors …

Oracle V. Google And The Scope Of A Computer Program Copyright, Dennis S. Karjala

Georgia Journal of Law & Technology

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents, Vol 24:1, Journal Of Intellectual Property Law

Georgia Journal of Law & Technology

No abstract provided.

Live Sports Virtual Reality Broadcasts: Copyright And Other Protections, Marie Hopkins

Duke Law & Technology Review

As virtual reality rapidly progresses, broadcasts are able to increasingly mimic the experience of actually attending a game. As the technology advances and the viewer can freely move about the game and virtual reality can simulate the in-stadium attendance, the virtual reality broadcast nears the point where the broadcast is indistinguishable from the underlying game. Thus, novel copyright protection issues arise regarding the ability to protect the experience through copyright. Although normal broadcasts may be copyrighted, virtual reality broadcasts of live sports could lack protection under the Copyright Act because the elements of originality, authorship, and fixation are harder to …

Chocolate, Fashion, Toys And Cabs: The Misunderstood Distinctiveness Of Non-Traditional Trademarks, Irene Calboli

Faculty Scholarship

Editorial Excerpt:

What do Cadbury, Toblerone and Kit-Kat chocolates, the Rubik’s Cube and Lego mini-figurine toys, Louboutin shoes, Bottega Veneta bags and London Taxi Company cabs all have in common? These products have been, along with several others, protagonists of the rising trend of registering shapes and other non-traditional trademarks in a variety of countries, and then, in several cases, protagonist of ensuing litigation addressing the validity of these marks. To a large extent, the review panels and the courts involved in these cases have declared several of these marks invalid or have reduced their scope considerably. Hence, these cases …

Big Deal: Should Universities Outsource More Core Research Infrastructure?, Roger C. Schonfeld

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

Research universities have developed in symbiosis with a robust set of commercial providers that serve their needs. From food service providers to run dining halls to private equity firms to manage parts of the endowment, outsourcing has allowed universities to remain more focused on their core educational and research functions. But universities have also at times elected to outsource academic infrastructure. Commercial firms have developed a major role in several significant university functions, including scientific publishing, library management systems, and course management systems. And in all three cases, the commercial priorities of vendors have at times left academia frustrated. While …

Patent "Trespass" And The Royalty Gap: Exploring The Nature And Impact Of Patent Holdout, Bowman Heiden, Nicolas Petit

Santa Clara High Technology Law Journal

Patent "Trespass" and the Royalty Gap: Exploring the Nature and Impact of Patent Holdout

Revisiting The Intellectual Property Dilemma: How Did We Get To A Strong Wto Ipr Regime?, Julien Chaisse, Xinjie Luan

Santa Clara High Technology Law Journal

Revisiting the Intellectual Property Dilemma: How Did We Get to a Strong WTO IPR Regime?

Legalizing Federal Sports Gambling Laws: You Got To Know When To Hold’Em, Robert Shawhan

UC Law SF Communications and Entertainment Journal

This paper addresses the current federal laws that prohibits sports gambling. It argues that the introduction of a well-regulated and transparent gambling industry may serve greater protections than what is provided by the law. Politicians are sensibly acknowledging the realities of sports gambling and its benefits. The current political climate, under a Trump Presidency, is ideal for legalizing this form of gambling. Part I of this note will reflect on the most recent history of sports gambling laws. It will draw on New Jersey’s legal struggles, the sports evolution of Las Vegas, and the relevant Daily Fantasy Sports controversy. Part …

Geoblocking, Marketa Trimble

Boyd Briefs / Road Scholars

Professor Marketa Trimble delivered her lecture Geoblocking on May 10, 2018 at the Center for Cyber Law & Policy, University of Haifa Faculty of Law, Haifa, Israel.

Diamonds In The Rough: A Review Of Tiffany V. Costco And A Call To Apply Daubert To The Admissibility Of Consumer Survey Evidence In Trademark Infringement Litigation, Michael J. Borger

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Ownership Of University Intellectual Property, Jon Garon

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Trademarks And Private Environmental Governance, David E. Adelman, Graeme W. Austin

Notre Dame Law Review

This Article examines the relationship between private environmental governance and trademark law. Over the past two decades, green trademarks and other forms of private governance have flourished in tandem with the retreat from national and international public law modalities of environmental regulation. The rising political opposition to environmental regulation partly accounts for this change. Also relevant is the rise of globalization, which due to jurisdictional and trade constraints has diminished the effective regulatory control countries have over products sold in their markets.

Private environmental governance is premised on consumers “voting with their wallets” by selecting products that reflect not just …

Symbols, Systems, And Software As Intellectual Property: Time For Contu, Part Ii?, Timothy K. Armstrong

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

The functional nature of computer software underlies two propositions that were, until recently, fairly well settled in intellectual property law: first, that software, like other utilitarian articles, may qualify for patent protection; and second, that the scope of copyright protection for software is comparatively limited. Both propositions have become considerably shakier as a result of recent court decisions. Following Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank Int’l, 134 S. Ct. 2347 (2014), the lower courts have invalidated many software patents as unprotectable subject matter. Meanwhile, Oracle America v. Google Inc., 750 F.3d 1339 (Fed. Cir. 2014) extended far more expansive copyright protection …

Patent Prior Art And Possession, Timothy R. Holbrook

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

Prior art in patent law defines the set of materials that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and courts use to determine whether the invention claimed in a patent is new and non-obvious. One would think that, as a central, crucial component of patent law, prior art would be thoroughly theorized and doctrinally coherent. Nothing could be further from the truth. The prior art provisions represent an ad hoc codification of various policies and doctrines that arose in the courts. This Article provides coherency to this morass. It posits a prior art system that draws upon property law’s …

Providing Protection To Programmers' Works: Disregard The Merger Doctrine And Adopt The Application Approach, Akshay Jain

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

In today’s technological landscape, computer programs are one of the most highly complex and popular inventions. However, they still receive little or sometimes no legal protection. As a consequence, programmers are reluctant to create new programs, discouraging innovation and preventing the public to benefit from using these inventions. If the court does afford them copyright protection, they may still not receive legal damages for copyright infringement because the court would not consider their program registered under the Copyright Act of 1976.

This Comment argues for greater copyright protection for programs by disregarding the merger doctrine, which does not provide protection …

Table Of Contents, Editor In Chief

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

No abstract provided.

Assessing Assisted Reproductive Technology, Raymond C. O'Brien

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

Technological innovation possesses both opportunity and challenge. Because assisted reproductive technology (ART) involves sexual intimacy, parenthood, personhood, gender identity, privacy, legacy, and a plethora of religious, historical, sociological, and ethical underpinnings, the challenges presented in such technological innovation are substantial. Nonetheless, the opportunities are significant and progressive. Because of in vitro fertilization, gestational and genetic surrogacy, posthumous conception, and mitochondrial replacement therapy, humans now have the opportunity to overcome infertility, gender obstacles to parentage, dynastic limitations, and diseases that have long plagued mothers and infants. However, challenges include the exploitation of surrogates, unequal access to ART services, possibilities of cloning …

Privacy Of Information And Dna Testing Kits, Shanna Raye Mason

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

In modern times, consumers desire for more control over their own health and healthcare. With this growing interest of control, direct to consumer DNA testing kits have never been more popular. However, many consumers are unaware of the potential privacy concerns associated with such use. This comment examines the popularity and privacy risks that are likely unknown to the individual consumer. This comment also addresses the shortcomings of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), as well as the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA) in regard to protecting individual’s genetic information from misuse. This comment …

Creative Commons: An Explainer, Kincaid C. Brown

Law Librarian Scholarship

Copyright protection attaches automatically to original works you create, whether a poem, photograph, painting, song, video, or essay. Copyright limits what others can do with your creative work and protects your original work from, for example, being compiled or reused and sold for profit. If you hold the copyright—and didn’t, say, create the original work in an employment context where it may be subject to being a work for hire—you may want to allow others to use your work for particular purposes. You could individually negotiate a license granting rights to each person, which would undoubtedly take more and more …

License To Bill: The Validity Of Coupling Automatic Subscription Renewals With Free Trial Offers By Online Services, Koren Grinshpoon

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

A prominent and expanding list of online services rely on a business model which pairs free trial offers with subsequent automatic subscription renewals (e.g., Amazon Prime, Blue Apron, etc.). Offering free trials to lure new users, while employing automatic renewal clauses in its terms of use to perpetuate recurring revenue, poses a substantial legal risk to online services. Numerous claims citing unfair and deceptive business practices are filed each year against such online services, primarily raising issues of informed consent, adequate disclosure, and notice. This Article reviews applicable federal law and regulations, as well as the applicable laws of all …

Let International Competition Negotiations Sleep A While Longer: Focus On Tools And Capacity, Frederick M. Abbott

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.