Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

Fractional Authorship & Publication Productivity, Kate Gasson, Rachel Herbert, Alex Ponsford

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

Authors divide their research output across publications, contributing via research collaborations

The trend is for authors to produce more publications per year (increased fractionalization) but for the overall number of publications per author to decrease

We suggest that the effort required to participate in research collaborations is a factor in the decrease in publications per author

Are authors collaborating more in response to the pressure to publish?

Growth in the number of scholarly publications each year has been well documented (e.g., Bornmann & Mutz, 2015, Figure 1). But how has that growth been achieved? Is it purely due to increasing …

Future Of Scholarly Publishing And Scholarly Communication: Report Of The Expert Group To The European Commission, Directorate-General For Research And Innovation (European Commission), Jean-Claude Guédon, Jubb Consulting, United Kingdom, Bianca Kramer, Mikael Laakso, Birgit Schmidt, Elena Šimukovič, Jennifer Hansen, Robert Kiley, Anne Kitson, Wim Van Der Stelt, Kamilla Markram, Mark Patterson,

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

The Expert Group on the Future of Scholarly Publishing and Scholarly Communication was set up to support the policy development of the European Commission on Open Science. The Expert Group was asked to assess the current situation with regard to scholarly communication and publishing and to establish general principles for the future. This report analyses the recent past and present states of scholarly communication and publishing. It proposes ten principles through which a vision for scholarly communication is shaped over the next 10-15 years. These principles also serve as a way to examine shortcomings of the current scholarly communication and …

Rp-4.4.2 Patent And Technology Transfer Policy [University Of Nebraska Board Of Regents Policies], University Of Nebraska Board Of Regents

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

This Patent and Technology Transfer Policy is adopted for the purpose of providing general policy regulations to implement Section 3.10 of the University of Nebraska Bylaws of the Board of Regents.

The Need For Speed: How Quickly Do Preprints Become Published Articles?, Rachel Herbert, Kate Gasson, Alex Ponsford

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

bioRxiv’s option for authors to submit biology preprints directly to journals typically speeds up publication of articles by nearly 2 weeks—an advantage for authors who are keen to get their work published quickly

Authors approach ‘preprinting’ in different ways: while most post a preprint before submitting to a journal, just over a third of preprints were submitted to and accepted by a journal before the preprint appeared on bioRxiv

Biology preprints with just one version are published 2 weeks more quickly than those with multiple versions

Using Interactive Inventions, W. Keith Robinson

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Interactive inventions are systems and processes that can be used by multiple actors at the same time. Many interactive inventions are the product of emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things that allow billions of everyday devices to communicate with each other via the Internet. Other interactive inventions are prevalent in the emerging fields of personalized medicine and FinTech (new financial technologies). Unfortunately, the law concerning how to determine liability when a patent directed to an interactive invention is infringed is dissonant across classes of inventions. Specifically, what it means to “use” an interactive system is different from what …

Patent Reform, Then And Now, David O. Taylor

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

Rising Confusion About "Arising Under" Jurisdiction In Patent Cases, Paul Gugliuzza

Faculty Scholarship

By statute, all cases “arising under” patent law must be heard exclusively by the federal courts (not state courts) and, on appeal, by the Federal Circuit (not the twelve regional circuits). But not all cases involving patents “arise under” patent law. As recently as 2013, the Supreme Court ruled that the mere need to apply patent law in, for example, a malpractice case involving a patent lawyer, is insufficient to trigger exclusive jurisdiction. Rather, the Court held, for a case that does not involve claims of patent infringement to arise under patent law, the patent issue must be “important . …

Craft Beer And The Rising Tide Effect: An Empirical Study Of Sharing And Collaboration Among Seattle's Craft Breweries, Zahr K. Said

Lewis & Clark Law Review

This qualitative empirical research project studies Seattle’s craft brewing industry as a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem that displays widespread collaboration and innovation. Drawing on data collected in 22 face-to-face formal interviews conducted with industry participants, the Article explores the community’s attitudes, practices, and norms with respect to collaboration and intellectual property (IP). It joins a growing body of qualitative empirical IP scholarship that maps misalignments between law and practice “on the ground,” seeking to offer a more accurate and pluralistic account of an innovative industry. The craft brewing community in Seattle cooperates extensively while continuing to compete actively for consumers. In …

Equitable Estoppel And Information Costs In Contemporary Copyright, Molly Shaffer Van Houweling

Lewis & Clark Law Review

The failure of the contemporary copyright system to provide clear notice of the existence of copyrights and the identity of copyright owners leaves even well-meaning actors vulnerable to infringement actions and severe remedies. This Article describes how the doctrine of equitable estoppel has sometimes been used to address these informationcost problems by requiring the actor best positioned to communicate about the existence of rights to do so. Renewed focus on equitable estoppel in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in Petrella v. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc., may present new opportunities to apply the doctrine in this useful way.

The Filtration Problem In Copyright’S “Substantial Similarity” Infringement Test, Christopher Jon Sprigman, Samantha Fink Hedrick

Lewis & Clark Law Review

Copyright protects original artistic and literary expression. It does not protect ideas, facts, or other elements that may be found in artistic and literary works but which Section 102(b) of the Copyright Act, or the judge-made merger and scènes à faire doctrines, place outside the scope of copyright protection. The principle that copyright protects expression but not ideas is easy enough to articulate, but actually implementing it in copyright infringement litigation is considerably more difficult.

This Article focuses not on the theory of idea/expression boundary-setting, but on the mechanics. In particular, how can we make sure that the distinction between …

Improper Appropriation, Daniel Gervais

Lewis & Clark Law Review

The traditional test for copyright infringement is satisfied when the owner of a valid copyright establishes, first, that her work was actually copied and second, that the copying amounts to an improper or unlawful appropriation. As applied by courts, the second prong of the test is often applied quantitatively that is, when the amount of the copyrighted work that is copied is more than de minimis. This seems odd for a test expressed using a term wrought with moral overtones (impropriety). This Article discusses whether this test could be applied differently by requiring an examination of the (im)propriety of the …

Injunctive Relief, Norman Siebrasse, Rafal Sikorski, Jorge L. Contreras, Thomas F. Cotter, John M. Golden, Sang Jo Jong, Brian J. Love, David O. Taylor

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Patent systems commonly empower courts to order accused or adjudged infringers to refrain from continuing infringing conduct in the future. Some patentees file suit for the primary purpose of obtaining and enforcing an injunction against infringement by a competitor, and even in cases in which the patentee is willing to license an invention to an accused infringer for an agreed price, the indirect monetary value of an injunction against future infringement can dwarf the amount a finder of fact is likely to award as compensation for past infringement. In some of these cases, an injunction, if granted, would impose costs …

Intellectual Property Harms: A Paradigm For The Twenty-First Century, Jessica Silbey

Faculty Scholarship

This short essay is part of a larger book project that investigates how contemporary intellectual property debates, especially in the digital age, are taking place over less familiar terrain: fundamental rights and values. Its argument draws from the diverse, personal accounts of interviews from everyday creators and innovators and focuses on descriptions of harms and, as some say “abuses,” they suffer within their practicing communities. The harms are not described are the usual harms that intellectual property law is understood to prevent. Typically, intellectual property injuries are conceived in individual terms and as economic injuries. An infringer is a thief. …

Existential Copyright And Professional Photography, Jessica Silbey, Eva Subotnik, Peter Dicola

Faculty Scholarship

Intellectual property law has intended benefits, but it also carries certain costs — deliberately so. Skeptics have asked: Why should intellectual property law exist at all? To get traction on that overly broad but still important inquiry, we decided to ask a new, preliminary question: What do creators in a particular industry actually use intellectual property for? In this first-of-its-kind study, we conducted thirty-two in-depth qualitative interviews of photographers about how copyright law functions within their creative and business practices. By learning the actual functions of copyright law on the ground, we can evaluate and contextualize existing theories of intellectual …

Justifying Copyright In The Age Of Digital Reproduction: The Case Of Photographers, Jessica Silbey

Faculty Scholarship

This Article explores the justification for copyright from two sources: seminal court cases and accounts from photographic authors. It takes as its premise that copyright protection requires justification, not only because creative work is frequently made and disseminated without reliance on copyright, but because, in the age of digital technology, practices of creative production and dissemination have sufficiently changed to question the existing contours of the forty-year-old Copyright Act. Why read the photographers’ stories alongside the court cases? Each present contested views of copyright’s relation to creativity. At times, the photographers’ accounts and the case law strengthen and reinforce each …

Copyright’S Memory Hole, Eric Goldman, Jessica Silbey

Faculty Scholarship

There is growing interest in using copyright to protect the privacy and reputation of people depicted in copyrighted works. This pressure is driven by heightened concerns about privacy and reputation on the Internet, plus copyright’s plaintiff-favorable attributes compared to traditional privacy and reputation torts.
/="/">
/="/">The Constitution authorizes copyright law because its exclusive rights benefit society by increasing our knowledge. Counterproductively, to advance privacy and reputation interests, copyright law is being misdeployed to suppress socially valuable works. This results in “memory holes” in society’s knowledge, analogous to those discussed in George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984.
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/="/">By referencing …

Copyrights In Higher Education: Motivating A Research Agenda, Jacob H. Rooksby

Law Faculty Publications

The Bayh–Dole Act of 1980 enabled American universities to engage in technology transfer. Thirty years of research has investigated the legislation’s effectiveness and derivative university practices, such as the establishment of technology transfer offices. Unfortunately, the technology transfer literature has focused primarily on patenting as the primary transfer vehicle for protecting intellectual property in universities, overlooking other forms of IP ownership, such as copyrights. Legal scholarship shows, however, that universities are increasingly using copyrights to protect their intellectual property and that the number of university-held copyrights exceeds patents. This paper examines the use of copyrights to protect and transfer university …

Recasting Intellectual Property In Light Of The U.N. Sustainable Development Goals: Toward Knowledge Governance, Margaret Chon

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

Art In The Age Of Contractual Negotiation, Christopher G. Bradley, Brian L. Frye

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Misadventure Of Copyrighting State Law, Eric E. Johnson

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Limiting Lessons From Property: Reimagining The Public Domain In The Image Of The Public Trust Doctrine, Deirdré A. Keller

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Experimenting With State-Enacted Resale Rights, Guy A. Rub

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Ai And The "Death Of Trademark", Michael Grynberg

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Choice Of Law And The Right Of Publicity: Rethinking The Domicile Rule, Mary Lafrance

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

From Territorial To Universal-The Extraterritoriality Of Trademark Law And The Privatizing Of International Law, P. Sean Morris

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

Legal doctrines, aided and abetted by interpretations of the courts, carry the force of law. The implication is that when courts settle matters, they often go beyond the scope of current intellectual property legislation. Furthermore, global problems in intellectual property may require the participation of private intellectual property rights owners to bring suit. This, in turn, often creates more problems due to the territorial, trans-territorial, and extraterritorial reach of the law, especially with respect private trademark rights. I explore this and other legal conundrums in this Article. The key concern addressed in the Article is how far trademark law is …

Exhaustion In The Service Of Progress, Ofer Tur-Sinai

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

Under the doctrine of patent exhaustion, an authorized sale of a patented item exhausts the patentee's rights with respect to that item, leaving the purchaser and subsequent owners free to use or resell it without fear of an infringement lawsuit. In 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark decision in Impression Products v. Lexmark International, which strengthened the exhaustion doctrine in various significant ways. The Court held that an authorized sale of a patented item exhausts all patent rights with respect to that item, regardless of any restrictions on use or resale the patentee purports to impose. The Court …

Panel 2: Art Law And Blockchain, Tonya M. Evans, Derek Fincham, Katya Fisher, Jeanne Schroeder

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Redefining "Life": The Constitutional Implications Of Patenting Immortality, Julia Spivak

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Is It Reasonable To Block Unreasonable Advertisements? An Examination Of The Legality Of Ad-Blockers, Andrew Steele

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Brandeis’S I.P. Federalism: Thoughts On Erie At Eighty, Joseph S. Miller

Scholarly Works

Justice Brandeis is, in intellectual property law’s precincts, most famous for his lone dissent in International News Service v. Associate Press, the misappropriation case one can find in virtually every i.p. survey casebook (and many property law casebooks as well). But in the wider legal world, Brandeis is likely most famous for his earthquake opinion in Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins. Do Brandeis’s opinions in these two cases speak to each other? Can considering them together inform broader reflections on the texture of our federalism in the i.p. context? This piece, prepared in connection with an “Erie at Eighty” conference …