Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

Copyright & Memes: The Fight For Success Kid, Cathay Y. N. Smith, Stacey Lantagne

Faculty Law Review Articles

This Article explores the complicated relationship between memes and copyright. Internet memes have become a ubiquitous part of social communications. They effectively express an idea, message, or sentiment, often more humorously and efficiently than words. Most memes evolved from original content that Internet users found online and copied, altered, shared, and imbued with new cultural and social meaning. Because memes frequently involve the unauthorized use, alteration, and sharing of a content creator’s original image or photograph, they naturally implicate the content creator’s copyright. But who owns a meme? What rights, if any, does the creator of the original content have …

The Wonderful World Of Patents: "They Do Things Differently There", David Vaver

Editorials and Commentaries

No abstract provided.

Former Chief Judge Paul Michel’S Keynote Address At The 64th Annual Intellectual Property Conference At The Uic John Marshall Law School — The Arc Of American Patent Law: Balance And Rebalance And Rebalance Intellectual Property Policy, 20 Uic Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 102 (2021), Paul Michel

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

Automated Trade Secret Asset Management: Sfp Classification, Eona Proofs, Blockchaining, And Dtsa Civil Seizure Orders, 20 Uic Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 145 (2021), R. Mark Halligan

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

This Is Fisa Calling To Let You Know You May Be Eligible For A Motion To Suppress: New Notice Requirement From United States V. Moalin, 20 Uic Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 166 (2021), Jennifer Armstrong

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

Trademark Law After Uspto V. Booking.Com: “Generic.Com” Takeover, 20 Uic Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 182 (2021), Paige Miller

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

Filtering Innovation Wheat From Chaff: Quick Citations As Indicators Of Patented Invention Value, 20 Uic Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 202 (2021), Richard Gruner

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

The Scope Of Employment Test Under The Work-Made-For-Hire Doctrine Revisited: How Covid-19, Remote Working, And The Restatement (Third) Of Agency Could Change It, 20 Uic Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 232 (2021), Diana Simon

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

A Proposal For A More Objective Method In Determining The Extent Of Similarities Between Musical Works For The Purpose Of Probative Copying, 20 Uic Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 251 (2021), Rachael Belensz

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

Carpenter V. United States: Step Forward For Smartphones And Their Data, But Maybe Not For Other Technologies, 20 Uic Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 308 (2021), Stephen Bartholomew

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

Is Gray V. Perry The One That Got Away? The Idea-Expression Dichotomy And Music Copyright Infringement, 20 Uic Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 290 (2021), Marisa Schutz

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

The Blur Between Fact And Fiction: Should Trademark Protections Extend To Aspects Of Fictional Works?, 20 Uic Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 451 (2021), Sam Walker

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

Replacing The Rogers Test: Will An Inquiry Into Non-Artistic Motive In Selecting Titles Of Expressive Works Remedy The Possibility Of Flagrant Deception?, 20 Uic Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 429 (2021), Sabina Nedkova

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

Foreword: The Supreme Court’S Changing Approach To Patent Law, 21 Uic Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 1 (2021), Ted Field

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

Federal Circuit’S Jurisprudence Of The Patent-Eligibility Analysis: Toward A Bright-Line Rule, 21 Uic Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 16 (2021), Ping-Hsun Chen

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

A Retrospective Reflection On Ripl, 21 Uic Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 13 (2021), Adam Kelly, Dorien Clark

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

The Trade Secrecy Standard For Patent Prior Art, Camilla A. Hrdy, Sharon K. Sandeen

American University Law Review

A fundamental criterion of patentability is that an invention must be new as compared to the prior art—the corpus of preexisting knowledge and technology already available to the public. If an invention is in the prior art, or rendered obvious by it, it cannot be patented.

The U.S. Patent Act has traditionally envisioned a categorical approach for deciding what counts as prior art. Under this approach, courts are supposed to decide whether a particular disclosure about the invention (a reference) falls within one of the categories listed in Section 102 of the Patent Act, such as “described in a printed …

Who Killed The Radio Star? How Music Blanket Licensing Distorts The Production Of Creative Content In Radio, Ariel Katz, Eden Sarid

American University Law Review

According to popular and scholarly belief, video killed the radio star. The golden age of radio, culminating in the 1930s and 1940s, was gone with the rise of television in the 1950s and 1960s. In this Article, we advance the claim that television’s role in the “death” of the radio star has been more limited than commonly believed. A major culprit, we argue, is the common licensing practice of musical content for broadcasting, or more precisely, the blanket license issued by copyright collective management organizations (CMOs). By setting a zero marginal price for broadcasting additional songs from the CMO’s repertoire, …

A Monopoly Of Thought—How Growing Anticompetitive Practices On The Internet Affect Creative Work, Laurel Brown

Seattle University Law Review

This Note will address how dominant Internet companies detrimentally impact creative work and how legal solutions might be employed to combat the damage inflicted by online monopolies. Part I will focus on how certain Internet companies became dominant, showing an evolution from egalitarian ideals to the consolidated control of the World Wide Web (the web) by companies like Google, Facebook, and Amazon. In Part II, this Note will focus on how two particular companies—Google and Facebook—affect creative endeavors in their control of access to audiences and by determining the economics of content production on the Internet. Part III details what …

Whole Designs, Sarah Burstein

University of Colorado Law Review

In the past decade, there has been a renewed interest in the concept of patentable subject matter-that is, what kinds of things can you get a patent for? But this attention has, to date, been focused on utility patents, the patents that protect how things work. There has been scant attention paid to statutory subject matter and design patents, the patents that protect how things look. These patents have gained prominence in both practice and scholarship since the $1 billion verdict in Apple v. Samsung. The time has come to take the question of design patentable subject matter seriously. Today, …

Trademarks In Conversation: Assessing Genericism After Booking.Com, Laura A. Heymann

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

It is a fundamental principle of U.S. trademark law that to serve as a trademark, a word or phrase must "indicate the source" of the goods or services with which it is associated and, conversely, that a term that is understood to be the common name of a good or service is "generic" and cannot be protected as a trademark. Yet it still seems difficult to determine exactly what each concept means, particularly when the actual "source" of any goods or services might be opaque to consumers.

In part, this difficulty comes from the fact that status as a trademark …

Bertillonage In An Age Of Surveillance: Fourth Amendment Regulation Of Facial Recognition Technologies, David C. Gray

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

The Fourth Amendment is a closed hydraulic system. As a general rule, if government conduct is deemed a “search” under the Fourth Amendment, then agents must secure a warrant from a detached and neutral magistrate before engaging in that conduct. There are exceptions, of course, but they just shift the pressure into another valve. Officers who conduct searches based on their own initiative must show not only probable cause, but also good reasons why, in their circumstances, they were not required to get a warrant.

One consequence of these Fourth Amendment hydraulics is a reluctance on the part of the …

Covid-19: Legal Framework For Vaccine Distributions And Mandates, Dana B. Taschner, Ashley Atwood

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

The COVID-19 pandemic has created heightened turmoil for at-risk populations, solidified laws allowing the use of mask mandates, raised legal issues surrounding vaccine mandates, and presented the new issue of a vaccine passport. As a nation, we have failed to implement vaccination schemes that properly protect vulnerable populations. Specifically, the homeless population has been overlooked, creating an additional layer of hardship, and contributing to greater community spread. This article contemplates the various methods by which an equitable vaccination scheme could have been achieved and the division of powers that created complications.

Additionally, the legality of vaccine mandates is discussed, and …

Q: Can Booking.Com Be Trademarked? A: Booking.Yeah, Samantha Favela

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

By choosing a generic Internet domain as a brand name, that brand can hit the Internet jackpot. But the popularity and use of a generic domain name creates tension with trademark law. While companies want to be easily found on the Internet, they also want to protect themselves from competitors. This Case Note argues that the Supreme Court’s ruling in United States Patent & Trademark Office v. Booking.com B.V. is the best possible outcome in protecting brand’s rights and balancing trademark law principles. Through the analysis of past cases, the Supreme Court decision in Booking.com itself, and trademark law principles, …

The Art Of Dodging Bullets: How Covid-19 Drug Manufacturers And Providers Plan To Escape Tort Liability, Ruan Meintjes

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Fifth Circuit, Fourth Amendment, And The Third-Party Doctrine: Two Takeaways From The Court’S First Ruling On Bitcoin Privacy, Daniel Penn

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

No abstract provided.

Trump’S Twitter Tension: Is Social Media A Modern Restriction On Government Employees?, Caylee Phillips

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

No abstract provided.

Signed, Sealed, Patented?: A Look At The United States Postal Service’S Patent Application For Implementing Blockchain Technology In Mobile Voting Systems, Ethan Todd

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

No abstract provided.

Copyright, Pandemics, And Emergencies: When Desperate Times Dictate Contextual Responses, Caroline L. Osborne

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

This article explores fair use, the library exception, the first sale doctrine, and controlled digital lending as responses to copyright in the context of permitting libraries to digitize materials existing exclusively in print in their collection for use in teaching, research, and scholarship by students, faculty, and other patrons. Also included is a decision matrix to be employed as a tool for analysis in making the decisions as to digitization of print resources in response to instances of emergencies.