Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

Copyright Protection For Architectural Works, David E. Shipley

Scholarly Works

Architecture is the most commonly experienced and pervasive of all the arts. The creative efforts of architects culminate in structures used for shelter, pleasure, business, entertainment, and transportation.1 Architects express their design concepts in sketches, elevations, floor plans, working drawings, specifications, renditions, and three-dimensional models. Their labors in shaping the ideas for a building from rough conceptions into plans and then into completed structures are similar to the efforts of other creators. An architect is as much an author as is a sculptor or a dramatist. His plans, renditions, and the resulting structure will ordinarily show originality and will reflect …

Copyright And Software Technology Infringement: Defining Third Party Development Rights, Raymond T. Nimmer, Patricia A. Krauthaus

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Availability Of Jury Trials In Copyright Infringement Cases: Limiting The Scope Of The Seventh Amendment, Andrew W. Stumpff

Michigan Law Review

This Note argues that statutory copyright damages are properly regarded as equitable and hence that no right to a jury trial exists in cases brought to recover such damages. More generally, the Note maintains that the seventh amendment's distinction between equitable and legal causes of action has produced irrational consequences, and proposes that "legal" issues be defined narrowly so as to limit the scope of the seventh amendment. Part I analyzes the debate over statutory copyright damages, concluding that historical and statutory construction arguments require these damages to be construed as legal. Part II examines some of the problems that …

The Rise Of The Supreme Court Reporter: An Institutional Perspective On Marshall Court Ascendancy, Craig Joyce

Michigan Law Review

This Article will first explore the antecedents to, and beginnings of, the reporter system under Alexander J. Dallas and William Cranch. Next, the Article will examine the transformation of the system under the Court's first official Reporter, the scholarly Henry Wheaton. Finally, the Article will recount the struggle between Wheaton and his more practical successor, Richard Peters, Jr., that culminated in 1834 in the Court's declaration that its decisions are the property of the people of the United States, and not of the Court's Reporters.

The Copyright Monopoly After Sony Corp. Of America V. Universal City Studios, Inc.

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Validity Of The Manufacturing Clause Of The United States Copyright Code As Challenged By Trade Partners And Copyright Owners, Annette V. Tucker

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Trade treaty partners recently have determined that the manufacturing clause violates United States obligations under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). If the clause does violate GATT, sanctions may be imposed unless the clause is eliminated. Even so, two bills have been introduced in the United States Congress to make the clause a permanent feature of the copyright law, and to apply the manufacturing requirement to all printed materials. Meanwhile, a group of United States publishers and authors is challenging the clause in court, claiming it violates both the first and fifth amendments to the United States Constitution. …

Authors' Rights In France: The Moral Right Of The Creator Of A Commissioned Work To Compel The Commissioning Party To Complete The Work, André Françon, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

The French law protecting authors' rights incorporates two distinct regimes of rights, "pecuniary" rights, and "moral" rights. As the denomination indicates, pecuniary rights pertain to the author's economic interests, and provide the author a monopoly in the reproduction and public performance of his work. Moral rights safeguard the author's "personality" interest in his work. Despite the appellation "moral" rights, the author's claims under French law to the security of his personality as expressed in his work are not precatory: moral rights entail several distinct and enforceable interests. These are: the right to make the work known to the public "droit …

Copyright Law, David Goldberg, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

In 1983 and 1984 the federal courts continued to interpret the changes in copyright law effectuated by the 1976 Copyright Act. During this period the United States Supreme Court decided its first copyright case since adoption of the 1976 Act. In general, the year's decisions tend to accord expanded copyright protection to authors. Several decisions, however, have provoked or exacerbated uncertainties in a number of areas, including the protection accorded nonfiction works, the "fair use" excuse to copyright infringement, and compliance with the U.S. copyright formality of affixing notice to published copies of a work.

Addressing The Reprographic Revolution: Compensating Copyright Owners For Mass Infringement, Rosalind S. Kurz

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article addresses the unique problems created by the reprographic revolution. Part I discusses recent legislative attempts to relieve the strain placed on existing copyright law by developing reprographic technologies. Using the recent Betamax case as an example, part II criticizes judicial efforts to apply traditional copyright doctrine to issues involving reprographic technologies. Finally, part III proposes a framework for devising, an enforcement scheme to protect copyright holders' rights without denying the public the many benefits offered by reprographic technologies. The Article outlines an approach tailored to meet the special problems associated with each of the three basic reprographic technologies: …

The Betamax Case: Another Compulsory License In Copyright Law, Marshall A. Leaffer

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Sabotaging And Reconstructing History: A Comment On The Scope Of Copyright Protection In Works Of History After Hoehling V. Universal City Studios, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

This comment examines the Hoehling decision, and attempts a definition, in light of Hoehling and prior decisions, of historical "expression." A definition of historical expression is essential to analysis of an historian's infringement claim. Before the fact-finder determines whether a defendant's work is substantially similar to the historian's work, and if substantially similar, whether the fair use doctrine excuses the apparent infringement, the trial judge must first determine whether, as a matter of law, the portions the historian claims were infringed manifest copyrightable expression. If there is no or insufficient expression, the case closes at the summary judgment stage.

This …

Recent Cases, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Plaintiff, a major commercial publisher of medical journals,'brought a copyright infringement action for damages against the. United States--specifically, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Library of Medicine (NLM), agencies of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare--in the United States Court of Claims.Plaintiff alleged that defendant had infringed its copyrights by making unauthorized photocopies of plaintiffs medical journal articles and distributing them free of charge to library users on a no-return basis. Defendant conceded that it had made photocopies of each of the articles in question and that plaintiff was the record owner of the copyright registrations …

Do Art Exhibitions Destroy Common-Law Copyright In Works Of Art, Randolph N. Jonakait

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Book Reviews, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Since there has never been an era in which as much aggregate contemplation has been expended on the problems involved in the protection of literary property, Professor Patterson's book is both timely and important. The issues involved are being widely debated and discussed, but unfortunately much of the current discussion appears to be proceeding more from emotion, oratory, and vested concern than from detached and dispassionate logic. For this reason especially, the scholarly, sound history in Professor Patterson's new monograph is certain to be welcome, as it cuts through four centuries of continuing obfuscation and confusion and clarifies considerably the …

Copyright--Protection Denied To Verbal Expression Of Simple Subject Matter--Morrissey V. Proctor & Gamble Co., Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

The plaintiff copyrighted a series of rules for a sales promotional contest in which contestants' social security numbers were used as the basis for a "sweepstakes." In 1959 he submitted the contest rules and game suggestions to several companies, including the defendant Procter & Gamble Company, to see if they were interested in using his scheme. The defendant failed to accept or even to respond to the plaintiff's solicitation. However, three years later Procter & Gamble initiated a "Shopping Fling Sweepstakes" which utilized contestants' social security numbers as the basic element of the game. Plaintiff brought an action for copyright …

Copyright Pre-Emption And Character Values: The Paladin Case As An Extension Of Sears And Compco, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Much of the confusion over copyright pre-emption that has followed in the wake of Sears and Compco may be due to a fundamental difference between the present patent and copyright acts. Unlike the patent law that was at issue in Sears and Compco, the federal Copyright Act provides that the states may in limited circumstances protect literary property through the doctrine of common-law copyright. Under section 2 of the Act, a state may prevent copying of a work so long as it remains "unpublished." An alternative ground of decision in Paladin was that, regardless of preemption under Sears and …

Copyright And Morals, Edward S. Rogers

Michigan Law Review

The basis for national copyright legislation in this country is Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution: "The Congress shall have power * * * to promote the progress of science and useful arts by securing for limited times to authors and inventors, the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries."

Expensive Futility Of The United States Trade Mark Statute, Edward S. Rogers

Michigan Law Review

Every lawyer of much experience knows the client who tip-toes into his office, closes the door carefully, and with a great show of secrecy announces that he has discovered or invented the best name for a soda cracker, a patent medicine, a soft drink, or what not, that human ingenuity ever conceived. He wants it protected before any one can steal it from him. He wants it "Copyrighted." This is the expression most commonly used. He seems to be under the impression that some incantation can be performed by means of which he will be able to secure to himself …

Ingenuity Of The Infringer And The Courts, Edward S. Rogers

Michigan Law Review

The person who imitates a trademark has by common consent come to be described as a "pirate." At the time the designation was first applied, it was more or less appropriate. The pirate saw and coveted his neighbor's successful business, and like any MORGAN, TEACH, SHARKEY, or L'OLLONOIS, sighting a fat galleon laden with plate wallowing in the trade winds, homeward bound from the Indies, he laid himself alongside and took what he wanted. He counterfeited marks and labels as exactly as he could, not as he dared. There was no limit to his impudence. He was deterred only by …

Some Historical Matter Concerning Trade-Marks, Edward S. Rogers

Michigan Law Review

Most of the text books on the subject of trade marks begin with the case of Southern v. How, and either expressly assert, or by implicating convey the impression that trade marks are a comparatively modern thing, when, as a matter of fact few human institutions can boast a more respectable antiquity. The use of trade marks dates from the very earliest times of which we have any knowledge. The recent excavations in Asia Minor and in Egypt have revealed bricks bearing names which are supposed to be those of the manufacturers accompanied in many instances by devices. Roman bricks …

Unwary Purchaser, Edward S. Rogers

Michigan Law Review

Anyone who has occasion to examine the cases involving trade mark infringement and other forms of unfair trading by the imitation of names, labels, packages and the like, must at once be struck by their irreconcilable conflict. While, of course, the facts in no two cases are alike, this diversity cannot account for the variance in result. The rule of law to be applied is not seriously disputed. The Lord Ordinary's definition of infringement, in Smith v. Carron, 13 R. P. C. 109, III, can hardly be improved upon: "A trade mark is infringed when goods are sent into the …

Law Of Dramatic Copyright. Ii., Edward S. Rogers

Michigan Law Review

V. Dramatization of novels. - Continued. - Fortunately, we, in the United States, have had very little trouble in regard to the dramatization of novels. The copyright statute provides that the author of a copyrighted book may reserve the right to dramatize and translate his own work. There is no question, however, that but for this act which creates the additional right of dramatization and translation, the English rule would be in force in this country. The exclusive right of translating "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was denied Mrs. Stowe in Stowe v. Thomas, "decided before the enactment of the statute permitting …

The Law Of Dramatic Copyright, Edward S. Rogers

Michigan Law Review

Literary Property at Common Law.--There have been few legal questions so generally and so fully discussed-as that relating to the property of authors in their. writings. Up to 1769, it was generally conceded that authors enjoyed, by virtue of the common law, a perpetual copyright, and copyrights were sold and made the basis of family settlements. In 1769, the great case of Millar v. Taylor, was decided. An action had been brought in 1766 to recover ior the piracy of "Thomson's Seasons," and it was held by a majority of the judges, Lord Mansfield, Mr. Justice Aston and Mr. Justice …