Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

Innovation's Hidden Externalities, Stephanie Plamondon Bair

Faculty Scholarship

When commentators discuss innovation’s externalities, they often classify them into one of two categories. On the positive externalities, or “spillovers” side, legal and economics scholars often speak of the benefits innovation confers on other innovators. Future innovators profit from past innovation as they “stand on the shoulders of giants” to develop progressively new and better innovation. Discussion of innovation’s negative externalities, on the other hand, has mainly focused on social harms not directly related to future innovation that particular advances impose on third parties—the classic example being pollution. Thus, the common understanding is that innovation’s spillovers positively impact innovation (among …

Something For Nothing: Untangling A Knot Of Section 230 Solutions, Nicholas Bradley

Cardozo Law Review de•novo

Social media platforms have become the dominant public forum of the modern age but there is a big problem: they are privately owned and can moderate content however they like. This right is protected both by the First Amendment and Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the latter of which creates immunity from suit for platforms that exercise their right to moderate content by removing—or not removing—objectionable content. Politicians on both sides of the aisle have complained that platforms are abusing this immunity and, while they have put forward a wide variety of legislative solutions, none of them have …

The Use Doctrine In Trademark Law: Issues From Trade And Transborder Reputation, Srividhya Ragavan

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Zoning And The Cost Of Housing: Evidence From Silicon Valley, Greater New Haven, And Greater Austin, Robert C. Ellickson

Cardozo Law Review

Municipal zoning, shockingly, may be the most consequential regulatory program in the United States. This Article develops metrics for measuring the extent to which a locality’s zoning practices are exclusionary, that is, limit construction of least-cost housing. It applies the metrics to actual zoning ordinances and zoning maps, materials that legal scholars have seldom closely appraised. The municipalities chosen for study lie in three metropolitan areas, the ones listed in the Article’s title. Of the three, zoning in Greater Austin, one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the United States, is—to no one’s surprise—the most conducive to housing development. …

Environmental Justice And The Gullah Geechee: The National Environmental Policy Act's Potential In Protecting The Sea Islands, Paul N. Nybo

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

"And The Oscar Goes To . . .": Why The Academy Awards May Create Antitrust Drama With Proposed Eligibility Rule Changes, Armando Marin Iii

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Deeply Fake, Deeply Disturbing, Deeply Constitutional: Why The First Amendment Likely Protects The Creation Of Pornographic Deepfakes, Bradley Waldstreicher

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

How Do You Know It Was Me? A Case Comment On Cobbler Nevada, Llc V. Gonzales, David T. Frankel

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Tale Of Two Interoperabilities; Or, How Google V. Oracle Could Become Social Media Legislation, Charles Duan

Cardozo Law Review de•novo

The Supreme Court's recent decision in Google v. Oracle shares a perhaps unexpected connection with recent legislative proposals to enhance social media competition. At first glance they are seemingly unrelated: the former deals with copyright protection in certain portions of software code, while the latter relates to interconnection between dominant online platforms and their competitors. Yet they are closely intertwined, such that a competitive platform environment cannot be fully achieved without addressing lingering questions in Google. As a result, lawmakers ought to be motivated to address software copyrights and related matters as part of their efforts to improve competition among …

Copyright And Attention Scarcity, Jake Linford

Cardozo Law Review

As the costs of creating and sharing information have plummeted, some scholars question the continued utility of copyright protection, which imposes artificial scarcity so that authors can recoup creation and dissemination costs. Scholars have ignored, however, that when information is abundant, attention becomes a scarce resource. Superabundant information can overtax consumer attention.

Reducing copyright protection in this new environment may worsen the costs of attention scarcity on consumers of creative expression. Firms often compete for attention by free riding on the public interest generated by copyrighted works. If copyright protection is narrowed, new entrants have reduced motivation to create works …

Fintech: New Battle Lines In The Patent Wars?, Megan M. La Belle, Heidi Mandanis Schooner

Cardozo Law Review

Historically, financial institutions have relied on trade secrets and first-mover advantages, rather than patents, to protect their inventions. For the few financial patents that were issued, conventional wisdom was that they weren’t terribly interesting or important. In our 2014 study on financial patents, we showed that banks were breaking from past patterns and increasingly seeking patent protection. We explained that financial institutions were primarily building their patent portfolios as a defensive measure—i.e., to protect themselves from infringement suits. Indeed, the finance industry successfully lobbied Congress to include provisions in the America Invents Act of 2011 that made it easier to …

From Photocopying To Object-Copying In The Classroom: 3d Printing And The Need For Educational Fair Use In Patent Law, Alessandra T. Palazzolo

Georgia State University Law Review

This Note is broken into three parts. Part I includes background information about additive manufacturing, the Maker Movement and its importance in the promotion of STEM education, and the history of copyright and patent law. Part II analyzes the development of fair use in copyright law, potential reasons that patent law has no statutory fair use defense, and one exception in patent law that is essentially fair use—the Hatch-Waxman Act, a codified version of the experimental use exception for the pharmaceutical industry. Finally, Part III offers three distinct solutions aimed at protecting educators who use 3D printing in their curriculum.

The International Intellectual Property Commercialization Council’S 3rd Annual U.S. Conference: The State Of Innovation In The Union, Neel U. Sukhatme, Paul R. Zielinski, G. Nagesh Rao, Pj Bellomo, Matthew Byers, Meghan Gaffney Buck, Everardo Ruiz

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The International Intellectual Property Commercialization Council (“IIPCC”) presented its third annual policy conference at the United States Capitol on May 6, 2019. The conference’s theme explored the question of “what is the state of innovation in the United States?” Panelists included The Honorable Andrei Iancu – Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office; Dr. Carl J. Schramm – University Professor, Syracuse University and Former President of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation; Mr. Patrick Kilbride – Senior Vice President of the Global Innovation Policy Center (“GIPC”) at the U.S. Chamber of …

Nonexcludable Surgical Method Patents, Jonas Anderson

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

A patent consists of only one right: the right to exclude others from practicing the patented invention. However, one class of patents statutorily lacks the right to exclude direct infringers: surgical method patents are not enforceable against medical practitioners or health care facilities, which are the only realistic potential direct infringers of such patents. Despite this, inventors regularly file for (and receive) surgical method patents. Why would anyone incur the expense (more than $20,000 on average) of acquiring a patent on a surgical method if that patent cannot be used to keep people from using the patent?

The traditional answer …

Forgotten Statutes: Trade Law's Domestic (Re)Turn, Kathleen Claussen

Articles

Since the first half of the twentieth century, the U.S. Congress has increasingly delegated its authority over tariffs to the U.S. president. Some of these statutes permit private actors to petition for tariff relief. Some also permit the president to initiate an investigation and subsequently to take trade-related or other action when certain criteria are met. Since the 1990s, however, a robust multilateral trading system has required the United States and others to resolve disputes over trade measures in Geneva, rather than through unilateral policy steps under these tariff authorities. In a stark departure from this movement away from unilateral …

Social Media, Manipulation, And Violence, Allyson Haynes Stuart

South Carolina Journal of International Law and Business

No abstract provided.

Preserving Film Preservation From The Right Of Publicity, Christopher Buccafusco, Jared Vasconcellos Grubow, Ian J. Postman

Cardozo Law Review de•novo

In this comment, we argue that whatever courts and legislatures decide to do about the other issues raised by digital animation, they should preserve the ability to use digital technology to restore and remaster existing works. In this case, at least, the benefits of digital reanimation thoroughly swamp any possible costs (and frankly, we have a hard time finding any meaningful costs). Courts and legislators should ensure that publicity rights are never allowed to trump society’s interest in having access to already created works of culture.

Justifying India's Patent Position To The United States International Trade Commission And Office Of The United States Trade Representative, Sean Flynn, Srividhya Ragavan, Brook Baker

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Music Videos: The Gray Area In First Amendment Protected Speech And The Resulting Trademark Consequences, Lindsey Gold

Cardozo Law Review de•novo

This Note argues for a federal classification of music videos as noncommercial, artistic speech under the First Amendment. As an artistic expression of a singer, music videos are no longer the promotional mini-movies they once were; they are now utilized widely by artists to express their artistic preferences—including the communication of social, political, and cultural doctrine.

Reining In A 'Renegade' Court: Tc Heartland And The Eastern District Of Texas, Jonas Anderson

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

In TC Heartland v. Kraft Foods Group Brands, the Supreme Court tightened the venue requirement for patent cases, making it more difficult for a plaintiff to demonstrate that a district court has venue over a defendant. Many commentators, however, view TC Heartland as merely a “reshuffling” of the district courts that receive patent cases. Whereas before the case, a large percentage of patent cases were filed in the Eastern District of Texas, now, after TC Heartland, various other U.S. district courts (principally, the District of Delaware) have experienced an increase in patent infringement filings. Some commentators are unconvinced that this …

Pay-For-Delay: How Brand-Name And Generic Pharmaceutical Drug Companies Collude And Cost Consumer Billions, Raymond J. Prince

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Legal And Ethical Issues Around Incorporating Traditional Knowledge In Polar Data Infrastructures, Teresa Scassa, Fraser Taylor

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

Human knowledge of the polar region is a unique blend of Western scientific knowledge and local and indigenous knowledge. It is increasingly recognized that to exclude Traditional Knowledge from repositories of polar data would both limit the value of such repositories and perpetuate colonial legacies of exclusion and exploitation. However, the inclusion of Traditional Knowledge within repositories that are conceived and designed for Western scientific knowledge raises its own unique challenges. There is increasing acceptance of the need to make these two knowledge systems interoperable but in addition to the technical challenge there are legal and ethical issues involved. These …

Stop Letting Wine Crash The Wedding: Craft Beer Consumers Are Sophisticated Buyers, Justin P. Weinberg, O. Joseph Balthazor Jr.

Cybaris®

No abstract provided.

Issues Concerning Enforcement And Dispute Resolution, Sean Flynn

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Calculating Artists’ Royalty: An Analysis Of The Courts’ Dualistic Interpretations Of Recording Contracts Negotiated In A Pre-Digital Age, Nina Aragon

Cardozo Law Review de•novo

This Note examines the disparity in the courts’ rulings in the Malmsteen and F.B.T. cases, specifically the different ways in which each court interpreted the contractual language of the parties’ preInternet recording agreements, and their application of royalty rates. Part I of this Note provides an overview of the royalty structure used to compute royalty rates for compact discs (CDs). Part I discusses on the economic effects of switching to a digital distribution system, the sales versus license distinction, and the principles relied on by the courts to interpret pre-Internet contracts. Part II of this Note examines the courts’ rulings …

The Risks Of Revolution: Ethical Dilemmas In 3d Printing From A Us Perspective, Erica L. Neely

Philosophy and Religion Faculty Scholarship

Additive manufacturing has spread widely over the past decade, especially with the availability of home 3D printers. In the future, many items may be manufactured at home, which raises two ethical issues. First, there are questions of safety. Our current safety regulations depend on centralized manufacturing assumptions they will be difficult to enforce on this new model of manufacturing. Using current US law as an example, I argue that consumers are not capable of fully assessing all relevant risks and thus continue to require protection any regulation will likely apply to plans, however, not physical objects. Second, there are intellectual …

Intellectual Property And Related Rights In Climate Data, Michael Carroll

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

This chapter focuses on the ways in which intellectual property law can act as a barrier to data sharing. Intellectual property laws supply exclusive rights that can enable a researcher, employer or funder to ‘own’ data; they can then bring legal claims against persons who access or reuse data without permission. Some of these rights attach automatically to data, data sets, or databases, and thus must be managed properly to enable robust data sharing in climate science. Other rights are created by contract, and the policies around such privately created rights must be understood and analyzed. This chapter briefly describes …

Seeing Color: Implications Of The European Union's New Common Practice For Transatlantic Trademark Registration By United States Trademark Holders, Christine Park

Seattle University Law Review

This Note explores two issues related to the EU’s new common practice: (1) whether the new common practice will deter ongoing efforts to integrate trademark registration and protection at the international level; and (2) whether U.S. trademark holders, when expanding business into the EU, should register through the Madrid Protocol and obtain Community Trade Mark or register through a country’s trademark office. This Note argues that the new trademark practice hinders international efforts for standardizing trademark registration and that U.S. trademark holders should claim color when registering their marks with the EU.

Intellectual Property And Related Rights In Climate Data, Michael W. Carroll

Contributions to Books

This chapter focuses on the ways in which intellectual property law can act as a barrier to data sharing. Intellectual property laws supply exclusive rights that can enable a researcher, employer or funder to ‘own’ data; they can then bring legal claims against persons who access or reuse data without permission. Some of these rights attach automatically to data, data sets, or databases, and thus must be managed properly to enable robust data sharing in climate science. Other rights are created by contract, and the policies around such privately created rights must be understood and analyzed. This chapter briefly describes …

The Road To Adopting And Implementing Systemic Disclosure Changes In The Dallas County District Attorney’S Office, Susan Hawk, Patricia J. Cummings

Cardozo Law Review de•novo

Discovery and Brady are currently two of the most discussed and debated topics in our criminal justice system. Americans have become more and more aware of the number of individuals convicted and incarcerated for crimes they did not commit. In 2007, in a very bold and innovative move, the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office created the Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU) to reexamine questionable convictions to determine if a particular defendant was in fact guilty.