Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

Intellectual Property And Traditional Cultural Expressions: A Synopsis Of Current Issues, Molly Torsen

Intercultural Human Rights Law Review

In the context of copyright law, this article will lay out the differences between Berne Convention tenets and the ideals of a prospective TCE-based legal instrument. It will then go on to outline and comment on current sui generis laws and other approaches that incorporate various aspects of existing Western laws. The TCE topic is highly sensitive and does not cover a homogeneous set of interests. As such, a one-size-fits-all instrument may be very difficult, if not impossible, to distill. The international discussion, at the very least, brings these issues under scrutiny and encourages debate as to a wide range …

Sampling: Musical Authorship Out Of Tune With The Purpose Of The Copyright Regime, Rahmiel D. Rothenberg

St. Thomas Law Review

While the present debate over the practice of sampling may seem to be just a minuscule footnote in the evolution of copyright law, the legal battle that sampling is presently engaged in illuminates many of the future, and ongoing, issues that copyright law faces. One of those major issues is whether copyright law embraces the true nature of creation and authorship. An individual's view on the nature of authorship essentially frames his or her opinion on the legitimacy of creative forms built upon appropriation, such as sampling. This article asserts that there are two legitimate forms of authorship: romantic and …

Fair Circumvention, Timothy K. Armstrong

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

Judicial decisions construing the key liability provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), 17 U.S.C. - 1201, cluster around two incompatible poles. One set of decisions construes the DMCA's liability provisions broadly, emphasizing the need to prevent possible copyright infringement and limit the public availability of tools that may be used to infringe. Other cases construe the same language narrowly, stressing the avoidance of anticompetitive market distortions. Both sets of decisions insist that their interpretation is commanded by the literal text of the DMCA. A closer look, however, reveals that both sides have overstated the support they may plausibly …

Ethical Considerations For Attorneys Responding To A Data-Security Breach, Robert J. Scott, Julie Machal-Fulks

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

Attorneys increasingly are confronting the significant ethical issues raised when a data-security breach occurs. Many traps exist for the unwary in this evolving area of the law, especially in light of concerns regarding e-discovery and a lack of judicial interpretation of applicable statutes. This article provides a legal framework in this area of the law and explores ethical considerations arising when an attorney represents a client who has suffered a data-security breach.

Questioning The Justifiability Of Innovation Protection In Antimicrobial Drugs: A Law And Economics Perspective, Ankur Sood, Vardaan Ahluwalia

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

Ksr International Co. V. Teleflex Inc.: Patentability Clarity Or Confusion?, Stephen J. Schanz

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

Statistical Analysis Of The United States’ Accession To The Madrid Protocol, Ash Nagdev

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

Famous For Fifteen Minutes: Ip And Internet Social Networking, Patricia S. Abril, Jonathan Darrow, Peter Ludlow, J. Michael Monahan

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

Ip Litigation In The 21st Century, Michael H. Baniak, Daniel A. Boehnen, Jeanne Gills, Binal J. Patel

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

Open Source, Open Access, And Open Transfer: Market Approaches To Research Bottlenecks, Robin Feldman, Kris Nelson

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

Regulating Virtual Realms Optimally: The Model End User License Agreement, Jason T. Kunze

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

Open Legislation Development, Jacob Ewerdt

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

The Enablement Pendulum Swings Back, Sean B. Seymore

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

The Pendulum Swings Back: The Impact Of Recent Scotus And Federal Circuit Cases, Troy A. Groetken, Timothy R. Holbrook, Sean Seymore, Donald L. Zuhn, Jr.

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

Enablement Issues Concerning Aggressively Broad Generic Claims, J. Benjamin Bai

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

Meh. The Irrelevance Of Copyright In The Public Mind, Brett Lunceford, Shane Lunceford

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

Should Only Technical Inventions Be Patentable, Following The European Example?, Reinier B. Bakels

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

Legal Turbulence After : New Possibilities For Patent Licensing At Research Institutions, Jonathan Hillel

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

Google And Fair Use, Jonathan Band

Journal of Business & Technology Law

No abstract provided.

Raising The Dead: How The Ninth Circuit Avoided The Supreme Court's Guidelines Concerning Aesthetic Functionality And Still Got Away With It In Au-Tomotive Gold, Yevgeniy Markov

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

Massively Multiplayer Online Fraud: Why The Introduction Of Real World Law In A Virtual Context Is Good For Everyone, Ethan E. White

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

The Mythical Beginnings Of Intellectual Property, Jessica Silbey

Faculty Scholarship

People commonly justify intellectual property protection with homage to utilitarianism (protecting the incentive to create, invent, or produce quality goods to maximize net social welfare) or natural rights (people should own the product of their creative, inventive, or commercial labor). Despite the ongoing dominance of these theories, a dissatisfying lack of a comprehensive explanation for the value of intellectual property protection remains. One reason for this failure is that economic analysis of intellectual property law tends to undervalue its humanistic element. Whereas utilitarianism and natural rights theories are familiar, at least one other basis for intellectual property protection exists. This …

Inventors, Entrepreneurs, And Intellectual Property Law, Michael J. Meurer

Faculty Scholarship

I am not sure why small business concerns have not had more influence on IP law. Perhaps the sentiment prevailing in antitrust law spilled over into IP law. American antitrust law has reached a near consensus that small firms get no special treatment under a law designed to protect competition, not competitors. ° In contrast, European competition law regulators are more likely to protect small business, and European patent policymakers openly fret about how to reform their patent law to promote small business.²

Regardless, my concern in this Article is mostly with the normative question: Should IP law favor …

Claims To Information Qua Information And A Structural Theory Of Section 101, Kevin Emerson Collins

Articles by Maurer Faculty

In this article, I start from the premises that claims to inventive information qua information are not and should not be patentable, and I pursue two lines of inquiry. First, I argue that a structural theory of Section l0l of the Patent Act provides a policy-driven, conceptually coherent and statutorily justified interpretation that explains why claims to inventive information qua information should be excluded from the realm of patentable subject matter. In brief, patentable subject matter must be restricted in this manner to preserve the duality of claiming and disclosing upon which the entire patent regime is constructed.

Second, I …

Indigenous Rights To Traditional Knowledge And Cultural Expressions: Implementing The Millennium Development Goals, Valerie J. Phillips

Intercultural Human Rights Law Review

"Indigenous Rights to Traditional Knowledge and Cultural Expressions: Implementing The Millenium Development Goals" Reflections on Intellectual Property, Traditional Knowledge and Cultural Expressions by Valerie J. Phillips, Assistant Professor of Law at University of Tulsa College of Law.

Biodiversity, Traditional Knowledge And Folklore: Work On Related Ip Matters In The Wto, Hannu Wager

Intercultural Human Rights Law Review

Issues related to biodiversity, traditional knowledge and folklore have received increasing attention in the global intellectual property (IP) arena, including in the work of intergovernmental organizations and civil society. The World Trade Organization (WTO) is one of the forums in which the debate on related IP matters is occurring. Other intergovernmental organizations in which such debates are taking place include, among others, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the World Bank, and various United Nations human rights bodies. This …

Teaching Trademark Theory Through The Lens Of Distinctiveness, Mark P. Mckenna

Journal Articles

This contribution to the annual teaching edition of the Saint Louis University Law Journal encourages teachers to begin trademark law courses using the concept of distinctiveness as a vehicle for articulating producer and consumer perspectives in trademark law. Viewing the law through these sometimes different perspectives helps in approaching a variety of doctrines in trademark law, and both perspectives are relatively easy to grasp in the context of distinctiveness.

Indirect Infringement From A Tort Law Perspective, Charles W. Adams

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Common Ground: The Case For Collaboration Between Anti-Poverty Advocates And Public Interest Intellectual Property Advocates, Deborah J. Cantrell

Publications

This article examines the previously unappreciated common ground between scholars and advocates who work to eliminate poverty, and scholars and advocates who work on intellectual property issues in the public interest. The article first illustrates how scholars and advocates working on poverty and on public interest intellectual property have relied on rights talk to frame their social movements. Under the conventional narrative, the framing has accentuated differences between the movements. As the Article explains, the two movements share core principles and should recognize shared interests and goals. By developing a new model of how to view public interest movements, the …

Acquiring Innovation, Xuan-Thao Nguyen, Jeffrey A. Maine

Articles

In recent years, the innovation market has witnessed a new business model involving companies that are mere patent holding shells and not operating entities. They have no customers or products to offer, but they do have an aggressive tactic of using patent portfolios to threaten other operating companies with potential infringement litigation. The strategy is executed with the end goal of extracting handsome settlements. Acquisitions of patents for offensive use have become a major concern to operating companies because such acquisitions pose the threats of patent injunction, interrupting the business and crippling further innovation.

While many operating companies today know …