Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

Conflicts Between U.S. Law And International Treaties Concerning Geographical Indications, Christine Farley

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

It should not be surprising that the United States is not a major proponent of the protection of geographical indications. Countries that stand to benefit the most from this protection are those that have a long history of traditional industries, such as many European countries. These historical differences may help explain the stance that the United States has taken with regard to the protection of geographical indications, as compared to its stance towards other intellectual property rights negotiated in TRIPs Agreement. But the inability of the U.S. to benefit to the same extent as European countries, because of its apparent …

Copyright And The Perfect Curve, Julie E. Cohen

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This essay argues that the assumption that “progress” is qualitatively independent of the underlying entitlement structure is wrong. In particular, I shall argue that a shift to a copyright rule structure based on highly granular, contractually enforced “price discrimination” would work a fundamental shift, as well, in the nature of the progress produced. The critique of the contractual price discrimination model, moreover, exposes deep defects in the use of neoclassical “law and economics” methodology to solve problems relating to the incentive structure of copyright law. What is needed, instead, is an economic model of copyright that acknowledges the central role …

Copyright As A Model For Free Speech Law: What Copyright Has In Common With Anti-Pornography Laws, Campaign Finance Reform, And Telecommunications Regulation, Rebecca Tushnet

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Copyright raises real and troubling free speech issues, and standard responses to those concerns are inadequate. This Article aims to put copyright in the context of other free speech doctrine. Acknowledging the link between copyright and free speech can help determine the proper contours of a copyright regime that both allows and limits property rights in expression, skewing the content of speech toward change.

Draft Of Ralph Sharp Brown, Intellectual Property And The Public Interest - 1999, Wendy J. Gordon

Scholarship Chronologically

Ralph Sharp Brown crossed out the "Junior" that followed his name after his father died. In explanation of the hand-altered stationery, he said (if my recollection holds), "I'm the only one left now." Now, after Ralph's death, there may remain no Ralph Sharp Browns. But there are many law teachers who continue to wage the campaign that Ralph made his life work: to save an interdependent society from unnecessary and stagnating restraints on liberty. In the intellectual property area, Ralph sought to teach us that it can be both right and necessary to give individuals the liberty to "reap without …

New Thoughts And Excerpt From On Commodifying Intangibles - 1999, Wendy J. Gordon

Scholarship Chronologically

Here is a ten-page excerpt from! a published piece, followed by some more recent and more random thoughts. Community is not civility. That is, I imagine my ideal community as one where people aren't always sweet to each other; I imagine a community where truth is more important than hurt feelings, and fun is more important than money. I imagine a community of individualists: raucous, iconoclastic. Steve Shiffrin's ROMANCE OF THE FIRST AMENDMENT and Ed Baker's work seems to have the kind of community in mind that I am interested in.

Still Adjusting To Markman: A Prescription For The Timing Of Claim Construction Hearings, William Lee, Anita Krug

All Faculty Scholarship

In Markman v. Westview Instruments, Inc., the Supreme Court held that the interpretation of patent claims is a question of law to be determined by the court rather than a question of fact to be decided by the jury. The Court based its holding on the belief that judges are better suited than juries to address claim interpretation issues and that claim interpretation by the court would result in greater uniformity in the treatment of patents. The Markman decision, however, has confronted the district courts with a host of thorny questions, such as what evidence they may consider in their …

Outline Of Epstein's Possession As The Root Of Title, And Other Matters - 1999, Wendy J. Gordon

Scholarship Chronologically

While it may be premature to expect a full working out of detail, it is surely time enough for some semblance of a unified theory of intellectual property law to have emerged. That it has not is due to some extent to the very evil which the existence of such a theory (or the beginnings of one) would prevent, namely, the errors that opinions are heir to. Recognizing common themes would help to isolate deviations, and thus help to clarify their nature; whether in a given context a deviation is justified could then be discussed on its own merits, wihout …

The Dilemma Of Intellectual Property Piracy In China, Jennifer S. Fan

Articles

This Article analyzes the effectiveness of China's intellectual property laws and the role they play in China's foreign trade and investment. It gives an overview of how intellectual property laws developed in China and explains why they have been inadequate, especially with respect to the protection of the interests of U.S. companies. It then illustrates why America's response to the piracy of intellectual property has been largely ineffective. The Article explains why China's strides in intellectual property law have fallen short of expectations and offers alternative methods of protecting intellectual property rights in China.

The Use Of Preclusion Doctrine, Antisuit Injunctions, And Forum Non Conveniens Dismissals In Transnational Intellectual Property Litigation, Peter Nicolas

Articles

Conflicting standards among the federal circuits over the applicability of inherent powers in the transnational intellectual property context and the divided authority regarding the jurisdiction of U.S. federal courts over foreign intellectual property claims severely hamper the ability of federal district courts to use these tools in such a manner so as to prevent parties in transnational intellectual property suits from engaging in strategic behavior. This Comment seeks to reconcile these conflicts where possible and, where irreconcilable, to demonstrate that the text and history of federal statutes conferring subject matter jurisdiction on federal courts and placing limits on their issuance …

The Antitrust Duty To Deal And Intellectual Property Rights, James C. Burling, William F. Lee, Anita K. Krug

Articles

This Article discusses how courts have addressed so-called ‘"duty-to-deal" antitrust claims involving intellectual property, and what they should do in those circumstances to ensure appropriate deference to the competition goals of intellectual property doctrine.

Part II discusses duty-to-deal principles in the general case, where intellectual property rights are not at issue, noting that hard and fast rules have yet to emerge.

Part III discusses the approaches courts have taken in the intellectual property context and contends that, although many courts have conducted their analyses with a view to the objectives of patent law, at least two have not, with potentially …

A Tale Of The Apocryphal Axe: Repair, Reconstruction, And The Implied License In Intellectual Property Law, Mark D. Janis

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Introduction, Wendy J. Gordon

Faculty Scholarship

Ralph Sharp Brown crossed out the "Junior" that followed his name after his father died. In explanation of the hand-altered stationery, he said (if my recollection holds), "I'm the only one left now." Now, after Ralph's death, there may remain no Ralph Sharp Browns. But there are many law teachers who continue to wage the campaign that Ralph made his life work: to save an interdependent society from unnecessary and stagnating restraints on liberty. In the intellectual property area, Ralph sought to teach us that it can be both right and necessary to give individuals the liberty to "reap without …

The Legal Infrastructure Of High Technology Industrial Districts: Silicon Valley, Route 128, And Covenants Not To Compete, Ronald J. Gilson

Faculty Scholarship

In recent years, scholars and policymakers have rediscovered the concept of industrial districts – spatial concentrations of firms in the same industry or related industries. In this Article, Professor Gilson examines te relationship between high-technology industrial districts and legal infrastructure by comparing the legal regimes of California's Silicon Valley and Massachusetts's Route 128. He contends that legal rides governing employee mobility influence the dynamics of high technology industrial districts by either encouraging rapid employee movement between employers and to startups, as in Silicon Valley, or discouraging such movement, as in Route 128. Because California does not enforce post-employment covenants not …

Remedies For The Misappropriation Of Intellectual Property By State And Municipal Governments Before And After Seminole Tribe: The Eleventh Amendment And Other Immunity Doctrines, Paul J. Heald, Michael L. Wells

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

From Patchwork To Network: Strategies For International Intellectual Property In Flux, Paul E. Geller

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Laws of intellectual property define what is bought and sold on media and technology markets, notably works, trademarks, and inventions. Laws and treaties have traditionally been made and enforced by nation-states operating in a patchwork of territories. Now, the media and technology marketplace is being globalized in digital networks. The law is only beginning to respond to this change.

To analyze this process in the field of intellectual property, this Article will consider the following questions: First, how is the patchwork of national laws lagging behind new networks in this field? Second, how does the international regime of intellectual property …

Acts Of Parliament: Privatisation, Promulgation And Crown Copyright – Is There A Need For A Royal Royalty?, Mark Perry

Law Publications

The road of privatisation of government assets is littered with the debris of mishaps and oversights. One clear illustration is the history and effect of the sale of the Government Printing Office (GPO) in 1990. Within the sale process there was a failure to ensure adequate consideration of the policy implications from an important perspective, namely the effect of privatising the means of promulgation of the normative materials of the State. Furthermore, there was no enquiry into the dubious assumptions made as to Crown Copyright in legislation.

Intellectual property rights in primary legal materials create a dilemma for policy makers. …

An Economic Analysis Of Intellectual Property Rights: Justifications And Problems Of Exclusive Rights, Incentives To Generate Information, And The Alternative Of A Government Run Reward System, Steve Calandrillo

Articles

This article examines and questions the traditional justifications for intellectual property (I.P.) rights in America (focusing on copyright and patent law), and explores incentives necessary to induce the creation of these works of information. I conclude that changes are needed to I.P. law in order to best foster society's dual goals of 1) promoting incentives to create I.P. works (such as currently patented drugs), while also 2) maximizing distribution of those products to all consumers who would stand to gain (and not merely those who can afford the monopoly price charged). Hence, I suggest the creation of a Government-Run Reward …

Transforming Trade Secret Theft Violations Into Federal Crimes: The Economic Espionage Act, Lorin L. Reisner

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Intellectual Property As Price Discrimination: Implications For Contract, Wendy J. Gordon

Faculty Scholarship

As people become enamored with the possible benefits of allowing price discrimination in contracts for intellectual goods, they should realize that traditional intellectual property law works by fostering price discrimination among customers. This simple fact has implications for federal pre-emption, and is a reminder of the complexity of the economic issues involved. Increasing a seller's ability to price discriminate will often involve increasing his monopoly power, with dubious welfare effects.

Using Creativity To Fight A $60 Billion Consumer Problem—Counterfeit Goods, Xuan-Thao Nguyen, Maxim H. Waldbaum

Articles

For centuries, consumers have been willing to pay exorbitant prices for unique or premiumquality goods. Throughout the evolution of the "designer label" market, counterfeiters have lurked in the shadows of the economic landscape. Thus, the problem of counterfeit goods represents nothing new in the global economy.

The Defense Of "Fair Use": A Primer, Alan J. Hartnick

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Introduction To Keynote Address: Symposium: The First Amendment And The Media: Convergence--Necessary, Evil, Or Both? The Legal, Economic, And Cultural Impacts Of Mega Media Mergers, Joel R. Reidenberg

Faculty Scholarship

It is my pleasure today to introduce our keynote speaker, Professor Larry Lessig. Professor Lessig is the Jack and Lillian Berkman Professor of Entrepreneurial Legal Studies at Harvard Law School and is a renowned scholar in intellectual property, constitutional, Internet, and new media law. Indeed, the last time Professor Lessig spoke here at Fordham, he was focusing on his pioneering work addressing fidelity in constitutional interpretation. Of course, not the sort of fidelity that the Senate is debating this afternoon.

Intellectual Property In The Western Hemisphere, Robert M. Sherwood

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

No abstract provided.

From Pirate King To Jungle King: Transformation Of Taiwan's Intellectual Property Protection, Andy Y. Sun

Maryland Series in Contemporary Asian Studies

No abstract provided.

Rethinking Remedies At The Intersection Of Intellectual Property And Contract: Toward A Unified Body Of Law, Maureen A. O'Rourke

Faculty Scholarship

As society continues to move "on-line"' and technology advances in fields such as biotechnology, a paradigm shift is occurring. Investors are focusing less on asset valuations based on the physical goods owned by a particular firm and more on the value of intangibles-the information and know-how possessed by the firm and embodied in its intellectual property rights. Firms and even entire industries have grown up with the primarily paper assets of patents and copyrights.

Virtual Trade Dress: A Very Real Problem, Tom W. Bell

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Internet And Its Legal Ramifications In Taiwan, George C.C. Chen

Seattle University Law Review

Part I of this Article briefly introduces the five main legal issues related to Internet use in Taiwan. Part II discusses network-related copyright issues, including the doctrine of fair use, personal and corporate use of the Internet, and one of the first court cases in Taiwan on this issue. Part III discusses issues arising from commercial activity on the Internet, including the validity of on-line contracts, the use of digital signatures for authentication, and the applicability of Taiwan's Broadcasting and Television Law, Cable Television Law, and Fair Trade Law to regulating commercial advertising on the Internet. Part IV discusses the …

Keynote Colloquy: Finding Justice In The Internet Dimension, Hon. Alex Kozinski

Seattle University Law Review

The Internet community—just like all other speech communities—ought to be afforded First Amendment protections. I don't see any reason why Internet speech should be treated any less favorably than other kinds of speech. But the vastly overblown claim that the communications medium somehow deserves to be put outside normal legal constraints--because it's so global, or because it's so different—is self-defeating. It substitutes generalities and sentiments for real thinking. The kind of analysis we've seen at this conference—the kind of debate we've had here—is very useful, because we're talking about the specifics of what legal constraints should be allowed. Not whether …

Cyberspace Must Exceed Its Grasp, Or What's A Metaphor? Tropes, Trips And Stumbles On The Info Highway, Robert C. Cumbow

Seattle University Law Review

This Essay will focus on three metaphors, and show briefly how the arguments that copyright law is “unworkable” in the Internet context are based on a misreading of these metaphors. The first metaphor is the use of the term “cyberspace” to apply to the Internet; the second is the tendency to describe Internet communication as “going” somewhere. Both of these metaphors mistakenly suggest a space in which enforcement—and, indeed, violation—of any law is impossible. The third metaphor is the “wine and bottles” analogy, set forth by John Perry Barlow in his widely circulated article, “The Economy of Ideas," to show …

The Legal Ramifications Of Saving Face: An Integrated Analysis Of Intellectual Property And Sport, Darryl C. Wilson

Jeffrey S. Moorad Sports Law Journal (1994 - )

No abstract provided.