Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

Problems In Sharing The Surplus, Roger D. Blair, Thomas Knight

UF Law Faculty Publications

Dennis Carlton and Allan Shampine have addressed opportunistic and strategic behavior by standard-essential patent owners. After a standard has been specified, and sunk investments have been made by those who would implement the standard, the holder of a standard-essential patent can demand more for the patent license than it could have demanded ex ante. This sort of ex post opportunism can lead to economically inefficient outcomes. The solution is to limit such patent holders to “fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory” (FRAND) patent license fees. Carlton and Shampine have advanced our understanding of precisely what this means.

The remainder of this article …

The Patent Litigation Explosion, James Bessen, Michael J. Meurer

Faculty Scholarship

This Article provides the first look at patent litigation hazards for public firms during the 1980s and 1990s. Litigation is more likely when prospective plaintiffs acquire more patents, when firms are larger and technologically close and when prospective defendants spend more on research and development ("R&D"). The latter suggests inadvertent infringement may be more important than piracy. Public firms face dramatically increased hazards of litigation as plaintiffs and even more rapidly increasing hazards as defendants, especially for small public firms. The increase cannot be explained by patenting rates, R&D, firm value or industry composition. Legal changes are the most likely …

Access To Information And Knowledge, Lucie Guibault

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

No abstract provided.

Confronting The Crisis In Scientific Publishing: Latency, Licensing And Access, Jorge L. Contreras

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

The serials crisis in scientific publishing can be traced to the long duration of copyright protection and the assignment of copyright by researchers to publishers. Over-protection of scientific literature has enabled commercial publishers to increase subscription rates to a point at which access to scientific information has been curtailed with negative social welfare consequences. The uniformity costs imposed by such over-protection can be addressed by tailoring intellectual property rights, either through legal change or private ordering.

Current open access channels of distribution offer alternative approaches to scientific publishing, but neither the Green OA self-archiving nor the Gold OA author-pays models …

Imitation Is The Sincerest Form Of Flattery, But Is It Infringement? The Law Of Tribute Bands, Michael S. Newman

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Copyright’S Creative Hierarchy In The Performing Arts, Michael W. Carroll

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Copyright law grants authors certain rights of creative control over their works. This Article argues that these rights of creative control are too strong when applied to the performing arts because they fail to take account of the mutual dependence between writers and performers to fully realize the work in performance. This failure is particularly problematic in cases in which the author of a source work, such as a play or a choreographic work, imposes content-based restrictions on how a third party may render the work in performance. This Article then explores how Congress might craft a statutory license to …

Digestion And Re-Innovation: A Lesson Learned From China´S High-Speed Rail Technology-Transfer Agreements, Joe Massie

Intellectual Property Brief

No abstract provided.

Dc Comics Sues Gotham Garage Over Replica Batmobiles, Jeff Kettle

Intellectual Property Brief

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Medimmune, Inc. V. Genentech, Inc. And Its Progeny On Technology Licensing, Michael Donovan

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

No abstract provided.

Environmental Initiative And The Role Of The Uspto’S Green Technology Pilot Program, Sarah M. Wong

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

This Comment will address the environmental problems that confront the U.S. and the steps that the government has taken to solve them. Specifically, research funding and patent protection have provided the green industry an incentive to increase research and development of green technology. One of the more recent programs to help improve the patent protection of green technology, the Green Technology Pilot Program, accelerates the status of green technology through the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) patenting process. This Comment will suggest that the Program become a permanent feature within the USPTO and that it be expanded to …

Deviated, Unsound, And Self-Retreating: A Critical Assessment Of The Princo V. Itc En Banc Decision, Richard Li-Dar Wang

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

The licensing dispute between Philips and Taiwan CD-R/RW manufacturers has been a powerful generator of new developments in the field of patent and competition, which culminated with the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's Princo en banc decision in 2010. By adding new elements to the patent-misuse test, this decision confined the applicable area of the patent-misuse doctrine to the restrictions that patent owners impose on licensees, thus substantially constraining its scope and changing its landscape. After careful review of the Federal Circuit's holding and reasoning, this article finds that this decision deviating from United States Supreme …

An Information-Gathering Approach To Copyright Policy, Peter Dicola, Matthew Sag

Faculty Articles

For over a century and with increasing frequency, major controversies have erupted between large distributors of copyrighted works (song publishers, movie studios, record labels, book publishers, etc.) and makers of new technologies for experiencing those works (player piano manufacturers, VCR manufacturers, the creators of file sharing software, Google Books, etc.). Usually, the copyright owners and the technology firms reach a licensing deal-but not without some form of government intervention. Various institutions within the federal government have become involved in these disputes, using a variety of different mechanisms. This Article is a theoretical investigation of government intervention in these content-technology copyright …

Better Mousetraps: Licensing, Access, And Innovation In The New Music Marketplace, Casey Rae-Hunter

Journal of Business & Technology Law

No abstract provided.

Open Content Licensing: From Theory To Practice, Lucie Guibault, Christina Angelopoulos

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Although open content licences only account for a fraction of all copyright licences currently in force in the copyright world, the mentality change initiated by the open content movement is here to stay. To promote the use of open content licences, it is important to better understand the theoretical underpinnings of these licences, as well as to gain insight on the practical advantages and inconveniences of their use. This book assembles chapters written by renowned European scholars on a number of selected issues relating to open content licensing. It offers a comprehensive and objective study of the principles of open …

Actual Or Hypothetical: Determining The Proper Test For Trademark Licensee Rights In Bankruptcy, Laura D. Steele

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

As trademark rights become an increasingly valuable asset in Chapter 11 reorganizations, it is critical for Congress and the courts to clarify how trademarks will be treated in bankruptcy, particularly where the debtor is a trademark licensee. Without clarity, Chapter 11 reorganization may not be a viable option. This Comment urges that trademark licensees should not be stripped of a license simply because the licensee enters bankruptcy. Rather, where a licensee intends only to continue using an existing license under the terms of the existing agreement with the licensor, the licensee's use of that license should be uninterrupted during reorganization. …

Can Newspapers Be Saved? How Copyright Law Can Save Newspapers From The Challenges Of New Media, Keiyana Fordham

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Shrinking The Commons: Termination Of Copyright Licenses And Transfers For The Benefit Of The Public, Timothy K. Armstrong

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

Federal law limits the free alienability of copyright rights to prevent powerful transferees from forcing authors into unremunerative bargains. The limiting mechanism is a statutory provision that permits authors or their heirs, at their sole election, to terminate any transfer or license of any copyright interest during a defined period. Indeed, the applicable provisions of the Copyright Act go so far as to invalidate purported waivers by authors of their statutory termination powers.

These statutory provisions may constitute an impediment to the effective grant of rights for the benefit of the public under widely used "open content" licensing arrangements, such …

Sequential Musical Creation And Sample Licensing, Peter Dicola

Faculty Working Papers

All musical creation builds on previous works. But using fragments of existing musical works in a new work can often constitute copyright infringement. Copyright law, in cases like Bridgeport Music v. Dimension Films (6th Cir. 2005), has recently increased its restrictions on musicians who wish to engage in sampling, defined as the practice of using other creators' sound recordings to create new music. The paper describes a model of copyright holders' and samplers' incentives to create in light of the need to negotiate licenses for sample-based works to avoid violating copyright law. Even in the absence of traditional transaction costs …

Licensing And Patent Protection, Arijit Mukherjee, Aniruddha Bagchi

Faculty Articles

We show the impact of technology licensing on optimal patent policy. Strong patent protection that eliminates imitation may not be the equilibrium outcome in the presence of licensing. Depending on the cost of innovation, licensing may either increase or reduce the strength of the patent protection.

We Can Work It Out: Co-Op Compulsory Licensing As The Way Forward In Improving Access To Anti-Retroviral Drugs, Horace E. Anderson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article explores the social and developmental underpinnings of the access problem and describes the legal framework that provides the backdrop for the Waiver's licensing scheme. Part III examines the various lenses, humanitarian, economic, and political, through which the underutilization problem may be viewed and explained. Part IV sets out the structural heart of the Waiver scheme's deficiencies: the notion of the “compulsory” license itself. Part V posits a co-op scheme of licensing that aligns the concerns, goals, and incentives of IP owners, importers, exporters, and consumers. Finally, the Article relates the proposed scheme to more general trends in thinking …

Experimenting With Territoriality: Pan-European Music License And The Persistence Of Old Paradigms, Ana Santos Rutschman

All Faculty Scholarship

This article tells the story of what could have been an interesting and important shift in our approach to territoriality in the digitalized world. Europe had the chance to be the cradle of an unprecedented copyright experience – the creation of a quasi pan- continental license in the music field – but it might have lost that opportunity in the midst of non-binding recommendations and resolutions. This article argues this loss is due to the overreaching persistence of old paradigms, namely the principle of territoriality.

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

American University Law Review

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 …

Wagging The Dog? Reconsidering Antitrust-Based Regulation Of Ip-Licensing, Gosta Schindler

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

This Article criticizes the institutional setup in which the antitrust policies regarding IP exploitation are designed and enforced. The author compares how IP licensing is scrutinized by antitrust regimes in the European Union and the United States. The result of that comparison leads to the conclusion that any attempted resolution of the IP-Antitrust dilemma will remain inadequate as long as it is antitrust-based, that is, regulated by antitrust laws or guidelines designed by antitrust-agencies. The author argues that antitrust concerns can and should be accounted for through proper construction and application of the IP laws themselves. The article suggests a …

Antitrust Liability For Refusal To License Intellectual Property: A Comparative Analysis And The International Setting, Rita Coco

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

Antitrust and IP law both share the goals of promoting innovation and benefiting consumers. A potential for conflict exists, however, when a dominant firm's refusal to license IP rights affects the dynamics of competition. Antitrust intervention in IP rights can reduce incentives to invest, whereas a failure to allow anticompetitive behavior can harm consumers and competitors while reducing the efficiency of the economic system. The author reviews the European and United States approaches to monopolization claims involving IP rights. The European approach is limited by the mismatch between national enforcement of IP rights and community enforcement of antitrust law. 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 …

Rethinking Sharing Licenses For The Entertainment Media, Eric E. Johnson

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

The Sunset Of "Quality Control" In Modern Trademark Licensing, Irene Calboli

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Historically, based on the premise that trademark protection is about consumer welfare, trademark law has allowed trademark licensing only as long as licensors control the quality of the products bearing the licensed marks. Ever since its adoption, however, this rule has been difficult to enforce because it hinges on a concept that is ambiguous and difficult to frame in a legal context: quality control. Unsurprisingly, the consequence has been inconsistent case law and much uncertainty as to what represents valid licensing. In addition, in the past decades, courts have proven increasingly reticent to strictly apply this rule and have declared …

Second Draft Of The Public's Right To Fair Use - 2007, Wendy J. Gordon

Scholarship Chronologically

Under provocative titles like "fared use" and "the end of friction," commentators argue about whether or not the doctrine of "fair use" should exist in a world of instantaneous transactions. As collecting societies like the Copyright Clearance Center become more powerful, and technologies like the internet have made it possible to purchase digital copies by clicking a mouse, the suggestion is sometimes made that fair use could or should disappear. Courts like the Second and Sixth Circuits have flirted with foreclosing fair use if a licensing market is present or possible. The presence of 'traditional, reasonable, or likely to be …

Draft Of The Public's Right To Fair Use - 2007, Wendy J. Gordon

Scholarship Chronologically

Under provocative titles like "fared use" and "the end of friction," commentators argue about whether or not the doctrine of "fair use" should exist in a world of instantaneous transactions. As collecting societies like the Copyright Clearance Center become more powerful, and technologies like the internet have made it possible to purchase digital copies by clicking a mouse, the suggestion is sometimes made that fair use could or should disappear. Courts like the Second and Sixth Circuits have flirted with foreclosing fair use if a licensing market is present or possible. The presence of 'traditional, reasonable, or likely to be …

Intellectual Property, Competition Rules, And The Emerging Internal Market: Some Thoughts On The European Exhaustion Doctrine, Guido Westkamp

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

Although the European intellectual property law concept of the doctrine of exhaustion appears superficially straightforward, uncertainty as to its doctrinal foundations remains. The author explores the status of the doctrine, its interpretation and scope within European Community law, and the pertinent issues regarding the doctrine in relation to both domestic and cross-border issues. The complex structure of the doctrine of exhaustion has made it difficult to formulate more refined rules governing licensing provisions restricting the free circulation of goods. The result of this analysis indicates conflict between the freedom to provide goods and services under European Community law and classifying …