Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

Determining Uniformity Within The Federal Circuit By Measuring Dissent And En Banc Review, Christopher A. Cotropia

Law Faculty Publications

This Article adds to the empirical literature examining how the Federal Circuit treats patent-law issues internally by comparing the decision making of the Federal Circuit with that of other courts of appeals. It does so by measuring two statistics from overall written opinions: the percentage of dissents and the percentage of en bane reviews. The data is taken from the Third, Fifth, Ninth, Tenth, District of Columbia, and Federal Circuits between 1998 and 2009. The data in the study show that the Federal Circuit has the second-highest percentage of dissents among the circuits studied (behind only the Ninth Circuit) and …

Comparative Tales Of Origins And Access: Intellectual Property And The Rhetoric Of Social Change, Jessica Silbey

Faculty Scholarship

This Article argues that the open-source and anti-expansionist rhetoric of current intellectual-property debates is a revolution of surface rhetoric but not of deep structure. What this Article terms “the Access Movements” are, by now, well-known communities devoted to providing more access to intellectual-property-protected goods, communities such as the Open Source Initiative and Access to Knowledge. This Article engages Movement actors in their critique of the balance struck by recent law (statutes and cases) and asks whether new laws that further restrict access to intellectual property “promote the progress of science and the useful arts.” Relying on cases, statutes and recent …

Enforcing Intellectual Property Rights: A Methodology For Understanding The Enforcement Problem In China, Justin Mccabe

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “Intellectual property rights are neither protected nor enforced in strict uniformity throughout the world. However, it can be said that in most developed countries, intellectual property is preciously guarded, as evidenced by a plethora of intellectual property statutes, penalties for infringement, and consistent attempts to convince less developed nations to adopt strong—or stronger—intellectual property protections. Despite continued vigilance by developed countries in bringing about increased international harmony among intellectual property regimes, some developing countries sustain questionable enforcement policies. What the driving force is behind intellectual property enforcement policies—or more appropriately, the lack thereof—is a matter of disagreement. In order …

Egyptian Goddess, Inc. V. Swisa, Inc.: A Dramatic Change In The Law Of Design Patents?, Evan Szarenski

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “On September 22, 2008, the Federal Circuit, sitting en banc, handed down the most important decision in design patent law in nearly twenty-five years. Egyptian Goddess, Inc. v. Swisa, Inc. (Egyptian Goddess III) abolished the point-of-novelty test first set out in Sears, Roebuck & Co. v. Talge and adopted by the Federal Circuit in Litton Systems, Inc. v. Whirlpool Corp. The point-of novelty test required patent holders to prove that an accused design appropriated the element which sets the patented design apart from the prior art—in addition to the ordinary-observer standard’s requirement of having substantially the same appearance—in order …

Brief Of Eleven Law Professors And Aarp As Amici Curiae In Support Of Respondent, Bilski V. Kappos, 130 S. Ct. 3218 (2010) (No. 08-964), Joshua Sarnoff, Lori Andrews, Andrew Chin, Ralph Clifford, Christine Farley, Sean Flynn, Debra Greenfield, Peter Jaszi, Charles Mcmanis, Lateef Mtima, Malla Pollack

Amicus Briefs & Court Filings

This is the brief filed by Joshua Sarnoff and Barbara Jones on behalf of various law professors and AARP in the Bilski v. Kappos case, discussing constitutional limits to the Patent power.

Fixing A Hole: Will Generic Biologics Find A Niche Within The Hatch-Waxman Act?, Elysa B. Goldberg

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

One Size Does Not Fit All: A Framework For Tailoring Intellectual Property Rights, Michael W. Carroll

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

The United States and its trading partners have adopted cultural and innovation policies under which the government grants one-size-fits-all patents and copyrights to inventors and authors. On a global basis, the reasons for doing so vary, but in the United States granting intellectual property rights has been justified as the principal means of promoting innovation and cultural progress. Until recently, however, few have questioned the wisdom of using such blunt policy instruments to promote progress in a wide range of industries in which the economics of innovation varies considerably.

Provisionally accepting the assumptions of the traditional economic case for intellectual …

Rethinking Patent Fraud Enforcement In A Reform Era, Kali Murray, Dmitriy Vinarov

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

This Article contends that, while the defense of inequitable conduct offers an avenue to combat fraudulent patent applications, the doctrine suffers from shortcomings that spring from two compromises. First, the amorphous nature of the equitable defense prompts institutional conflict between the United States Patent and Trademark Office and the Federal Circuit. Second, by relegating enforcement solely to a patentee's market competitors, the defense fails to protect the public interest adequately. In light of these compromises, the authors propose two goals to guide current reform efforts in Congress. Initially, Congress's attempt to reform patent fraud enforcement should relieve the aforementioned institutional …

Toward A More Reliable Fact-Finder In Patent Litigation, Amy Tindell

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

Juries have been perceived as a blessing and a curse. They are perceived differently in different areas of law. For example, practitioners in patent law view juries in a negative light as the fact finders. In accordance with this view, Federal Courts of Appeals have begun to narrow the role of juries in patent trials. This paper follows the development of the Seventh Amendment in the patent context and its current status. This paper then proposes a system similar to peer-review to replace the traditional jury in patent trials.

Not All Grace Periods Are Created Equal: Building A Grace Period From The Ground Up, Renee E. Metzler

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

The grace period for patent application filing is the amount of time a patent applicant has to file the application after the invention has been disclosed to the public. The rules and amount of time allowed vary greatly among countries. This comment explores the theoretical justifications for a grace period, the structural elements of a grace period, and other approaches to a grace period used in countries outside of the United States. The author proposes an ideal grace period model that would create international harmonization.

Fixing Continuing Application Practice At The Uspto, Kevin Rizzuto

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

Controversy surrounds continuing application practice at the United States Patent & Trademark Office. Legal scholars highlight problems with continuing application practice and ways that applicants abuse the system. Patent practitioners admit that continuing application abuses exist, yet believe that establishing limits on continuing application practice would lead to an increase in appeals to the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences. The USPTO attributes much of its continually growing backlog to the volume of continuing applications and requests for continued examinations, and published Proposed Rules to limit continuing applications. Legal scholars and the USPTO propose solutions that are too restrictive on …

Alternative Software Protection In View Of In Re Bilski, Charles Duan, Lauren Katzenellenbogen, James Skelley

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's (CAFC) en banc decision, In re Bilski, redefined the standard for patenting processes including business methods and computer software. In Bilski, the Federal Circuit departed from the "useful, concrete, and tangible result" test it had established in State Street Bank & Trust Co. v. SignatureFinancialGroup,Inc., which had been the standard for the past ten years. The Federal Circuit returned to a test articulated nearly 40 years ago by the Supreme Court in Gottschalk v. Benson, and clarified that State Street was "never intended to supplant the Supreme Court's test.", Under …

Allocating Intellectual Property Rights Between Parties, Ashlyn J. Lembree

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Courting Specialization: An Empirical Study Of Claim Construction Comparing Patent Litigation Before Federal District Courts And The International Trade Commission, David L. Schwartz

All Faculty Scholarship

The United States International Trade Commission (ITC) has recently become an important adjudicator of patent infringement disputes, and the administrative law judges (ALJs) on the ITC are widely viewed as experts on patent law. This Article empirically examines the performance of the ITC in patent claim construction cases. The Article also compares the performance of the ITC on claim construction with that of federal district courts of general jurisdiction. This study does not find any evidence that the patent-experienced ALJs of the ITC are more accurate at claim construction than district court judges or that the ALJs learn from the …

Equivalency And Patent Law’S Possession Paradox, Timothy R. Holbrook

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

Under the Federal Circuit's current law, the doctrine of equivalents protects only those technologies that arise after the patent issues. This state of affairs creates a curious paradox: the patentee is afforded protection for that which she did not possess, which runs counter to the general view that patents afford protection for the inventor's creation. This paper explores this paradox and offers two possible means of reconciling it based on principles of fairness. First, patentees should only be protected under the doctrine of equivalents for changes in technology that arise from outside their field of technology. While seemingly simple in …

What Goes Around, Comes Around: How Indian Tribes Can Profit In The Aftermath Of Seminole Tribe And Florida Prepaid, Jeremiah A. Bryar

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

Of the approximate 1.5 million American Indians living in the United States only 403,714 were employed in 2001 and nearly one-third of them lived below the poverty line. This article explains that one possible solution to American Indian poverty is the creation of sovereign chartered research groups that would be shielded by tribal sovereign immunity. In patent law there are exceptions to a patent owner's ability to bring a successful suit against patent infringers. One of these exceptions is when a sovereign, such as an American Indian tribe, infringes on a patent owner's patent. Tribal sovereign immunity means that American …

Nanobiotechnology, Synthetic Biology, And Rnai: Patent Portfolios For Maximal Near-Term Commercialization And Commons For Maximal Long-Term Medical Gain, Thomas M. Mackey

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

This article examines patent portfolio construction and management of three nascent technologies: nanobiotechnology, synthetic biology, and interference RNA. The author outlines how a practitioner can use patent portfolios to help his or her client to maximize long-term gain. Finally, the article advocates changes that would remove barriers to patentability and increase patent quality.

Emerging Scholars Series: Cross-Border Injunctions In U.S. Patent Cases And Their Enforcement Abroad, Marketa Trimble

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

Injunctions enforcing a patentee's right to exclude provide an incentive to invent; however, injunctions are only effective if they can be enforced. Enforcing an injunction becomes problematic when other jurisdictions are involved, yet plaintiffs request such injunctions despite the potential inherent difficulties of cross-border enforcement. The author empirically analyzes the number and types of cross-border injunctions issued in the United States against foreign entities by discussing methods of enforcing injunctions abroad and the difficulties inherent in those methods. Comparing cases of cross-border injunctions issued by European courts, the author reviews the controversial pan-European injunction that covers not only the territory …

The Flawed Nature Of The False Marking Statute, Elizabeth I. Winston

Scholarly Articles

In 2005, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit rendered a decision on an “issue of first impression” interpreting a one hundred sixty-three year old provision of the United States Code - the “false marking” statute embodied in 35 U.S.C. § 292. It is false marking to mark as patented an unpatented article if done with the intent to deceive the public and, as such, is a fineable offense. The false marking statute remains one of only a handful of qui tam actions left intact from a rich history of varied incentives provided by the government for …

Allocating Patent Rights Between Earlier And Later Inventions, Charles W. Adams

Articles, Chapters in Books and Other Contributions to Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Protection And Enforcement Of Well-Known Mark Rights In China: History, Theory And Future, Jing "Brad" Luo, Shubha Ghosh

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

Betting On Prohibition: The Federal Government's Approach To Internet Gambling, Kraig P. Grahmann

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

Who's Your Daddy? A Psychoanalytic Exegesis Of The Supreme Court's Recent Patent Jurisprudence, Gretchen S. Sween

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

Reexamination And Improving Patent Quality, Roger Shang

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

Youtube—The Next Generation Of Infringing On Creative Works: What Can Be Done To Protect The Screenwriters?, Ashlee M. Knuckey

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

Copyrighting Stage Directions & The Constitutional Mandate To "Promote The Progress Of Science", Jessica Talati

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

Debate On In Re Bilski, Lauren Katzenellenbogen, Bob Irvine, David Donoghue

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

Panel On Tafas V. Dudas, Patent Rules Changes And Patent Reform, Matthew Sag, Sean Seymore, Chris Singer

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

Discussion Of Employer Assignment Agreements After Ddb Technologies V. Mlb Advanced Media, Mike Baniak, Todd Dawson

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.

In Re Bilski: A Midpoint In The Evolution Of Business Methods, R. David Donoghue, Micael A. Grill

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

No abstract provided.