Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

Scope Of Protection: Comparison Of German And English Courts' Case Law, Sasa Bavec

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

This article examines the scope of patent protection granted in Germany and the United Kingdom (UK). The author aims to review the legal framework, practice, and case law on the issue of the interpretation of patent scope in Germany and the UK. The author also discusses the legal principles applied by courts in Germany and the UK in different patent cases and examines the differences in the application of patent application. The author concludes that the only significant difference between Germany and the UK that can be identified is the inability of German courts to decide on the validity of …

Trips, Patents, And Access To Life-Saving Drugs In The Developing World, Bryan C. Mercurio

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

This article critically analyzes the agreement implementing Paragraph 6 of the Doha Declaration. The author briefly details the trend of linking intellectual property rights to international trade before summarizing the pertinent provisions of the TRIPs Agreement. The author then introduces the controversy surrounding access to medicines by first detailing the global events that brought the issue to the fore and then by evaluating the accomplishments and unanswered questions of the Doha Declaration. The author also discusses the agreement implementing the Paragraph 6 Mandate, critically analyzes its provisions, and addresses several lingering questions and problems unaddressed by this agreement. The author …

The Jekyll And Hyde Story Of International Trade: The Supreme Court In Phrma V. Walsh And The Trips Agreement, Srividhya Ragavan

Faculty Scholarship

The paper analyses the international impact of the approval by the United States Supreme Court to use indirect price control mechanisms to tackle public health and Medicaid issues. It traces similarities in policies implemented by the United States and those it opposed within developing nations. For example, the recent use by the developed nations of compulsory licensing and price control mechanisms, which they opposed as violating TRIPS when used by developing nations, underlines a poverty penalty suffered by developing nation signatories of TRIPS. In effect, TRIPS exempts developed nations from fulfilling obligations developing nations were forced to fulfill and thus …

Building A Better Bounty: Litigation-Stage Rewards For Defeating Patents, Joe Miller

Scholarly Works

A patent challenger who defeats a patent wins a prize that it must share with the whole world, including all its competitors. This forced sharing undermines an alleged infringer's reason for fighting the patent case to the finish - especially if the patent owner offers an attractive settlement. Too many settlements, and too few definitive patent challenges, are the result. A litigation-stage bounty would correct this defect in patent litigation's basic framework, for it would provide cash prizes to successful patent challengers that they alone would enjoy. After briefly describing the free rider problem with inventions that patent law attempts …

A "Patent" Restriction On Research & Development: Infringers Or Innovators?, Srividhya Ragavan

Faculty Scholarship

The Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights ("TRIPS") requires developing nations to harmonize patent regimes as a means to achieve stronger industrial growth. Countries, however, need to adopt effective patent procedures in order to successfully institute a patent regime. In spite of this, international treaties like TRIPS do not properly assist developing nations in establishing appropriate procedural mechanisms capable of complimenting a sophisticated patent regime. Consequently, developing nations may embrace ineffective patent procedures that can eventually further limit industrial growth despite establishing a TRIPS compliant patent regime. The paper uses India as a case study to demonstrate the detriments …

Adrift On A Sea Of Uncertainty: Preserving Uniformity In Patent Law Post-Vornado Through Deference To The Federal Circuit, Larry D. Thompson

Scholarly Works

Congress created the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in 1982, and granted that court exclusive appellate jurisdiction over civil actions arising under patent law. Congress's primary goals in creating the Federal Circuit were to produce a more uniform patent jurisprudence and to reduce forum shopping based on favorable patent law. But in the 2002 decision of Holmes Group, Inc. v. Vornado Air Circulation Systems, the Supreme Court held that patent counterclaims alone could not create Federal Circuit jurisdiction. This decision not only overruled the Federal Circuit's longstanding jurisdictional rule, but also opened the door for Regional …

The Treaty Power And The Patent Clause: Are There Limits On The United States’ Ability To Harmonize?, Timothy R. Holbrook

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

The latter part of the twentieth century saw considerable efforts at the harmonization of international intellectual property laws through international agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS). Efforts at harmonizing international intellectual property laws are nothing new, however. Countries have been attempting to harmonize their laws since the nineteenth century. Increasingly, the United States has altered its intellectual property laws in order to comport with international standards. All of these treaties and agreements retain a key feature of intellectual property: the rights afforded are territorial in nature. …

Market Definition In Intellectual Property Law: Should Intellectual Property Courts Use An Antitrust Approach To Market Definition?, Anna F. Kingsbury

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

In her Article, Ms. Kingsbury notes that American courts do not use antitrust law's market definition approach in intellectual property cases. She discusses five potential rationales for this dichotomy: (1) intellectual property cases involve new products without defined markets; (2) market definition limits judicial flexibility; (3) courts do not want to burden intellectual property litigants with the time and expense of economic evidence; (4) judges reason from precedent, and that precedent did not consider market definition; and (5) "market" conveys a different meaning in intellectual property law than it does in antitrust law. Kingsbury presents counterarguments to these rationales and …

Protection For Indigenous Peoples And Their Traditional Knowledge: Would A Registry System Reduce The Misappropriation Of Traditional Knowledge?, Thomas J, Krumenacher

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

This Comment examines the controversy over whether a registry system is the best way to prevent Western inventors from obtaining intellectual property protection for traditional knowledge that has been misappropriated from underdeveloped parts of the world. This dilemma exists because traditional knowledge often constitutes patentable subject matter, most indigenous peoples do not subscribe to a Western "property rights" view of the world, and exploitation of traditional knowledge has become easier through improved communication capabilities. This Comment argues in favor of a registry system to catalog traditional knowledge; patent examiners would deny patent protection to any invention that replicates traditional knowledge. …

Patenting The Biological Bounty Of Nature: Re-Examining The Status Of Organic Inventions As Patentable Subject Matter, Burton T. Ong

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

Mr. Ong discusses the controversy regarding biotechnology patents. Opponents of biotechnology patents are concerned that these patents show disrespect for life and nature, expropriate the traditional knowledge of indigenous communities, and encourage practices that threaten the environment. Proponents of biotechnology patents argue that patents are, at worst, neutral on such issues because they only grant a right to exclude; moreover, such patents encourage innovation in the public interest. Ong focuses instead on whether an individual inventor deserves an intellectual property right based on his contributions to a modified living organism or an organic substance derived from a living organism. He …

National Treatment, National Interest And The Public Domain, Margaret Ann Wilkinson

Law Publications

The concept of the "public domain" is a powerful rhetorical element in he policy debates involving intellectual property. But is it a stable and useful concept for analyzing information issues? Can the notion of the public domain and the concept of the information commons be separated? Is the notion of the public domain merely another way of expressing the public interest?

This paper canvassed the literature, seeking a theoretically consistent definition for public domain that was equally applicable across the copyright, trademark and patent spheres. The analysis demonstrated that there is no such construct.

The paper also reviews the findings …

The Ethics Of Delaying Persecution, Lisa A. Dolak

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

I Didn't Take The Road Less Traveled, And What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been, Brian A. Glassman

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Festering Questions After Festo, Harold C. Wegner

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Advancing Science While Protecting Developing Countries From Exloitation Of Their Resources And Knowledge, Elizabeth Longacre

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Panel I: The End Of Equivalents? Examining The Fallout From Festo, J. Michael Jakes, Herbert Michael Schwartz, Harold C. Wegner

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Can't We All Get Along? The Case For A Workable Patent Model, Srividhya Ragavan

Faculty Scholarship

The global move towards a trade regime has been impeded by challenges of poverty and health crisis for the developing nations. Until now, the developed nations have touted the establishment of a trade regime as envisaged under TRIPS as the solution for the national challenges. This paper examines the effectiveness of TRIPS as a mechanism to move towards a trade regime. It argues that the patent policy in TRIPS cannot gear the world towards patent harmonization but can potentially adversely impact the developed nations and the post-world war trade structure. The impediments affecting the effectiveness of TRIPS as a harmonizing …

Patenting Genome Research Tools And The Law., Rebecca S. Eisenberg

Articles

Patenting genes encoding therapeutic proteins was relatively uncontroversial in the early days of biotechnology. Controversy arose in the era of high-throughput DNA sequencing, when gene patents started to look less like patents on drugs and more like patents on scientific information. Evolving scientific and business strategies for exploiting genomic information raised concerns that patents might slow subsequent research. The trend towards stricter enforcement of the utility and disclosure requirements by the patent offices should help clarify the current confusion.

The Supreme Court’S Complicity In Federal Circuit Formalism, Timothy R. Holbrook

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

This Essay was prepared to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Santa Clara Computer and High Technology Law Journal and, particularly, the influence of Donald Chisum's seminal article from this journal, The Scope of Protection for Patents After the Supreme Court's Warner-Jenkinson Decision: The Fair Protection-Certainty Conundrum, 14 Santa Clara Computer & High Tech L. J. 1 (1998).

In this Essay, I explore the role the Supreme Court played in facilitating the Federal Circuit's embrace of bright-line, formalistic rules. This Essay will first identifies the various ways in which the Federal Circuit has opted for the "certainty" side of the …

Tailoring Patent Policy To Specific Industries, Dan L. Burk

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

Mr. Burk illustrates that federal courts have diverged along industry-specific paths when deciding patent cases. Burk highlights courts' disparate treatment of the biotechnology and computer software industries within the uniform patent statute. Due to industries' differing requirements for innovation and development, Professor Burk argues that the currently general patent statute and its incentive to innovate may be improved by tailoring it to specific industries. Burk creates a dialogue on what kinds of statutory schemes promote innovation. Citing the Supreme Court's statement in Diamond v. Chakrabarty that the patent statute is meant to cover anything under the sun made by man, …

The Role Of Intellectual Property Rights In Negotiating And Planning A Research Joint Venture, Kurt M. Saunders

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

This Article considers the role of intellectual property rights in research joint ventures. Professor Saunders begins by outlining the various advantages of pursuing research in a joint venture business form, including the sharing of expertise and investment costs. The author identifies and elucidates the intellectual property issues, as well as related licensing and antitrust implications, that arise in the joint venture context. Most notably, Saunders articulates the different intellectual property concerns that surface at each separate stage-from negotiation and planning, to termination of the collaboration.

Stemming The Stem Cell Setback, Patrick J. Fleis

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

This Comment highlights the recent federal funding setbacks in the biotechnology industry and considers the resulting challenges to future research collaboration. After providing a historical background to stem cell technology, Mr. Fleis examines the passionately opposed public responses to the technology's use of embryos and to its future applications. Fleis continues by noting past legislative initiatives that have accelerated the ease of patenting biotechnology and research findings in general. The Comment addresses several possible solutions to the tension between limited government funding and continued stem cell research, such as the adoption of a more relaxed experimental use standard. Stem cell …

Controlling Opportunistic And Anti-Competitive Intellectual Property Litigation, Michael J. Meurer

Faculty Scholarship

It is useful to think of intellectual property (IP) law both as a system of property rights that promotes the production of valuable information and as a system of government regulation that unintentionally promotes socially harmful rent-seeking. This Article analyzes methods of controlling rent-seeking costs associated with opportunistic and anti-competitive IP lawsuits. My thinking is guided to some extent by the analysis of procedural measures for controlling frivolous litigation, and analysis of antitrust reforms designed to control strategic abuse of antitrust law. These analogies lead me to focus on pre-trial and post-trial control measures that reduce the credibility of weak …

Anticompetitive Settlement Of Intellectual Property Disputes, Mark D. Janis, Herbert J. Hovenkamp, Mark A. Lemley

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Patently Unconstitutional: The Geographical Limitation On Prior Art In A Small World, Margo A. Bagley

Faculty Articles

Part I of this Article provides an overview of § 102 of the Patent Act, the role of prior art in the patentability analysis, and the origin of the limitation on relevant non-patent, nonpublished art to that existing "in this country." Part II then analyzes the constitutional deficiency of the limitation in light of the express and implied purposes of the Intellectual Property Clause as informed by judicial decisions, technological changes, global contraction, and expanded notions of inventive research sources. Policy concerns are the focus of Part III, which discusses how § 102's geographical limitation facilitates forms of "biopiracy," conflicts …

How Dewey Classify Oclc's Lawsuit, Roger V. Skalbeck

Law Faculty Publications

In order to understand the nature of the rights asserted here, it is important to properly classify the Dewey Decimal lawsuit. To these ends, this article presents analysis aimed to better define its scope and legal framework. This is not an analysis of the merits of the claims, let alone a prediction as to the outcome. The issues are considered in the following three sections. In closing, I offer a lighthearted suggestion as to how this suit might be resolved outside of litigation or settlement.

An Incentives Approach To Patent Settlements: A Commentary On Hovenkamp, Janis & Lemley, Maureen A. O'Rourke

Faculty Scholarship

Professors Hovenkamp, Janis, and Lemley have attempted to clarify one of the most vexing issues facing antitrust and intellectual property law today: What analytical framework should antitrust authorities and courts use in considering whether patent settlement agreements in infringement cases violate the antitrust laws? The issue is complex because many ostensibly anticompetitive restraints in settlement agreements are perfectly legal if the underlying patent right is valid. Unfortunately, in some cases, the relevant patents are either invalid or not infringed. Thus, the antitrust analysis hinges on resolution of an intellectual property question.

The Right To A Jury Trial In Actions For Patent Infringement And Suits For Declaratory Judgement, Brian D. Coggio, Timothy E. Demasi

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

If Per Se Is Dying, Why Not In Tv Tying? A Case For Adopting The Rule Of Reason Standard In Television Block- Booking Arrangements, Nicole Labletta

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Patentability Of Transgenic Animals In The United States Of America And The European Union: A Proposal For Harmonization, Jerzy Koopman

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.