Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

Whither European Trade Mark Law? Arsenal And Davidoff: The Creative Disorder Stage, S. M. Maniatis

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

Professor Maniatis focuses on recent case law of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to illustrate the present disorderly state of European trade mark law. With the advent of the Community Trade Mark within the European Union, the ECJ is in the process of shaping a new body of trade mark precedent that will influence both national registration laws and future legislative developments in trade mark and unfair competition law. The author proposes that this new course should be guided by basic principles of trade mark law rather than by compromise between adverse historical and national systems. The Article gives …

Keywords, Trademarks, And The Gray Market: Why The Use Is Not Fair, Lisa A. Nester

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

This Comment analyzes the escalating effects of Internet banner ads and gray marketers on trademark owners' ability to control the use and sale of their marks as keywords and metatags. To unify these concepts, Ms. Nester utilizes the facts behind a suit filed by Estee Lauder, Inc. against an Internet fragrance retailer and an Internet search engine. The suit alleged trademark infringement and unfair competition, among other things, for the Internet entities' unauthorized uses of Estee Lauder's registered trademarks in fragrances. The author explores the facilitating and enabling effect of the Internet on gray market, or parallel importation, activity, such …

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.

High Court Takes Right Turn In Traffix, But Stops Short Of The Finish Line: An Economic Critique Of Trade Dress Protection For Product Configuration, Timothy M. Barber

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

Mr. Barber examines the Supreme Court's recent treatment of trade dress protection for product configuration, also referred to as product design. Although the Wal-Mart and TrafFix decisions have begun to limit product configuration protection under trademark law, the high court should have gone further and eliminated product configuration protection, due to its monopolistic and anti-competitive effects. The Comment explores the history and effectiveness of the functionality doctrine, which attempts to resolve the conflict between patent and trademark law over protecting useful product designs. Since what constitutes a functional feature is not easily discerned, the doctrine fails to prevent firms from …

Trademark: Victoria's Dirty Little Secret: A Revealing Look At What The Federal Trademark Dilution Act Is Trying To Conceal, Natalie J. Mcneal

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

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 …

The Digital Trademark Right: The Troubling New Extraterritorial Reach Of National Law, Xuan-Thao Nguyen

Articles

The Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act authorizes the development of the digital trademark right. Under this new right, a trademark owner can petition a domestic court to transfer a foreign registrant's domain name to the trademark owner. The trademark owner does not need to travel to the foreign land for the litigation or to petition a foreign court for enforcement of the domestic court's decision. The property transfer order has a global effect, enjoining the foreign registrant from further use of its property in its home country. Is such extraterritorial extension of national law permissible? Does the new digital trademark right …

Beyond The Cheese: Discerning What Causes Dilution Under 15 U.S.C. 1125(C)–A Recomendation To Whittle Away The Liberal Application Of Trademark Dilution To Internet Domain Names, Matthew D. Caudill

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Domain Name Disputes Under The Acpa In The New Millennium: When Is Bad Faith Intent To Profit Really Bad Faith And Has Anything Changed With The Acpa’S Inception? , Adam Silberlight

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Vol. Ix, Tab 41 - Ex. 5 - Google Advertising Policy Review, Google

Rosetta Stone v. Google (Joint Appendix)

Exhibits from the un-sealed joint appendix for Rosetta Stone Ltd., v. Google Inc., No. 10-2007, on appeal to the 4th Circuit. Issue presented: Under the Lanham Act, does the use of trademarked terms in keyword advertising result in infringement when there is evidence of actual confusion?

Trademark Exhaustion In The European Union: Community-Wide Or International? The Saga Continues, Irene Calboli

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

Dr. Calboli discusses trademark exhaustion in the European Union. She proposes an international exhaustion standard to replace the community-wide exhaustion standard. In an international system, a trademark owner would exhaust his rights in other national jurisdictions when trademarked goods are placed on the market in any national jurisdiction where the trademark owner enjoys protection. Accordingly, the trademark owner will not be free to prevent international importation of genuine products bearing his trademark. Dr. Calboli describes the development of the community-wide exhaustion standard and its interpretative problems as part of the Trademark Directive. She then proposes changing to an international exhaustion …

The Electronic Jungle: The Application Of Intellectual Property Law To Distance Education, Jon Garon

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

The tension between academic institutions as creators and consumers of intellectual property seems to be most directly felt in the new areas of distance education. Despite the significant opportunities to use new media to expand the reach of the classroom to an ever-growing body of students, concerns regarding copyright, trademark and defamation law continue to limit and dictate what schools attempt to do. These limitations are more directly felt by individual instructors, who must enforce appropriate usage policies for their students, create copyrighted materials and negotiate with their schools over the ownership of the valuable content created.

This Article has …

Cyberproperty And Judicial Dissonance: The Trouble With Domain Name Classification, Xuan-Thao Nguyen

Articles

The nature of cyberspace continues to be woven into the fabric of our daily existence. Not surprisingly, cyberspace and the expansion of e-commerce pose challenges to existing law, particularly the legal definition of cyberproperty domain names. The nature of cyberspace allows many e-companies to possess no traditional assets such as buildings and inventories. Some e-companies own few computers, often using service providers to maintain their web sites. In the virtual space that e-companies inhabit, the primary assets that e-companies own are intangibles such as domain names, customer information, and intellectual property that includes business method patents, copyrights, and trademarks.

Domain …

Trademark Exhaustion In The European Union: Community-Wide Or International?The Saga Continues, Irene Calboli

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This Article analyzes the principle of "trademark exhaustion" or "first-sale rule" in the European Union (EU), with particular attention to the language and different interpretations of Article 7(1) of the First Council Directive 89 104 EEC of December 21, 1988. Traditionally, most jurisdictions define the extent of trademark exhaustion as either "national" or "international" exhaustion, depending on whether the rights granted by a mark are considered exhausted only in the domestic territory or also in foreign jurisdictions. Because of its nature as a regional integration of sovereign countries, the EU has historically favored a compromising approach toward the issue, and …

Trademark Exhaustion In The European Union: Community-Wide Or International? The Saga Continues, Irene Calboli

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This Article analyzes the principle of "trademark exhaustion" or "first-sale rule" in the European Union (EU), with particular attention to the language and different interpretations of Article 7(1) of the First Council Directive 89 104 EEC of December 21, 1988. Traditionally, most jurisdictions define the extent of trademark exhaustion as either "national" or "international" exhaustion, depending on whether the rights granted by a mark are considered exhausted only in the domestic territory or also in foreign jurisdictions. Because of its nature as a regional integration of sovereign countries, the EU has historically favored a compromising approach toward the issue, and …

Thoughts On Dastar From A Copyright Perspective: A Welcome Step Toward Respite For The Public Domain, Lynn Mclain

All Faculty Scholarship

Though other questions remain unresolved and other leaks unstemmed, Dastar is a welcome step towards regaining the public domain, and towards establishing that the confines of the public domain, with regard to nondeceptive reproduction of public domain works, and preparation of derivative works based upon them, must be delimited by only the copyright and patent laws.

This article will provide a background discussion of the copyright and patent schemes and their delineation of the public domain. It then will discuss the role of trademark law in that balance, and some of the case law regarding both § 43 of the …

On-Line Tutorial Project: Intellectual Property In E-Commerce, William J. Murphy

Law Faculty Scholarship

Copyrights, Trademarks and Patents make up most of the area of law known as Intellectual Property. Intellectual Property's importance in Electronic Commerce is difficult to overstate. The Internet has been defined as a global network of networks through which computers communicate by sending information in packets, and each network consists of computers connected by cables or wireless links. It is the Intellectual Property laws of Copyright, Trademark and Patents that are attempting to harmonize the effects that E-Commerce and the Internet have had on the individual's ability to access and use this information. It should be remembered that most countries …

The Trademark Registration System In Japan: A Firsthand Review And Exposition , Masaya Suzuki

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

One current topic of trademark law that has become a major issue in recent years is foreign trademark rights. The business world is shrinking, and large international outfits need to protect the goodwill in their trademarks on a global scale. The key to gaining international trademark rights is in understanding foreign countries' trademark systems. Masaya Suzuki, a trademark examiner in the Japanese Patent Office, offers insight to the Japanese trademark system. Mr. Suzuki provides a history of Japanese trademark law and rationales for the current system. He explains the workings of the system on a step-by-step basis giving the structure …

The United States Court Of Appeals For The Federal Circuit: The Promise And Perils Of A Court Of Limited Jurisdiction , Randall R. Rader

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

Honorable Randall Rader, of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit discusses current criticisms of the Federal Circuit and the speed of which the Circuit sets precedent. Before addressing these issues, Judge Rader posits a belief that the standard by which the Circuit is being judged is incorrect. Judge Rader's speech gives a foundation by which a correct standard should be exacted, examples of the current atmosphere leading to the precedents being set, and generally addresses why the Federal Circuit is fundamentally unique from other jurisdictions.

Measuring Fame: The Use Of Empirical Evidence In Dilution Actions , Adam Omar Shanti

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

Adam Omar Shanti explores the concepts of dilution and famousness under Trademark Law. Dilution is a protection afforded "famous" trademarks by the Lanham Act. In essence, it prevents the usage of marks on dissimilar items that resemble a famous mark to prevent the "gradual whittling away or dispersion of the identity and hold upon the public mind." Dilution can occur by 1) blurring, 2) tarnishment, or 3) alteration. To determine whether a mark is "famous", eight subjective criteria are evaluated, which often produces inconsistencies among the courts. Mr. Shanti argues that an empirically derived test for fame must be created …

The Rise And Fall Of Fences: The Overbroad Protection Of The Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act , Jonathan M. Ward

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

Jonathan Ward discusses viability of two means for resolution of disputes related to cybersquatting. Cybersquatting occurs when a party registers a domain name that contains someone else's trademark and then attempts to profit by selling or licensing the name to that party. Cybersquatting tends to be classified as direct cybersquatting and typosquatting, and actions involving domain name conflicts fall in four categories: 1) trademark infringement, 2) confusion of source, 3) dilution of a famous mark, and 4) bad faith registration. Recognizing the growing issue of cybersquatting, Congress passed the Anitcybersquatting Consumer Protection Act in 1999, which provided a litigious avenue …

Trademark Law, Functional Design Features, And The Trouble With Traffix, Harold R. Weinberg

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This article concerns trademark law's functionality doctrine and the Supreme Court's troublesome opinion concerning it in TrafFix Devices, Inc. v. Marketing Displays, Inc. The doctrine provides that if a producer's useful or aesthetic design feature is "functional," then competitors can lawfully copy it even if the feature otherwise would be protected against copying by trademark principles. In order to introduce the functionality doctrine and the trouble with TrafFix, it is helpful to describe the nature of design features, the simultaneous roles they may play as source-identifying trade symbols and as useful or aesthetic product elements, and trademark law's place …

Analyze This: A Law And Economics Agenda For The Patent System, Rebecca S. Eisenberg

Vanderbilt Law Review

Patent law as a field of academic study has benefited enormously from the attention of economists. Indeed, law professors are relative newcomers to the academic patent field, trickling in behind the economists in small but growing numbers as patent law evolves from an arcane, practitioner-taught specialty to a less marginal role in law school curriculums.' Yet considering the prominence of economists in academic discourse about the patent system, they have had relatively little impact on patent law and policy. One reason for this disparity between the role of economists in the academy and in policy arenas may be the indeterminacy …

Review Of The 1999 Trademark Decisions Of The United States Court Of Appeals For The Federal Circuit , Stephen R. Baird

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Electronic Billboards Along The Information Superhighway: Liability Under The Lanham Act For Using Trademarks To Key Internet Banner Ads, Christine Galbraith Davik

Faculty Publications

With almost one billion web pages on the Internet today, a search engine is a necessity at times. But search engines are also for-profit ventures and the financial success of these sites hinges on advertising revenue. One of the ways in which these sites generate income is by selling “keywords” to advertisers. Although there has been only one judicial decision – Playboy Enterprises, Inc. v. Netscape Communications – involving banner ads keyed to trademarks, it will undoubtedly not be the last. This article argues that despite the invisible nature of this unauthorized trademark use, the common practice of keying a …

Virtual Reality: Can We Ride Trademark Law To Surf Cyberspace, David Yan

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Redefining Trademark Alteration Within The Context Of Aesthetic-Based Zoning Laws: A Blockbuster Dilemma, Jeffrey W. Strouse

Vanderbilt Law Review

In 1978, a Nevada Federal District Court permitted the Nevada Real Estate Advisory Commission to regulate the registered service mark' of Century 21, a national franchisor of real estate brokerage firms.' Prior to this state regulation, Century 21's mark occupied approximately 80 percent of the surface area of any given display, while the name of the local franchisee covered the remaining 20 percent. To prevent consumer confusion," the Commission required that the 80:20 ratio be changed to a 50:50 ratio, effectively making the franchisee's logo as large as its counterpart. Century 21 objected to this mandate, arguing in part that …

The United States And The Madrid Protocol: A Time To Decline, A Time To Accede, Carlo Cotrone

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

The Madrid Agreement enables trademark owners in signatory countries to secure international trademark registration by filing one application instead of filing separate applications in each foreign country's trademark office. The United States has never acceded to the Agreement because critics have held that the Agreement favors registration-based trademark systems rather than the use-based system found in the United States. Accordingly, the Madrid Protocol was drafted to address the United States' objections to the Agreement and to provide an international registration vehicle for countries that declined to participate Agreement. In this article, the author examines the Madrid Agreement, compares the Agreement …

Global Technology Protection: Moving Past The Treaty, Todd M. Rowe

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

This Comment examines whether the conformity achieved by international technology treaties is at the expense of utility. Specifically, the author posits that international agreements do not serve the needs of rich and poor nations alike. Instead, the author advocates for increased autonomy by claiming better solutions will be produced when nations enter bi-lateral agreements. In reaching this conclusion, the Comment analyzes the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) and the problems created for developing nations through global technology protections. The author uses the United States' patent, copyright, and trademark protections as an illustrative example of how successful …

Dickinson V Zurko: An Amicus Brief, Thomas G. Field, Craig Allen Nard, John F. Duffy

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

Professors Field, Nard, and Duffy submitted an amicus brief to the Supreme Court in the case of Dickinson v. Zurko. In Dickinson, the Federal Circuit concluded that the Patent and Trademark Office's factual findings must be reviewed under a clearly erroneous standard and not the substantial evidence standard set out in the Administrative Procedure Act. However, the amicus brief asserted that the PTO is subject to the standards of judicial review set forth in the APA.