Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

Monsanto: Creator Of Cancer Liability

DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Impact Of Corporate Response To Controversial Presidential Statements Or Policies

DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Hollywood Circuit’S Protection Of The Batmobile Provides An Uncertain Future For First Amendment Protections, Nicole Geiser

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

This Comment analyzes the potentially damaging impact the Ninth Circuit’s decision in Towle could have on modern copyright law and the First Amendment. Part I will provide an overview of modern copyright law, challenges faced when deciding the level of protection that should be afforded to characters, and the important difference between literary characters and visually depicted characters and how it can affect the degree of protection allowed. Part II will discuss the history of character copyright, specifically, the different tests adopted by circuit courts and the impact each one has on the protection of characters. Part III will analyze …

Learning From South Korea’S Covid-19 Response: Why Centralizing The United States Public Health System Is Essential For Future Pandemic Responses, Meghan Ricci

Seattle Journal of Technology, Environmental, & Innovation Law

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed stark differences in governmental preparedness across the globe. The United States, once thought of as a global leader in public health, had the theoretical skill and efficiency to handle the pandemic but failed to utilize those skills and resources during an actual health crisis. In the spring of 2020, everyone watched the U.S.’s reaction to the unfolding of the COVID-19 pandemic due to its historic placeholder as a global leader and innovator. However, the performance of the U.S. in response to the global pandemic disappointed both global commentators and U.S. citizens. This paper will compare the …

On The Horizon: Nanosatellite Constellations Will Revolutionize The Internet Of Things (Iot), Diane Janosek

Seattle Journal of Technology, Environmental, & Innovation Law

The Internet of Things has experienced exponential growth and use across the globe with 25.1 billion devices currently in use. Until recently, the functionality of the IoT was dependent on secure data flow between internet terrestrial stations and the IoT devices. Now, a new alternative path of data flow is on the horizon.

IoT device manufacturers are now looking to outer space nanosatellite constellations to connect to a different type of internet. This new internet is no longer terrestrial with fiber cables six feet underground but now looking up, literally, 200 to 300 miles above the earth, to communicate, connect …

A Call For The Library Community To Deploy Best Practices Toward A Database For Biocultural Knowledge Relating To Climate Change, Martha B. Lerski

Publications and Research

Abstract

Purpose – In this paper, a call to the library and information science community to support documentation and conservation of cultural and biocultural heritage has been presented.

Design/methodology/approach – Based in existing Literature, this proposal is generative and descriptive— rather than prescriptive—regarding precisely how libraries should collaborate to employ technical and ethical best practices to provide access to vital data, research and cultural narratives relating to climate.

Findings – COVID-19 and climate destruction signal urgent global challenges. Library best practices are positioned to respond to climate change. Literature indicates how libraries preserve, share and cross-link cultural and scientific knowledge. …

Cancel [© Opyright] Culture: A Legal Analysis Of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, Tracy Reilly

Chicago-Kent Journal of Intellectual Property

In this article, I present a combined legal and literary analysis of one of the most destructive themes in contemporary intellectual property scholarship: the putative death of the copyright author. For decades, the vast majority of scholars in all academic disciplines have widely accepted that the conceptual death of the author announced in 1967 by French literary theorist Roland Barthes is today a conclusively proven fact. This piece, however, offers a unique and unquestionably controversial challenge to such a purported denouement: it boldly, and not without trepidation, theorizes that the true goal of some anti-author scholars is the outright annihilation …

Stop Glorifying Fashion Piracy: It Is Time To Enact The Innovative Design Protection Act, Keyon Lo

Chicago-Kent Journal of Intellectual Property

The current low-IP regime in the United States fails to provide adequate protection for fashion designs. Multiple bills had been proposed in Congress to extend copyright protection to fashion designs, but none of these was passed. Proponents of the “Piracy Paradox” doctrine suggest that unregulated copying is paradoxically beneficial to fashion designers and can foster innovation. This paper shows that the doctrine reflects a clear misunderstanding of fashion theories and how fashion trends are formed. It further argues that the fashion industry requires a diverse portfolio of inspired works rather than line-by-line knockoffs to foster trend formation. The Innovative Design …

Ruth Bader Ginsburg’S Copyright Jurisprudence, Ann Bartow, Ryan G. Vacca

Law Faculty Scholarship

[Excerpt} "When Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died on September 18, 2020, the world lost a trailblazer for gender equality, a pop culture icon, a feisty liberal luminary who fought on behalf of the disenfranchised in the areas of civil rights and social justice, and an inspiration to millions of people. She will long be remembered for the social changes she helped effectuate as an advocate, scholar, and jurist.

Her amazing civil rights legacy overshadows other areas where Justice Ginsburg’s contributions have been substantial. This Article discusses one of the most interesting: copyright law. During her time as a jurist on …

The Public Square Has Eyes (Or Cameras): Anonymous Speech Under The First And Fourth Amendments In The Age Of Facial Recognition, Apratim Vidyarthi

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

Facial recognition technology (“FRT”)—once a futuristic fantasy—is more pervasive than ever and shows no signs of becoming less prevalent. While this technology has its upsides, it elicits the notion of an omnipresent being that is watching and tracking us all the time. FRTs encroach on the First Amendment right to anonymous speech by revealing the identity of speakers and chilling speech. Yet, First Amendment doctrine does not provide much solace, since the right to anonymous speech regulates the government’s ability to force disclosure of a speaker’s identity rather than preventing it from collecting publicly available facial data. The right to …

Ip Interrupted: Diverse Voices In Intellectual Property, Fordham Iplj

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

De-Gentrified Black Genius: Blockchain, Copyright, And The Disintermediation Of Creativity, Tonya M. Evans

Faculty Scholarly Works

In a 2016 acceptance speech during the Black Entertainment Television (BET) Awards, actor and activist Jesse Williams used the phrase “gentrifying our genius” to refer to the insidious process of misappropriating the cultural and artistic productions of Black creators, inventors, and innovators. In that speech, he poignantly and unapologetically condemned racial discrimination and cultural misappropriation. This Article chronicles the nefarious history of the creative disempowerment of creators of color and then imagines an empowering future for those who successfully exploit their creations by fully leveraging copyright ownership and transfer termination. To that end, I reference the considerable scholarship of Professor …

Lowering Barriers To Entry: Youtube, Fair Use, And The Copyright Claims Board, Jamie O'Neill

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

The Internet has transformed the landscape of media production by opening the doors of creation to anyone with a computer and an idea. YouTube allows for millions of individuals to post and disseminate content at a low cost to widespread audiences. But while the barriers to entry for content creation have lowered, the barriers to the legal copyright system have remained largely unmoved since YouTube’s inception. This Note seeks to explore the exact specifications of YouTube’s copyright system, both the one mandated by law and the one created voluntarily by YouTube, in order to understand where fair use stands in …

Justice Breyer And Patent Eligibility, 21 Uic Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 71 (2022), David Taylor

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

Intellectual Property And Tabletop Games, Christopher B. Seaman, Thuan Tran

Scholarly Articles

There is a rich body of literature regarding intellectual property’s (“IP”) “negative spaces”—fields where creation and innovation thrive without significant formal protection from IP law. Scholars have written about innovation in diverse fields despite weak or nonexistent IP rights, such as fashion design, fine cuisine, stand-up comedy, magic tricks, tattoos, and sports plays. Instead, these fields rely on social norms, first- mover advantage, and other (non-IP) legal regimes to promote innovation in the absence of IP protection.

As a comparison to these studies, this Article comprehensively analyzes the role of IP law in facilitating innovation in tabletop gaming, including board …

From Beyonce To Bohemia: Reforming Joint Copyright Ownership, William Frank Weber

Duquesne Law Review

JaQuel Knight. Reading this name, for many, will give them no feeling of recognition. The same people that do not know his name will more than likely immediately recognize this next name, Beyonce. Her name immediately conjures up iconic images, songs, and music videos. She is a global star that has released six studio solo albums, all of which have reached number one on the U.S. Billboard charts.¹ Two of Beyonce's hit songs are "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" and "Formation." "Formation," with its numerous Beyonce dance routines, the solo dance of a young, hooded boy in …

Dignity, Intersectional Gendered Harm, And A Flexible Approach: Analysis Of The Right To One’S Image In Quebec, Yuan Stevens

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

This article draws on critical feminist theory and the framework of intersectionality to examine how courts in Quebec have begun — and are poised — to respond to the phenomenon of the non-consensual sharing of images, particularly if they are of an intimate or sexual nature. Dunn’s work has demonstrated that Quebec’s dignity-focused approach to the protection of identity and privacy ought to guide the development of similar civil recourse provided in common law Canada. This paper fills a gap by identifying the affordances and gaps of Quebec’s legal approach from the vantage point of equality-seeking groups, with a particular …

The Ship Of Theseus: The Lanham Act, Chanel And The Secondhand Luxury Goods Market, Julie Tamerler

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

The ship wherein Theseus and the youth of Athens returned had thirty oars, and was preserved by the Athenians down even to the time of Demetrius Phale- reus, for they took away the old planks as they de- cayed, putting in new and stronger timber in their place, insomuch that this ship became a standing ex- ample among the philosophers, for the logical ques- tion of things that grow; one side holding that the ship remained the same, and the other contending that it was not the same. – Plutarch1

Cannabis, Consumers, And The Trademark Laundering Trap, Viva R. Moffat, Sam Kamin, Timothy Maffett

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

At the moment, cannabis companies cannot get trademark protection for their marijuana and marijuana-related products because the “lawful use” doctrine limits federal trademark protection to goods lawfully sold in commerce. Given that the drug remains illegal under federal law, this may not sound like much of a problem, but it has serious consequences for consumers of marijuana. Without trademark rights, a cannabis company in one state can simply use the brand name of a prominent company in another state and consumers will assume that they are getting the products they have come to rely on, with potentially dangerous results. As …

Bad Publicity: The Diminished Right Of Privacy In The Age Of Social Media, Kirby Shilling

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

The “public disclosure of private facts” tort involves determining if and when publication of truthful, albeit embarrassing, facts warrant liability. Such liability inherently runs into First Amendment concerns. This Note analyzes the background of this tort, its status, and its application in different jurisdictions. Scholarship and jurisprudence have traditionally balanced the right to privacy with First Amendment guarantees by looking at different factors, including whether the disclosed information is properly described as “private” and whether it is newsworthy or a matter of legitimate public interest. However, the line between “public” and “private” has become increasingly blurred with new technology and …

Symposium On The Retirement Of Justice Stephen Breyer, 21 Uic Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 35 (2022), William Ford

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

Justice Breyer: No Friend To Ip Law, 21 Uic Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 58 (2022), Kevin Noonan

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

Van Buren V. United States: An Employer Defeat Or Hacker’S Victory – Or Something In Between, 21 Uic Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 166 (2022), Melanie Assad

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

The United States Stands Alone: A Divergence In The Treatment Of Genus Claims In Pharmaceutical Patents, 22 Uic Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 97 (2022), Sam Habein

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

Culture And Fair Use, Michael P. Goodyear

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

The intersections of race and copyright have been underexamined in legal scholarship, despite repeated calls for further scrutiny. The scholarship has so far focused primarily on identifying where copyright has fallen short in protecting the creative works of artists of color. This Article, instead, hopes to offer one viable solution for creating more inclusivity of different cultures in copyright: the approval of cultural adaptations under fair use.

Cultural adaptations—the transformation of preexisting works to reflect the cultural and social mores and norms of a different group—would appear at first glance to be prohibited as derivative works, which, under the Copyright …

To Be Continued: How Comic Book Copyright Inequity Inspired Industry Innovation And Instilled Instrumentalities For Independence, Richard P. Metzroth

Connecticut Law Review

Before Superman first made the world believe a man can fly or Captain America greeted Hitler with a punch to the face, comic book publishers sought to exercise command over all the characters and stories that writers and artists put to paper. Until recently, this one-sided industry culture regarding ownership—reinforced by decades of court rulings in publishers’ favor—left creators with few avenues by which to retain control of their art. The legal norms that enforced creators’ subservient position in the comic book copyright ecosystem drove these authors to seek out and construct alternative systemsfrom which they could realize the benefits …

Compulsory Licensing Of Patents During Pandemics, Sapna Kumar

Connecticut Law Review

Wealthy countries with major pharmaceutical industries have historically supported strong patent rights and opposed temporarily abrogating them—even to save lives. However, as drug shortages have become commonplace due to COVID-19, governments have begun reassessing their views. The European Union and various countries have issued new policies and passed legislation facilitating their ability to provide drugs to their citizens for the duration of the pandemic. They have signaled a willingness to do so through “compulsory licensing,” in which the government issues a license to a third party to produce a patented invention without the patent holder’s permission and pays the patent …

The Doha Declaration At Twenty: Interpretation, Implementation, And Lessons Learned On The Relationship Between The Trips Agreement And Global Health, Eric M. Solovy

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

No abstract provided.

Protecting Children In The Age Of End-To-End Encryption, Laura Draper

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

No abstract provided.

Resorbing Patent Law's Kessler Cat Into The General Law Of Preclusion, Dennis D. Crouch, Homayoon Rafatijo

Faculty Publications

It has become exceedingly common in our legal system that courts, in the guise of respect for precedent, compound upon errors. Legal precedents are written documents, but "[t]he reality we can put into words is never reality itself." As such, we seldom find a court decision that embodies the entire legal reality regarding the questions presented. In this respect, the legal system inherently suffers from a lack of what mathematicians call completeness. Each decision gives rise to countless inferences because what lower courts observe by reading the precedent is not the entire legal reality but an incomplete reality exposed to …