Science and Technology Law Commons^™

Table Of Contents

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

No abstract provided.

Fast, Cheap, And Out Of Control: Lessons From The Icann Dispute Resolution Process, Elizabeth G. Thornburg

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

The Internet is constantly expanding, both as a means of communication and as a means of commerce. As its contacts among people and businesses expand, more and more disputes will arise and will need resolution. These disputes will evolve both from business-to-consumer transactions and from business-to-business transactions. Some of the claims will include breach of contract, breach of warranty, and even fraud. Others will concern intellectualproperty rights such as trademarks, copyrights, and patents. Still others will involve competition law, raising issues of antitrust, trade disparagement, and other claims of unfair competition. Alleging defamation, invasion of privacy and emotional distress, some …

Table Of Contents

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

No abstract provided.

Digital Millennium Copyright Act: Can It Take Down Internet Infringers?, David L. Clark

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

In response to the growing digital age, Congress enacted the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA") on October 28, 1998. Unlike traditional copyright statutes, the DMCA does not address the act of infringement but instead focuses on the technology that makes infringement easier. Copyright holders have begun to develop encryption technology to prevent unauthorized use of their works, and the DMCA assists those efforts by prohibiting any person from circumventing those security provisions or selling decryption devices. The DMCA also encourages Internet Service Providers ("ISPs") to disable websites that are accused of copyright infringement; it protects the ISPs with a safe …

The Protection Of Intellectual-Property Rights In A Federalist Era, Steve Malin

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

The framers of the Constitution envisioned a nation comprising several separate and independent sovereign states. Under a system of dual sovereignty, the states gave up certain enumerated powers delegated to the federal government. Among those powers was the authority to enact laws designed to protect patent and copyright owners and to encourage invention and original authorship.

Also in the framers' minds - recent caselaw tells us - was the belief that the states retained immunity from suits brought by individuals. Despite this fact, the federal intellectual-property system has historically placed sovereign states on equal footing with individuals as to both …

Cyberpiracy - The U.S. Legislative Response, John M. Cone

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

During the 1990s, Americans embraced a new personal and commercial communication medium - the Internet. When the World Wide Web and millions of websites were introduced in the early 1990s, the Internet changed from an obscure tool for exchanging military and scientific information to a ubiquitous communication technology. During this period, some people sought to capitalize on the Internet's increasing commercial potential by reserving Internet use of famous corporate names and then selling the reserved names back to the companies for hefty profits. Lawsuits concerning this practice - dubbed "cybersquatting" or "cyberpiracy" - produced inconsistent results. By the end of …

Widgets To Windows: The "Webolution" Of Commercial Sales, Joseph A. Zavaletta, Edward B. Hymson

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

Five years ago, a new "nation" developed unlike any other in history - it has no government, no political borders, no buildings, no army, no citizens, no elections, and no leader. But by all accounts, this nation has the most dynamic economic engine in history. Based on recent studies by the Center for Research in Electronic Commerce at the University of Texas at Austin ("CREC"), if this nation were ranked by gross domestic product, its 2000 revenues of $830 billion would give it the twelfth largest gross domestic product in the world, ahead of Canada and behind Mexico. With an …

An Ip Conundrum: Can Patent Policy And Trade Dress Law Be Reconciled?, Michael Scott Fuller

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

Patent protection in the United States has traditionally been a compromise between the competing interests of Congress and the inventor. While Congress seeks disclosure of technology in order to benefit the common good, inventors want protection of their proprietary inventions, otherwise known as their "intellectual property." Patent law provides a bargained-for exchange, giving the invention protection for a finite period of 20 years from the date of application. Upon expiration of this congressionally sanctioned monopoly, the invention passes ipso facto into the public domain.

In the past, this mutually beneficial arrangement was the accepted means by which both Congress and …

Traditional Free-Speech Law: Does It Apply On The Internet?, A. John Harper Iii

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

The First Amendment states that Congress "shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press." But as Oliver Wendell Holmes recognized, the First Amendment "obviously was not intended to give immunity for every possible use of language." Accordingly, the Supreme Court's free-speech jurisprudence has traditionally been one of line drawing - distinguishing protected from unprotected speech by evaluating its content in light of the medium through which it is expressed. In terms of content, there are generally three categories of speech: "(1) speech that everyone has a right to (political speech, speech about …

Telecommunications Law: Open Access To Cable Broadband Transmission: At&T Corp. V. City Of Portland, 216 F.3d 871 (9th Cir. 2000), Deborah L. Lively

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

In AT&T Corp. v. City of Portland, the Ninth Circuit considered whether a local cable franchising authority could condition the transfer of a cable franchise upon the cable operator's grant of unrestricted access to its cable broadband transmission facilities.

In 1998, AT&T - the nation's largest long-distance telephone provider - proposed a merger with Telecommunications, Inc. ("TCI"), which was among the nation's largest cable-television operators. In the merger, AT&T received access to TCI's cable broadband transmission system as a conduit for AT&T's "@Home" Internet service. A cable broadband system provides Internet access at much faster speeds than through typical modem …

Business-Method Patents: Of Questionable Validity? - Amazon.Com, Inc. V. Barnesandnoble.Com, Inc., 239 F.3d 1343 (Fed. Cir. 2001), Chris Morton

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

In 1998, in State Street Bank & Trust Co. v. Signature Financial Group, Inc., the Federal Circuit gave new life to the business-method patent. Critics viewed this decision as a judicially created exception to the statutory requirement ofpatentable subject matter. Uncertainty under the State Street ruling led to the issuance of a flood of widely criticized and questionable patents, including Amazon.com's one-click-purchase patent. In an attempt to enforce this patent, Amazon.com sued Barnesandnoble.com, and the trial court granted a preliminary injunction. Bamesandnoble.com appealed, claiming that the one-click-purchase patent was invalid because it failed to meet the statutory requirements of …

Table Of Contents

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

No abstract provided.

Adequacy Of The 1995 Antitrust Guidelines For The Licensing Of Intellectual Property In Complex High-Tech Markets, Clovia Hamilton

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

In 1995, the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission adopted new guidelines for those wishing to license intellectual property rights without violating antitrust laws. Designed to provide clarity, these guidelines instead breed confusion because they misunderstand the nature of intellectual property markets and provide insufficient guidance in the most difficult areas. Section I of this article will discuss the basic provisions of the guidelines, especially their treatment of "innovation markets." It argues that government enforcers should focus primarily on activity that creates entry barriers. Understanding the use and misuse of licensing is the key to analyzing barriers in …

Packet Sniffers And Privacy: Why The No-Suspicion-Required Standard In The Usa Patriot Act Is Unconstitutional, Robert Berkowitz

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

The legal standards for electronic surveillance, like the underlying technologies themselves, are constantly evolving. Originally aimed at analog telephones with landlines, the law has had to develop in order to deal with an expanding array of electronic communications, most recently the Internet. The challenge is a double one: statutes allowing surveillance must balance law enforcement's need for information with the privacy rights of the subjects of surveillance and the public at large. The USA Patriot Act, passed in the wake of the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C., is the most recent attempt to strike this balance. …

Drafting Licenses To Guide Whether Potential Disputes Lie In Contract Or Infringement, Edwin E. Richards

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

A contract draftsperson has many questions to consider when a client decides to license her intellectual property rights to another party. What rights should be assigned or licensed? What should the duration of the license be? What should the royalties be and when and how will they be calculated?, What law should govern? The contract draftsperson must also probe further and confront a very "murky" area when attempting to craft the agreement-he must ensure that the licensing contract will not ultimately bar the client from gaining access to federal court to raise an infringement claim. The draftsperson must anticipate the …

Hyperlinks To And From Commercial Websites, Christopher J. Volkmer

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

E-commerce, through the use of a website, is a business reality. This is true for companies of any size, in any location, selling any kind of product or service. Doing business over the Internet is part of what all companies must do to compete; with this new form of business, however, comes new legal issues. As e-commerce develops, it is important for business owners to keep advancing their knowledge in order to manage the risks that come with new opportunities.

Hyperlinks are basic building blocks used to connect the sites of the World Wide Web, and their use has significant …

Copyright Act Of 1976 - Copyright Infringement - Supreme Court Holds That The Selling Of Freelance Authors' Articles By Print Publishers To Electronic Publishers Constitutes Copyright Infringement. New York Times Co. V. Tasini, 533 U.S. 483 (2001), S. Brock Benson

Computer Law Review and Technology Journal

In New York Times Co. v. Tasini, the Supreme Court decided the issue of whether the selling to electronic publishers of articles in collective works without permission from the freelance authors was permissible under § 201 (c) of the Copyright Act. In earlier proceedings, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York granted summary judgment for the publishers, holding that the publishers were entitled to place contents of their periodicals into electronic databases without the permission of the authors whose works appeared in the periodicals. The Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, however, reversed …

The Naked Clone, John Charles Kunich

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Re-Evaluating The Freedom Of Scientific Inquiry Through Biotechnology And Human Rights, George P. Smith Ii

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Cartography Of Governance: An Introduction, Lakshman D. Guruswamy

Publications

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Empirical Research Report: The Use Of Technology In The Jury Room To Enhance Deliberations, Fredric I. Lederer

Faculty Publications

Modern courtroom technology permits the use of technology in the jury deliberation room to enhance deliberations in both traditional trials and technology-augmented cases. SJI-funded research conducted by the Courtroom 21 Project surveyed the law of the United States with respect to statutory and case law governing the use of exhibits during deliberations; surveyed the state courts and, with the assistance of the Federal Judicial Center, the United States district courts concerning their deliberation practices and courtroom technology use; and conducted two controlled studies of the use of deliberation room technology in both traditional and technology-augmented trials. The Courtroom 21 protocol …