Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

Death Of Substantiality: Why The Legal System Should Rethink The Application And Weight Of This Fair-Use Factor In The Context Of Social Media, Lindsey Vickers

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

The fair use test for exemption for liability from copyright infringement was codified in the 1970s and has not been updated since—despite major technological changes in the interim. While three of the test’s four prongs are still useful when applied to short-form media that now dominates worldwide media consumption, the factor that considers the substantiality of the portion used relative to the total work is obsolete. The current dysfunctionality of this prong in social media settings is not the only reason it should be reassessed by courts and Congress. The prong and its analysis are a bit of a Frankenstein. …

Fluid Agency In Ai Systems: A Case For Functional Equivalence In Copyright, Patent, And Tort, Anirban Mukherjee, Hannah H. Chang

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

Modern artificial intelligence (AI) systems lack human-like consciousness or culpability, yet they exhibit fluid agency: behavior that is (i) stochastic (probabilistic and path-dependent), (ii) dynamic (co-evolving with user interaction), and (iii) adaptive (able to reorient across contexts). Fluid agency generates valuable outputs but collapses attribution, irreducibly entangling human and machine inputs. This fundamental unmappability fractures doctrines that assume traceable provenance—authorship, inventorship, and liability—yielding ownership gaps and moral “crumple zones.”

This Article argues that only functional equivalence stabilizes doctrine. Where provenance is indeterminate, legal frameworks must treat human and AI contributions as equivalent for allocating rights and responsibility—not as a claim …

Fiscal Sponsorship In Truly Independent Film: Entity And Model Choice And Legal Risks, Samuel Johnson

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

This article examines fiscal sponsorship as a legal and financing structure for “truly independent” films—low-budget, non-commercial projects created by filmmakers without access to studio financing, tax incentives, or traditional investors. Neither standalone nonprofit incorporation nor purely for-profit entity structures adequately address the unique needs of such projects. After surveying the development of fiscal sponsorship as a means of funding projects that meet an exempt purpose, relevant IRS guidance, and current prevailing practices and organizational structures in independent film, the article contends that a Model C (“regranting”) fiscal sponsorship paired with a single-member limited liability company (SMLLC) offers the optimal balance …

Table Of Contents

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

No abstract provided.

What Does "Registers" Mean? The Wrong Interpretation Could Allow Cybersquatters To Escape Liability, Kiley Carey

Akron Law Review

No abstract provided.

Legendary Houses: Trademarks, Transformation, And Ballroom Culture, Elizabeth L. Rosenblatt

Akron Law Review

No abstract provided.

Generative Identity Theft: Criminalizing Deepfakes Using The Right Of Publicity, Dustin Marlan

Akron Law Review

No abstract provided.

Assessing Patent Pledges: A Case Study In The Vaccine And Biopharma Space, Ana Santos Rutschman

Akron Law Review

No abstract provided.

Copyright In Characters: A Proposal For Reform, Michael W. Carroll

Akron Law Review

No abstract provided.

Ai Pirated My Art And Birthed Infringing Works, And Other Metaphors That Confound Copyright Law, Michael D. Murray

Akron Law Review

No abstract provided.

Library E-Book Licensing And State Law Reform, Kincaid Brown

Law Librarian Scholarship

Libraries don’t “buy” most e-books the way they buy print books; they license them. That reality is at the crossroads of budgetary constraints and patron satisfaction in modern libraries. With print, a library typically pays once, owns the copy, and lends it until it wears out. With e-books, publishers and intermediaries, like platforms such as OverDrive, commonly offer time-limited or loan-limit-ed terms (for example, a license that expires after a set number of checkouts or after a set period), can impose embargoes, and can set prices far above consumer retail. Libraries argue these terms frustrate their public mission and make …

Fisc Opinion Digest 2022 - 2025, Alejandra Gutierrez

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

This digest summarizes selected opinions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review (FISC-R) regarding Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). It covers the FISC’s annual review of intelligence agencies’ Section 702 certifications and the FISC and FISC-R’s opinions related to the statutory definition of Electronic Communications Service Providers (ECSPs). Publicly available opinions are posted on the FISC website, and further resources are available through the Intel.gov IC on the Record Database, a website of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI).

Mitigating Data Privacy Risks In Political Micro-Targeting Through Gdpr-Compliant Federated Learning: Lessons From The Cambridge Analytica Controversy, Jingfan (Serena) Xiao

Marquette Intellectual Property & Innovation Law Review

Political micro-targeting employs granular data analytics to deliver hyper- personalized political messaging, raising fundamental tensions between electoral strategy, data privacy, and democratic accountability. The Facebook- Cambridge Analytica scandal exposed significant gaps in pre-GDPR data protection laws, highlighting the risks of unchecked algorithmic profiling in shaping voter behavior. However, as micro-targeting evolves under more sophisticated AI-driven systems, a pressing question emerges: should AI- generated political messaging qualify for First Amendment protection? This Article introduces the concept of speech certainty, arguing that speech must be intentional and cognitively understood by the speaker at the moment of articulation to warrant constitutional protection. Under …

From Player Piano To Generative Ai: Artificial Expression And The Law Of Copyright, Douglas Lind, Adrienne Holz

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

American copyright law has experienced challenges and sometimes faltered when confronting mechanical reproduction. This Article retraces the rise and diffusion of the player piano and the phonograph, examining how they reshaped the making and listening to music. As these technologies spread throughout American society more rapidly than copyright law could adjust, courts misclassified piano rolls and records as merely mechanics. Reducing these new fixations to machinery rather than embodiments of human expression left recorded human musical performances inadequately protected, which facilitated piracy. Applying these lessons, this Article contends that generative AI training implicates copyright law in ways not dissimilar to …

Diamonds Are Forever, As Are Trademarks: Articulating The Twists Of Section 43(A) Trade Dress Protection For Jewelry Designs Through The Facts Of David Yurman V. Mejuri, Daphne Singer

Celebrating WCL Student Authors

Introduction: 

Jewelry is adornment--adornment that has “spawned cultural movements, launched political dynasties, and even started wars.”This Article will analyze the application of Section 43(a) of the Lanham Act,which covers trade dress, to jewelry design. Trade dress law is a powerful tool for designers because it regulates the protection of designs rather than words.Despite this strength, trade dress has not been analyzed in the context of the jewelry industry because legal academics have dismissed jewelry as an accessory to fashion law. Luxury jewelry and watches are often used to convey status via “recognizable, distinguished designs that consumers associate with the particular …

How Should The Law Treat Future Ai Systems? Fictional Legal Personhood Versus Legal Identity, Heather Alexander, Jonathan Simon, Frédéric Pinard

Journal of Law, Technology, & the Internet

The law draws a sharp distinction between objects and persons, and between two kinds of persons, the ''fictional'' kind (i.e. corporations), and the ''non-fictional'' kind (individual or ''natural'' persons). This paper will assess whether we maximize overall long-term legal coherence by (A) maintaining an object classification for all future AI systems, (B) creating fictional legal persons associated with suitably advanced, individuated AI systems (giving these fictional legal persons derogable rights and duties associated with certified groups of existing persons, potentially including free speech, contract rights, and standing to sue ''on behalf of'' the AI system), or (C) recognizing non-fictional legal …

Ai Training Is Fair Use: The Beginning Of The End Of The Copyright Assault On Gen Ai, Michael D. Murray

Journal of Law, Technology, & the Internet

Two federal courts overseeing claims against the developers of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) have pointed the way to resolving these infringement actions by finding that the training of GenAI models is a transformative fair use under copyright law. While the two opinions differed in tone and scope, this article takes these rulings as the starting point for a discussion on resolving the ongoing copyright claims against AI developers, signaling what may be the beginning of the end of the copyright assault on GenAI.

The goal of this article is to inject urgency into resolving these matters. It asserts that uncertainty …

Evolving Threats, Evolving Duties: Ransomware, Artificial Intelligence, And Cybersecurity Law, Chase Hayes

Journal of Law, Technology, & the Internet

This paper examines the evolving legal obligations of corporations and public institutions in the face of ransomware, cyber threats, and artificial intelligence, asserting that a proactive legal framework is essential to mitigate or altogether avoid liability, protect stakeholders, and ensure national security. As cybercriminals become increasingly sophisticated, laws and regulations struggle to keep up. Generative artificial intelligence only deepens this disruption and with technology continuously evolving, it is difficult to imagine what the cyberspace will look like in years to come. This article responds to the gap by emphasizing the need for integration between the legal profession and cybersecurity expertise. …

The Paradox Of Intellectual Property At The U.S. Supreme Court, Tonja Jacobi, Matthew Sag

Faculty Articles

The Supreme Court is dramatically more politically polarized in the Roberts Court era, and the justices have been criticized for highly ideological and partisan decision-making. Yet, we show that there is one area of law that is becoming less ideologically divided and predictable: intellectual property (IP). In an earlier study, we showed that, prior to the Roberts Court, IP case outcomes were predictable based on judicial ideology, with more conservative justices embracing IP rights, as they do for real property. In the last two decades, IP has become more influential on the economy and society, through the increasing dominance of …

Ip @ The U - January 2026, Jorge L. Contreras, Jonas Anderson

Law School Historical Documents

Welcome to IP @ the U, a periodic newsletter for students, alumni, faculty and friends of the University of Utah College of Law's Program on Intellectual Property and Technology Law. This issue covers highlights from Fall 2025 and early Spring 2026.