Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

The Implementation And Use Of Intimacy Coordinators In Motion Picture Productions, John J. Chung, Pia Piscitelli

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Boden Lecture: Taxation Of Autonomous Artificial Intelligence, Reuven Avi-Yonah, Lucas Brasil Salama, Herbert Snitz, W. Robert Thomas

Marquette Law Review

This Article proposes that tax can be a useful supplement to other measures to regulate Autonomous Artificial Intelligence (AAI) and limit its potential harmful effects. This proposal differs from command-and-control regulation of AAI along the lines of European Union legislation that may unduly limit the development of AAI. It also differs from existing proposals to tax AAI to generate revenue to help workers displaced by AAI programs, or to tax the data used by AAI. The proposal is based on granting AAI programs like ChatGPT separate legal personhood, like corporate personhood, while incentivizing or requiring their corporate owner to place …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Corporate Scenarios: Drawing Lessons From History, Madison Condon

Seattle University Law Review

As corporations are increasingly pressed to reveal information about their exposure to climate-related risks, they are often asked to undertake and disclose the outcome of “scenario analysis.” In this exercise, corporations, including financial institutions, examine how their business would fare under different pathways the future may take. One oft-used scenario, for example, is the International Energy Agency’s “Net-Zero by 2050: A Roadmap for the Energy Sector.” This Essay presents a history of the use of scenarios as a corporate planning tool, particularly in the oil industry, arguing that it is key for understanding our present moment and the role of …

Shareholder Expression In A Time Of Heightened Political Tension, Aaron A. Dhir

Seattle University Law Review

In this article, I provide context for my forthcoming research project on shareholder proposals and racial equity audits. Since the murder of George Floyd in May of 2020, progressive shareholder actors have increasingly used the proposal mechanism to advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice-related goals. These proposals have frequently gone beyond requesting the usual corporate fare of diversity trainings, intersectionality workshops, affinity groups, etc. Instead, a more ambitious type of proposal asks corporate America to conduct racial equity audits, defined as “an independent, objective and holistic analysis of a company’s policies, practices, products, services and efforts to combat systemic racism …

Corporate Governance Speech, Sarah C. Haan

Seattle University Law Review

The State has always regulated the intra-firm communications that make corporate governance possible, most commonly by mandating disclosures of information by a corporation to its shareholders. Some such laws are labeled “securities regulation,” but securities regulation is a broad category that extends to speech by actors who are outside the corporate enterprise as well. Also, the conventional securities regulation category does not capture all such laws; other examples, including informationforcing mandates, can be found in state corporate law. This Article uses the term “corporate governance speech” to describe the communications among shareholders, directors, and officers through which corporate governance is …

Dark Accounting Matter, Colleen Honigsberg

Seattle University Law Review

Physicists calculate that approximately 85% of the matter in the universe is composed of “dark matter” that “does not absorb, reflect, or emit electromagnetic radiation and is therefore difficult to detect.” The S&P 500 currently trades at a price-to-book value of 4.2, suggesting that book value accounts for less than 20% of the S&P 500’s market value. The remaining 80% appears nowhere in these firms’ balance sheets—it is invisible to contemporary accounting techniques and constitutes “dark accounting matter.”

Some “dark accounting matter” is composed of factors commonly described as components of “ESG.” Human capital, for example, is an intangible asset …

The Employees’ Dilemma: Balancing Internal Reporting, Whistleblowing, And Insider Trading Risks, Geeyoung Min

Seattle University Law Review

The Essay examines how recent developments in insider trading regulations and whistleblower reward programs can lead to unintended and counterproductive results of discouraging employees from using internal reporting channels within corporate compliance programs. While the presence of a robust and well-functioning corporate compliance program is a critical factor both in mitigating the level of public enforcement actions against companies and in protecting corporate managers from liability in private litigation, these programs often provide little incentive for employees to report potential misconduct internally.

Corporate compliance programs are designed to promote the upward information flow within the company, which is essential for …

How The Antidiscrimination Law Of Commercial Transactions Really Works, Helen Norton

Seattle University Law Review

A variety of businesses now cite 303 Creative when seeking First Amendment protection for their refusal to serve certain customers based on those customers’ protected class status. How this litigation will play out remains to be seen. But future courts need not, and should not, repeat the 303 Creative Court’s misunderstanding of how the antidiscrimination law of commercial transactions actually works.

Part I of this Essay explains the Court’s longstanding understanding of the antidiscrimination law of commercial transactions, and then describes the Court’s failure to engage with this precedent in 303 Creative. Part II then identifies the 303 Creative decision’s …

True Law As Genre: Narrative Nonfiction And The Law, Jorge L. Contreras

Texas A&M Journal of Property Law

The Genome Defense, which offers a book-length narrative nonfiction account of the civil litigation that led to the elimination of patents on human genes in the United States, is a member of a distinct literary subgenre that I term True Law. Like the older and better-known True Crime genre, True Law narratives blend the conventions of journalism and novelistic writing to describe complex legal disputes in a manner that is engaging and accessible to the general public. True Law accounts, which have increased in number and popularity since the publication of Jonathan Harr’s A Civil Action in 1995, serve …

On Snow’S Intellectual Property And Immorality, David O. Taylor

Texas A&M Journal of Property Law

In this Essay, I consider the “why” and “how” of Professor Snow’s controversial, countercultural, important, and relevant position that immorality may result in the denial of intellectual property protection. First, I highlight how surprising it is that Professor Snow’s argument springs from the theories underlying intellectual property protection, rather than the theories underlying the morality and ethics he believes ought to be considered in determining intellectual property protection. No one (that I know, at least) goes to the Environmental Protection Agency seeking better regulations to protect the environment and uses the labor desert theory of property rights as an argument. …

A Comparative Study On The Originality Of Ai-Generated Artworks: What Can Copyright Laws Learn From Refik Anadol?, Söğüt Atilla

National Law School of India Review

Originality is a fundamental requirement for works to receive copyright protection. However, as the term lacks a universally accepted definition, interpretations of originality vary across jurisdictions. This article first examines key theories underpinning copyright law to justify the necessity of an originality threshold. It then analyses how the United States, the United Kingdom, India, China, and the European Union define and apply this criterion. In the final section, the article argues that, these jurisdictions, when applying their well-established principles and case law consistently, can accommodate findings of originality in AI-generated artworks. The article critiques the misconception shared by some jurisdictions …

An Impossible Task: Enforcing Disclosure Requirements In A Multi-Billion Dollar Industry, Keelin Ferris

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

Users of the first global social network, MySpace, could have never imagined that a mere twenty years later, teenagers could be millionaires making thirty-second videos out of their parents’ basement. Social media platforms have blossomed and advanced to an unpredictable level in a short amount of time. The growth of TikTok, surpassing one billion users, has been one of the most substantial contributors to the change in landscape.[1] In 2025, “social media influencers” come in all shapes and sizes.[2] Social media users can scroll through Instagram reels and stumble upon their fellow PTA member, co-worker, or grandmother promoting …

The Timing Of Claim Construction: An Analysis Of Claim Construction Procedure And A Proposed Rule To Ensure Cost Effective And Timely Relief In Patent Infringement Cases, Timothy A. Richard

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

The federal government issues patents to encourage inventors to produce new and useful works and advance the state of the art.[1] The patent process is simple: in exchange for the right to exclude all others from making and using an invention for an established period, the inventor provides the government — and ultimately the public — with a full disclosure of how to make and use the invention.[2] Despite this full disclosure, the terms used in patent claims are subject to judicial interpretation during litigation.[3] Both the Supreme Court of the United States (“Supreme Court”) and the …

Table Of Contents

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

No abstract provided.

Masthead

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

No abstract provided.

Smart Contracts Are Neither Smart Nor A Contract: The Case Against Smart Contract Utilization In Everyday Consumer Or Commercial Transactions, Jim Moye

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

No doubt, most of us have gone into a local electronics store or ordered a new gadget from an online provider. After purchasing the gadget, we are eager to start operating the new purchase. Before fully utilizing the gadget, however, there are a series of screens requiring the user to read, acknowledge, and consent to, various clauses. If this process is not completed, the user is denied full access to the gadget. Thereafter, entry is granted, and the user is free to utilize the electronic device. This is a prime example of utilizing technology to automate a process that would …

The History And Future Of Amateurism In College Sports, Jordan Zaia

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

College sports and amateurism have long been intertwined, with the NCAA championing the term “student-athlete” to reinforce the notion that college athletes should not be paid employees. However, this notion has come under fire because college athletes had to risk losing eligibility to receive compensation while helping schools profit. In response, athletes have challenged the system using antitrust, intellectual property, and labor & employment laws.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in NCAA v. Alston dealt a decisive blow to the NCAA’s financial restrictions, declaring that there is no “amateurism exception” to antitrust law. This landmark ruling …

Proposed Rule 3b-16: The Sec's Attempt To Change Definition Of "Exchange" Under The Exchange Act Of 1934 Provides Lessons For A New Era Of Crypto Regulation, Gwyneth Tefft

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Metes And Bounds Of Federal Trade Secret Protections: Deriving Cohesive Damages Principles Under The Defend Trade Secrets Act, Angela Peterson

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

The Defend Trade Secrets Act launched trade secret law, which formerly only reached federal courts in diversity cases or cases involving espionage, into the national spotlight. As these cases begin to progress to trial, courts face new questions about how to appropriately measure monetary damages for trade secret claims. Because many courts take a “flexible and imaginative” approach to trade secret damages generally and most state trade secret statutes do not require damages as a part of a successful trade secret liability case, most courts that have considered damages methodology challenges to DTSA claims have failed to employ …