Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

The Interaction Between Privacy Laws And Restrictive Licensing Agreements In Cross-Border Satellite Imagery, Ida Samardar

IP Theory

No abstract provided.

A Personal Interview With William Patry: His Thoughts On Music, Ai, And Copyright

IP Theory

No abstract provided.

The Vicious Patent Cycle: Addressing The Current Conflict Facing Startup Valuation And Patent Risk Through Policy Change, Karlie Hinton

IP Theory

Young, startup, and growth companies play an increasingly important role in driving innovation and economic growth, but they face distinct challenges when attempting to leverage valuable assets to secure funding and scale their ventures. The valuation of startup companies, especially those built around new technologies and corresponding intellectual property, presents a complex challenge. With limited financial history and uncertain futures, investors often turn to proxies like patents to ascribe potential value. In recent years, the practice of startups using patents to secure investment and higher valuations has become increasingly common. However, this growing reliance on patents raises important questions about …

Paternity, Protection, And Pirates: A Queer Theory Analysis Of Intellectual Property Metaphors, Eden Sarid

IP Theory

Intellectual Property and queer theory share a fundamental concern with the interplay between private and public, tangible and intangible, and language and form. Queer theory emphasizes how language impacts the construction of identity and belonging, highlighting that discourse plays a pivotal role in structuring gender, sexuality, and normativity. Intellectual Property is often portrayed as strictly neutral, laser-focused on spurring creativity and innovation. However, is this portrayal reflective of reality? And does this purported neutrality hold up in IP’s rhetoric? By examining two principal IP terminologies through a queer lens – the term “protection” to describe IP legal privilege, and the …

The Mathematics Of Regulatory Fragmentation: Understanding The Multiplicative Costs Of State-Level Platform Requirements, Amanda Reid

IP Theory

The recent wave of state-level social media regulation represents an unprecedented experiment in territorial control of digital platforms. While constitutional questions around state authority remain central to these debates, this article examines a distinct but complementary concern: the mathematical reality of how overlapping technical requirements multiply compliance burdens. These laws aim to protect youth online through technical mandates, yet they create a regulatory patchwork that generates multiplicative rather than additive costs. Following combination theory [N(N-1)/2], each new state regulation creates conflict points with existing requirements.

This article analyzes how this regulatory multiplication affects platform architecture, user experience, and safety outcomes. …

Under The Radar: The Hidden Harms Of Patent Practices In Defense Contracting, Hunter Schmittou

IP Theory

28 U.S.C. § 1498 allows the federal government and its contractors to use patented technologies without prior authorization, with the government assuming liability for infringement. While originally intended to facilitate procurement, its modern application has weakened patent protections, allowing contractors to incorporate patented innovations with minimal legal or financial consequences. This system disincentivizes private-sector investment in military technology, distorts competition, and increases procurement inefficiencies, ultimately placing the burden of infringement on taxpayers. The resulting imbalance not only stifles innovation but also entrenches reliance on a small group of dominant defense contractors, reducing technological diversity and slowing progress. Addressing these shortcomings …

Generative Ai's Copyright Enigma: A Comparative Study Of Fair Use And Fair Dealing, Taysir Awad

IP Theory

At the dawn of this decade, generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) models were at the apogee of modern science and technology. Their emergence introduced the world to a new paradigm of creativity and innovation, where machines can synthesize art, literature, and design with unprecedented sophistication, blurring the boundaries between human ingenuity and algorithmic computation. These models have the capacity to regenerate Oscar Wilde with the depiction of Ansel Adams, rewrite Harry Potter with William Shakespear’s proverbial tongue, and redesign St. Peter’s Basilica with Gothic arches, Seljuk carved stones, and an Antoni Gaudi roof architecture, relocated in the heart of New York …

"Sufficiently Distinct" Is Insufficient To Determine Design Patent Infringement, Perry Saidman

IP Theory

The “ordinary observer” test for design patent infringement essentially asks whether the patented and accused designs are “substantially the same” in overall appearance. Although courts are very skilled in listing differences between the two designs, the final infringement determination is very subjective, being based on the personal observations and feelings of the fact-finder.

In the 2008 en banc decision of Egyptian Goddess v. Swisa, the Federal Circuit abolished the “point of novelty” test that, despite its flaws, had brought some objectivity to the infringement determination. In its place, the Court in Egyptian repeatedly emphasized the need to view the …

A Patent System For Temple Grandin, Andrew Chin

Touro Law Review

This article explores the intersection of neurodiversity and innovation through the lens of Temple Grandin’s contributions to livestock handling systems and her philosophical alignment with the U.S. patent system. Drawing on cognitive research by Simon Baron-Cohen, archaeological insights from Penny Spikins, and personal reflections, I argue that autistic cognitive styles—characterized by heightened “folk physics” aptitudes and visual thinking—have historically driven technological progress. Grandin’s patented inventions, motivated by sensory-based empathy for animals, exemplify how neurodivergent inventors seek to embed their conceptions of ethical utility into the nation’s technological infrastructure. The article critiques modern patent litigation trends, advocating instead for a system …

And The Oscar For Best “Original” Screenplay Goes To . . . Chatgpt: Does The Use Of Ai In Scriptwriting Devalue Hollywood Writers?, Harrison Stern

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Makeup And Made-Up Protection: Unveiling The Need For Stronger Legal Protections Against Makeup Dupes Within The Luxury Beauty Industry, Crystal Couso

St. Thomas Law Review

To strengthen trademark protections for luxury beauty brands against makeup dupes, this Comment proposes amending the Lanham Act to combat the rise of makeup dupes. Part II provides a brief background on trade dress laws and the elements required to establish a claim under the Lanham Act. Part III highlights the current inadequacies of the current trade dress protections afforded by the Lanham Act, including its failure to account for generic product designs and the irrelevance of consumer confusion in makeup dupe cases. Part IV proposes a novel solution to modify the Lanham Act to accommodate the makeup dupe phenomenon. …

United States Environmental Protection Agency Scientific Integrity Policy

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

US EPA SIP

Patenting The Taboo: Sex, Drugs, And Abortion, Andrew Gilden, Sarah R. Wasserman Rajec

Faculty Publications

The patent system provides a surprisingly rich archive of the interplay between social norms and technological change. Patent law requires applicants to publicly disclose the novelty and usefulness of their inventions, thereby bringing to light areas of innovation that may have previously lived in the shadows. In other words, patent law encourages public disclosure of technologies that are taboo—developed and practiced in secret, for reasons such as social approbation, illegality, or religious sanctity. To obtain a patent for a taboo technology, patentees must establish their legitimacy as innovators while navigating cultural norms that are hostile to their fields of innovation. …

Patent Law: An Open-Access Casebook, Sarah Fackrell, Sarah R. Wasserman Rajec, Andres Sawicki

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Patents Used In Patent Office Rejections As Indicators Of Value, Christopher A. Cotropia, David L. Schwartz

Law Faculty Publications

This paper introduces a novel approach to measure a patent's economic value by examining whether the patent's disclosure leads to rejection of another pending US patent application. This approach considers the use of the patent by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in office action rejections on the grounds of novelty or obviousness, as well as its citation as an X or Y reference in a European Patent Office (EPO) search report, which provides analogous information. Unlike conventional citation metrics widely employed by economists, the novel metric is arguably more closely tied to private value, as it is centered …

Artificial Intelligence: Catalyst For New Policies Or A New Wave Of Design Piracy?, Blagovesta Leroy

FIU Law Review

The absence of adequate intellectual property protection for fashion designs in the U.S.A. not only undermines the creativity and livelihoods of designers but also fosters the fast fashion industry, contributing to global resource unsustainability and human rights concerns in overseas manufacturing facilities. As Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) advances rapidly, there is a growing concern that its deployment in the fashion industry could accelerate these issues. This paper explores the impact of AI on the fashion industry, highlighting the shortcomings of the existing U.S. intellectual property framework in protecting designers from AI-driven design replication and counterfeiting. Drawing insights from the EU design …

Deceptive Exploitation: Deepfakes, The Rights Of Publicity And Privacy, And Trademark Law, Michael D. Murray

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This article addresses the application of right of publicity, right of privacy, and trademark law to the problem of deepfakes. It will explore the routine and not so routine ways that personality and persona attributes are exploited in traditional privacy contexts and publicity contexts. It will also examine the use of First Amendment defenses in legal actions traditionally associated with the exploitation of celebrities, sports figures, and other persons under state law theories of name-image-likeness exploitation, as well as and federal trademark law theories of false endorsement and false designation of origin.

Part I provides an introduction and background to …

Best Kept Secret: The Hidden Health Costs Of Corporate Confidentiality, Cynthia M. Ho

Faculty Publications & Other Works

Although patents are well known to negatively impact health when drugs are unaffordable, trade secrets also harm health, and in more ways than patents. Patented drugs harm public health simply by temporarily increasing prices on treatments. Trade secrets, on the other hand, can not only increase treatment costs, but also hide knowledge needed for effective medical treatment. Also, because patents, but not trade secrets, have a limited term, patent health harms clearly terminate while trade secret harms do not. Moreover, the public may not even be fully aware of all trade secret health harms because trade secret information is, by …

Re-Defining Direct Copyright Infringement In The Digital Age: The Shortcomings Of Abkco, Inc. V. Sagan's "Presses The Button" Standard, Shelby Mcswan

Buffalo Law Review

This Comment offers a broader reading of direct copyright infringement. The definition of a direct infringer must go beyond the person who “presses the button,” and extend to those who authorize, instruct, or force another to commit an act of infringement. A broader reading not only ensures that direct liability in copyright law is uniform with other areas of the law, but it also ensures that copyright law protects those who it was meant to protect and punishes those who are truly at fault. Part I of this Comment provides history and background information on the development of intellectual property …

An Investigation Into Artificial Intelligence And Intellectual Property From An Economic Perspective, Jackson Benjamin Bram Girard Lasalle

Honors Theses and Capstones

This paper investigates the debate around recent developments in Artificial Intelligence and its impact on intellectual property laws from an economic perspective.