Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

The Natural Flow Of Ideas: Why The Fifth Amendment Takings Clause And An Obscure Water-Rights Decision Might Thwart Attempts At Streamlining The Patent Queue, Joseph Kamien

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

The Rise And Decline Of The Intellectual Property Powers, Peter K. Yu

Faculty Scholarship

In the past decade, China has experienced many impressive economic and technological developments. Intriguingly, the narrative about piracy and counterfeiting there is rarely linked to the narrative about the China's technological rise. To provide a more comprehensive picture, this article brings together these two different narratives to explore what their combination would mean for the United States and its intellectual property industries.

Delivered as the keynote luncheon address at the Symposium on "Applications of Intellectual Property Law in China," this article begins with the good news that China is at the cusp of crossing over from a pirating nation to …

Who's The Author? A Bright-Line Rule For Specially Commissioned Works Made For Hire, Richard D. Palmieri

Law Student Publications

This comment argues that the best way to clarify the answer to the question "Who's the author?" (and thus to clarify whether the creator has a termination right) is to resolve the circuit split in favor of a bright-line rule requiring execution of the written agreement prior to the creation of the work. Part I introduces the legal framework under which the issue must be analyzed. Part II reviews the holdings on each side of the circuit split. Part III presents the arguments that both proper statutory construction of U.S. copyright law and the legislative history of the termination right, …

Book Review Of Reclaiming Fair Use: How To Put Balance Back In Copyright, Benjamin J. Keele

Library Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Intellectual Property, Traditional Knowledge, And Biodiversity In The Global Economy: The Potential Of Geographical Indications For Protecting Traditional Knowledge-Based Agricultural Products, Teshager W. Dagne

PhD Dissertations

The relationship between international regimes regulating intellectual property, traditional knowledge and biodiversity has received much attention in recent times. Of the many complex and controversial issues in contemporary international legal discourse on this matter, the protection of traditional knowledge (TK) stands out as a significant challenge. Choices abound in the search for modalities to regulate rights to use and control TK systems and their underlying biodiversity. In recent times, the protection of geographical indications (GIs) has emerged as an option for protecting TK. Despite the considerable enthusiasm over it, there is appreciable research dearth on how far and in what …

Misappropriation And Patenting Of Traditional Ethnobotanical Knowledge And Genetic Resources, Maxim V. Gubarev

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Four-fifths of all pharmaceuticals have been developed from natural plant resources, and native plant resources similarly play a significant role in the development of new and improved crops.

Regulatory And Judicial Implementations Of Patent Law Flexibilities, Sarah R. Wasserman Rajec

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Null Patent, Sean B. Seymore

William & Mary Law Review

Failure is the basis of much of scientific progress because it plays a key role in building knowledge. In fact, negative results compose the bulk of knowledge produced in scientific research. This is not a bad thing because failures always produce valuable technical information—whether it be a serendipitous finding, an abundance of unexpected technical data, or simply knowledge that an initial hypothesis was totally wrong. Though some have recognized that the dissemination of negative results has many upsides for science, transforming scientific norms toward disclosure is no easy task. As for patent law, the potentially important role that negative results …

What Is The "Invention"?, Christopher A. Cotropia

William & Mary Law Review

Patent law is in flux, with recent disputes and changes in doctrine fueled by increased attention from the Supreme Court and en banc activity by the Federal Circuit. The natural reaction is to analyze each doctrinal area involved on its own. Upon a closer look, however, many patent cases concern a single, fundamental dispute. Conflicts in opinions on such issues as claim interpretation methodology and the written description requirement are really disagreements over which “invention” the courts should be considering.

There are two concepts of invention currently in play in patent decisions. The first is an “external invention” definition, in …

The Null Patent, Sean B. Seymore

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Failure is the basis of much of scientific progress because it plays a key role in knowledge building. In fact, negative results comprise the bulk of knowledge produced in scientific research. This is not a bad thing because failures always produce valuable technical information - whether it be a serendipitous finding, an abundance of unexpected technical data, or simply knowledge that an initial hypothesis was totally wrong. Though some have recognized that the dissemination of negative results has many upsides for science, transforming scientific norms toward disclosure is no easy task. As for patent law, the potentially important role that …

Keep Your Program Out Of My Game: The Ninth Circuit’S Convoluted Copyright Analysis In Mdy Industries, Inc. V. Blizzard Entertainment, Inc, Brandon T. Crowther

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Who's The Author? A Bright-Line Rule For Specially Commissioned Works Made For Hire, Richard D. Palmieri

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Square Dance: Fitting The Square Peg Of Fixation Into The Round Hole Of Choreographic Works, Evie Whiting

Vanderbilt Law Review

If all the arts are brothers, dance is the forgotten stepchild of the family. The "black sheep" of the arts, dance has struggled to find academic and legal recognition on par with its creative counterparts. Throughout the history of U.S. copyright protection, dance has consistently been an afterthought. Although Congress passed the first copyright law in 1790, copyright did not explicitly protect choreographic works until 1976. The 1909 Copyright Act only protected pieces of choreography that could be registered by the author as a type of "dramatic composition." This relegation to a subset-of-a- subset aptly characterizes the ongoing academic and …

Copyright’S Creative Hierarchy In The Performing Arts, Michael W. Carroll

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Copyright law grants authors certain rights of creative control over their works. This Article argues that these rights of creative control are too strong when applied to the performing arts because they fail to take account of the mutual dependence between writers and performers to fully realize the work in performance. This failure is particularly problematic in cases in which the author of a source work, such as a play or a choreographic work, imposes content-based restrictions on how a third party may render the work in performance. This Article then explores how Congress might craft a statutory license to …

What Is The "Invention"?, Christopher A. Cotropia

Law Faculty Publications

Patent law is in flux, with recent disputes and changes in doctrine fueled by increased attention from the Supreme Court and en banc activity by the Federal Circuit. The natural reaction is to analyze each doctrinal area involved on its own. Upon a closer look, however, many patent cases concern a single, fundamental dispute. Conflicts in opinions on such issues as claim interpretation methodology and the written description requirement are really disagreements over which "invention" the courts should be considering. There are two concepts of invention currently in play in patent decisions. The first is an "external invention" definition, in …

Judgment For Federalism: A Case For Why The Right Of Publicity Should Be A Federal Right, Brittany Lee-Richardson

Student Award Winning Papers

The purpose of the right of publicity is to provide all individuals the right to control the commercial use of their attributes such as likeness, image or name. This state-based right is primarily concerned with protecting celebrities, hereinafter referred to as “personalities.”1 As the right gained more recognition from courts and legislatures in the last 25 years, its value to personalities increased substantially. Sport, entertainment and public figures, like Tiger Woods, Bill Clinton and Woody Allen, make millions of dollars2 from endorsements, speaking engagements, and right of publicity claims. Personalities are also taking advantage of the wide variation in right …

April 25, 2012, Geneva Henry

Lecture Series on E-Science

Geneva Henry, Executive Director of the Center for Digital Scholarship, Rice University. Data rights and ownership of digital research data can impact how you use data, how others use data you've collected, and how rights are determined in collaborative research. Copyright rules governing data vary from one country to the next, making data ownership in international collaborations particularly murky. Licensing the use of data sets from the start is one way to address these issues early and provide a means for easily sharing datasets that can be cited and properly attributed. This talk with introduce issues associated with digital research …

Maturing Patent Theory From Industrial Policy To Intellectual Property, Oskar Liivak

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

We have always known that technological progress is important and this country has always aimed to promote it. A large part of that responsibility has fallen on the shoulders of the patent system. Embarrassingly, despite over two hundred years of experience, we still do not actually know if the patent system helps or hinders technological progress. This Essay argues that the problem is not the patent system but rather patent theory. Patent theory suffers from three linked problems: exceptionalness, indeterminacy, and animosity. First, patent law is seen as a necessarily unique exception to the overall market economy. By artificially making …

Freedom Of Speech Through The Looking Glass: Reflections On The Governance Of Political Discourse In China, The United States, And The European Union, Emily Alice Chesbrough

Scripps Senior Theses

Freedom of speech is a right guaranteed by the US, the EU, and China; however, just because a right is guaranteed does not mean the government cannot manipulate the right to achieve its ends. Freedom of speech is commonly associated with the power of language; citizens speak in order to take control of those governing them, in order to assert their desires. In reality, freedom of speech is far more beneficial for governments, who can use this dissent to better control a population. In order to control the population, though, the governments must first control the dissenting speech, the discourse, …

Oh, The Places You'll Go: The Implications Of Current Patent Law On Embryonic Stem Cell Research, Stacy Kincaid

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.