Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

Markman Pro Publico: Friending The Courts On Patent Claim Interpretation Issues, Charles Lee Thomason

Intellectual Property Brief

In Markman claim term disputes, the paramount interest of the public in patents and in the public domain is unrepresented, even though “patent rights are ‘issues of great moment to the public.’” What delineates the outer bounds of the patent claim interpretation inquiry are the “private interests of the litigants.” The public interest is set aside. Neither the courts nor the litigants are well positioned to address the “underlying policy of the patent system” or to ask pointedly whether the patent claims, unless properly construed, have enough “worth to the public” to “outweigh the restrictive effect of the limited patent …

The Role Of Patents In The International Framework Of Clean Technology Transfer: A Discussion Of Barriers And Solutions, Mark Consilvio

Intellectual Property Brief

No abstract provided.

Panel Discussion On Libraries And Best Practices In Fair Use, Andrée J. Rathemacher

Technical Services Faculty Publications

This report covers a panel discussion on the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries, published in January 2012 by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). The panel was held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on March 23, 2012 and was hosted by the MIT Libraries. Panelists were Patricia Aufderheide of the Center for Social Media at American University; Brandon Butler of ARL; Kyle Courtney of Harvard Law School; and Jay Wilcoxson of MIT.

Compliance: E-Science Mandates And Policies, Sarah White

Lecture Series on E-Science

Data collected under federally funded research is subject to compliance rules and regulations. Policies affecting what you can and cannot do with your data, who is responsible, and what role your institution plays can vary with funding agencies and the type of data collected. This talk will address many of the compliance issues associated with research data, as well as funder mandates that you need to be aware of to ensure compliance.

Intellectual Property Perspectives: Spring 2012, Ip Law Program

Intellectual Property Perspectives

No abstract provided.

Tweet Me Fairly: Finding Attribution Rights Through Fair Use In The Twittersphere, Adam S. Nelson

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Reclaiming Copyright From The Outside In: What The Downfall Hitler Meme Means For Transformative Works, Fair Use, And Parody, Aaron Schwabach

Buffalo Intellectual Property Law Journal

Continuing advances in consumer information technology have made video editing, once difficult, into a relatively simple matter. The average consumer can easily create and edit videos, and post them online. Inevitably many of these posted videos incorporate existing copyrighted content, raising questions of infringement, derivative versus transformative use, fair use, and parody.

This article looks at several such works, with its main focus on one category of examples: the Downfall Hitler meme. Downfall Hitler videos take as their starting point a particular sequence - Hitler's breakdown rant - from the 2004 German film Der Untergang [Downfall in the US]. The …

Crossing Parallel Lines: The State Of The First Sale Doctrine After Costco V. Omega, Maureen B. Collins

Buffalo Intellectual Property Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Seed 2.0: Evolving Intellectual Property Rights Of Agricultural Germplasm, Jennifer Wai-Shing Maguire

Buffalo Intellectual Property Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Future Of Cybertravel: Legal Implications Of The Evasion Of Geolocation, Marketa Trimble

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

Although the Internet is valued by many of its supporters particularly because it both defies and defeats physical borders, these important attributes are now being exposed to attempts by both governments and private entities to impose territorial limits through blocking or permitting access to content by Internet users based on their geographical location — a territorial partitioning of the Internet. One of these attempts, for example, is the recent Stop Online Piracy Act (“SOPA”) proposal in the United States. This article, as opposed to earlier literature on the topic discussing the possible virtues and methods of raising borders in cyberspace, …

Appendix: What Is Transformative? An Explanatory Synthesis Of The Convergence Of Transformation And Predominant Purpose In Copyright Fair Use Law, Michael D. Murray

Chicago-Kent Journal of Intellectual Property

The transformative test has risen to the top of the agenda of the copyright academic community with no less than two major studies of copyright fair use and the impact of the transformative test released in 2011 by Professors Matthew Sag and Neil Netanel that follow up on three recent comprehensive studies of copyright fair use published since 2008. The lessons learned from these two 2011 statistical studies are significant, in that both studies confirm the importance of the transformative test in terms of its application by the courts as the dominant test of fair use and in the observation …

What Is Transformative? An Explanatory Synthesis Of The Convergence Of Transformation And Predominant Purpose In Copyright Fair Use Law, Michael D. Murray

Chicago-Kent Journal of Intellectual Property

Two recent statistical studies confirm that a court finding of “transformation” in a copyright fair use claim virtually assures a finding that the use is fair. This Article analyzes the entire body of United States Supreme Court and United States Courts of Appeals case law applying the transformative test in copyright fair use cases to present two points: first, that the transformative test modifies the first sentence of 17 U.S.C. § 107 — in particular, the terms, “the fair use of a copyrighted work” — rather than simply factor one of the four-factor test; second, in implementing the transformative test, …

Rebalancing Trips, Molly Land

Michigan Journal of International Law

Application of the World Trade Organization's (WTO) dispute resolution procedures to the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS Agreement) has provoked a variety of reactions over time. At its inception, the decision to enforce the treaty through the WTO's dispute resolution process was widely viewed as a loss for developing countries. Many feared it would lead to an explosion of litigation against developing countries and cause distortions in domestic intellectual property (IP) policy making. More recent scholarship, however, has argued that these fears were unfounded. Few disputes before WTO panels have involved violations of the TRIPS Agreement, even …

A Pragmatic Approach To Intellectual Property And Development: A Case Study Of The Jordanian Copyright Law In The Internet Age, Rami Olwan

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

On October 4, 2004, Brazil and Argentina requested that WIPO adopt a development-oriented approach to IP and to reconsider its work in relation to developing countries. In October, 2007, WIPO member States adopted a historic decision for the benefit of developing countries, to establish a WIPO Development Agenda. Although there have been several studies related to IP and development that call for IP laws in developing countries to be development-friendly, there is little research that attempts to provide developing countries with practical measures to achieve that goal. This article takes the copyright law in Jordan as a case study and …

International Trademark Protection And Global Public Health: A Just-Compensation Regime For Expropriations And Regulatory Takings, Sam F. Halabi

Faculty Publications

Lawmakers in developed and developing countries are expanding legal protections for trademarks – words, combinations of colors, signs, letters, numerals, figurative elements and designs meant to convey the origin and quality of firms’ goods or services. The purported rationales underlying trademark protection are promotion of competition and reduction of consumers’ information costs. Trademark law promotes competition by giving trademark holders an incentive to invest in the quality of goods or services and then associate that quality with a relatively easy-to-identify brand, mark or logo. The law punishes private actors who attempt to free-ride on the goodwill built by the trademark …

Fostering The Business Of Innovation: The Untold Story Of Bowers V. Baystate Technologies, Robert W. Gomulkiewicz

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

Perhaps the law review literature does not need another article on the Federal Circuit’s Bowers v. Baystate Technologies case. That case has received more than its share of attention from commentators, all criticizing Judge Rader’s majority opinion and most extolling the virtues of Judge Dyk’s dissent. Despite the storm of scholarly criticism, however, courts have followed Judge Rader’s opinion. This Article tells the untold story of why courts have been wise to do so. The Article explains how commentators have argued that federal intellectual property law should have preempted Bowers’ claims for breach of a shrinkwrap license prohibition on reverse …

Patents And Regulatory Exclusivity, Rebecca S. Eisenberg

Book Chapters

This article reexamines the sources of exclusivity for drugs, considers their limitations, and evaluates exclusivity under the new biologics legislation in light of these limitations. The current overlapping legal protections for exclusivity in the pharmaceutical marketplace reflect a series of political compromises, repeatedly renegotiated to correct for unintended consequences in the previous version of the rules. Patents and patent challenges play a central role in this system of protection, and many of the patents at stake are ultimately held invalid in litigation. It is not easy to untangle a complex legal regime that allocates billions of dollars of profits. But …

State Sovereign Immunity And Intellectual Property Revisited, Michael Landau

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

E-Incitement: A Framework For Regulating The Incitement Of Criminal Flash Mobs, Hannah Steinblatt

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Beyond The Unrealistic Solution For Development Provided By The Appendix Of The Berne Convention On Copyright, Alberto Cerda Silva

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

The standards of copyright protection promoted by the Berne Convention are highly problematic for developing countries because these countries need to ensure a wide dissemination of works for teaching, scholarship, and research purposes. In order to accommodate these needs and to promote accession to this Convention, the 1971 Paris Act of the Berne Convention, included an Appendix that allowed developing countries to issue compulsory licenses for translating and/or reproducing foreign works into languages of general use in their territories. Unfortunately, the Appendix has not met the needs of developing countries, which, instead, have relied on idiosyncratic solutions. Additionally, the instrument …