Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

Twittering Away The Right Of Publicity: Personality Rights And Celebrity Impersonation On Social Networking Websites, Andrew M. Jung

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Within the past couple of years, social networking websites have become an immensely popular destination for people from all walks of life. Websites like Facebook and Twitter now count tens of millions of worldwide users, including world leaders and a number of celebrities. Eventually, users realized that social networking websites lent themselves to the quick and easy impersonation of celebrities through the creation of fake social networking accounts, often as a form of parody. One subject of such impersonation was professional baseball manager Tony La Russa, who took the then-unprecedented step of suing his impersonators and Twitter over the incident. …

Dependent On The Jury: Anticipation And Obviousness Of Dependent Patent Claims And Irreconcilable Jury Verdicts, Patrick Bickley

Chicago-Kent Law Review

A jury verdict finding an independent claim valid but a related dependent claim either anticipated or obvious is irreconcilable. However, the Federal Circuit has used the inconsistencies between regional circuits on the issue of jury verdicts to reach different outcomes in similar cases based solely on the region in which the patent case originated. This note advocates a modification to the Federal Circuit's rule of deference to consider irreconcilable verdicts of independent and dependent claims under its own independent analysis. A consistent approach allowing for appellate review regardless of post-verdict motions is advocated, although a more modest position of requiring …

Real-Life Protection For Fictional Trademarks, Benjamin M. Arrow

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Google-Nsa Alliance: Developing Cybersecurity Policy At Internet Speed, Stephanie A. Devos

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Struggling With Sunshine: Analyzing The Impact Of Technology On Compliance With Open Government Laws Using Florida As A Case Study, Sandra F. Chance, Christine M. Locke

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Judges Playing Jury: Constitutional Conflicts In Deciding Fair Use On Summary Judgment, Ned Snow

Faculty Publications

Issues of fair use in copyright cases are usually decided at summary judgment. But it was not always so. For well over a century, juries routinely decided these issues. The law recognized that fair use issues were highly subjective and thereby inherently factual — unfit for summary disposition by a judge. Today, however, all this has been forgotten. Judges are characterizing factual issues as purely legal so that fair use may be decided at summary judgment. Even while judges acknowledge that reasonable minds may disagree on these issues, they characterize the issues as legal, preventing them from ever reaching a …

The Deidentification Dilemma: A Legislative And Contractual Proposal, Robert Gellman

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Written Description: Protecting The Quid Pro Quo Since 1793, Jacob Adam Schroeder

Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Exhausted Or Unlicensed: Can Field-Of-Use Restrictions In Biotech License Agreements Still Prevent Off-Label Use Promotion After Quanta Computer?, Kristal M. Wicks

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “In the biotechnology (biotech) industry, companies must be increasingly aware of their intellectual property and how their licensing strategies can impact their rights. When licensing patented technology, it is common practice for biotech companies to include restricted field-of-use provisions in their license agreements. Such provisions permit a licensee to only use licensed technology in a defined field and restrict use or development in another field. This licensing strategy plays an important role within the biotech industry because it allows companies to more effectively control their intellectual property and to more efficiently research and develop pharmaceutical products.

A problem that …

The Wrong Tool For The Job: The Ip Problem With Noncompetition Agreements, Viva R. Moffat

William & Mary Law Review

This Article argues that employee noncompetition agreements ought to be unenforceable. It begins by recognizing that there is momentum for change in the law of noncompetes: a number of states and the American Law Institute (ALI) are in the process of reconsidering noncompete doctrine, and recent empirical studies provide evidence as to the mostly negative effects of the agreements. Existing critiques have focused on the problematic nature of noncompetes within the employment relationship. This Article synthesizes those critiques, adding support from empirical studies, and then examines noncompetes from a new perspective.

Commentators have neither recognized nor evaluated the role noncompetes …

Applying Copyright Abandonment In The Digital Age, Matthew W. Turetzky

Duke Law & Technology Review

Copyright law protects orphan and parented works equally--but it shouldn't. Consequently, current law unnecessarily restrains public access to works that authors have not exercised dominion over for decades. This problem has come to the fore in the Google Books settlement, which critics argue will give Google a de facto monopoly over orphan works. But this criticism implicates an obvious question: Why are orphan works protected by copyright law in the first place? If orphan works were in the public domain, then no one would worry about Google's supposed "monopoly" because Google's competitors would be free to copy the works without …

Standards × Patents ÷ Antitrust = ∞: The Inadequacy Of Antitrust To Address Patent Ambush, Jonathan Hillel

Duke Law & Technology Review

"Patent ambush" describes certain rent-seeking behavior by the owner of patent rights to a technology that is essential to an industry standard. Two cases, Qualcomm and Rambus, represent attempts of the Third and D.C. Circuits, respectively, to address patent ambushes using federal antitrust statutes. In both cases, antitrust law proves inadequate to the task. Under Qualcomm, licensees gain too much power to extort undervalued royalty rates from patent holders who have disclosed their rights during standard-setting. Under Rambus, coupled with the dearth of other options to combat patent ambushes, non-disclosing patent holders are given free reign over standardized markets, to …

Limitation Of Sales Warranties As An Alternative To Intellectual Property Rights: An Empirical Analysis Of Iphone Warranties’ Deterrent Impact On Consumers, Marc L. Roark

Duke Law & Technology Review

Apple's success with the Apple iPhone has brought with it certain problems. Its success has engendered a community that has attempted to circumvent Apple's exclusive service agreement with AT&T. Unfortunately for Apple (and similarly situated manufacturers), intellectual property law allows consumers to alter their products so as to circumvent relationships that manufacturers may have with others. The patent and copyright law first sale doctrine allows consumers to manipulate a product after it is purchased. As a result, manufacturers are increasingly turning to alternatives to intellectual property to secure control over the device after the sale. One such alternative is the …

From Music Tracks To Google Maps: Who Owns Computer-Generated Works?, Mark Perry, Thomas Margoni

Law Publications

Increasingly the digital content used in everyday life has little or no human intervention in its creation. Typically, when such content is delivered to consumers it comes with attached claims of copyright. However, depending on the jurisdiction, approaches to ownership of computer-generated works vary from legislated to uncertain. In this paper we look at the various approaches taken by the common law, such as in Canada, and the legislative approach taken in the United Kingdom. The options for how computer-generated works may be treated and suggestions for their best placement in copyright are discussed.

First Amendment Based Copyright Misuse, David S. Olson

William & Mary Law Review

We are at a crossroads with respect to the underdeveloped equitable defense of copyright misuse. The defense may go the way of its sibling, antitrust-based patent misuse, which seems to be in a state of inevitable decline. Or—if judges accept the proposal of this Article—courts could reinvigorate the copyright misuse defense to better protect First Amendment speech that is guaranteed by statute, but that is often chilled by copyright holders misusing their copyrights to control others’ speech. The Copyright Act serves First Amendment interests by encouraging authors to create works. But copyright law can also discourage the creation of new …

Reconsidering The Georgia-Pacific Standard For Reasonable Royalty Patent Damages, Christopher B. Seaman

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Reinventing Usefulness, Michael Risch

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Owning Mark(Et)S, Mark A. Lemley, Mark P. Mckenna

Michigan Law Review

Trademark owners regularly rely on claims that the defendant is "free riding" on their mark by making money using that mark, money the trademark owners say should belong to them. We analyze those free-riding claims and find them wanting. The empirical data shows that defendants in unrelated markets can benefit from using a well-known mark, but that neither mark owners nor consumers suffer any injury from that use. A legal claim that a defendant is unjustly benefiting by using a plaintiff's mark is hollow unless it is accompanied by a theory of why that benefit should rightly belong to the …

The Pragmatic Incrementalism Of Common Law Intellectual Property, Shyamkrishna Balganesh

Vanderbilt Law Review

Intellectual property is today thought to be principally of statutory origin. Discussions of the subject invariably revolve around a close scrutiny of the federal statutes involved. Indeed, the frequency with which Congress amends the patent and copyright statutes seems to leave little doubt that it alone determines intellectual property's precise content and coverage.' Nevertheless, there exists a rather robust body of state law that is almost entirely the creation of state courts and is directed at creating entitlements in information, ideas, expression, goodwill, one's image, and other related intangibles. These rights regimes are in turn collectively referred to as "common …

No One Ever Died From Copyright Infringement: The Inducement Doctrine's Applicability To Firearms Manufacturer Liability, Shane Wagman

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.