Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

Table Of Contents & Introductory Material

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

When Statute And Judicial Doctrine Collide: Doctrine Prevails, Derek Rhea

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.

The Need For Corporate Guardrails In U.S. Industrial Policy, Lenore Palladino

Seattle University Law Review

U.S. politicians are actively “marketcrafting”: the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act collectively mark a new moment of robust industrial policy. However, these policies are necessarily layered on top of decades of shareholder primacy in corporate governance, in which corporate and financial leaders have prioritized using corporate profits to increase the wealth of shareholders. The Administration and Congress have an opportunity to use industrial policy to encourage a broader reorientation of U.S. businesses away from extractive shareholder primacy and toward innovation and productivity. This Article examines discrete opportunities within the …

Securities Regulation And Administrative Deference In The Roberts Court, Eric C. Chaffee

Seattle University Law Review

In A History of Securities Law in the Supreme Court, A.C. Pritchard and Robert B. Thompson write, “Securities law offers an illuminating window into the Supreme Court’s administrative law jurisprudence over the last century. The securities cases provide one of the most accessible illustrations of key transitions of American law.” A main reason for this is that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is a bellwether among administrative agencies, and as a result, A History of Securities Law in the Supreme Court is a history of administrative law in the Supreme Court of the United States as well.

Delegated Corporate Voting And The Deliberative Franchise, Sarah C. Haan

Seattle University Law Review

Starting in the 1930s with the earliest version of the proxy rules, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has gradually increased the proportion of “instructed” votes on the shareholder’s proxy card until, for the first time in 2022, it required a fully instructed proxy card. This evolution effectively shifted the exercise of the shareholder’s vote from the shareholders’ meeting to the vote delegation that occurs when the share-holder fills out the proxy card. The point in the electoral process when the binding voting choice is communicated is now the execution of the proxy card (assuming the shareholder completes the card …

Capitalism Stakeholderism, Christina Parajon Skinner

Seattle University Law Review

Today’s corporate governance debates are replete with discussion of how best to operationalize so-called stakeholder capitalism—that is, a version of capitalism that considers the interests of employees, communities, suppliers, and the environment alongside (if not before) a company’s shareholders. So much focus has been dedicated to the question of capitalism’s reform that few have questioned a key underlying premise of stakeholder capitalism: that is, that competitive capitalism does not serve these various constituencies and groups. This Essay presents a different view and argues that capitalism is, in fact, the ultimate form of stakeholderism. As such, the Essay urges that the …

The Esg Information System, Stavros Gadinis, Amelia Miazad

Seattle University Law Review

The mounting focus on ESG has forced internal corporate decision-making into the spotlight. Investors are eager to support companies in innovative “green” technologies and scrutinize companies’ transition plans. Activists are targeting boards whose decisions appear too timid or insufficiently explained. Consumers and employees are incorporating companies sustainability credentials in their purchasing and employment decisions. These actors are asking companies for better information, higher quality reports, and granular data. In response, companies are producing lengthy sustainability reports, adopting ambitious purpose statements, and touting their sustainability credentials. Understandably, concerns about greenwashing and accountability abound, and policymakers are preparing for action.

In this …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

The Marijuana Insurgency: Federalism And Social Reframing In Policy Reform, Matthew P. Cavedon

Seattle University Law Review

After fifty years of federal prohibition, marijuana reform efforts have won political and legal success. These victories hold lessons for anyone seeking to resist federal law without being able to directly affect it.

Victory can come from reframing an issue. For marijuana reform, social reframing—not formal legal analysis or material factors—provides the best explanation for how advocates achieved change. Their unconventional political tactics, akin to those used by insurgents in wartime, undercut federal prohibition by winning hearts and minds.

This is an analysis of the sociology of legal change. It is also the story of how ordinary Americans retook personal …

The Emerging Name, Image, And Likeness Industry And The Perils Of Appropriating "Entrepreneurial" Collegiate Athletes' And "Vengeful" Minors' Property Interests - Historical And Empirical Guidance From Courts' Rights Of Publicity, Misappropriation, And Breach Of Contract Decisions, Willy E. Rice

Faculty Articles

From the late-1880s to the early-2020s, universities and the collegiate sports industry exploited millions of "college kids" as well as their parent investors by preventing "entrepreneurial athletes" from monetizing their names, images, and likenesses (NILs). Yet, during the same era, the collegiate-athletics industry like the movie and music industries appropriated young people's NILs and pocketed billions of dollars. In 2021, the Supreme Court decided NCAA v. Alston and embraced the Ninth Circuit's ruling in O'Bannon v. NCAA. Ostensibly, these decisions and thirty plus state NIL statutes terminated the "official" exploitation of students. Currently, entrepreneurial students and some parents may commercialize …

Artificial Intelligence (Ai) In Patent Practice: No Patent Attorneys Were Harmed In The Making Of This Ai Revolution (Book), Roberto Rosas, Juan Vasquez, Dianisa Erica Sosa, Francisco Javier Hernandez-Rodriguez, Daniel Kovach

Faculty Articles

This book provides a comprehensive examination of the rapidly evolving role of artificial intelligence (AI) in the patent law profession. Rather than a traditional legal text, this work offers an in-depth exploration of the profound impacts AI will have on patent attorneys' workflows and practices.

The central inquiry posies whether AI will ultimately replace patent attorneys or serve as a powerful complementary technology. This study contends that AI is poised to become an indispensable tool that augments and enhances the patent attorney's capabilities rather than renders them obsolete. Through detailed analysis of a patent attorney's typical workweek utilizing AI assistance, …

Front Matter

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Fall Of Z-Library: The “Burning Of The Library Of Alexandria” Or Protection For Authors Against Ai Companies, Lisa Silveira

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

The development and advancement of artificial intelligence (“AI”) is changing the way we use technology while creating an ongoing battle between media and technology companies. With AI companies gathering data from the internet to train programs like ChatGPT, authors have growing concerns about unpermitted use of their work when pirated copies of their books exist illegally online through shadow libraries. This article examines the popular shadow library known as Z-Library and the views of its proponents and opponents. In addition, this article will discuss the training process AI companies use and the data sets containing content from shadow libraries. While …

Front Matter

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

No abstract provided.

Computers, Credit, And Human Dignity, Jonathan Weinberg

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

Credit scores determine a person’s life chances. The credit scores we’re all used to, calculated by Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion, take as inputs a person’s payment history, loans, current debt, and similar financial information. But that world is changing. Modern alternative data models for credit scoring can go so far as to include an individual’s educational record, criminal history, shopping behavior, or telephone patterns. Activists, regulators, and scholars have expressed serious concerns about these new credit systems. Do they classify applicants on unfair or arbitrary grounds? Do they perpetuate, or even amplify, bias and pre-existing inequality?

Participants in this conversation …

Legal Issues In Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, And Non-Fungible Tokens (Nfts), Christa Laser

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

When do new technologies require changes in the law? Judge Easterbrook argued in 1996 that there is no more need for a "Law of Cyberspace" than there ever was for a "Law of the Horse." Rather, existing laws spanning multiple fields are often sufficient to cover niche factual applications and even new technological change. The same is true now for "The Law of Blockchain." Nonetheless, blockchain marketplace participants lack any cohesive, useful analysis to tum to that is neutral in outcome and performs a comprehensive analysis spanning the multitude of laws affecting the whole ecosystem. We might not need a …

Trademarks On The Blockchain: Nft Domains And Collisions, Jelena Laketić

Michigan Technology Law Review

Blockchain technology supporting cryptocurrency transactions is one of the most critical innovations of this decade. Establishing a legal identity on blockchain, however, is fraught with uncertainty. In the 1990s, the internet faced a similar set of issues, which were resolved through the ICANN dispute resolution system. This Article asserts that blockchain technology urgently needs a similar cohesive approach to NFT domains.

This Article will explore trademark issues with non-fungible tokens (NFTs), specifically NFT domains. It begins by exploring the fundamental structure of NFTs by demystifying the technology and showing how NFTs contrast with other currency regimes. Increased usage of NFTs …

A Series Of Historical Accidents, Christopher S. Storm

Michigan Technology Law Review

The Patent Act of 1946 banned infringer profit awards in utility patent cases by restricting all compensatory awards, including reasonable royalties, to the value of actual damages suffered and by eliminating infringer profits from reasonable royalty estimations. In 1964, the Supreme Court confirmed in Aro Manufacturing v. Convertible Top Replacement Co. that the 1946 Act limits reasonable royalty awards to the amount of the patentee’s actual damages, which courts must assess without regard to the value gained by the infringer. Subsequent courts, however, have ignored the 1946 Act and its correct interpretation in Aro, opting instead to permit …

Innovation Originators, Tabrez Y. Ebrahim, Rafeel Wasif

Michigan Technology Law Review

Asian Americans are one of the most striking and undertheorized ethnic groups in the field of innovation. While a prolific ethnic group when it comes to being named as inventors on U.S. patents, very little has been written on this observation, perhaps because of previously limited datasets and unwieldy data analysis on ethnic backgrounds about patenting at the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO). Research on inventor diversity and ethnicity in innovation has begun to explore some ethnic groups, but a more holistic account should focus on one particular overlooked group. Recently, entrepreneurship studies concerning ethnicity have shown that …

Ai, Artists, And Anti-Moral Rights, Derek E. Bambauer, Robert W. Woods

UF Law Faculty Publications

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools are increasingly used to imitate the distinctive characteristics of famous artists, such as their voice, likeness, and style. In response, legislators have introduced bills in Congress that would confer moral rights protections, such as control over attribution and integrity, upon artists. This Essay argues such measures are almost certain to fail because of deep-seated, pervasive hostility to moral rights measures in U.S. intellectual property law. It analyses both legislative measures and judicial decisions that roll back moral rights, and explores how copyright’s authorship doctrines manifest a latent hostility to these entitlements. The Essay concludes with …