Recent Articles on Copyright
DIGITAL SAMPLING OF MUSIC AND COPYRIGHTS: IS IT INFRINGEMENT, FAIR USE, OR SHOULD WE JUST FLIP A COIN?
D.J. Girl Talk is one of the budding artists in the music industry today, and his instrument is a laptop. D.J. Girl Talk (hereinafter also referred to as “Girl Talk”), whose real name is Gregg Gillis, “samples,” or uses short clips, from other artists’ songs to create popular dance music. Girl Talk’s songs combine old, contemporary, and downright odd genres of... Read More
File Sharing: A Tool for Innovation, or a Criminal Instrument?
The dawn of peer-to-peer networks and the subsequent rise of file sharing over the Internet have proved to be a considerable threat to the revenues of the Recording...
ON FEDERAL PREEMPTION OF CONTRACTUAL FIRST SALE WAIVERS
History has venerated the free transfer of tangible property, and this is partly why students of copyright law can purchase their textbooks “used” at discount...
A CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO DECEIVE?: THE FIRST AMENDMENT IMPLICATIONS OF REGULATING PAY PER CLICK
Mainstream search engines derive their principal source of revenue from advertising. [1] Pay Per Click Advertising (hereinafter “Paid Placement”) is one of the most...
Recent Articles on Trademark
A CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO DECEIVE?: THE FIRST AMENDMENT IMPLICATIONS OF REGULATING PAY PER CLICK
Mainstream search engines derive their principal source of revenue from advertising. [1] Pay Per Click Advertising (hereinafter “Paid Placement”) is one of the most widely utilized advertising practices, offering content providers the opportunity to create short textual advertisements hyperlinked to their website. [2] Providers bid on keywords associated with their... Read More
IS GENERICIDE A MATTER OF FACT OR OF MERIT?
In Bayer Co. v. United Drug Co., one of the most well-known genericide cases, Learned Hand famously pronounced: The single question, as I view it, in all these...
“FAIR USE” TRUMPS LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION IN TRADEMARK LAW THE SUPREME COURT RULES IN KP PERMANENT v. LASTING IMPRESSION
In KP Permanent Make-Up, Inc., v. Lasting Impression I, Inc., the U.S. Supreme Court held that a defendant asserting the affirmative defense of fair use in response to a...
THE BEST OFFENSE IS A GOOD DEFENSE: HOW THE WASHINGTON REDSKINS OVERCAME CHALLENGES TO THEIR REGISTERED TRADEMARKS
In 1999, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB”) decided Harjo v. Pro-Football, Inc., in which a group of Native Americans (the “Petitioners”) alleged that...
Recent Articles on Patent
PATENT LITIGATION: WHAT ABOUT QUALIFICATION STANDARDS FOR COURT APPOINTED EXPERTS?
Abstract–“The descriptions in patents are not addressed to the public generally, to lawyers or to judges, but, as [35 U.S.C.] section 112 states, to those skilled in the art to which the invention pertains ***.” [1] This leads to a tenet of patent law, that the meaning of patents and claim terms must be construed by a person of ordinary skill in the relevant... Read More
PROVERIS v. INNOVASYSTEMS: REDEFINING A PATENTED INVENTION UNDER § 271(E)(1): An Examination of the Federal Circuit’s Narrowing of the § 271(e)(1) “Safe Harbor” Exemption
The Food and Drug Administration’s (“FDA”) regulation of drugs and medical devices impacts the everyday lives of Americans in both noticeable and inconspicuous...
THE BIOLOGICS PRICE COMPETITION AND INNOVATION ACT: INNOVATION MUST COME BEFORE PRICE COMPETITION
Unlike traditional pharmaceutical drugs, which are small molecule compounds synthesized by chemists, biologics are typically large molecules that are produced in living...
ROUNDING UP PLANT PATENTS & OTHER GROWING PATENT CONCERNS A COMMENT ON MONSANTO v. SCHMEISER
On the heels of their ubiquitous and controversial decision in Harvard College v. Canada (Commissioner of Patents) (the so-called ‘Harvard Mouse’ case), [1] the...