Intellectual Property Law

Did the US gov't sell exclusive access to its legislative history to Thomson West?Boing Boing

Posted on March 17, 2008
Rogue archivist Carl Malamud writes, John Wonderlich of the Sunlight Foundation alerted me to a situation about a month ago that we've been pursuing (with EFF's help) at the Government Accountability Office, which is an arm of the U.S. Congress. The law librarians at GAO have compiled complete federal legislative histories from 1915 on...

Eliot Spitzer and those Nude PhotosThe Patry Copyright Blog

Posted on March 17, 2008
Last week, those of us in the New York metropolitan area, were treated to a constant barrage of news stories about now former (as of today) NY governor Eliot Spitzer's dallying with prostitutes, including "Kristen," a/k/a Ashley Alexandra Dupre, a/k/a Ashley Youmans...

TWiL 13: Domain Name Lawthis WEEK in LAW

Posted on March 17, 2008
Hosts: Denise Howell, Bret Fausett, Cathy Kirkman, Collette Vogele, and Marty Schwimmer WikiLeaks, Julius Baer, Dynadot, registrars, domain tasting vs. front running, ICANN, Network Solutions, and more. Talking points: http://del.icio.us/thisweekinlaw/13...

Is Godaddy a Mass Cybersquatter?The Legal Satyricon

Posted on March 16, 2008
We have all bumped into pay-per-click sites while looking for actually useful information. You know these sites. You type in a domain name, fully expecting to find a useful website, and all you find is a sponsored link generic page. The Periplaneta Americana of the Internet What you findat motoguzzi...

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EFF Celebrates Sunshine WeekThe Electronic Frontier Foundation | Deeplinks Blogs

Posted on March 16, 2008
The principles of open government are promoted and celebrated each year during Sunshine Week ? observed this year March 16-22. The weeklong initiative is built around National Freedom of Information Day, which has been celebrated since the 1970s on March 16, James Madison?s birthday...

Harry Potter and the Lexicon of Fair UseInfo/Law

Posted on March 15, 2008
No, it?s not the eighth installment of the Rowling series - rather, it?s the latest installment of the ongoing legal fistfight over RDR Books and Steven Vander Ark?s attempt to publish a book version of the on-line guide to the Harry Potter wizarding world...

IP Think Tank Global Week in Review - 14 March 2008Duncan Bucknell's site updates

Posted on March 15, 2008
Here is IP Think Tank?s weekly selection of top intellectual property news breaking in the blogosphere and internet. Please join the discussion by adding your comments on any of these stories, and please do let me know if you think we?ve missed something important, or if there is a source you think should be monitored...

Fair Use and the APWhat is Fair Use?

Posted on March 15, 2008
The Associated Press is being accused of copyright infringement due to distributing personal pictures from an individual's Myspace account through the wire services. The individual is Ashley Youmans AKA Ashley Alexandra Dupre, AKA Kristen, of Eliot Spitzer fame, and she is claiming that AP did not ask permission before using her personal photographs for their stories...

RIAA's unethical investigations to be dragged into the open in court caseBoing Boing

Posted on March 14, 2008
Tanya Andersen, a single mom in Oregon who was unsuccessfully sued by the RIAA, is countersuing, and her lawyer is planning to use the suit to drag all the tawdry details of the RIAA's sneaky, unethical "investigation" techniques into the open: Lybeck tells Ars that he'll be digging into agreements between the RIAA, RIAA member companies, MediaSentry, and the Settlement Support Sentry...

Patently-O Bits and Bytes No. 22Patent Law Blog (Patently-O)

Posted on March 14, 2008
Question on Patent Issuance: I know that I have read this before ? Is there a standard time that patents issue?  E.g., is it proper to file a patent infringement case at 12:01 am on the day that the patent is scheduled to issue? What if the PTO?s website is delayed in its update? What about filing at 12:00:01 am? Ward v...

Friday IP Roundup: Pi EitionPatent Baristas

Posted on March 14, 2008
Today is Pi Day 2008.  Pi, Greek letter (), is the symbol for the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. Pi = 3.1415926535? Pi Day is celebrated by math enthusiasts around the world on March 14th at 1:59 p.m.  The first theoretical calculation of a value of pi was by Archimedes of Syracuse (287-212 BC)...

Patents, Property, and Corporations: a Historical and Economic ReminderPatent Prospector

Posted on March 14, 2008
Economists Bessen and Meurer have published a book, Patent Failure, detailing the results of their study of the economic benefits of the patent system. In their own words, a central theme in the conclusions from their study is that "patents often fail to perform effectively as property rights...

Litman on Fair UseLegal Theory Blog

Posted on March 14, 2008
Jessica Litman (University of Michigan) has posted Billowing White Goo (Columbia Journal of Law & the Arts, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:In this paper, written for a symposium on Fair Use: Incredibly Expanding or Extraordinarily Shrinking?, I argue that the size of the fair use footprint has remained about the same over the past three decades, while the size and scope of copyright's exclusive rights have expanded markedly...

minilinks for 2008-03-14The Electronic Frontier Foundation | Deeplinks Blogs

Posted on March 14, 2008
Analysis: Firm Stance on FISA Pays Big for DemocratsConfronting the President on spying powers turns out to be a better strategy than capitulation. President Weakens Spying OversightThe Intelligence Oversight Board has been stripped of much of its authority -- reversing reforms of the 70s...

Global minilinks for 2008-03-14The Electronic Frontier Foundation | Deeplinks Blogs

Posted on March 14, 2008
Italian Privacy Authority Upholds Privacy of P2P Users' IP addressesGoogle translation of court decision defending 3000 Italian P2P users, whose IP addresses were obtained by German label Peppermint. License Plate Surveillance 'The Hallmarks of a Totalitarian State', Says German Supreme CourtRoundly rejects the technology from being used in the country...

What do file-sharers have in common with discriminatory renters?43(B)log

Posted on March 14, 2008
Answer: Not a secondary liability regime.Eric Goldman blogged about the decision in Chicago Lawyers? Committee for Civil Rights Under Law v. Craigslist, Inc., No. 07-1101 (7th Cir. March 14, 2008). He says, ?I don?t think there?s much value to parsing [Judge Easterbrook?s] confusing statutory analysis? to figure out how the case comports with past Seventh Circuit precedent, and I won?t fight him on that, but there?s a sentence in the opinion that cries out for correction: ?Grokster is incompatible with treating §230(c)(1) as a grant of comprehensive immunity from civil liability for content provided by a third party...

The Unpleasantries of Service of ProcessThe Patry Copyright Blog

Posted on March 14, 2008
How do you obtain personal jurisdiction over a defendant in a copyright case? Personal jurisdiction is, in federal question cases such as copyright, intertwined with service of process. A suit for copyright infringement is instituted by the filing of a complaint with the clerk of the district court and serving a copy of the complaint along with a summons on the defendant...

RIAA's unethical investigations to be dragged into the open in court caseBoing Boing

Posted on March 14, 2008
Tanya Andersen, a single mom in Oregon who was unsuccessfully sued by the RIAA, is countersuing, and her lawyer is planning to use the suit to drag all the tawdry details of the RIAA's sneaky, unethical "investigation" techniques into the open: Lybeck tells Ars that he'll be digging into agreements between the RIAA, RIAA member companies, MediaSentry, and the Settlement Support Sentry...

Bodo on CopynormsLegal Theory Blog

Posted on March 13, 2008
Balazs Bodo has a nice post on copynorms (the social norms governing the conduct regulated by copyright law) on his CIS blog.  Here is a taste:For me the question is not if there is a way to change norms to cover current copyright legislation, but the healthy compromise where these two can meet...

eBay Denied 230 Defense for Its Marketing Representations--Mazur v. eBayTechnology & Marketing Law Blog

Posted on March 13, 2008
By Eric Goldman Mazur v. eBay Inc., 2008 WL 618988 (N.D. Cal. March 4, 2008) I declared Monday "47 USC...

Patently-O Bits and Bytes No. 21Patent Law Blog (Patently-O)

Posted on March 13, 2008
Disclose Disclose Disclose: APJ Richard Lebovitz argues (on his own) that scientific researchers should be required to disclose potential patent rights prior to publication of related research as part of the conflict-of-interest review. [6 Nw. J. of Tech...

Interpreting the DMCAMedia Law Prof Blog

Posted on March 13, 2008
Timothy K. Armstrong, University of Cincinnati College of Law, has published "Fair Circumvention" as University of Cincinnati Public Law Research Paper 08-08. Here is the abstract. Judicial decisions construing the key liability provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA),...

Dumpster Diving Leads to VARA SuitThe Legal Satyricon

Posted on March 13, 2008
Art dealer or VARA Scofflaw? Here?s an interesting one, found at On Point News. It isn?t very often that you see a VARA suit, but we have one going on in the Middle District of Florida. Artist Robert Rauschenberg is suing artist Robert Fontaine for selling works of art that bear certificates of authenticity attesting to the fact that Rauschenberg created them...

RateMyCop censored by GoDaddyBoing Boing

Posted on March 12, 2008
RateMyCop.com -- a site where the general public can comment on police officers -- has been shut down by its hosting company, GoDaddy. The company claims his site had been engaged in "suspicious activity." Various police departments and organizations have spoken out against RateMyCop, arguing that it would reveal the identities of undercovers (undercovers are not listed on RateMyCop) or put police in danger by revealing their addresses and personal information (personal information and addresses are not given on RateMyCop), or that it would be used to grind axes against cops (RateMyCop has a facility for police rebuttal)...

Old is New ? Satire v. ParodyThe Legal Satyricon

Posted on March 12, 2008
I?ve always been a bit uncomfortable with how the 9th Circuit dealt with the Cat in the Hat case. Dr. Seuss Enters., L.P., v. Penguin Books USA, Inc., 109 F.3d 1394 (9th Cir. 1997). I just came across a 1998 article by Santa Clara intellectual property professor, Tyler Ochoa...

Troll Tracker, Defamation, and Splitting the BarPatent Law Blog (Patently-O)

Posted on March 12, 2008
Rick Frenkel ? who until recently was known only as the Patent Troll Tracker ? has now been sued for defamation by two Eastern District of Texas lawyers: Johnny Ward, Jr. and Eric Albritton.  Frenkel recently revealed himself as an IP Director at Cisco Systems...

USC IP Institute 17 and 18 March 2008The IP ADR Blog

Posted on March 12, 2008
Mike Young writes to tell us that the USC IP Institute is coming up on March 17 and 18. See brochure below.  Mike is moderating a panel on fair use with a a group of experts, including Tony Falzone. Tony is with Stanford's Fair Use Project, and is currently in hot litigation with J...

The Great ?Cockaholic? Battle - Ornamentation vs. Trademark UseThe Legal Satyricon

Posted on March 12, 2008
Niiice Cock Urban Dictionary defines ?cockaholic? as ?someone with an insatiable lust for the shaft.? With the term defined, you would think that you would have to enter an alternate universe to find two parties arguing over who is the true ?cockaholic...

A Free Speech Double Whammy: Flawed Anti-Phishing Bill Would Dilute Trademark Fair Use and Anonymity ProtectionsThe Electronic Frontier Foundation | Deeplinks Blogs

Posted on March 12, 2008
Congress is contemplating a so-called ?Anti-Phishing Consumer Protection Act? (APCPA) that takes an odd view of consumer protection. In the name of stopping phishing schemes, Senator Olympia Snowe has introduced S. 2661, a bill that would expand trademark law, limit consumer access to information about competitive products, and eviscerate key protections for anonymous speech...

Michael Eisner and the History of CopyrightThe Patry Copyright Blog

Posted on March 12, 2008
There have been a number of reports on Michael Eisner's statement during an interview at the SXSW on Tuesday that:I have a long history, obviously, of believing in copyright. I think basically what separated this country from the rest of the world was patents and copyrights...

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