Prof. Doug Lichtman, UCLA School of Law June 23, 2015 Hedge-fund manager Kyle Bass has been widely criticized in recent months, with newspaper editorials, advocacy organizations, and even some members of Congress publicly condemning Bass’s strategy of using a relatively new Patent Office procedure to challenge particular pharmaceutical patents while at the same time shorting [...]

Prof. Doug Lichtman, UCLA School of Law April 23, 2015 Every year, I close my “survey” intellectual property course by spending a few days talking about trademark law.  My main message is that trademark law is a legal regime designed to facilitate clear communication.  I point out that it would be monstrously difficult were I [...]

Prof. Doug Lichtman, UCLA School of Law February 9, 2015 I have been making the rounds the last few weeks, talking with bar organizations and student groups about the most important patent and copyright moments of this past year.  My standard talk touches on some familiar cases, like the Supreme Court’s Aereo decision, or the [...]

Prof. Doug Lichtman, UCLA School of Law December 15, 2014 Jane Ginsburg wrote earlier this month about Garcia v. Google, a controversial Ninth Circuit decision that is now pending for en banc review.  Her piece is excellent; but I have to admit that, even after reading Jane’s article, I remain baffled by the case. The [...]

Prof. Doug Lichtman, UCLA School of Law October 15, 2014 Nearly 25 years ago, Judge Pierre Leval published what would become an enormously influential article on copyright’s fair use doctrine.  The Leval article emphasized that an unauthorized use of copyrighted materials is more likely to be a fair use if it is “transformative”; that is, [...]

Prof. Doug Lichtman, UCLA School of Law August 11, 2014 My colleagues and I have written a great deal about copyright law’s “fair use” doctrine on this site over the years.  We have disagreed about cases, and we have struggled with various aspects of the standard fair use test.  Through all of those discussions, however, [...]

Prof. Doug Lichtman, UCLA School of Law July 3, 2014 The Supreme Court has now spoken in Aereo, and my colleagues here and elsewhere are actively discussing the Court’s opinion and its implications.  I will join that conversation at some point down the road, but for now I want to take a slightly different approach [...]

Prof. Doug Lichtman, UCLA School of Law April 30, 2014 As copyright aficionados well know, the Aereo case raises what is widely perceived to be a thorny issue: If Aereo engages in public performance, wouldn’t that same logic imply that cloud storage providers like DropBox also engage in public performance?  Arguing at the Supreme Court [...]

Prof. Doug Lichtman, UCLA School of Law December 20, 2013 The fair use doctrine is one of the most important statutory constraints on copyright protection.  As readers here surely know, the doctrine empowers courts to excuse, on policy grounds, certain acts that would otherwise constitute copyright infringement.  The doctrine ensures the viability of a whole [...]

Prof. Doug Lichtman, UCLA School of Law October 10, 2013 Like many readers here, I made mix tapes back when I was in high school.  I would put a blank cassette into my “boombox”; wait for a favorite song to play on the radio; and then record the song on tape.  The result would be [...]