Prof. Randal C. Picker, University of Chicago Law School February 10, 2016 For roughly the last two years, I have been taking improv classes, first at Chicago’s legendary Second City and more recently at iO (equally well-known in the comedy community but probably less well-known to the general public; iO used to be known as [...]
Prof. Randal C. Picker, University of Chicago Law School October 13, 2015 That is the clickbait headline for last week’s Ninth Circuit decision in Bikram’s Yoga College of India, L.P. v. Evolation Yoga, LLC. The issue in the case was whether a particular set of so-called hot yoga practices could be copyrighted. The Ninth Circuit [...]
Prof. Randal C. Picker, University of Chicago Law School August 6, 2015 I am in the middle of a media/education experiment. I suspect that I am reaching the point of the new parent armed with a cell phone who wants to show you just one more picture of the new baby, but maybe I can [...]
Prof. Randal C. Picker, University of Chicago Law School June 5, 2015 On May 18, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued its eagerly awaited en banc opinion in Garcia v. Google. More than a year ago, in a 2-to-1 decision, the Ninth Circuit had found that Garcia had a sufficient likelihood [...]
Prof. Randal C. Picker, University of Chicago Law School March 16, 2015 On Feb. 26, 2015, the Federal Communications Commission announced its new Open Internet Rules (what the rest of the world calls network neutrality), but it didn’t actually release the rules until this past Thursday, March 12, 2015. The rules themselves are quite short, [...]
Prof. Randal C. Picker, University of Chicago Law School February 25, 2015 Software patents are extraordinarily controversial. In 2011, the White House was asked through its online petition set-up to direct the patent office to cease issuing software patents. The White House declined, noting that Congress was in charge of the general scope of patent [...]
Prof. Randal C. Picker, University of Chicago Law School January 7, 2015 It is the season for movie awards. Movie reviewers are checking their lists twice to see who has been naughty and nice. And some movies are released right at the end of the year to a limited number of theaters so as to [...]
Prof. Randal C. Picker, University of Chicago Law School September 15, 2014 The headline of the New York Times of Tuesday, Aug. 7, 1945, is as chilling today as it was then: “FIRST ATOMIC BOMB DROPPED ON JAPAN; MISSILE IS EQUAL TO 20,000 TONS OF TNT; TRUMAN WARNS FOE OF A ‘RAIN OF RUIN.’” Some [...]
Prof. Randal C. Picker, University of Chicago Law School August 6, 2014 As the New York Times 2004 headline put it, “New Google Service May Strain Old Ties in Bookselling.” Strain indeed. Google announced its mass book digitization project, which it then called Google Print, at that year’s Frankfurt Book Fair. Now almost 10 years [...]
Prof. Randal C. Picker, University of Chicago Law School May 6, 2014 Historians will look back and try to identify the precise point of peak patents, meaning, the point at which patents achieved their maximum strength. I am not sure exactly when that will be, but one has the sense that we might be at [...]