Prof. James Gibson, University of Richmond School of Law January 6, 2012 In this Intellectual Property Viewpoints series, we tend to focus on copyright and patent law – the “big two” IP regimes that govern innovation in the arts and sciences.  But there is a third IP regime, a cousin to copyright and patent, which [...]

Professor Robert P. Merges University of California at Berkeley School of Law January 4, 2012   1.  Introduction Now that In re Bilski has been decided, there is an enormous amount of speculation about the impact on patent applicants, litigants, and other participants in the patent system.  Most of the commentary is concerned with the [...]

Prof. Randal C. Picker, The University of Chicago Law School December 23, 2011 Possible copyright legislation has been in the news with the House Judiciary Committee’s on-again, off-again mark up of H.R. 3261, the “Stop Online Piracy Act.”  SOPA, and its Senate cousin, the PROTECT IP Act, are designed to limit intellectual property infringement at [...]

Professor Peter S. Menell Herman Phleger Visiting Professor of Law (2011-12), Stanford Law School Robert L. Bridges Professor of Law and Director, Berkeley Center for Law & Technology University of California at Berkeley School of Law December 21, 2011 As fans of the 1970s television hit “Happy Days” will recall, the final curtain became inevitable [...]

Prof. Doug Lichtman, UCLA School of Law December 15, 2011 In Germany last week, Apple suffered a potentially significant setback when a German patent court rejected Apple's "RAND licensing defense" and instead took a step toward allowing Motorola to ban the sale of certain, allegedly infringing, Apple products.  The loss has not attracted significant attention, [...]

Prof. Justin Hughes, Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University December 13, 2011 One of the troubling things about intellectual property discourse – whether policy discussions in Washington or law review articles on Westlaw – is that arguments (particularly the ones that get repeated over and over) often do not get the kind of scrutiny, analysis, [...]

Rodney A. Smolla, President, Furman University November 21, 2011 A recent “ABC News” broadcast focused on the huge threat posed to the adult film industry by the proliferation of Internet sites distributing free pornography.  To those who might wish the adult film industry good riddance, the battle between professional porn producers and free porn sites [...]

Professor Robert P. Merges University of California at Berkeley School of Law November 15, 2011 Something big is afoot in the world of patent-related transactions.  It is easy to tick off a growing list of head-turning deals in which household-name companies have bought and sold patent portfolios in recent years: Nortel, Motorola, Nokia, Microsoft, Apple, [...]

Prof. Doug Lichtman, UCLA School of Law November 7, 2011 Over the past few weeks, Samsung and Apple have grabbed headlines internationally as each firm has filed, fought, lost, and/or won well over a dozen major patent battles with the other.  Apple seems to be the entity truly on the offensive, striking first with fast-tracked [...]

Professor Peter S. Menell, University of California at Berkeley School of Law October 26, 2011 I have long wondered how so many copyright scholars could be so deeply troubled by adding of 20 years to the end of the copyright term in the 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act and yet be so untroubled by the effective [...]