Prof. James Gibson, University of Richmond School of Law July 22, 2014 The conventional wisdom provides two traditional justifications for trademark law. The first is the “consumer protection” rationale. If there were no trademark law, an unknown soft drink manufacturer could freely use Coca-Cola’s COKE trademark on its goods. If it did so, consumers would [...]
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. Peter S. Menell,* University of California at Berkeley School of Law, and Prof. David Nimmer,** UCLA School of Law June 27, 2014 The Aereo case presented two fundamental showdowns: one between the cable industry and a charismatic disruptive technology, and the other between textualists and jurists seeking to vindicate legislative intent. Much of the [...]
Prof. Robert P. Merges, University of California at Berkeley School of Law June 26, 2014 Those of us who sweat in the clammy gymnasia of patent law have been waiting – with a mix of excitement, dread, and cynical disregard – for the Alice v. CLS Bank decision. The idea was, when the Supreme Court [...]
Prof. Rodney A. Smolla, Duke University School of Law June 25, 2014 This IP Viewpoints article is filed as breaking news. Only minutes ago the Supreme Court announced its much-anticipated ruling in ABC, Inc., v. Aereo, Inc., a copyright case that, as I have previously posted in these Viewpoints pages, places in play the American [...]
Prof. Peter S. Menell, Koret Professor of Law and Director, Berkeley Center for Law & Technology, University of California at Berkeley School of Law June 4, 2014 As part of Congress’s comprehensive review of the U.S. Copyright Act, the Copyright Office announced a broad-ranging study of music licensing on March 17, 2014. The Office solicited [...]
Prof. Jane C. Ginsburg, Columbia University School of Law May 12, 2014 [Note: The following is drawn from an article forthcoming in the Berkeley Technology Law Journal, in a symposium issue devoted to “The Next Great Copyright Act.”] The Supreme Court in Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, 464 U.S. 417 (1984), fended [...]
Prof. Peter S. Menell, Koret Professor of Law and Director, Berkeley Center for Law & Technology, University of California at Berkeley School of Law May 9, 2014 Following hearings before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property and the Internet on Jan. 14, 2014, Congress asked the Copyright Office to review and assess “the state [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]