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 [...]
Prof. Rodney A. Smolla, Duke University School of Law April 24, 2014 In September 2012, I reported on a fascinating copyright infringement lawsuit arising from undercover, surreptitious, and deceitful newsgathering by the Bloomberg financial service, which had violated the rules of engagement in an earnings call by the Swatch Group, and sold the intelligence it [...]
Prof. Robert P. Merges, University of California at Berkeley School of Law April 16, 2014 Introduction There is an anomaly in the IP policy discourse these days. There is great concern about excess litigation and litigation costs. In addition, many are concerned with the sheer numbers of patents that must be licensed to sell products [...]
Prof. James Gibson, University of Richmond School of Law April 1, 2014 Anyone who teaches intellectual property law knows how exciting the subject matter can be for students. They inundate professors not only with questions about the classroom material but also with news about emerging technologies, cutting-edge litigation, and legislative initiatives. And the attentive professor [...]
Prof. Jane C. Ginsburg*, Columbia University School of Law March 17, 2014 On February 13 of this year, the Court of Justice of the European Union rendered its decision in Nils Svensson, Sten Sjögren, Madelaine Sahlman, Pia Gadd v. Retreiver Sverige AB (Case C-466/12). The case concerned a news-clipping service, Retriever Sverige AB, which linked [...]