Prof. James Gibson, University of Richmond School of Law October 22, 2012 One of our favorite topics in this Intellectual Property Issues series – perhaps the favorite – is Google Books, the massive project through which Google hopes to bring its search capability to the text of all books in the English language.  To make [...]

Prof. Doug Lichtman, UCLA School of Law October 16, 2012 Patent litigation between Apple and Samsung continues to attract enormous attention, with newspapers, public commentators, industry executives, and investors all struggling to understand not only the cases, but also the bigger picture implications of this much-hyped patent war. Back in July, I sketched some early [...]

Professor Peter S. Menell,1 University of California at Berkeley School of Law October 11, 2012 The fair use doctrine seeks to facilitate socially optimal uses of copyrighted material.  As a practical matter, however, cumulative creators, such as documentary filmmakers and many contemporary musicians, are often reluctant to rely on the fair use doctrine because of [...]

Rodney A. Smolla, President, Furman University September 28, 2012 Imagine that a publicly traded company conducts an "Earnings Call," limiting those on the call to selected participants. The company itself records the call, but forbids those who phone in as participants from recording it for republication or broadcast. The company copyrights the recorded call. Despite [...]

Prof. Randal C. Picker, University of Chicago Law School September 17, 2012 The book market is experiencing enormous turmoil.  This is being driven by the emergence of e-books as an important phenomenon coupled with the substantial disruption created by Amazon’s strong position in the market.  Prices are all over the place as we see churn [...]

Prof. James Gibson, University of Richmond School of Law September 5, 2012 The jury verdict in the Apple v. Samsung case is in, and it is a whopper: $1.05 billion in damages, to be paid by Samsung to Apple for violating various intellectual property rights in the iPhone and iPad.  In all likelihood, the court [...]

Professor Peter S. Menell,1 University of California at Berkeley School of Law August 24, 2012 On Aug. 10, 2012, Google announced its plan to integrate takedown notice data from copyright owners into its iconic Internet search algorithm.  Google was responding to the fact that searches often ranked links to unauthorized works high in its search [...]

Rodney A. Smolla, President, Furman University August 14, 2012 Intellectual property law functions against the larger backdrop of law and public policy surrounding freedom of speech and the free flow of information.  This relationship is reflected in numerous legal doctrines and policies spanning all of intellectual property law, doctrines, and policies that mediate between information [...]