Peter S. Menell* May 3, 2012 Nearly a decade after the emergence of user-generated content (UGC) websites, appellate courts finally rendered their interpretation of the applicability of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s (DMCA) safe harbor with respect to such entities during the past several months.  These much-anticipated decisions highlight the difficulties of interpreting copyright law [...]

Rodney A. Smolla, President, Furman University April 30, 2012 The Supreme Court in Golan v. Holder1 upheld Section 514 of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (URAA),2 which granted copyright protection to preexisting works of Berne Convention member countries, protected in their country of origin, but lacking protection in the United States.  The Court in Golan [...]

Prof. James Gibson, University of Richmond School of Law April 24, 2012 In an earlier entry in this series, I discussed an important issue in copyright law – whether the first sale doctrine applies to goods manufactured abroad.  The Supreme Court was set to decide the issue in Costco v. Omega, but the Court split [...]

Prof. Jane C. Ginsburg, Columbia University School of Law* April 19, 2012 On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Fordham International Intellectual Property Conference, its organizer, Prof. Hugh Hansen, planned a session on “Copyright Law: Where has it been, where is it going?” and asked me to look back over the 20 years [...]

Prof. Doug Lichtman, UCLA School of Law April 2, 2012 Author and investment advisor James Altucher has been attracting a lot of attention the last few days.  On Saturday, he published an article with the headline, “Why Google Might Be Going to $0”; his story is about a new patent lawsuit brought against Google where [...]

Prof. Randal C. Picker, University of Chicago Law School March 26, 2012 As I am fond of reminding people, faculty offices at my work home, The University of Chicago Law School, surround the library.  I walk out of my office into book stacks.  So it can hardly come as a surprise when I say that [...]

Rodney A. Smolla, President, Furman University March 20, 2012 How do assertions that the government possesses legally enforceable intellectual property interests that allow it to control and license access to governmentally sponsored entertainment and athletic events square with the First Amendment? In a prior IP Viewpoints post on this site, I argued that the United [...]

Prof. Jane C. Ginsburg, Columbia University School of Law* February 28, 2012 The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is discussing a possible treaty that would obligate member states to adopt exceptions and limitations to assist the access of the visually impaired to works of authorship.1  The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the Copyright Office [...]

Professor Peter S. Menell1 University of California at Berkeley School of Law February 13, 2012 Throughout history, technologies for instantiating, reproducing, and distributing information have evolved in tandem with the creative industries that cultivate, fund, and distribute literature, music, film, and art.  Although the relationship between these technology and content industries is often characterized in [...]