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, [...]
Filed a friend-of-the court brief, joining with The Thomas Jefferson Center, in the U.S. Supreme Court in FCC v. Fox Television Stations, Inc. The brief argued that the Supreme Court should invalidate its decision in FCC v. Pacifica (the “seven dirty words” case) because Pacifica impermissibly created a novel category of unprotected speech; Pacifica’s [...]
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 [...]
Celebration Around Country Promises To Be Biggest Yet FOR RELEASE: Oct. 17, 2011 Contact: Richard T. Kaplar The Media Institute 703-243-5700 Arlington, Va., Oct. 17, 2011 – Free Speech Week (FSW) kicks off today, Oct. 17, and will run through Sunday, Oct. 23. Universities, schools, media organizations, and community groups across the nation will [...]
Senator Mark Warner To Be Keynote Speaker at D.C. Event FOR RELEASE: Oct. 14, 2011 Contact: Richard T. Kaplar The Media Institute 703-243-5700 Arlington, Va., Oct. 14, 2011 – The Media Institute will honor FCC Commissioner Robert M. McDowell and AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson at its annual Friends & Benefactors Awards Banquet Oct. 18 [...]
Rodney A. Smolla, President, Furman University October 12, 2011 In Perfect 10, Inc. v. Google, Inc.,1. the Internet search engine giant Google managed to score a victory against a company known as “Perfect 10,” a company that created and copyrighted photographic images of nude models for commercial distribution. Perfect 10 originally featured the nude photos [...]
Prof. Randal C. Picker, The University of Chicago Law School October 3, 2011 Over the last year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has decided three interesting cases at the intersection of copyright, contract, and the first-sale doctrine. Last September, in Vernor v. Autodesk, the court found that the underlying software transaction [...]
Prof. Justin Hughes, Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University September 22, 2011 Patents, copyrights OR trademarks – that’s easy. Patents, copyrights, AND trademarks – that’s more difficult. Vexing issues often arise when a party claims that the same thing or same interest is protected by more than one form of intellectual property. Our general rule [...]