As the world woke up to the global threat posed by COVID-19, a race began to meet the demand for life-saving supplies: masks, personal protective equipment, medication, tests, and vaccines. While even the world’s wealthiest countries face equipment shortages, the issue is far worse for developing countries without the means to manufacture the products or…
Tag: Intellectual Property
Deceptive Trademarks: A Free Speech Issue
Look to your left. Now look to your right. Only one of you will survive. This phrase, which purportedly used to be common in opening addresses at higher-level learning institutions albeit with different wording1 has recently become reality for parts of the statute that establishes rules and procedures for federal registration of trademarks—the Lanham Act…
Mission Product Holdings v. Tempnology leaves a mark for trademark licenses rejected in bankruptcy
For decades, trademark licensees were left in the limbo when their licensors filed for bankruptcy. If a debtor-licensor exercises its statutory right to reject a licensing agreement, a luxury brand product could potentially turn into a trademark-infringing knockoff overnight.1 This issue is at the center of a circuit split regarding the question of whether a…
The Siphoning of American Innovation: How China Acquires Technology
You have probably heard by now that China is stealing America’s intellectual property. This has been one of the primary issues in President Trump’s trade war with China—and for good reason. Keith Alexander, the former Director of the National Security Administration, has called this theft the greatest transfer of wealth in history.1 The transfer of…
Keeping Secrets: How Magicians Protect Their Ideas
Magicians and their ideas have come to occupy an area known as IP’s “negative space,” an area where certain creative endeavors lack access to traditional IP protections.1 Scholars have identified other elements that operate in this space including furniture designs, tattoos, computer databases, and hairstyles, among others.2 Legal scholars can gain valuable insights from the…
Matal v. Tam: The Future of Disparaging and Scandalous Trademarks
Trademarks are ubiquitous in the everyday lives of countless consumers. Indeed, some consumers have little difficulty drawing big brand logos from memory, down to the precise colors and details.1 That aptitude did not arise by happenstance: brands are designed to create a bond between the consumer and the product by provoking the consumer’s emotions.2 Still,…
Sound Recording Feedback: Efficiency Noise
In my prior post, I argued that the limited nature of the sound recording copyright has had adverse effects on the scope of protection for other copyrights.1 The copyright act defines a sound recording in terms of the process of fixation, not in terms of substantive expression.2 In response, courts developed bright-line rules towards copying…
Sound Recording Feedback: Bright-Line Rules and Blurred-Lines Jurisprudence
“[G]ood artists copy[,] great artists steal. And we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas.” – Steve Jobs1 Mimicry, homage, and blatant copying create the foundation for several artistic forms, including contrafacts and mash-ups.2 Yet, copying is merely the start of the creative process. At the heart of the arts is the copying-expression cycle:…
Will King Meet the Same Fate as Zynga? I.P.O. in the Mobile Gaming Industry
The stock price of King Digital Entertainment fell over 15% on its public debut on the New York Stock Exchange, despite the great success this mobile game maker has enjoyed from Candy Crush Saga, one of the biggest hits in the social mobile gaming industry.1 The drop was not surprising, however, as investors expressed fears…
Lenovo’s Deals with IBM and Google Likely to Survive CFIUS Review
The Chinese leading PC maker, Lenovo, has been ambitiously using acquisitions to fuel its growth since the beginning of this year. The company announced two deals valued at over $5 billion, total, in January, both with U.S. firms. On January 23, 2014, Lenovo entered into an agreement with IBM to acquire the latter’s x86 Server…