The Cloak of Copyright: How Costco v. Omega Enabled Price Discrimination

In December of 2010, Costco v. Omega came down from the Supreme Court. The Switzerland-based watchmaker Omega sold Seamaster Collection watches, which were affixed with its copyrighted logo, in the United States as well as in foreign markets. Omega priced watches in the United States market higher than elsewhere. Costco obtained Omega’s watches from a third party that had purchased the watches abroad, then sold them at its membership warehouses for cheaper prices than authorized Omega dealers in the United States. Consequently, Omega sued Costco for copyright infringement. Costco pursued a defense based on the first sale doctrine in response. While from a legal perspective the case was a copyright dispute, this categorization does not make sense from an economic view. Rather, the application of economic models reveals that the core issue in Costco centers about price discrimination, not copyright. This thesis uses a law and economics framework to analyze the facts of and the decision in Costco to determine whether the outcome was welfare maximizing and to assess the implications that the case will have on copyright law in the future

Brief Encounter: Sex and Intimacy in Andrew Haigh’s "Weekend"

This thesis is an exploration of the representation of gay male intimacy in Andrew Haigh’s "Weekend" (2011), a film about a brief encounter between two men. The thesis stages a second brief encounter between Haigh’s film and Lauren Berlant’s writing on feeling. Where Berlant’s ideas are originally worked out in relation to the genre of melodrama and the female complaint, I translate her ideas about intimacy and cruel optimism into the space of ordinary gay life as represented in Haigh’s film

Determining Rights to Resell: Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons

This commentary previews an upcoming Supreme Court case, Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, in which the Court will decide whether the first sale doctrine applies to foreign-made copies. Broadly, the case will determine the ability of manufacturers to control the distribution of foreign-made copies once they have been sold and asks the Court to resolve a circuit split on the correct interpretation of the relevant provisions of the Copyright Act

Unravelling the myth of the ‘Dutch forgery’

Historically, the term ‘Dutch forgery’ has referred to watches manufactured in the latter part of the eighteenth century, purporting to have been made in London and yet created with Dutch physical characteristics. It has long been believed that these watches were not made in London, hence the application of ‘forgery’, with the general assumption amongst antiquarian horologists being that Geneva was their true city of origin. These ‘Dutch forgery’ watches were not of a high quality, made no scientific contribution to our understanding of time and accuracy and as such, they have largely been condemned to the dark corners of horological research. They have been dismissed as fakes and forgeries regarded as holding little relevance to the course of horological history, and yet, as this study innovatively claims, they represent the birth of mass production in the watch industry. Over the course of the timeframe covered (1750-1820), they play an integral role in the commercialisation of the watch which shifted from an immensely valuable object of desire to a more attainable accessory. They started the journey towards making portable timekeepers accessible to all in the developed world, and yet their remarkable story has never been the subject of a detailed published study. At its heart, this thesis contains the most thorough physical examination of surviving examples of these watches conducted to date. Carried out by the author, these examinations benefit from the unique insight of a practising watchmaker in the twenty-first century, studying and interpreting the work of their predecessors. This evidence helps to distinguish these watches from others made during the same period, and, along with documentary evidence, leads to a new understanding of where they were made and also their dissemination and their destination markets. The opening chapters of this thesis outline the cultural role of forgery in an age of imitation, before exploring the political, socio-economic, technological and cultural influences which gave rise to forgery and imitation in the eighteenth-century European watch industry. It will examine the law to question the nature of forgery within the context of historical material culture, and explore the nature of the watches themselves. As the majority of these ‘Dutch forgeries’ declare London origin, this thesis concentrates on such work but shows that watches were also claiming to have been made in other parts of Europe as well. Although this thesis, therefore, broadens the definition of a ‘Dutch forgery’, it focuses on examples claiming to have been made in London

Artists Don\u27t Get No Respect: Panel on Attribution and Integrity

When I was considering the question of the moral right to attribution and how unauthorized fan creativity relates to that concept, it struck me that there are two interesting issues from a theoretical perspective. The first is: who gets the credit? When I was in law school and discovered fan fiction, the reason why I got into intellectual property was because most of these stories had a disclaimer-no copyright infringement intended, these characters aren\u27t mine, I\u27m not making any money, please don\u27t sue. And as a student, my question was – does that work? Is that good enough? I was interested in these disclaimers because copyright law does not have an explicit place in the fair use test for evaluating disclaimers as a factor favoring a defense in the way that trademark law does. I, nonetheless, concluded that, in general, fan fiction was going to be fair use. It has yet to be litigated to any particular conclusion. Although cease and desist letters do so still go out, and fans still either comply or they say no, generally there is no result. That is, I think a lot of the copyright owners are unwilling to deal with the publicity and the possibility of finding this as fair use in a litigated case

WCRO Fall 1974

Region sponsors workshop California cruelty law in jeopardy Coyote subject of chemical study HSUS study improves shelter Humane Front watches bill Spay clinic assistance A victim of abandonment? California Legislation HSUS helps Everret

Gray Market Goods: A Lighter Shade of Black Symposium: The Controversy over the Importation of Gray Market Goods: Is a Resolution Forthcoming

If a street vendor offers a famous brand-name product for a substantially lower price than one would expect, the average consumer\u27s initial reaction might be that the product had been stolen or was hot - a product of the black market. While such discounted goods might indeed be stolen, sophisticated consumers have come to expect similar discounts in stores and mail-order houses throughout the country on goods not from the black market but rather from the gray market. These products, naturally enough, are called gray market goods or simply gray goods. Gray goods are brand-name products manufactured abroad which bear an authentic trademark authorized by the owner of the trademark in the market for which the goods are intended. The owner of the trademark is usually foreign. These goods are normally intended for markets outside the United States at the time of manufacture. At some point, however, the gray goods are diverted or imported into the United States for the purpose of competing with the U.S. trademark owner\u27s authorized goods. Historically, the importation of gray goods was rare and sporadic. As a consequence, the U.S. Customs Service\u27s regulations which permit their importation were ignored. Gray goods, as a legal topic, were confined to the backwaters of antitrust and intellectual property law. In the last few years, however, the importation of gray goods has become a growth industry and has generated numerous lawsuits and commentaries. While the initial growth in the gray market was spurred by the very high value of the U.S. dollar in international currency markets, it appears that now a permanent gray market network has developed that will make the subject of gray-goods importation one of importance for years to come regardless of the value of the dollar

Biomedical Informatics Applications for Precision Management of Neurodegenerative Diseases

Modern medicine is in the midst of a revolution driven by “big data,” rapidly advancing computing power, and broader integration of technology into healthcare. Highly detailed and individualized profiles of both health and disease states are now possible, including biomarkers, genomic profiles, cognitive and behavioral phenotypes, high-frequency assessments, and medical imaging. Although these data are incredibly complex, they can potentially be used to understand multi-determinant causal relationships, elucidate modifiable factors, and ultimately customize treatments based on individual parameters. Especially for neurodegenerative diseases, where an effective therapeutic agent has yet to be discovered, there remains a critical need for an interdisciplinary perspective on data and information management due to the number of unanswered questions. Biomedical informatics is a multidisciplinary field that falls at the intersection of information technology, computer and data science, engineering, and healthcare that will be instrumental for uncovering novel insights into neurodegenerative disease research, including both causal relationships and therapeutic targets and maximizing the utility of both clinical and research data. The present study aims to provide a brief overview of biomedical informatics and how clinical data applications such as clinical decision support tools can be developed to derive new knowledge from the wealth of available data to advance clinical care and scientific research of neurodegenerative diseases in the era of precision medicine