Design Patent Evolution: From Obscurity to Center Stage

Design Patient Evolution: From Obscurity to Center Stag

Toward a Limited Right of Publicity: An Argument for the Convergence of the Right of Publicity, Unfair Competition and Trademark Law

The right of publicity — the most recently developed type of intellectual property — allows a person to control commercial use of his or her identity. The scope of the right has expanded significantly since its inception because many courts and commentators have misinterpreted it, viewing it as a pure property right justified by a labor or unjust enrichment theory. Rather, this article contends that it should be evaluated in light of the utilitarian justification for intellectual property law. Rewarding people by allowing them to monetize their public persona is not the goal of the right of publicity. The goal should be to incentivize individuals to engage in creative endeavors for the benefit of the public. Accordingly, a right of publicity action should only be available if commercial use of an individual’s persona will result in the likelihood that consumers will be misled into thinking the individual endorsed or approved of the use of his or her identity. However, such confusion-based conduct is already actionable under trademark and unfair competition law. Therefore, I argue that any use of a person’s persona that creates an association with the person but does not create a likelihood that consumers will think the person endorsed or approved of the commercial use should only be actionable if the person is famous. This is consistent with trademark dilution law, which limits association-based trademark actions to famous trademarks. This approach places the right of publicity within the domain of intellectual property law and preserves the existing balances between protecting property rights, preventing free riding, and preserving robust free speech rights

Prior Restraints and Intellectual Property: The Clash between Intellectual Property and the First Amendment from an Economic Perspective

Freedom of speech and private property rights are among the fundamental concepts upon which the United States is built.2 Freedom of speech favors free dissemination of ideas and information.3 From an economic perspective, this encourages the free flow of creative ideas and innovation into the marketplace,4 which facilitates the development of private economic enterprises. Private property rights, in contrast, are based on restricting access and use of private property. A private proprety owner is given exclusive "monopoly-like" rights to decide who can access or use her property.5 Such rights are also important to the development of private economic enterprises.6Freedom of Speech, First Amendment, Trade Secrets,

Patent Law - Balancing Profit Maximization and Public Access to Technology

Patents are a subset of the larger field of law known as intellectual property law. At its most basic level, intellectual property is the broad term applied to the things that "spring" from a person's mind. These can include, among other things, new drugs, new methods of doing business, computer software, a trademark or logo used to sell a product, a song, a play or a new financial product.Patents, Patent Law, Pharmaceuticals, World Trade Organization, HIV, AIDS, licensing, developing nations, Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, Trips Agreement ,