\u3cem\u3eIndependent Ink\u3c/em\u3e at the Crossroads of Antitrust and Intellectual Property Law: The Court\u27s Holding Regarding Market Power in Cases Involving Patents and Implications in Cases Involving Copyrights

By eliminating the market power presumption for patent holders, Independent Ink calls into question the presumption\u27s continued validity for tying arrangements involving copyrights. While the Court\u27s holding directly applies only to patents, we present three reasons why, after Independent Ink, the presumption can no longer be viable in antitrust lawsuits challenging a tying arrangement involving a copyrighted product. First, the Court\u27s rationale for eliminating the presumption including citations to extensive academic writings, agency guidelines, and legislative amendments precludes the presumption\u27s continued application in any other context. Second, copyrights are significantly less likely than patents to confer market power because the scope of the limited monopoly granted by the copyright laws is narrower than that conferred by the patent laws. Therefore, once the Court has found the presumption to be invalid in the patent context, there is no reasonable basis for its continued application to tying arrangements involving copyrights. Third, as the Court\u27s tolerance toward tying arrangements has increased over the past thirty years, the Court has become increasingly reluctant to find the market power required to make tying arrangements per se illegal. Given Independent Ink\u27s holding that many tying arrangements, even those involving patents and requirements ties, are fully consistent with a free, competitive market, \u27 it would be anomalous to preserve a presumption that condemns all copyright tying arrangements without requiring any showing of market power or anticompetitive effect. In Part II of this article we review the history of the Court\u27s tying cases, chronicling the steady construction of the market power presumption as well as the Court\u27s increasing distrust of tying arrangements in general. We also note the Court\u27s particular antipathy toward tying arrangements involving intellectual property. We then describe the partial deconstruction of those presumptions, culminating in the recent abolition of the presumption of market power for patent holders in Independent Ink. In Part III, we argue that, consistent with the Court\u27s reasoning in the patent context, Independent Ink should signal the end of the market power presumption for copyright holders in antitrust cases. Accordingly, just as tying arrangements involving patented products are not condemned per se, tying arrangements involving copyrighted products should not be condemned per se under the antitrust laws unless the plaintiff is able to prove market power

\u3cem\u3eIndependent Ink\u3c/em\u3e at the Crossroads of Antitrust and Intellectual Property Law: The Court\u27s Holding Regarding Market Power in Cases Involving Patents and Implications in Cases Involving Copyrights

By eliminating the market power presumption for patent holders, Independent Ink calls into question the presumption\u27s continued validity for tying arrangements involving copyrights. While the Court\u27s holding directly applies only to patents, we present three reasons why, after Independent Ink, the presumption can no longer be viable in antitrust lawsuits challenging a tying arrangement involving a copyrighted product. First, the Court\u27s rationale for eliminating the presumption including citations to extensive academic writings, agency guidelines, and legislative amendments precludes the presumption\u27s continued application in any other context. Second, copyrights are significantly less likely than patents to confer market power because the scope of the limited monopoly granted by the copyright laws is narrower than that conferred by the patent laws. Therefore, once the Court has found the presumption to be invalid in the patent context, there is no reasonable basis for its continued application to tying arrangements involving copyrights. Third, as the Court\u27s tolerance toward tying arrangements has increased over the past thirty years, the Court has become increasingly reluctant to find the market power required to make tying arrangements per se illegal. Given Independent Ink\u27s holding that many tying arrangements, even those involving patents and requirements ties, are fully consistent with a free, competitive market, \u27 it would be anomalous to preserve a presumption that condemns all copyright tying arrangements without requiring any showing of market power or anticompetitive effect. In Part II of this article we review the history of the Court\u27s tying cases, chronicling the steady construction of the market power presumption as well as the Court\u27s increasing distrust of tying arrangements in general. We also note the Court\u27s particular antipathy toward tying arrangements involving intellectual property. We then describe the partial deconstruction of those presumptions, culminating in the recent abolition of the presumption of market power for patent holders in Independent Ink. In Part III, we argue that, consistent with the Court\u27s reasoning in the patent context, Independent Ink should signal the end of the market power presumption for copyright holders in antitrust cases. Accordingly, just as tying arrangements involving patented products are not condemned per se, tying arrangements involving copyrighted products should not be condemned per se under the antitrust laws unless the plaintiff is able to prove market power

How to Write, Edit, and Review Persuasive Briefs: Seven Guidelines from One Judge and Two Lawyers

The ability to write and recognize a persuasive brief is important to lawyers throughout their careers. Junior attorneys are often responsible for initially writing a brief. Senior attorneys often review those briefs and either rewrite or edit them (as circumstances require). In-house counsel may then review the briefs once more, providing additional edits and comments and addressing concerns. Wherever you happen to be in your career, it is important to know how to write, rewrite, edit, recognize, and review an effective brief. This Article offers a number of guidelines for crafting such briefs and provides a number of practical pointers to help lawyers along the way from writing through final review

How to Write, Edit, and Review Persuasive Briefs: Seven Guidelines from One Judge and Two Lawyers

The ability to write and recognize a persuasive brief is important to lawyers throughout their careers. Junior attorneys are often responsible for initially writing a brief. Senior attorneys often review those briefs and either rewrite or edit them (as circumstances require). In-house counsel may then review the briefs once more, providing additional edits and comments and addressing concerns. Wherever you happen to be in your career, it is important to know how to write, rewrite, edit, recognize, and review an effective brief. This Article offers a number of guidelines for crafting such briefs and provides a number of practical pointers to help lawyers along the way from writing through final review

Brief for Respondents. County of Los Angeles v. Mendez, 137 S.Ct. 1539 (2017) (No. 16-3690), 2017 WL 696103

QUESTIONS PRESENTED 1. Does the legal framework set out in Grnham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386 (1989), apply to actions by police that foreseeably create a need for the use of force? 2. In an action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, where a house search that violates the Fourth Amendment results in the shooting of an innocent resident who did not know that the intruders were sheriff’s deputies, does a resident’s nonculpable response to the intrusion constitute a superseding cause that bars relief for the residents’ injur

Shot noise-mitigated secondary electron imaging with ion count-aided microscopy

Modern science is dependent on imaging on the nanoscale, often achieved through processes that detect secondary electrons created by a highly focused incident charged particle beam. Scanning electron microscopy is employed in applications such as critical-dimension metrology and inspection for semiconductor devices, materials characterization in geology, and examination of biological samples. With its applicability to non-conducting materials (not requiring sample coating before imaging), helium ion microscopy (HIM) is especially useful in the high-resolution imaging of biological samples such as animal organs, tumor cells, and viruses. However, multiple types of measurement noise limit the ultimate trade-off between image quality and the incident particle dose, which can preclude useful imaging of dose-sensitive samples. Existing methods to improve image quality do not fundamentally mitigate the noise sources. Furthermore, barriers to assigning a physically meaningful scale make these modalities qualitative. Here we introduce ion count-aided microscopy (ICAM), which is a quantitative imaging technique that uses statistically principled estimation of the secondary electron yield. With a readily implemented change in data collection, ICAM nearly eliminates the influence of source shot noise -- the random variation in the number of incident ions in a fixed time duration. In HIM, we demonstrate 3x dose reduction; based on a good match between these empirical results and theoretical performance predictions, the dose reduction factor is larger when the secondary electron yield is higher. ICAM thus facilitates imaging of fragile samples and may make imaging with heavier particles more attractive

Genetic dissection of the type VI secretion system in Acinetobacter and identification of a novel peptidoglycan hydrolase, TagX, required for its biogenesis

The type VI secretion system (T6SS) is a widespread secretory apparatus produced by Gram-negative bacteria that has emerged as a potent mediator of antibacterial activity during interbacterial interactions. Most Acinetobacter species produce a genetically conserved T6SS, although the expression and functionality of this system vary among different strains. Some pathogenic Acinetobacter baumannii strains activate this secretion system via the spontaneous loss of a plasmid carrying T6SS repressors. In this work, we compared the expression of T6SS-related genes via transcriptome sequencing and differential proteomics in cells with and without the plasmid. This approach, together with the mutational analysis of the T6SS clusters, led to the determination of the genetic components required to elaborate a functional T6SS in the nosocomial pathogen A. baumannii and the nonpathogen A. baylyi. By constructing a comprehensive combination of mutants with changes in the T6SS-associated vgrG genes, we delineated their relative contributions to T6SS function. We further determined the importance of two effectors, including an effector-immunity pair, for antibacterial activity. Our genetic analysis led to the identification of an essential membrane-associated structural component named TagX, which we have characterized as a peptidoglycan hydrolase possessing l,d-endopeptidase activity. TagX shows homology to known bacteriophage l,d-endopeptidases and is conserved in the T6SS clusters of several bacterial species. We propose that TagX is the first identified enzyme that fulfills the important role of enabling the transit of T6SS machinery across the peptidoglycan layer of the T6SS-producing bacterium

Mobility of thorium ions in liquid xenon

We present a measurement of the $^{226}$Th ion mobility in LXe at 163.0 K and 0.9 bar. The result obtained, 0.240$\pm$0.011 (stat) $\pm$0.011 (syst) cm$^{2}$/(kV-s), is compared with a popular model of ion transport.Comment: 6.5 pages,