International Copyright: An Unorthodox Analysis American Association of Law Schools\u27 Intellectual Property Section\u27s Symposium on Compliance with the TRIPS Agreement

Professor Hansen reviews the development of copyright from its traditional domestic orientation to the modern emphasis on globalization and harmonization. His commentary analogizes modem trends in international copyright to religious equivalents. He notes that the current players include a secular priesthood (the traditional copyright bar and academics), agnostics and atheists (newer academics and lawyers, particularly those concerned with technology and the culture of the public domain) and missionaries (whose task it is to increase copyright protection around the world and who are primarily driven by trade considerations). The copyright crusade has been driven by this last group. The author compares the task of Increasing copyright protection In newly industrialized and developing countries to the conversion of any group to a new religion. The missionaries, primarily from the United States and the European Union, have the choice of seeking voluntary or involuntary conversions. He augurs that the prospects for voluntary conversion are slim and that coercion will continue to be used against newly industrialized and developing nations when copyright protection is at stake

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