Based on conflicting Federal Circuit case law, many academics have written, and many practitioners likely believe, that claim meanings or their applications may expand over time for purposes of literal infringement. But this common wisdom is wrong. Under existing Federal Circuit rules, the first...

Twenty one years ago, copyright died. More accurately, it was killed. In 1996, in ProCD v. Zeidenberg, Judge Easterbrook, writing for the Seventh Circuit, held that a contract that restricted the use of factual information was not preempted by the Copyright Act and therefore enforceable. The...

In this paper, we give an overview of the differences in German patent legislations between 1815 and 1876. German patent laws differed in particular with regard to the application and approval system, the treatment of foreign applicants, and patent fees. Differences in the former two categories...

On the one hand, we resort to intellectual property (IP) theory to justify a certain IP right or calibrate how a specific IP rule should be. Most commonly, we differentiate between three main theories: personhood, labor, and welfare, occasionally supplemented by interdisciplinary approaches....

Fair use is one of modern law's most fascinating and troubling doctrines. It is amorphous and vague, and notoriously difficult to apply. It is, at the same time, vitally important in copyright and perhaps the most frequently raised and litigated issue in the law of intellectual property.This...

Following the Supreme Court's decision in Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association, states can legalize sports gambling for the first time in more than 25 years. The advent of legalized gambling has sports leagues clamoring for compensation from states that authorize wagers on the...

The US case Akamai Technologies Inc v Limelight Networks Inc brought the patent world's attention to the issue of if and how a patentee may enforce a method claim against a party who performs some of the steps in a patented method but leaves other steps to be performed by a third party. The case...

Factory farming is often discussed in terms of its environmental and social impacts. It receives far less attention for what those practices say about our evolving relationship with animals. This article speaks to the latter. Though rife with practices that might otherwise invite governmental...

While much of the commentary on obstacles to stem cell research focuses on patents, material transfer agreements (MTAs) governed by state contract and property law present equal if not greater challenges to researchers. This Article argues that the life sciences in general, and the stem cell...