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Author Archives: dukelawtechreview
Keyword-Linked Advertising, Trademark Infringement, and Google’s Contributory Liability
By: Benjamin Aitken A number of trademark holders have recently challenged the policies of Google and other Internet search engines that allow the trademark owner’s competitors to purchase advertising space linked specifically to the owner’s trademarks when entered as search … Continue reading
Posted in Copyrights & Trademarks
When Big Brother Privatizes: Commercial Surveillance, the Privacy Act of 1974, and the Future of RFID
By: John M. Eden RFID is a powerful new technology that has the potential to allow commercial retailers to undermine individual control over private information. Despite the potential of RFID to undermine personal control over such information, the federal government … Continue reading
Posted in eCommerce
Better to Give Than to Receive: Evaluating Recent IP Donation Tax Policy Changes
By: Don Macbean Over the past decade, charitable contributions of intellectual property have grown rapidly. This growth has coincided with tremendous abuse as firms have sought inflated valuations of donated intellectual property in order to claim larger tax deductions. In … Continue reading
Posted in Patents & Technology
China’s WAPI Policy: Security Measure or Trade Protectionism?
By: Zia K. Cromer In December of 2003, the Chinese government announced that all WLAN equipment sold in China must conform to a propriety standard called WAPI, rather than the internationally accepted Wi-Fi standard. Moreover, for foreign firms to gain … Continue reading
Posted in International
From Deepsouth to the Great White North: The Extraterritorial Reach of United States Patent Law After Research in Motion
By: Daniel P. Homiller In the Internet age, complex telecommunications systems are often deployed with little regard for international borders. In NTP, Inc. v. Research in Motion, Ltd., the Federal Circuit determined that one such system infringed several U.S. patents, … Continue reading
Posted in Patents & Technology
New Jersey’s Adult Internet Luring Statute: An Appropriate Next Step?
By: John W. Lomas Jr. New Jersey recently enacted legislation prohibiting the use of the Internet to lure or entice someone to a location with the purpose of committing a crime with or against that person or some other person. … Continue reading
Posted in CyberCrime
The SPS Agreement: Can It Regulate Trade in Nanotechnology?
By: James D. Thayer Recent studies have shown that nanoparticles, which are approximately 1 to 100 billionths of a meter in size, present unique health and environmental risks. Nevertheless, products enhanced by nanoparticles, such as sunscreen, golf balls, and hard … Continue reading
Posted in International
Stop the Abuse of Gmail!
By: Grant Yang Gmail, a highly anticipated webmail application made by Google, has been criticized by privacy advocates for breaching wiretapping laws, even before its release from beta testing. Gmail’s large storage space and automated processes developed to scan the … Continue reading
Posted in eCommerce
Regulating Indecency: The Federal Communication Commission’s Threat to the First Amendment
By: Reed Hundt This paper is adapted from a talk given by the author at Duke University School of Law on April 6, 2005. The author argues that the Federal Communication Commission’s recent crackdown on television indecency poses a significant … Continue reading
Posted in Media & Communications
A New Paradigm for Intellectual Property Rights in Software
By: Mark H. Webbink A Winter 2004 article by Bradford L. Smith and Susan O. Mann of Microsoft published in The University of Chicago Law Review suggests that the development and growth of the software industry in the U.S. is … Continue reading
Posted in Patents & Technology
The European Union “Software Patents” Directive: What Is It? Why Is It? Where Are We Now?
By: Robert Bray This paper has been adapted from a presentation given by the author at Duke University School of Law’s “Hot Topics in Intellectual Property Law Symposium” on April 1, 2005. It first presents an overview of the EU … Continue reading
Posted in International
Google Library: Beyond Fair Use?
By: Elisabeth Hanratty Last December Google announced the formation of partnerships with select major libraries to begin digitizing and storing the libraries’ collections online. Google aims to provide individuals with the ability to search the full text of these books … Continue reading
Posted in Copyrights & Trademarks
Troll or No Troll? Policing Patent Usage With an Open Post-Grant Review
By: David G. Barker In December 2004, a mystery business, JGR Acquisitions Inc., purchased the patent portfolio of bankrupt Commerce One at auction. Commerce One had not previously enforced the acquired patents and many companies were using the patented technologies … Continue reading
Posted in Patents & Technology
The Dormant Commerce Clause and State Regulation of the Internet: Are Laws Protecting Minors From Sexual Predators Constitutionally Different Than Those Protecting Minors From Sexually Explicit Materials?
By: Chin Pann Several states have enacted statutes to protect minors from harmful or obscene materials disseminated over the Internet, as well as from pedophiles seeking to use the Internet to lure them into sexual conduct. State and federal courts … Continue reading
Posted in CyberCrime
Television: Peer-To-Peer’s Next Challenger
By: D. Branch Furtado The entertainment industry has obsessed over the threat of peer-to-peer file sharing since the introduction of Napster in 1999. The sharing of television content may present a compelling case for fair use under the long-standing “Betamax” … Continue reading
Posted in Copyrights & Trademarks
Plugging the “Phishing” Hole: Legislation Versus Technology
By: Robert Louis B. Stevenson This iBrief analyzes the Anti-Phishing Act of 2005, legislation aimed at curbing the problem of “phishing.” Phishing is the sending of fraudulent emails which appear to be from legitimate businesses and thereby fooling the recipients … Continue reading
Posted in CyberCrime
Willful Infringement and the Evidentiary Value of Opinion Letters After Knorr–Bremse v. Dana
By: Joshua Stowell Recently, the Federal Circuit in Knorr-Bremse v. Dana overruled almost twenty years of precedent by striking down the adverse inference doctrine, which had created a negative presumption against any alleged patent infringer for failing to obtain and … Continue reading
Posted in Patents & Technology
Taking Biologics for Granted? Takings, Trade Secrets, and Off-Patent Biological Products
By: Andrew Wasson Biologics are complex medicines which are often genetically engineered, and which are sure to play an important role in curing some of humankind’s worst diseases. Not surprisingly, generic companies want a part of the biologic market. The … Continue reading
Posted in Health & Biotechnology
Disclosure of Clinical Trial Data: Why Exemption 4 of the Freedom of Information Act Should Be Restored
By: Janene Boyce Clinical trial data generated during the FDA drug approval process can be very valuable. While patients and doctors desperately need this information to make informed choices about medical treatment, drug sponsors strive to keep this resource secret … Continue reading
Posted in Health & Biotechnology
Patent Damage Strategies and the Enterprise License: Constructive Notice, Actual Notice, No Notice
By: James W. Soong For the patent owner, early provision of patent notice can help maximize recoverable infringement damages during subsequent litigation. This iBrief recognizes a growing trend of infringement suits predicated on patented enterprise software technology, and analyzes application … Continue reading
Posted in Patents & Technology
Regulating Innovative Medicine: Fitting Square Pegs in Round Holes
By: Mark Lavender Increasingly, innovative medical products are creating a quandary for the Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) because they often transcend the FDA’s traditional categorical approach to regulating medical products. In a recent attempt to simplify this process, the … Continue reading
Posted in Health & Biotechnology
Canning Spam: Consumer Protection or a Lid on Free Speech?
By: Grant C. Yang The United States Congress recently passed the first federal legislation to curb the influx of spam. However, the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act (“CAN-SPAM Act”) left some measures to be enacted by … Continue reading
Posted in eCommerce
1984 Is Still Fiction: Electronic Monitoring in the Workplace and U.S. Privacy Law
By: Christopher Pearson Fazekas Electronic monitoring in the workplace has been the subject of relentless public criticism. Privacy advocates argue that technological advancements have given overbearing employers powerful tools to abuse employee dignity in the name of productivity and that … Continue reading
Posted in eCommerce
Crossed Signals in a Wireless World: The Seventh Circuit’s Misapplication of the Complete Preemption Doctrine
By: Matthew J. Kleiman As the number of wireless telephone users continues to proliferate, so does the number of lawsuits against wireless service providers. While consumers seek to utilize various consumer-friendly state law causes of action, the wireless industry continues … Continue reading
Posted in Media & Communications
The Trade of Cross-Border Gambling and Betting: The WTO Dispute Between Antigua and the United States
By: James D. Thayer The first ecommerce dispute to come before the World Trade Organization (“WTO”) was billed to be one of David and Goliath proportion. The tiny twin-island nation-state of Antigua and Barbuda challenged the United States’ ban on … Continue reading
Posted in International
