A Long Voyage from the Runway to the Beltway
The Innovative Design Protection and Piracy Protection Act ("IDPPA" or S. 3728) was introduced in the Senate on Aug. 5, 2010 by Sen. Charles Schumer. The bill proposes to extend copyright protection to unique fashion designs by amending Chapter 13 of U.S. Code Title 17 (the Vessel Hull Design Protection Act of 1998).
Recent Judicial Decisions on Specific Causation
This article highlights three recent court decisions rejecting plaintiff's efforts at establishing specific causation as a matter of law. These decisions confirm that speculative specific causation evidence is inadmissible.
Practice Tip: Playing Poker with Experts
What happens if, after you file that long-anticipated <i>Daubert/Kumho</i> motion, plaintiff's counsel files a motion to withdraw the original expert and to substitute a new one with superior qualifications and a much stronger theory of liability?
The Assault on Traditional Long-Arm Jurisdiction Continues
A review of <i>Nicastro v. J. McIntyre Machinery America, Ltd.</i>, in which the Supreme Court of New Jersey ruled in that a plaintiff could bring a product liability action in a New Jersey state court against an England-based product manufacturer under what is termed the stream-of-commerce theory of personal jurisdiction.
Recent Rulings Highlight Software Licensing Disputes
This article discusses software licenses generally, the availability of copyright and contract claims in the event of a breach, and other areas of disagreement that may arise in a software-licensing dispute.
Unconstitutional Burdens
Record-breaking budget shortfalls have caused states to search outside the box for revenue-raising tools that many argue are unconstitutional and violate the consumer privacy that online shoppers have come to expect. Today, with so much of retail activity conducted over the Internet, states are struggling with revenue losses stemming from this constitutional restriction. States are reacting by becoming ever more creative in their attempts to capture this lost revenue by adopting new laws aimed at circumventing the Commerce Clause restrictions.
Getting Users to Adopt New Productivity Tools
Getting people to adopt productivity-enhancing technology tools requires a thoughtful, meticulous approach. It's not just a matter of installing a tool on everyone's desktop and then hoping for the best.
The DMCA Safe Harbor Provision Is Stronger Than Ever
Even as the economy continues to slowly recover from this recession, online sales are still booming, accounting for more than $200 billion over the past year. As the marketplace shifts from the sales counter to the desktop, counterfeiting and software piracy have also shifted to the virtual world. For copyright and trademark owners, this creates a constant stream of newly evolved infringing activities to monitor.
<b><i>Commentary:</b></i> Comparing Collective Licensing Proposals For Internet Licensing of Copyrighted Content
Advances in digital distribution technologies and widespread use of the Internet have moved media distribution technology out of the control of rights holders and distributors, and directly into the hands of consumers or creative members of the general public. To address how U.S. copyright law should apply to new business models that take advantage of these technologies, some have proposed collective rights licensing at the Internet service provider (ISP) level.
Stop in the Name of ' the IP Police?
When it comes to infringement of intellectual property, there are no "IP police" hiding in the obscure nooks and crannies of cyberspace to chase down those who misuse property online. Instead, the e-commerce firm itself often must become its own IP cop, when it discovers ' as it inevitably will in the online free-for-all ' that its marks, copyrighted content or knockoffs of its unique products appear on the Web site or in the e-catalog of a competitor.
