Technology Transfer As A Contact Sport
Technology transfer is often characterized as a "contact sport." Technology transfer practitioners from industry, universities, and intellectual asset management professional service providers understand the importance of their personal networks and their ability to reach out ' on a personal level ' to those with whom they need to work. Moreover, technology transfer is a contact sport because the capture of the economic value of IP and the transfer of financial risk are both dependent on the negotiation skills of the individual practitioners.
Strategic Licensing Leveraging Technology Through Alliances
It takes more than great technology to make a successful product. In an era marked by short product cycles, technical interdependence of products, fluid industry standards and globalization of markets, few companies can field all the resources needed to exploit the full potential of a new invention before it becomes obsolete. Strategic alliances have become the preferred way for emerging technology companies to assemble these resources and to close the gap between promising prototype and popular product. <br>Intellectual property licensing is at the heart of most technology-based alliances. This article discusses the key legal and conceptual tools available in the licensing context, and how they can be used in an alliance to amplify the value of a new technology.
Bit Parts
Recent developments in entertainment law.
Courthouse Steps
Recently filed cases in entertainment law, straight from the steps of the Los Angeles Superior Court.
Discrimination Cases Update
The entertainment industry seems especially subject to discrimination cases ' whether based on age, sex, race ' and sexual harrassment/hostile work environment suits. <i>EL&F</i> will compile and report on them periodically.
<b>Decision of Note:</b><b>Foreign Website Subject to DC Jurisdiction</b>
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia decided that a company based in Madrid, Spain, was subject to personal jurisdiction in the District of Columbia by maintaining a Web site that enabled DC residents to download unlicensed sound recordings. The ruling provides a liberal view for finding both specific and general jurisdiction over Internet defendants.
Unreleased O'Jays Recordings Can Be Distributed
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania lifted a temporary injunction that barred distribution of a new album by The O'Jays ' whose hits in the 1970s included "Love Train" and "Backstabbers" ' after finding that the group most likely had no power under its contract to stop its label from issuing a collection of previously unreleased songs.
Attorney Fees Update
Depending on the circumstances and the law, parties on either side of an entertainment suit may ask a court for an award of attorney fees. Following are recent court rulings that deal with this and related concerns.
Bare Corporate Receipt Doctrine Less Help to Copyright Plaintiffs
The first line of defense in most copyright infringement actions revolves around the question of "access" ' namely, whether the defendant had a reasonable possibility of viewing or hearing the plaintiff's work such that the defendant could have copied it illegally. Absent some direct proof that the defendant actually copied the plaintiff's work ' evidence that typically is not present ' a plaintiff will attempt to prove such copying indirectly by establishing that a defendant had access to the plaintiff's work and that the defendant's work is "substantially similar" to the plaintiff's. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has made it more difficult for plaintiffs to prove access. <BR>Specifically, in the Second Circuit's view, a company's "bare corporate receipt" of a plaintiff's work is insufficient proof of access.
