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Intellectual Property and Culture

Intellectual Property and Culture
IP in the Press: Pay-per-listen ruling from the CRB
03.21.07 | Permalink | 573 Comments

The Copyright Royalty Board, a panel within the Library of Congress, ruled on March 2 that broadcasters of radio over the web must pay a .08 cent fee – rising to .19 cents in 2010 – to the copyright owner every time a listener hears a song, the NYT reports. Futher, each channel must pay [...]

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Intellectual Property and Culture
What about this ethics stuff anyway?
03.06.07 | Permalink | Comment?

It occurs to me that I have not given adequate thought to what I mean by calling my work this semester a study on intellectual property ethics. This is largely due to my civilian understanding of ethics itself. Like anyone, I understand that ethical questions are those of right and wrong, of value [...]

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Intellectual Property and Culture
IP in the Press: More Open Patent Review at the USPTO.
03.06.07 | Permalink | Comment?

The US Patent and Trade Office will be opening patent applications up to user review on the web, reports the Washington Post. Although only pilot project, the move towards openness raises some interesting questions, and even hopes, about the direction of IP law. The project will allow users to access and comment on patent applications, [...]

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Intellectual Property and Culture
The Marketplaces of Ideas, Proprietary and Public.
03.02.07 | Permalink | Comment?

Litman interestingly points out an "information ethos" in the United States rooted in the fundamental perspective that "facts and ideas cannot be owned, suppressed, censored or regulated; they are meant to be found, studied, passed along and freely traded." (11) This certainly rings true to my ears. The prospect of being limited by law in [...]

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Intellectual Property and Culture
Other Stuff: Copyright Comic Book
03.02.07 | Permalink | Comment?

Duke University's Center for the Study of the Public Domain has taken on the complexities of copyright, particular fair use, in comic book form. I came across it quite by accident, but it nonetheless gave me a chuckle and an expanded understanding of fair use and it's vagueries of meaning. It focuses particularly on the [...]

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Intellectual Property and Culture
Getting Specific: Digital copyright.
03.01.07 | Permalink | 1 Comment

Having built a background on IP generally with "Essentials…", I now turn my attention to IP law as it relates to the digital. Having just finished the introduction and put down the book, I can say that I'm glad to have not only focused on the digital, but also to have selected "Digital Copyright" by [...]

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Intellectual Property and Culture
The “Fair Use” Doctrine; established 1976
02.20.07 | Permalink | Comment?

The next subject Essentials hits upon is the doctrine of fair use, another dominant IP issue in the new century. Although long existent in U.S. common law (with origins in a 1709 U.K. statue), it wasn't until the 1970s that is was incorporated into the Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. § 107 , the [...]

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Intellectual Property and Culture
Trademarks, or Coming to you direct from Satan
02.08.07 | Permalink | Comment?

Top Left REG 2279865 – PARAGON SPORTS PROPERTIES – for posters, souvenir programs concerning ice hockey; paper banners; and newsletters featuring information about ice hockey. Top Right REG 1160186 – William Underwood Company – for Deviled Ham, Meat, and Poultry Spreads Bottom Left REG 2265914 – NEW JERSEY DEVILS LLC – for clothing, namely, [...]

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Intellectual Property and Culture
The skilled gatekeepers are not cheap
02.06.07 | Permalink | Comment?

The writing places a enormous emphasis on the importance of patent attorneys in the patent/copyright process. On some level this may reflect the writers' professional careers in patent law, but on the whole the description is consistent with other sources. While inventors do have the legal right to represent themselves in patent claims as in [...]

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Intellectual Property and Culture
Beauracacy, or Patents, Legal Fees, and Barriers to Ownership
02.02.07 | Permalink | Comment?

Fittingly for its practical focus, Essentials begins with an overview of the processes and paperwork envolved in even claiming patentability in the three patent catagories – which are design, utility and plant (the later one bothers me immediately, for reasons I'm going to think on for a while). As it turns out, it takes quite [...]

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