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C-IP2 Fall 2024 Progress Report (June-August 2024)


Headshot of Joshua KreshGreetings from C-IP2 Interim Executive Director Joshua A. Kresh

As we transition into the fall season, I am delighted to share that we have had a productive summer and are looking forward to an eventful fall and winter. The past months have been marked by significant achievements and exciting developments, building upon the robust foundation we laid earlier this year.

We’ve seen impressive publications from our earlier Edison Fellows, along with many of our Scholars and Senior Scholars, demonstrating the lasting impact of our programs. The 2024 WIPO-U.S. Summer School on IP was a resounding success, and a number of recordings are available on our website and linked in this report.

We recently held our Copyright Roundtable, which fostered insightful discussions and collaborations on copyright and AI among industry leaders and academics. I want to take this opportunity to congratulate Shawn Shan, one of our Roundtable participants, who recently was named MIT Technology Review’s 2024 Innovator of the Year!

As usual, the discussions from this year’s Roundtables will inform panels at our upcoming Annual Fall Conference on October 17-18. This year’s conference will delve into the critical importance of exclusive rights in patent and copyright industries, exploring their historical foundations and the potential consequences for innovators and creators if these rights are not adequately protected. We’ve assembled an impressive lineup of speakers and panels, including Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Kathi Vidal as Keynote Speaker, former USPTO Director David Kappos, Judge Paul R. Michel, Judge Susan G. Braden, and former U.S. Copyright Office Register of Copyrights Karyn A. Temple.

As we continue to expand our reach and impact, I want to express my deepest gratitude to our sustaining donors, whose unwavering support makes our work possible. Your contributions are the lifeblood of our non-profit center, enabling us to maintain our robust programming and advance intellectual property scholarship and policy. For those considering supporting our mission, I encourage you to reach out to me at jkresh@gmu.edu. I would be delighted to discuss the various ways you can get involved and contribute to our important work.


C-IP2 Hosted & Co-Hosted Events

2024 WIPO-U.S. Summer School on IP
From June 3-14, C-IP2 hosted the WIPO-U.S. Summer School on IP in partnership with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) for the seventh consecutive year. The program, held virtually this year, welcomed students from around the world: Angola, Armenia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Ghana, Ethiopia, Estonia, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Ukraine, the United States of America, and Venezuela. We’re grateful to WIPO for their partnership, and especially thank Mrs. Maria-Stella Ntamark for all her efforts. Many thanks to all our speakers, as well:

    • We’re grateful to all the C-IP2 Affiliates who contributed their knowledge as program instructors: Sandra Aistars, Jonathan Barnett, Judge Susan Braden (Ret.), David Grossman, Steven D. Jamar, Joshua Kresh, Dale Lazar, Emily Michiko Morris, Lateef Mtima, Christopher Newman, Kristen Osenga, Eric Priest, Alexandra Roberts, Mark Schultz, Amy Semet, and Saurabh Vishnubhakat, as well as C-IP2 Advisory Board Members Troy Dow (Disney), David Kappos (Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP), John Kolakowski (Nokia Technologies), David Korn (PhRMA), Karen Marangi (RELX), Judge Paul R. Michel, and Hans Sauer (BIO).
    • Thanks also to all our visiting instructors and speakers, both returning and first-time: Christopher M. Arena (BakerHostetler), Brian J. Benison (George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School), Kerri Braun (Cisco), Matthew Bryan (WIPO), Ann Chaitovitz (USPTO), Martha Chikowore (WIPO), Victoria Cundiff (University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School), John Dubiansky (Dolby), Rama G. Elleru (Special Competitive Studies Project), Tarek Fahmy (U.S. Department of State), Ben Golant (Tencent America), Dean Harts (3M), Sharon Israel (USPTO), Chris Katopis (ABA, IPL Copyright Committee), Emily Lanza (Office of Policy and International Affairs, U.S. Copyright Office), David Lowery (Songwriter & Artist), John Maltbie (Louis Vuitton North America, Inc.), Naveen Modi (Paul Hastings), Olivia Muller (Erik M. Pelton & Associates, PLLC), James Pooley (James Pooley, PLC; Former Deputy Director General, WIPO), Sydney Redden (Global Innovation Policy Center | U.S. Chamber of Commerce), Jessica Richard (Recording Industry Association of America), Laurie Self (Qualcomm), Maria Strong (U.S. Copyright Office), Dr. Andrew Toole (USPTO), Philip Warrick (Irell & Manella), Bradley J. Watts (Global Innovation Policy Center | U.S. Chamber of Commerce), and John Yun (George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School).
Zoom screenshot of the 2024 WIPO-U.S. Summer School participants
A Zoom screenshot of the 2024 WIPO-U.S. Summer School on IP!

Webinar with USPTO Director Kathi Vidal on China Visit
On June 10, C-IP2 co-hosted an invitation-only webinar, organized by C-IP2 Affiliate & Edison Fellow Mark Cohen, with the USPTO on “A Discussion on USPTO Director Vidal’s Recent Trip to China.” Speaking were USPTO Director Kathi Vidal and her USPTO China team, who had just returned from meetings with some of China’s most senior leaders, including Vice Premier Ding XuexiangJames Pooley, former WIPO Deputy Director General, who had just returned from a tour in China for his book Secrets; and former Chief Judge Randall Ray Rader (Ret.), who is one of the few American professors still teaching at Tsinghua Law School and participates in the US-China Track II High Level Dialogue with several other former senior U.S. government officials.

Virtual Panel on Law and AI
On June 11, with Arizona State University Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes (CSPO) and the Smithsonian Institution’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, C-IP2 co-hosted the public webinar “Adapting the Law to Major Technological Shifts: Lessons from History Applied to Current AI Challenges.” This panel looked at how the law has adapted to past changes in platform technologies and what lessons can be applied to Artificial Intelligence. Speakers included Arthur Daemmrich (Arizona State University Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes (CSPO), Rama G. Elluru (Special Competitive Studies Project – SCSP), the Hon. David J. Kappos (Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP; Former Director, USPTO), Amy Semet (University at Buffalo School of Law), Saurabh Vishnubhakat ( Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law), and moderator Joshua Kresh (C-IP2). A recording of the panel is available on C-IP2’s website.

Virtual Panel: “Patents in the Innovation Industries”
As a session during the WIPO-U.S. Summer School on IP, C-IP2 hosted a June 4 panel on “Patents in the Innovation Industries” with speakers John Kolakowski (Nokia Technologies), David Korn (PhRMA), Hans Sauer (BIO), Laurie Self (Qualcomm), and moderator Joshua Kresh (C-IP2). The recording of this session has been made available for public viewing.

C-IP2 Copyright Roundtable
On July 18-19, C-IP2 hosted the roundtable “Copyright and Generative AI: Recent Works and Works in Progress” at the Chateaux Deer Valley, Park City, Utah. The creative community, practitioners, legislators, regulators, and courts are all navigating how to understand the implications of Generative AI technology. This roundtable gathered scholars and industry experts who are actively writing and working in this space to discuss recent scholarship and works in progress during an invitation only meeting.

C-IP2 Hosts the Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property (SAIP)
On July 22, C-IP2 hosted a visiting delegation from the Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property (SAIP) at Mason Square Campus in Arlington, VA. The delegation spoke with Director Joshua Kresh, Professor Sandra Aistars, and C-IP2 Practitioners in Residence Terrica Carrington (Motion Picture Association) and David Grossman (Office of Technology Transfer, George Mason University) about C-IP2’s work, clinic activities, and more, and the delegation was then joined by Judge Paul Michel and Naveen Modi (Paul Hastings LLP) for an overview of the U.S. appellate process. Many thanks to the members of the delegation for including a visit to C-IP2 during their time in the Washington, D.C. area, and to Ms. Rawan Alfaiz (PhD Student and Lecturer, College of Science, George Mason University) for all her efforts in coordinating the event.


News & Speaking Engagements

C-IP2 Welcomes New Affiliates!

This summer, 2021-2023 C-IP2 Visiting Scholar Masami Kawase (Japan Patent Office (JPO)) published the research he worked on while at George Mason University: Estimating patent value in the United States and Japan, World Patent Information (Volume 77, June 2024, 102280). Mr. Kawase used statistical analysis to value U.S. and Japanese patents, working on his primary research while in the United States and completing the project after his return to Japan at the end of June.

On July 9, Professor Emily Michiko Morris (C-IP2 Senior Fellow for Life Sciences & Scholar), Professor Mark Schultz (C-IP2 Senior Scholar), and Joshua Kresh (C-IP2 Interim Executive Director) filed comments objecting to the USPTO’s “proposed changes to terminal disclaimers and their use to overcome obviousness-type double patenting objections.”

On July 29, Mark Cohen (C-IP2 Affiliate & Edison Fellow; Non-Resident Scholar, University of California, San Diego; The National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR); The Sunwater Institute) and the Hon. Andrei Iancu (C-IP2 Advisory Board Member; Partner, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP) participated in the virtual CSIS-hosted panel discussion “Standard Essential Patents: Global Regulation and Litigation.” A video recording is available on the event website.

Congratulations to C-IP2 Senior Scholar Erika Lietzan, William H. Pittman Professor of Law & Timothy J. Heinsz Professor of Law at Mizzou Law, for being named a Best Lawyer in FDA Law for the 11th straight year, and for the 17th straight year as a Best Lawyer in Biotechnology & Life Sciences Law for 2025.

News from Current and Former Edison Fellows

    • Michael Doane (2024-2025 Edison Fellow; Visiting Assistant Professor of Law, The University of Akron School of Law)
      • In July, testified before the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet on the topic of IP Litigation before the International Trade Commission. View Professor Doane’s testimony.
    • Michael Goodyear (2023-2024 Edison Fellow; Acting Assistant Professor, New York University School of Law)
    • Gabriela Lenarczyk (2024-2025 Edison Fellow; Postdoctoral Fellow, Centre for Advanced Studies in Bioscience Innovation Law (CeBIL), University of Copenhagen Faculty of Law)
      • In August, current intelligence paper The nature, scope and validity of patent pledges, co-authored with Timo Minssen and Mateo Aboy, was published in the Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice
      • In August, chapter “The European Medicines Agency’s path to greater access to pharmaceutical regulatory data: balancing intellectual property rights and the right to privacy,” co-authored with Duncan Matthews and Żaneta Zemła-Pacud, was published in Kritika: Essays on Intellectual Property, Vol. 6 (Edward Elgar)
    • David A. Simon (2023-2024 Edison Fellow; Associate Professor of Law, Northeastern University School of Law)
      • Congratulations to Professor Simon for his upcoming research paper Gatekeeping Drugs, forthcoming with the Northeastern University School of Law Research Paper and written as part of Professor Simon’s Edison Fellowship.
    • Molly Stech (2021-2022 Edison Fellow; General Counsel, International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers (STM))
      • Participated in C-IP2’s July 18-19 Copyright Roundtable in Park City, Utah
      • Contributed July 30 C-IP2 blog post “Authors are Humans and Creativity is a Function of Humanness: What the Mannion Court Can Teach Us About Generative AI’s Relationship to Authorship” on her forthcoming paper Copyright Thickness, Thinness, and a Mannion Test for Images Produced by Generative Artificial Intelligence Applications

The Fall 2024 semester at Antonin Scalia Law School began on August 21, and C-IP2 Affiliates at Scalia Law are teaching the following courses:

    • Professor Sandra Aistars is leading the Arts & Entertainment Advocacy Clinic and teaching “Scholarly Writing”
    • Professor Olufunmilayo Arewa is teaching “Securities Law & Regulation” and “Startup Law”
    • Professor Tun-Jen Chiang is teaching “Patent Law I” and “Torts”
    • Professor Eric Claeys is teaching “Jurisprudence Seminar” and “Torts”
    • Professor Chris Newman is teaching “Copyright Law” and “Freedom of Speech & 1st Amendment Law”
    • Professor Seán O’Connor is teaching “Contracts” and “Intellectual Property”

Scalia Law was included in a list of law schools that offer courses on artificial intelligence.

* * *

Dr. Kristina M. L. Acri, née Lybecker (C-IP2 Senior Scholar; John L. Knight Chair of Economics and Professor of Economics, Colorado College)

    • Was cited in July 19 JAMA Network Medical News & Perspectives article “WHO Warns of Counterfeit Ozempic in the Global Supply Chain—Here’s What to Know”
    • Recent paper Injunctive Relief in Patent Cases: the Impact of eBay (posted to SSRN on June 25, 2024; Under review for publication in the Harvard Journal of Law & Technology), which was authored on the eBay decision and injunctive relief in patent infringement cases, was cited on July 30 in both a press release by Senator Coons of Delaware in the announcement of the RESTORE Bill and a supportive statement issued by the Innovation Alliance.

Sandra Aistars (C-IP2 Senior Fellow for Copyright Research and Policy & Senior Scholar; Founding Director, Arts & Entertainment Advocacy Clinic; Clinical Professor of Law, George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School)

    • Was interviewed for the June 6 POLITICO Tech podcast episode “Whose voice is it anyway? When AI comes for the rich and famous” on the dispute between actress Scarlet Johannson and Open AI (listen online or using the Apple Podcasts app)
    • As part of the online WIPO-U.S. Summer School on IP:
      • On June 12, taught “Fundamentals of Copyright”
      • On June 12, moderated the panel “Copyright in the Creative Industries”
      • On June 13, participated in a fireside chat with Sharon Israel (USPTO)
      • On June 14, participated in the “IP Office Hours” session
    • Organized and led C-IP2’s July 18-19 Copyright Roundtable in Park City, Utah
    • On July 22, participated in the Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property (SAIP) delegation visit and discussions with C-IP2
    • Was quoted in August 29 Bloomberg Law article “OpenAI Pushes Prompt-Hacking Defense to Deflect Copyright Claims”

Jonathan Barnett (C-IP2 Senior Scholar; Torrey H. Webb Professor of Law, USC Gould School of Law)

    • Authored June 20 Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) piece “Democracies’ Advantage: Leveraging Innovation Coalitions to Meet the Autocratic Challenge”
    • On June 3, taught the session “Overview and Economics of Intellectual Property” as part of the online WIPO-U.S. Summer School on IP
    • On June 27, piece “The Antitrust Revolution That Mostly Wasn’t and Probably Won’t Be” was published by the Network Law Review
    • A recording is now available of the April 9 panel “National Security: Innovation, Intellectual Property, and International Competitiveness” on which Professor Barnett spoke at LeadershIP 2024 (co-hosted by LeadershIP and CSIS)
    • Was quoted in RealClearPolicy’s July 15 article “How America’s Democratic Foundation Promotes Innovation and U.S. Security”
    • Piece “Why Robust Intellectual Property Rights in Wireless Technologies Are a National Security Imperative” was published on August 23 by the Hudson Institute

Chief Judge Susan G. Braden (Court of Federal Claims (Ret.); C-IP2 Jurist in Residence)

    • On June 4, co-taught the session “Enforcing Rights: U.S. Patent Litigation” with Joshua Kresh as part of the online WIPO-U.S. Summer School on IP
    • On August 1-2, attended the ABA IP Section Council Meeting and Leadership Dinner
    • On August 6, provided feedback on Pugatch Consilium March-In Rights Paper for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s BASIC Coalition
    • On August 6, attended the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Basic Coalition Briefing with staff of Representative Pete Stauber (MN)
    • Contributed the August 19 article “An Odor of Mendacity: The Campaign to Finalize NIST’s Patent “March-In” Rights Guidance” to the Washington Legal Foundation

Terrica Carrington (C-IP2 Practitioner in Residence; Senior Counsel & Director, Law, Policy & International, Motion Picture Association)

    • On July 11, participated in a closed-door listening session at the USPTO on AI input transparency and output disclosures (See UPSTO webpage on “Strategic plan accomplishments” > “Goal #2” > “USPTO milestones”: “On July 11, 2024, the USPTO hosted a closed stakeholder listening session in Alexandria to gather feedback on the topic of transparency in relation to artificial intelligence and copyright. During the session, stakeholders were invited to discuss topics involving artificial intelligence inputs and outputs.”
    • On July 22, participated in the Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property (SAIP) delegation visit and discussions with C-IP2
    • As of this summer, has been named a Co-Chair of the Copyright Society’s 2025 Midwinter Meeting
    • On August 6, spoke on a panel titled “Considering a Compulsory Copyright Collective Clearance System in an AI World” as part of Georgetown Law’s Tech Foundations for Government Staff program (view the detailed agenda)
    • On August 28, participated in an in-person stakeholder listening session hosted by the USPTO regarding legal protection issues related to AI-generated outputs

Theo Cheng (C-IP2 Practitioner in Residence; Arbitrator and Mediator, ADR Office of Theo Cheng LLC; Adjunct Professor, New York Law School)

Mark Cohen (C-IP2 Affiliate & Edison Fellow; Non-Resident Scholar, University of California, San Diego; The National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR); The Sunwater Institute)

    • This summer, joined C-IP2 as an Affiliate
    • Organized June 10 invitation-only webinar “A Discussion on USPTO Director Vidal’s Recent Trip to China,” co-hosted by C-IP2 and the USPTO and featuring speakers USPTO Director Kathi Vidal and her USPTO China team, who had just returned from meetings with some of China’s most senior leaders, including Vice Premier Ding XuexiangJames Pooley, former WIPO Deputy Director General, who had just returned from a tour in China for his book Secrets; and former Chief Judge Randall Ray Rader (Ret.), who is one of the few American professors still teaching at Tsinghua Law School and participates in the US-China Track II High Level Dialogue with several other former senior U.S. government officials.
    • On July 29, participated in the virtual CSIS-hosted panel discussion “Standard Essential Patents: Global Regulation and Litigation.” A video recording is available on the event website.

Gregory Dolin (C-IP2 Senior Scholar; Associate Professor of Law, University of Baltimore School of Law)

    • Was mentioned in Patently-O’s June 17 post “Democracy on Trial: Chestek and the Future of USPTO Accountability”

John F. Duffy (C-IP2 Senior Scholar; Samuel H. McCoy II Professor of Law and Paul G. Mahoney Research Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law)

    • Spoke on July 3 Federalist Society webinar “Courthouse Steps Decision: Corner Post, Inc. v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System”
    • Was mentioned in the University of Virginia School of Law’s July 15 news story “Student’s Note Influenced a Supreme Court Case Eight Years Later”

Tabrez Ebrahim (C-IP2 Scholar; Associate Professor of Law at Lewis & Clark Law School)

Gillian Fenton (C-IP2 Practitioner in Residence; Founder and Executive Director, LST Strategies LLC)

    • This summer, joined C-IP2 as a Practitioner in Residence
    • On April 9, spoke on the panel “National Security: Innovation, Intellectual Property, and International Competitiveness” at LeadershIP 2024 (co-hosted by LeadershIP and CSIS). A recording of the panel is available on the event website.
    • On July 14, submitted comments in response to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Request for Information on the Draft NIH Intramural Policy Research Program Policy: Promoting Equity through Access Planning
    • On July 23, taught Module One of the Licensing Executives Society (LES) IP Licensing Basics virtual course. Module One is an overview of the types of intellectual property under U.S. law and also surveys some “IP adjacent” assets such as know-how and data.
    • On August 16, spoke on the panel “Why IP is beneficial to innovators and companies alike” at the USPTO’s Invention-Con 2024
    • On August 27, co-taught Domains 4-5 of the LES Certified Licensing Professional (CLP) preparation course. Domain 4 is about negotiating business terms of a licensing agreement, and Domain 5 is about alliance management and dispute resolution mechanisms. 

Jon M. Garon (C-IP2 Senior Scholar; Professor of Law and Director of the Intellectual Property, Cybersecurity, and Technology Law program, Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad College of Law)

    • Paper The Revolution will Be Digitized: Generative AI, Synthetic Media, and the Medium of Disruption (20 Ohio State Tech. L. J. 139 (2023)) was picked up by the U.S. Copyright Society in their July 22 Weekly Copyright Updates
    • Latest book, How AI, Metaverses, Crypto, and Cyber will Upend the 21st Century (Edward Elgar Publishing 2024), was just published this July and is now available for order and shipping. The front matter and first chapter can be accessed online for free at the link above. The book was also featured in OpenPR’s July 29 press release.
    • This July, posted latest AI law review article, Prometheus’ Digital Fire: The Civic Responsibilities of Artificial Intelligence (20 Ohio State Tech. L. J. 225 (2024))
    • In July, presented on “Strategies and Tactics for Legal Artificial Intelligence Implementation” at the American Board of Trial Advocates Florida Annual Convention
    • Participated in C-IP2’s July 18-19 Copyright Roundtable in Park City, Utah
    • Served several roles participating in the July 21-27 SEALS 2024 Conference, hosted by the Southeastern Association of Law Schools:
      • On July 21, was a Discussant for the session “Distance Education Workshop: Online & Hybrid Learning Pedagogy Best Practices and Standards Development”
      • On July 22, moderated the session “Distance Education Workshop: Use of Generative AI, Extractive AI, and Other Technology in the Training of Legal Professions”
      • On July 24, was a Discussant for the session “Assessing Learning to Achieve Student Competency”
    • On August 6, served as a panelist for the virtual program “Data Privacy Fundamentals in the Age of AI,” a Business Law Basics Webinar hosted by the ABA Business Law Section

David Grossman (C-IP2 Practitioner in Residence; Senior Director of Technology Transfer & Industry Collaboration, Office of Technology Transfer, George Mason University)

    • On June 6, taught the session “Simulation Exercise: Transfer of Technology and Licensing” as part of the online WIPO-U.S. Summer School on IP
    • On July 22, participated in the Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property (SAIP) delegation visit and discussions with C-IP2

Camilla A. Hrdy (C-IP2 Scholar; Associate Professor of Law, Rutgers Law School)

    • Congratulations to Professor Hrdy on her new position as an Associate Professor of Law at Rutgers Law School this fall! 

Justin (Gus) Hurwitz (C-IP2 Senior Scholar; Senior Fellow and Academic Director, Center for Technology, Innovation, and Competition, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School)

    • Was quoted in June 26 Salon news story “‘Teeing up the next one’: Expert says SCOTUS ‘roadmap’ helps right-wingers revise ‘deranged’ cases”
    • Was quoted in PennToday’s June 28 news story “Law experts on SCOTUS decisions on Chevron, Jan. 6 obstruction charge, administrative powers”
    • Was quoted in The Telegraph’s July 1 news article “The Supreme Court casts doubt on Florida and Texas laws to regulate social media platforms”
    • Mentioned in The Regulatory Review’s July 15 series of essays, “The Supreme Court’s 2023-2024 Regulatory Term” 

Steven D. Jamar (C-IP2 Senior Scholar; Associate Director, Institute for Intellectual Property and Social Justice (IIPSJ); Professor Emeritus, Howard University School of Law)

    • On June 13, taught the session “Generative AI Challenges to IP Law and Administration” as part of the online WIPO-U.S. Summer School on IP

Joshua Kresh (C-IP2 Interim Executive Director)

    • As part of the online WIPO-U.S. Summer School on IP:
      • On June 3, moderated the panel “The Role of IP Institutions in the Global IP System”
      • On June 4, co-taught the session “Enforcing Rights: U.S. Patent Litigation” with Judge Susan G. Braden (Ret.)
      • On June 4, moderated the panel “Patents in the Innovation Industries”
      • On June 5, participated in a fireside chat with Judge Paul Michel
      • On June 11, moderated the public panel “Adapting the Law to Major Technological Shifts: Lessons from History Applied to Current AI Challenges,” which was co-hosted with Arizona State University Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes (CSPO), & The Smithsonian Institution’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation
      • On June 14, participated in the session “IP Office Hours”
    • With Emily Michiko Morris and Mark Schultz, submitted comments “In Response to Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Terminal Disclaimer Practice to Obviate Nonstatutory Double Patenting” on July 9
    • Participated in C-IP2’s July 18-19 Copyright Roundtable in Park City, Utah
    • On July 22, participated in the Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property (SAIP) delegation visit and discussions with C-IP2
    • July 23 roundtable in Washington, D.C. (private roundtable lunch on “AI & a Better Connected World,” hosted in Washington, D.C. by Semafor – lead speakers we “Semafor Contributor and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Jon Hilsenrath and Francine Katsoudas, Executive Vice President and Chief People, Policy & Purpose Officer of Cisco”)

Dale Lazar (C-IP2 Practitioner in Residence; Director, Patent Program, Innovation Law Clinic)

    • On June 4, taught the session “Establishing Rights: U.S. Patent Prosecution” as part the online WIPO-U.S. Summer School on IP

Dr. John Liddicoat (C-IP2 Scholar; Senior Research Associate and Affiliated Lecturer, Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge)

    • On June 20, gave a presentation on “The Evolution of Repurposing” at the Inter-CeBIL Annual Retreat in Copenhagen, Denmark
    • This July, co-penned a submission with James Parish to the USPTO on patents and AI entitled “Comment on the ‘Impact of the Proliferation of Artificial Intelligence on Prior Art, the Knowledge of Person Having Ordinary Skill in the Art, and Determinations of Patentability Made in View of the Foregoing’” (2024)
    • In August, the United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office interviewed Dr. Liddicoat as part of their ‘IP 2050’ project, which aims to help develop future policies and tools.

Erika Lietzan (C-IP2 Senior Scholar; William H. Pittman Professor of Law & Timothy J. Heinsz Professor of Law, University of Missouri School of Law)

    • In June, was named 2024 Winner of the Loyd E. Roberts Memorial Prize in the Administration of Justice, which was created to “honor the [University of Missouri] law professor or student who has made the most significant contribution to improving the administration of justice, either within Missouri, nationally or internationally.” Professor Lietzan was also mentioned in St. Louis Record’s June 3 press release “Professors Mitchell, Freyermuth and Lietzan win 2024 Mizzou Law Faculty Awards.”
    • In June, new article Petition Power was published in University of Missouri School of Law Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2024-17. Professor Lietzan’s article was also featured in Yale Journal on Regulation’s June 25 Ad Law Reading Room entry.
    • Was mentioned in The Regulatory Review’s July 1 post “Moving Administrative Processes Forward, Together”
    • Congratulations to Professor Lietzan for being named a Best Lawyer in FDA Law for the 11th straight year, and for the 17th straight year as a Best Lawyer in Biotechnology & Life Sciences Law for 2025!

Daryl Lim (C-IP2 Senior Scholar; H. Laddie Montague Jr. Chair in Law; Associate Dean for Research and Innovation; Founding Director, Intellectual Property Law and Innovation Initiative; and co-hire, Institute for Computational and Data Sciences, Penn State University)

    • Article “Innovation and Artists’ Rights in the Age of Generative AI” was published on July 10 by the SFS Georgetown Journal of International Affairs
    • In August, presented his paper The Antitrust–Copyright Interface in the Age of Generative Artificial Intelligence, co-authored with Professor Peter K. Yu (Texas A&M University School of Law), at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK)

Keith Mallinson (C-IP2 Practitioner in Residence; Founder, WiseHarbor)

    • In June, joined C-IP2 as a Practitioner in Residence
    • Spoke on the panel “Transparency” during the conference Patents in Telecoms and the Internet of Things, which was hosted May 16-17 in London, United Kingdom, by the UCL Faculty of Laws
    • July 2 article “Declining SEP royalties payments yield rates significantly below licensors’ headline figures” on the IP finance blog was ranked #1 in the Top 10 LinkedIn postings on IP for the week: “Aggregate royalties paid to major SEP licensors Ericsson, InterDigital, Nokia and Qualcomm have declined by 28% since peaking in 2015 to 2023. The aggregate “royalty yield” (i.e. total royalties paid divided by handset sales revenues) for these licensors has dropped even more steeply by 38% since 2015. Percentage royalty yields have been diminished by royalty base caps and the switch to monetary amount per unit royalty rates in some cases. While ad valorem percentage rates charged hedge for inflationary increases in phone prices, caps and fixed amounts per unit are not indexed. Cellular SEP licensors obtain significantly lower royalties than the maximum percentage rates and monetary rates per unit publicly headlined on their web sites. That’s only to be expected because licensees insist that royalties are capped on higher-priced smartphones.”
    • July 3 article “European Commission’s proposed top-down approach would massively reallocate SEP royalties to China” was posted to the IP finance blog:The European Commission’s scheme to regulate royalties by setting aggregate royalties and apportioning them with the top-down approach based on standard-essential patent counts would very disturbingly and harmfully effect SEP licensing. My analysis shows that apportioning current levels of aggregate royalties based on declared-essential patent counts would massively reallocate royalties received by US and European licensors to Chinese companies.”

Hina Mehta (C-IP2 Practitioner in Residence; Program Director, National Science Foundation (NSF))

Emily Michiko Morris (C-IP2 Senior for Life Sciences and Scholar; C-IP2 2021-2022 Edison Fellow; David L. Brennan Endowed Chair, Associate Professor, and Associate Director of the Center for Intellectual Property Law & Technology, University of Akron School of Law)

    • As part of the online WIPO-U.S. Summer School on IP:
      • On June 6, taught the session “IP Issues in Life Sciences R&D and Commercialization”
      • On June 14, participated in the session “IP Office Hours”
    • With Mark Schultz and Joshua Kresh, submitted comments “In Response to Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Terminal Disclaimer Practice to Obviate Nonstatutory Double Patenting” on July 9

Lateef Mtima (C-IP2 Senior Scholar; Professor of Law, Howard University School of Law; Founder and Director, Institute for Intellectual Property and Social Justice (IIPSJ))

    • In June, sat down with The Vanguard Network’s “It’s Not Woke–It’s Constitutional,” podcast, where he discussed the social justice implications of intellectual property on the episode “Getting Smart About Intellectual Property and Social Justice”
    • On June 13, taught the session “Generative AI Challenges to IP Law and Administration” as part of the online WIPO-U.S. Summer School on IP
    • Participated in C-IP2’s July 18-19 Copyright Roundtable in Park City, Utah

Christopher M. Newman (C-IP2 Scholar; Associate Professor of Law, George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School)

    • On June 12, taught the session “Copyright in the Digital World” as part of the online WIPO-U.S. Summer School on IP
    • Participated in C-IP2’s July 18-19 Copyright Roundtable in Park City, Utah 

Kristen Jakobsen Osenga (C-IP2 Senior Fellow for Innovation Policy & Senior Scholar; Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, Austin E. Owen Research Scholar and Professor of Law, University of Richmond School of Law)

    • As part of the online WIPO-U.S. Summer School on IP:
      • On June 3, taught the session “Fundamentals of U.S. Patent Law”
      • On June 14, participated in the session “IP Office Hours”
    • Was mentioned in Holland & Knight’s August 26 post “Section 101 Patent Eligibility Roundup: It’s Been Too Long”

Eric Priest (C-IP2 Senior Scholar; Associate Professor and Faculty Director, Asian Studies, Law, Law-JD, University of Oregon School of Law)

    • On June 12, taught the session “Securing & Using Copyright Protection Globally” as part of the online WIPO-U.S. Summer School on IP

Michael Risch (C-IP2 Senior Scholar; Vice Dean and Professor of Law, Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law)

    • On June 4, served as a commentator/participant at the Computer Science & the Law Scholarship Roundtable at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School
    • On June 10, was interviewed for KCBS Radio spot “K-pop group ‘New Jeans’ to sue alleged defamer under South Korean law”
    • On July 28 , was interviewed on KCBS Radio regarding TikTok information sharing with ByteDance in China

Alexandra Jane Roberts (C-IP2 Senior Scholar; Professor of Law and Media & Faculty Director, Center for Law, Information and Creativity (CLIC), Northeastern University School of Law)

    • Chapter “Oppressive and Empowering #Tagmarks” was published in Feminist Cyberlaw (eds. Meg Leta Jones & Amanda Levendowski; University of California Press, 2024; 50-61)
    • In June, was named Faculty Director of Northeastern University School of Law’s Center for Law, Information and Creativity (CLIC)
    • Was quoted in June 1 IGN article “In 10 Years, Superman Will Be in the Public Domain. That May Not Mean What You Think It Does”
    • On June 8, presented Of Marks & Minors (read abstract) at the University of Houston Law Center’s Institute for Intellectual Property & Information Law (IPIL) annual symposium in Santa Fe, New Mexico
    • On June 10, led a fireside chat with John Maltbie (Director of Intellectual Property, Civil Enforcement, Louis Vuitton North America, Inc.) as part of the online WIPO-U.S. Summer School on IP
    • Was quoted in June 3 Slate article “When a Lifetime Subscription Isn’t for Life”
    • Was quoted in June 5 The Ankler article “The AI Voice Revolution is Bigger Than ScarJo”
    • Was interviewed about her article Multi-Level Lies (UC Davis Law Review, Forthcoming) by Professor Andrew Jennings for a June 18 episode of his Business Scholarship Podcast (listen to the interview on Andrew Jennings’ website or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube)
    • Was quoted in June 26 Bloomberg Law article “Crocs Case at Federal Circuit Set to Shape False Advertising Law”
    • Was quoted in June 27 Northeastern Global News article “Will YouTube’s attempt to strike AI music deals with record labels change the music industry?”
    • C-IP2 congratulates Professor Roberts for beginning her tenure as Faculty Director of Northeastern University’s Center for Law, Information & Creativity (CLIC) on July 1!
    • Was quoted in July 8 The Times of London article about a school shooting victim gaining the right to control use of the shooter’s name
    • In July, was quoted in The Deal article about a liquidity crunch at MLM Rodan + Fields (article may be behind a paywall)
    • Was quoted in July 15 The Wall Street Journal article about the effect of two recent Supreme Court decisions on FTC’s regulation of deceptive advertising practices
    • Was quoted in July 17 Northeastern Global News article and July 23 Vanity Fair article about the use of music at political rallies
    • Was quoted in July 22 article on Sportico and MSN about a trademark dispute between Troy Aikman and Lamar Jackson
    • Was quoted in July 24 World Trademark Review article on the anniversary of Twitter’s rebrand to X
    • In July, was interviewed on the Business Scholarship Podcast with Professor Andrew Jennings about Professor Roberts’ article Multi-Level Lies, which is forthcoming in UC Davis Law Review. The podcast episode is available on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and Direct.
    • Was quoted in August 5 FastCompany article“Why Zillow Gone Wild is being sued for alleged copyright infringement”
    • Was quoted in August 8 Boston Globe article “Missed the Taylor Swift tour? New Hampshire may have the Eras experience you need” about a Taylor Swift impersonator
    • Was interviewed for August 16 posts on NBC News’ TikTok and Instagram over generative AI’s use of copyrighted characters
    • Was quoted in August 27 Northeastern Global News article “Can Jools Lebron still trademark ‘Very Demure, Very Mindful’? Legal expert explains her options” about trademark rights in a viral catchphrase
    • On August 22, posted a draft of article Dupes on SSRN
    • Wrote August 30 explainer for MSNBC about the trademark dispute over the phrase “very mindful, very demure,” created by a TikTok star 

Keith Robinson (C-IP2 Senior Scholar; Professor of Law, Wake Forest University School of Law)

Zvi S. Rosen (C-IP2 Scholar; Assistant Professor of Law, Southern Illinois University School of Law)

Mark F. Schultz (C-IP2 Senior Scholar; Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company Chair in Intellectual Property Law, University of Akron School of Law; Director, Center for Intellectual Property Law and Technology)

    • Spoke in the session “Fair Use and AI: A Debate” at the CSUSA Annual Meeting, held in Cleveland, Ohio from June 9-11
    • As part of the online WIPO-U.S. Summer School on IP
      • On June 6, taught the session “Fundamentals of Trade Secrets”
      • On June 7, taught the session “Real-World Value of Trade Secrets in a Global Innovation Economy”
      • On June 7, taught the simulation exercise “Best Practices for Protecting Trade Secrets”
      • On June 7, moderated the panel “Trade Secrets in Global Business”
    • With Emily Michiko Morris and Joshua Kresh, submitted comments “In Response to Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Terminal Disclaimer Practice to Obviate Nonstatutory Double Patenting” on July 9
    • Participated in C-IP2’s July 18-19 Copyright Roundtable in Park City, Utah 

Brenda Simon (C-IP2 Senior Scholar; ProFlowers Professor of Internet Studies and Professor of Law, California Western School of Law)

Dr. Bhamati Viswanathan (C-IP2 Scholar; Assistant Professor of Law, New England Law | Boston)

    • Was quoted in June 21 Wired article about “AI-powered search startup Perplexity” and plagiarism allegations

Scholarship & Other Writings

Kristina M.L. Acri née Lybecker, Injunctive Relief in Patent Cases: the Impact of eBay (June 14, 2024). Under review for publication in the Harvard Journal of Law & Technology.

Jonathan Barnett, “The Antitrust Revolution That Mostly Wasn’t and Probably Won’t Be,” Network Law Review (June 27, 2024)

Jonathan Barnett, “Democracies’ Advantage: Leveraging Innovation Coalitions to Meet the Autocratic Challenge,” Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) (June 20, 2024)

Jonathan Barnett, “Illusions of Dominance: Revisiting the Market Power Assumption in Platform Ecosystems,” ABA (August 21, 2024)

Jonathan M. Barnett, “Why Robust Intellectual Property Rights in Wireless Technologies Are a National Security Imperative,” Hudson Institute (August 23, 2024)

Susan G. Braden, “An Odor of Mendacity: The Campaign to Finalize NIST’s Patent “March-In” Rights Guidance,” Washington Legal Foundation (August 19, 2024)

Tabrez Ebrahim, Data in Business & Society (June 26, 2024). Lewis & Clark Law Review, Vol. 28, Issue 2 (2024)

Jon M. Garon, How AI, Metaverses, Crypto, and Cyber will Upend the 21st Century (Edward Elgar Publishing 2024) [View press release for the new book]

Jon Garon, Prometheus’ Digital Fire: The Civic Responsibilities of Artificial Intelligence, 20 Ohio State Tech. L. J. 225 (2024)

Justin Hughes, “NO FAKES Act: Unpacking the New Bipartisan Bill on Digital Replicas,” C-IP2 Blog (August 1, 2024) – Originally posted on the Patently-O blog and cross-posted with permission from both Patently-O and the author

Gus Hurwitz, “The Legality of the FTC’s Noncompete Ban Is Less Certain than Masur and Posner Suggest,” ProMarket (June 13, 2024)

Masami Kawase, Estimating patent value in the United States and Japan, World Patent Information (Volume 77, June 2024, 102280)

John Liddicoat & James Parish, “Comment on the ‘Impact of the Proliferation of Artificial Intelligence on Prior Art, the Knowledge of Person Having Ordinary Skill in the Art, and Determinations of Patentability Made in View of the Foregoing’” (Comment to the USPTO, July 2024)

John Liddicoat et al, ‘New government drug repurposing programs: Opportunities and uncertainties’ (2024) 16(753) Science Translational Medicine eadl0998

Erika Lietzan, Petition Power (June 11, 2024). University of Missouri School of Law Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2024-17

Erika Lietzan, “User Fees Imposed by Federal Agencies,” The Regulatory Review (July 3, 2024)

Daryl Lim, “Innovation and Artists’ Rights in the Age of Generative AI,” SFS Georgetown Journal of International Affairs (July 10, 2024)

Daryl Lim & Peter K. Yu, The Antitrust–Copyright Interface in the Age of Generative Artificial Intelligence (March 3, 2024). Emory Law Journal, Vol. 74, 2025, Forthcoming, Texas A&M University School of Law Legal Studies Research Paper

Keith Mallinson, “Declining SEP royalties payments yield rates significantly below licensors’ headline figures,” IP finance weblog (July 2, 2024)

Keith Mallinson, “European Commission’s proposed top-down approach would massively reallocate SEP royalties to China,” IP finance weblog (July 3, 2024)

Keith Mallinson, “Fool’s errand with fallacies in administrative essentiality checking,” IP finance blog (June 7, 2024)

Keith Mallinson, “Measuring value and royalty costs in standards and SEPs passed along the value chain to consumers,” IP finance blog (May 28, 2024)

Emily Michiko Morris, Mark F. Schultz, & Joshua Kresh, “In Response to Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Terminal Disclaimer Practice to Obviate Nonstatutory Double Patenting” (July 9, 2024)

Alexandra Jane Roberts, Dupes (August 22, 2024)

Alexandra J. Roberts, “Oppressive and Empowering #Tagmarks,” in Feminist Cyberlaw, eds. Meg Leta Jones & Amanda Levendowski (University of California Press, 2024), 50-61

Zvi S. Rosen, Who Framed Mickey Mouse? (March 01, 2024). Forthcoming, Kansas Law Review

Brenda M. Simon, Artificial Intelligence and the Self-Represented Inventor (April 11, 2024). Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review, Forthcoming

David A. Simon, Gatekeeping Drugs (August 21, 2024). Northeastern University School of Law Research Paper Forthcoming. (This paper was supported by the 2023-2024 Thomas Edison Innovation Law and Policy Fellowship.)

Molly Stech, “Authors are Humans and Creativity is a Function of Humanness: What the Mannion Court Can Teach Us About Generative AI’s Relationship to Authorship,” C-IP2 Blog (July 30, 2024)


 

Categories
CPIP Roundup

CPIP Roundup – December 2, 2020


Greetings from CPIP Executive Director Sean O’Connor

Sean O'Connor

I hope you had an enjoyable, restful Thanksgiving. At CPIP, we’re winding down 2020 while planning our spring and summer events—including biopharma and copyright roundtables, the 2021 WIPO-CPIP Summer School on Intellectual Property, and more.

As usual, our team has been up to many great things. Director of Copyright Research and Policy Sandra Aistars’ Arts & Entertainment Advocacy Clinic co-hosted a virtual clinic with Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts (WALA). The event was a huge success. You can read our write-up here, and a recording of the Rock Creek Kings’ featured performance is available here. Sandra also participated in a November 12 panel hosted by the Law of Intellectual Property (LIP) student organization at the University of Oregon School of Law (home to CPIP Senior Scholar Eric Priest).

I taught my annual workshop on “Public-Private Partnerships–Innovation and Technology Transfer” in the CEIPI-WIPO-INPI Advanced Training Course on Intellectual Property, Technology Transfer and Licensing. I also published an op-ed at The Hill on price controls, explaining why the government cannot seize or bypass pharmaceutical patents.

Our affiliates have also been doing great things as well. Scalia Law Alumna and Arts & Entertainment Advocacy Clinic Adjunct Professor Terrica Carrington and Lateef Mtima of Howard University School of Law and IIPSJ have great quotes in this Billboard article on choreography, copyright, and social justice. CPIP Senior Fellow for Innovation Policy Jonathan Barnett continues to blog at Truth on the Market; you can catch his latest piece here and read his take on how antitrust law can be abused to promote unproductive rent-seeking. Meanwhile Chris Holman, CPIP Senior Fellow for Life Sciences, continues writing for the Biotechnology Law Report, where he serves as Executive Director; his latest article is available here.

Below we highlight new papers from CPIP Edison Fellows Christa Laser (Equitable Defenses in Patent Law), Talha Syed (Owning Knowledge: A Unified Theory of Patent Eligibility), and Tabrez Ebrahim (Artificial Intelligence Inventions & Patent Disclosure).

While 2020’s end-of-year holiday season may well be challenging, I hope you and yours will find a way to share the spirit and renewal of this coming season while looking forward to a successful new year!


Spotlight on Scholarship

a pair of glasses, an apple, and a stack of books

The scholars from our Thomas Edison Innovation Fellowship program continue to publish high quality scholarship and cutting-edge research that promotes the value of intellectual property. Here are some recent publications:

Tabrez Y. Ebrahim, Artificial Intelligence Inventions & Patent Disclosure, 125 Penn. St. L. Rev. 147 (2020)

In his new paper at Penn State Law Review, Artificial Intelligence Inventions & Patent Disclosure, Professor Tabrez Ebrahim of California Western School of Law claims that AI fundamentally challenges disclosure in patent law, which has not kept up with rapid advancements in AI, and seeks to invigorate the goals that patent law’s disclosure function is thought to serve for society. In so doing, Prof. Ebrahim assesses the role that AI plays in the inventive process, how AI can produce AI-generated output (that can be claimed in a patent application), and why it should matter for patent policy and for society. He also introduces a taxonomy comprising AI-based tools and AI-generated output that he maps with social-policy-related considerations, theoretical justifications and normative reasoning concerning disclosure for the use of AI in the inventive process, and proposals for enhancing disclosure and the impact on patent protection and trade secrecy.

To read our blog post summarizing the paper, please click here.

Christa J. Laser, Equitable Defenses in Patent Law, 75 U. Miami L. Rev. 1 (2020)

In patent law, equitable defenses can play an essential role in multi-million-dollar patent infringement cases. Unclean hands, misuse, or estoppel can render a potential verdict unenforceable. Professor Christa Laser of Cleveland-Marshall College of Law dives into the unique and unsettled role of equity in her new paper, Equitable Defenses in Patent Law, which is forthcoming at the University of Miami Law Review. Prof. Laser compares two theories to determine how courts might interpret undefined language governing equitable defenses in patent statutes, and she analyzes whether Congress codified preexisting decisional law or expanded it with the 1952 Patent Act. Finally, Prof. Laser suggests that Congress could delegate its authority to an agency to handle the ever-changing patent landscape.

To read our blog post summarizing the paper, please click here.

Talha Syed, Owning Knowledge: A Unified Theory of Patent Eligibility (forthcoming)

In his new draft paper, Owning Knowledge: A Unified Theory of Patent Eligibility, Professor Talha Syed of Berkeley Law argues that the confusion surrounding patentable subject matter under Section 101 is two-fold. First, it results from our failure to develop a functionality doctrine that can clearly distinguish technological applications of knowledge from other forms of knowledge. Second, he offers a root cause of this failure. There is a distracting preoccupation in patent law with “physicalism,” that is, the notion that a patent is awarded for a thing (tangible or not) rather than for knowledge of that thing. In order to move forward, Prof. Syed states that we must first unwind the physicalist assumptions that are tangled up in our Section 101 analyses. Only then can we develop a functionality doctrine free of those encumbrances.

To read our blog post summarizing the paper, please click here.


Categories
CPIP Roundup

CPIP Roundup – October 30, 2020


Greetings from CPIP Executive Director Sean O’Connor

Sean O'Connor

With the end of the crazy year of 2020 coming into view, we here at CPIP are striving for a strong finish and already looking forward to meeting 2021 as prepared as anyone can be. Our thoughts are with all of CPIP’s friends, and I’m glad to pass along yet another Roundup full of positive news.

CPIP’s Eighth Annual Fall Conference, 5G at the Nexus of IP, Antitrust, and Technology Leadership, took place via Zoom on October 7-8. Thanks to everyone who made the event such a huge success! If you weren’t able to join us, you can find videos of the sessions here on CPIP’s website, and you can read our blog posts here and here.

In other event-related news, we have posts covering our recent conference, The Evolving Music Ecosystem, now available on both CPIP’s blog and IP Osgoode’s blog, hosted by our friends at York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto. Bradfield Biggers, recent Boston College Law School graduate and music fintech entrepreneur at Timshel, and Meghan Carlin, Osgoode Hall law student and Co-President of the Osgoode Entertainment & Sports Law Association. You can check out the CPIP posts, here, here, here, and here, and the IP Osgoode posts here, here, here, and here.

CPIP would like to congratulate Thomas Edison Innovation Fellow Christa Laser on her professorship at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law! We’re excited about this opportunity for Christa to move into the world of academia, and we eagerly look forward to seeing all she has to offer in this space.

Congratulations also to Terrica Carrington of the Copyright Alliance for testifying at the “Copyright and the Internet in 2020” hearing before the House Judiciary Committee on September 30! You can find the written testimony, as well as a video of the hearing, on the Committee’s website. Terrica blogged about the oral argument in Google v. Oracle as well, and she joined the Committee for Justice on October 9 for a virtual panel discussion about the oral argument.

In other notable new from CPIP affiliates, CPIP Senior Scholar Mark Schultz and other experts have participated in a video for the Geneva Network on how IP helps in the battle against COVID-19. CPIP Affiliate Scholar Hina Mehta is speaking on October 30 at a session titled “Intellectual Property and its Commercialization” during Industry Day, an event hosted by George Mason University’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. Also this month, I spoke at the Law & Economics Center’s virtual Symposium on the Economics and Law of Cannabis Markets on October 12, as well as on the “Machine Learning in the Lab and in the Marketplace” panel at the LES 2020 Annual Meeting on October 16.

I’m grateful to the indefatigable CPIP staff for another productive month—especially in these crazy times—and I hope the coming months will allow us to catch our collective breath to prepare for the new year. Please read on for more October news from CPIP, and I wish you an early, happy—and especially safe—Thanksgiving!


CPIP Hosts Eighth Annual Fall Conference on 5G and the Internet of Things

Eighth Annual Fall Conference flyer

On October 7-8, 2020, CPIP hosted its Eighth Annual Fall Conference, 5G at the Nexus of IP, Antitrust, and Technology Leadership, online from Scalia Law in Arlington, Virginia. The conference featured a keynote address by the Honorable Andrei Iancu, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO, and it was co-hosted by Scalia Law’s National Security Institute (NSI).

This conference addressed fast-emerging intellectual property (IP), antitrust, and technology leadership issues in the 5G and “Internet of Things” innovation ecosystem. Coverage included standard-essential patents (SEPs) along with established and emerging markets on a regional and global basis. Speakers were drawn from the academic, industry, and policymaking communities, with an emphasis on using objective fact-based analysis to explore points of convergence among legal, economic, and geopolitical perspectives on the IP and regulatory infrastructures that underlie these critical industries.

Our blog posts summarizing the conference are available here and here, and you can watch the conference videos here.


CPIP Welcomes Ken Randall as Next Dean of Scalia Law School

the words "Mason" set up outside on campus with people walking behindGeorge Mason University has announced that Ken Randall will be the next Dean of Antonin Scalia Law School, beginning on December 1, 2020.

CPIP Executive Director Sean O’Connor welcomed the news: “We couldn’t be happier with the selection of Ken Randall as Dean-Elect. He cares deeply about the continued success of CPIP and is no stranger to innovation and commercialization. He and I have already developed a great working relationship, and CPIP endeavors to support his Deanship in any way we can. We also thank Dean Henry Butler for his outstanding leadership and look forward to working with him as a faculty colleague and Executive Director of the Law & Economics Center.”

The Center for the Protection of Intellectual Property congratulates Dean Randall on his appointment and welcomes him to the Scalia Law family. His rigorous academic mind, strong leadership skills, and expertise in online learning bring together the ideal skill set to take our law school to new heights. We very much look forward to working with him in the near future.

To read our announcement, please click here.


Spotlight on Scholarship

a pair of glasses, an apple, and a stack of books

Deepak Hegde, Joan Farre-Mensa, & Alexander Ljungqvist, What Is a Patent Worth? Evidence from the U.S. Patent “Lottery”, 75 J. Finance 639 (2020)

Deepak Hegde of New York University and co-authors Joan Farre-Mensa and Alexander Ljungqvist have published a new paper from our Edison Fellowship program entitled What Is a Patent Worth? Evidence from the U.S. Patent “Lottery” in the Journal of Finance. The paper provides empirical evidence that startups that obtain their first patent have, on average, 55% higher employment growth and 80% higher sales growth five years later. Utilizing a unique dataset drawn on unprecedented access to USPTO internal databases, the study also shows with causal evidence that these startups pursue more—and higher quality—follow-on innovation as the first patent boosts innovation by facilitating their access to funding.

Olena Ivus, Edwin L.-C. Lai, & Ted M. Sichelman, An Economic Model of Patent Exhaustion, 29 J. Econ. & Manag. Strategy 816 (2020)

CPIP Senior Scholar Ted Sichelman of the University of San Diego, along with Olena Ivus and Edwin Lai, have published a new paper in the Journal of Economics & Management Strategy entitled An Economic Model of Patent Exhaustion. The paper, which comes from our Edison Fellowship program, uses a sophisticated economic model to show that, contrary to the Supreme Court’s opinion in Impression Products v. Lexmark, mandatory patent exhaustion can be highly inefficient, particularly when transaction costs are low. The authors show that it is socially optimal for patent owners to be able to opt-out of exhaustion via contract when the social benefits from buyer-specific pricing outweigh the social costs from transaction cost frictions in individualized licensing.

Lauma Muizniece, University Autonomy and Commercialization of Publicly Funded Research: The Case of Latvia, ___ J. Knowl. Econ. ___ (2020)

In this paper from our Edison Fellowship program, Lauma Muizniece of the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia focuses on university autonomy as one of the key variables in commercializing publicly funded research in Latvia. The paper presents a case study using secondary data and interviews to demonstrate that, with greater funding flexibility and experimentation, universities could develop better ways to commercialize their research that are currently hindered by systemic bottlenecks. By taking a more nuanced approach at the research organization level that aligns incentives with opportunities, the paper argues that researchers and those who pursue commercialization of that research would be more successful in their endeavors.


Activities, News, & Events

a lit lightbulb hanging next to unlit bulbs

CPIP Director of Copyright Research and Policy Sandra Aistars and the students in her Arts & Entertainment Advocacy Clinic joined the Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts (WALA) and the Copyright Alliance to co-host a virtual event entitled Arts and the Pandemic to discuss how local venues and artists are affected by the pandemic and to offer legal assistance to individual artists and small businesses. Prof. Aistars has written two recent articles at Law360 about the Google v. Oracle case. The first, RBG’s Legacy Can Guide High Court In Oracle Copyright Case, traverses the late Justice Ginsburg’s love of the arts and copyright legacy and runs through the various legal issues to explain why Google’s position is wrong on the merits. The second, High Court Oracle-Google Copyright War May Benefit Artists, examines how a case that is ostensibly about computer code could have a significant impact on the livelihoods of all artists and authors. Finally, Prof. Aistars spoke at the 2020 National Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts (NVLA) conference, discussing how to protect the arts and the importance of reversing anti-IP biases in academia.

CPIP Senior Fellow for Innovation Policy Jonathan Barnett published an op-ed at The Hill entitled “Unfair Use,” Democracy and the Supreme Court about the imbalance created by the expansion of copyright law’s fair use doctrine in recent years. Prof. Barnett explains how and why the Court can rein in the fair use doctrine in Google v. Oracle, noting that the current fair use “groupthink” dogmatism fails to recognize that platform aggregators improperly rely on the exception to generate billions of dollars annually despite having borne neither the costs nor risks of developing the content. Prof. Barnett also published an essay at Truth on the Market entitled Antitrustifying Contract: Thoughts on Epic Games v. Apple and Apple v. Qualcomm. The essay explains how the Epic v. Apple and Apple v. Qualcomm cases demonstrate “the unproductive rent-seeking outcomes to which antitrust law will inevitably be led if, as is being widely advocated, it is decoupled from its well-established foundation in promoting consumer welfare—and not competitor welfare.”

CPIP Senior Scholar Erika Lietzan has published a new article in the Cato Institute’s Regulation entitled The Evergreening Myth that discusses recent efforts by U.S. policymakers to reduce so-called pharmaceutical “evergreening” by changing the antitrust, intellectual property, and regulatory landscape. Prof. Lietzan explains that claims of evergreening, where drug companies supposedly block competition by improper means, are revealed to be myths upon closer inspection. Indeed, its proponents are making unstated normative claims that blind policymakers from making informed decisions based on rigorous evidence. As Prof. Lietzan concludes, the “term’s meaninglessness makes it impossible for audiences to distinguish among situations that may be different, as a legal, theoretical, or normative matter, and that may call for differing policy solutions,” and this “does a disservice to policymakers and the public.”

CPIP Senior Scholar Kristen Osenga has published a pair of op-eds on how policymakers and regulators are threatening innovation. In an op-ed entitled Price Controls Are Intellectual Property Theft by a Different Name at Townhall, Prof. Osenga discusses a recent executive order that would decrease Medicare payments for many prescription medications to match the lowest price paid in other developed countries. This policy, which she describes as “myopic at best and downright reckless at worst,” fails to consider the devastating impact it would have on medical innovation in the United States—and how it would ultimately hurt patients in the long run. At RealClearMarkets, Prof. Osenga published an op-ed entitled Today’s Federal Trade Commission Is Taking One Giant Leap Backwards that discusses the FTC’s misguided efforts to pit antitrust and patents against each other. As she explains, patent and antitrust law share the same goal of increasing innovation. Prof. Osenga concludes: “Rather than tilting at windmills already lost, it is time for the FTC to move forward and set their focus on real impediments to innovation and competition.”


Categories
CPIP Roundup

CPIP Roundup – September 30, 2020

 


Greetings from CPIP Executive Director Sean O’ConnorSean O'Connor

As we move through our busy fall season here at CPIP, we are grateful for the efforts of everyone in the George Mason University community keeping us safe and healthy. We are fortunate that in these highly uncertain times, we are still able to focus on what we do best: bringing you the research, impact policy pieces, and programming that you have come to expect.

In the copyright sphere, we were gratified by the success of our postponed—and ultimately virtual—conference, The Evolving Music Ecosystem. Highlighted by an informative and moving fireside chat between singer, songwriter, and author Rosanne Cash and CPIP’s Sandra Aistars, the conference also featured seven panels of academics, industry specialists, and artists who provided invaluable insight into copyright law and the music business, especially in light of 2020’s challenges to the industry. Thank you to all who participated and attended! Videos of the keynote address and panel presentations can be watched here.

CPIP also congratulates Shira Perlmutter on her appointment to Register of Copyrights and Director of the U.S. Copyright Office by Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden. We very much look forward to Ms. Perlmutter’s continued positive impact on the copyright community in her new role.

In the patent sphere, CPIP Senior Fellow for Innovation Policy Jonathan Barnett led our roundtable, Measuring the Value of Patent Licensing. Leading legal scholars, economists, and industry representatives focused on the data collection and methodological approaches to quantifying the full economic benefits of commercializing new innovation through patent licensing models.

Congratulations to CPIP Senior Scholar Erika Lietzan on becoming the William H. Pittman Professor of Law & Timothy J. Heinsz Professor of Law at University of Missouri School of Law and for being named a “Best Lawyer in America” for 2020! We are proud of the many accomplishments of our Scholars!

In the coming month, we are excited to host our Eighth Annual Fall Conference on October 7-8. We are partnering with the National Security Institute (NSI) at Scalia Law School to focus on 5G at the Nexus of IP, Antitrust, and Technology Leadership. We hope you’ll be able to join us! You can see the conference program, confirmed speakers, and register for the virtual event here.

Last, but certainly not least, we are proud of the academic and policy publications of our Scholars, Fellows, and other affiliates. Keep reading to learn about work by Sandra Aistars, Jonathan Barnett, Stuart N. Brotman, Ross E. Davies, H. Tomás Gómez-Arostegui, Devlin Hartline, Chris Holman, Erika Lietzan, and Kristen Osenga.


CPIP Eighth Annual Fall Conference with USPTO Director Andrei Iancu on October 7-8

2021 5G Conference image

CPIP’s Eighth Annual Fall Conference will be hosted virtually from George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School in Arlington, Virginia, on October 7-8, 2020. The theme this year is 5G at the Nexus of IP, Antitrust, and Technology Leadership. The conference is being co-hosted by the National Security Institute (NSI), and it features a keynote address by USPTO Director Andrei Iancu.

This conference addresses fast-emerging intellectual property (IP), antitrust, and technology leadership issues in the 5G and “Internet of Things” innovation ecosystem. Coverage includes standard-essential patents (SEPs) along with established and emerging markets on a regional and global basis. Speakers are drawn from the academic, industry, and policymaking communities, with an emphasis on using objective fact-based analysis to explore points of convergence among legal, economic, and geopolitical perspectives on the IP and regulatory infrastructures that underlie these critical industries.

Registration closes on Monday, October 5, 2020, at Noon ET, so please register soon! We have 4 hours of Virginia CLE credit pending!

To visit our conference website and to register, please click here.


CPIP Hosts Academic Roundtable on Patent Licensing Valuation

hand under lightbulbs drawn on a blackboard

On September 17, 2020, CPIP hosted an academic roundtable entitled Measuring the Value of Patent Licensing online from George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School in Arlington, Virginia. The roundtable, which was moderated by CPIP Senior Fellow for Innovation Policy Jonathan Barnett, included leading scholars, economists, and industry representatives.

The sessions focused on the existing methodologies developed to measure IP transactions, the insights achieved so far using those methodologies, and the possibilities for developing more precise methodologies to measure licensing and related transactional activities in the IP marketplace. They also examined the mechanics of IP licensing and transactional markets, how IP transactions generate social value, and the extent to which existing IP legal regimes may impede IP markets.


The Evolving Music Ecosystem Conference with Rosanne Cash

Rosanne Cash

On September 9-11, 2020, CPIP hosted The Evolving Music Ecosystem conference online from George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School in Arlington, Virginia. The conference featured a keynote address by singer, songwriter, and author Rosanne Cash, and coverage included news articles at Billboard and Mason News. CPIP Senior Scholars Sandra Aistars, Sean O’Connor, and Mark Schultz also participated in the event. We’ve posted a synopsis of each day of the conference here, here, and here.

This unique conference continued a dialogue on the music ecosystem begun by CPIP Executive Director Sean O’Connor while at the University of Washington School of Law in Seattle. In its inaugural year in the D.C. area, the conference aimed to bring together musicians, music fans, lawyers, artist advocates, business leaders, government policymakers, and anyone interested in supporting thriving music ecosystems in the U.S. and beyond.

To visit our conference website and to watch the videos, please click here.


Spotlight on Scholarship

a pair of glasses, an apple, and a stack of books

Tomás Gómez-Arostegui & Sean Bottomley, The Traditional Burdens for Final Injunctions in Patent Cases C.1789 and Some Modern Implications, 71 Case W. Res. L. Rev. ___ (forthcoming 2020)

CPIP Edison Fellow Tomás Gómez-Arostegui of Lewis & Clark Law School and co-author Sean Bottomley have published a draft of their law review article that will be published in the Case Western Reserve Law Review. The article takes an historical look at the first two permanent injunction factors from eBay v. MercExchange, namely, irreparable injury and inadequate legal remedies. The article concludes that equitable principles dictate that the Federal Circuit should recognize that: “(1) an injury it seeks to redress with a final injunction is future infringement itself, not just follow-on harms caused by future infringement; (2) it can presume future infringement from past infringement; (3) it can presume that legal remedies are inadequate to remedy future infringement; and (4) it need not require a plaintiff to show that alternative equitable remedies, like ongoing royalties, would inadequately redress future infringement.”

To read the article, please click here.

Stuart N. Brotman, Intersecting Points in Parallel Lines: Toward Better Harmonization of Copyright Law and Communications Law Through Statutory and Institutional Balance, 26 Rich. J.L. & Tech., no. 3, 1 (2020)

The Richmond Journal of Law and Technology (JOLT) has just published a new article by Professor Stuart Brotman, the inaugural Howard Distinguished Endowed Professor of Media Management and Law and Beaman Professor of Journalism and Electronic Media at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. The article was supported by a Leonardo da Vinci Fellowship Research Grant from CPIP and the research assistance of recent Scalia Law graduate Samantha Levin. The article traverses the history and development of copyright and communications law, which have historically followed separate paths, and offers potential ways that they can be harmonized to match the current realities of the media marketplace.

To read the article, please click here.


Activities, News, & Events

a lit lightbulb hanging next to unlit bulbs

CPIP Director of Copyright Research and Policy Sandra Aistars has written an article at Law360 (also available on the CPIP blog) about Justice Ginsburg’s copyright legacy, especially as it will affect the impending Google v. Oracle decision. Prof. Aistars has also published her latest Copyright Notebook series post, The Importance of Artists’ Agency, on the CPIP blog. Additionally, the Arts & Entertainment Law Clinic—directed by Prof. Aistars—has continued its academic partnership with the U.S. Copyright Office for the fifth year. This semester, they are supporting the Office’s public meetings to investigate standard technical measures (STMs) that could be adopted to aid and identify copyrighted works and to potentially reduce infringement on digital platforms as envisioned in Section 512(i) of the DMCA. Prof. Aistars and the Clinic students will also co-host an online copyright clinic with WALA and the Copyright Alliance that will feature a live performance by the Rock Creek Kings.

CPIP has published a new policy brief by Professor Ross E. Davies entitled Ebb and Flow in Safe Harbors: Some Exemplary Experiences Under One Old Statute and One New. Prof. Davies teaches administrative law, civil procedure, comparative criminal law, contracts, employment discrimination, legal history, legal profession, and torts at George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School in Arlington, Virginia, and the policy brief is the product of our two Safe Harbors and Private Ordering in the Creative Industries research symposia that were held in 2019. In the policy brief, Prof. Davies compares and contrasts two seemingly unrelated statutory provisions that are often referred to as “safe harbors”—despite that term not appearing in either statute: the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) as codified in Title 29, and the Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act (OCILLA)—otherwise known as Title II of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)—as codified in Title 17.

CPIP Scholars have participated in several speaking engagements this past month. CPIP Senior Fellow of Innovation Policy Jonathan Barnett spoke at the Innovation Alliance’s Recognizing the Growing Economic Impact of Patent Licensing webinar. CPIP Senior Fellow for Life Sciences Chris Holman participated in the Regnier Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation Kansas City Region’s Bio-Medical and Healthcare Technology Entrepreneurship Certificate Program. CPIP Senior Scholar Erika Lietzan spoke at IPWatchdog’s The Race for a Coronavirus Vaccine: The Intersection of Science and IP Policy webinar. CPIP Senior Scholar Kristen Osenga presented a draft paper at the Gray Center’s Public Health: Regulation, Innovation, and Preparation research roundtable. And CPIP Director of Communications Devlin Hartline participated in the Music Biz Entertainment & Technology Law Conference.

CPIP Scholars have also written op-eds defending the importance of robust patent protection, particularly for biopharmaceutical inventions in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the Huntsville Item, CPIP Senior Fellow for Life Sciences Chris Holman argues that the seizure of patents will only hamper the development of a vaccine to combat the coronavirus: “Eliminating intellectual property protections would not only reduce incentives to develop coronavirus treatments as quickly as possible; they will also destroy the domestic industrial base that could be the key to stopping the next pandemic.” Likewise, CPIP Senior Scholar Kristen Osenga argues at the Nashua Telegraph that taxpayers are getting a great deal with biomedical research: “When new treatments are successful, drug companies make money because we, through insurance, buy those drugs to keep us, or make us, healthy. The government then taxes those profits and invests some of that tax money into new research. Far from ‘paying twice,’ we are getting a great bargain from government spending on basic research.”


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CPIP Roundup

CPIP Roundup – August 31, 2020


Greetings from CPIP Executive Director Sean O’Connor

Sean O'Connor

August has seen the beginning of a highly unusual school year, but I hope everyone is continuing to stay safe. And, since even a pandemic can’t keep the world from having a busy back-to-school month, I’ll keep this month’s note short.

First, we’re gearing up for The Evolving Music Ecosystem conference on September 9-11, 2020. The conference will be held via Zoom and feature a keynote address by singer, songwriter, and author Rosanne Cash. Registration is still open, and we hope you’ll join us!

Second, I’d like to welcome University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law Professor Chris Holman as CPIP’s new Senior Fellow for Life Sciences. He will be taking over the role from Professor Erika Lietzan of University of Missouri School of Law, who has been supporting CPIP in that capacity for the past year. (Clearly, we have an affinity for the Show-Me State!) We’re excited to have him join us, and by way of an introduction, we encourage you to check out his recent guest column for The Phoenix advocating for protection of new uses for old medicines.

Third, we are finalizing the schedule for our Eighth Annual Fall Conference, to be held via Zoom on October 7-8, 2020. This year’s theme is 5G at the Nexus of IP, Antitrust, and Technology Leadership.

In other news, CPIP Senior Fellow for Innovation Policy Jonathan Barnett is now blogging at Truth on the Market, a platform for academics and economists to discuss various aspects of business law. You can read his inaugural post here. CPIP Senior Scholar Erika Lietzan has been appointed a Public Member at the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS), which focuses on improving the administrative process. CPIP Director of Copyright Research and Policy Sandra Aistars spoke this past month on a copyright licensing panel hosted by Artomatic with the goal of informing visual artists about essential aspects of copyright law. It has also been a busy month for CPIP Senior Scholars Kristen Osenga and Mark Schultz—I encourage you to keep reading below to keep up with their recent news!


Registration Closing Soon for Evolving Music Ecosystem Conference with Rosanne Cash on September 9-11

Rosanne Cash

Please join us for The Evolving Music Ecosystem conference, which will be held online from Antonin Scalia Law School in Arlington, Virginia, on September 9-11, 2020. The event features three days of panel presentations by leading experts and a keynote address by Grammy-winning singer, songwriter, and author Rosanne Cash.

This unique conference continues a dialogue on the music ecosystem begun by CPIP Executive Director Sean O’Connor while at the University of Washington School of Law in Seattle. In its inaugural year in the D.C. area, the conference aims to bring together musicians, music fans, lawyers, artist advocates, business leaders, government policymakers, and anyone interested in supporting thriving music ecosystems in the U.S. and beyond.

For more information, and to register, please click here.


Spotlight on Scholarship

a pair of glasses, an apple, and a stack of books

Kristen Osenga, Patent-Eligible Subject Matter… Still Wielding the Wrong Weapon–12 Years Later, 60 IDEA: L. Rev. Franklin Pierce Center for Intell. Prop. 104 (2020)

CPIP Senior Scholar Kristen Osenga has published a new paper on patent-eligible subject matter at IDEA entitled Patent-Eligible Subject Matter… Still Wielding the Wrong Weapon–12 Years Later. The paper looks at changes to patent eligibility that have developed since Prof. Osenga published an article on the same subject in 2007. At the time, she concluded that the Patent Office was using the “elephant gun” of new guidelines on the “ants” of patent eligibility. In the new paper, Prof. Osenga traverses the Supreme Court’s subsequent Section 101 decisions that drove the courts and Patent Office to continue wielding an “outsized elephant gun” when it comes to patent eligibility. However, she does note that recent activities at the Patent Office and Congress offer some hope that things may be changing for the better.

Mark F. Schultz, The Importance of an Effective and Reliable Patent System to Investment in Critical Technologies (USIJ July 2020)

Venture capitalists pouring money into a small startup has become a sort of new American Dream for many innovators. The success stories of big American companies starting with nothing more than an idea have pervaded their way into pop culture, inspiring TV shows, movies, and the like. However, CPIP Senior Scholar Mark Schultz has released a new report for USIJ entitled The Importance of an Effective and Reliable Patent System to Investment in Critical Technologies showing that this dream may be harder to attain today due to recent shifts that have weakened the patent system and driven away venture capital investment. Our blog post summarizing the report is available here, and you can read the summary at IPWatchdog here.


Activities, News, & Events

a lit lightbulb hanging next to unlit bulbs

On August 5, 2020, CPIP Director of Copyright Research and Policy Sandra Aistars joined Jaylen Johnson, Attorney Advisor at the U.S. Copyright Office, and Kim Tignor, Executive Director at the Institute for Intellectual Property & Social Justice (IIPSJ), for a virtual panel presentation on copyright protection for visual artists that was hosted by Artomatic. The panel focused on explaining key concepts of copyright law pertinent to visual artists and sharing resources that they can use to learn more about the basics of copyright protection. It also touched on common pitfalls among visual artists when it comes to protecting their creative works, including those that befall joint authors, and common misconceptions about fair use. Our blog post summarizing the event is available here.

On August 25, 2020, CPIP Senior Fellow for Innovation Policy Jonathan Barnett published a new essay at Truth on the Market entitled Will Montesquieu Rescue Antitrust? In the post, Prof. Barnett examines recent pressure on state and federal regulators to use antitrust laws against firms that have established market dominance, and he praises the genius of the eighteenth-century philosopher Montesquieu for developing the theory of separation of powers that allows the judiciary to police overly zealous antitrust prosecutors today. Traversing recent—and failed—antitrust enforcement actions, including AT&T’s acquisition of Time-Warner, Sabre’s acquisition of Farelogix, and FTC v. Qualcomm, Prof. Barnett explains how the judicial branch has become an important counterbalance to prosecutorial antitrust overreach that betrays the fundamental objective of promoting the public interest in deterring anticompetitive business practices.

On August 25, 2020, CPIP Senior Scholar Kristen Osenga published an op-ed in the Washington Times entitled If We Want Innovation, Companies Must Be Able To Rely on Patent Law To Protect Their Investments. The op-ed explains the importance of effective patent protection for innovative companies to develop and commercialize their new technologies. In particular, Prof. Osenga praises the recent antitrust victory of Qualcomm over the FTC in the Ninth Circuit, noting that a “race that results in innovation that other companies, and the public, dearly desires is exactly the point of competition.” Prof. Osenga also authored a recent op-ed for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, With Biomedical Research, Taxpayers Are Getting a Great Deal, explaining how the critics are wrong to argue that the government should take control of important biomedical inventions like remdesivir. She was also quoted in a recent article at Bloomberg Law entitled Court Split Over Driveshaft Patent Muddies Eligibility Question about the Federal Circuit’s recent 6-6 split on whether to review an important patent-eligibility case en banc.


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CPIP Roundup

CPIP Roundup – July 31, 2020


Greetings from CPIP Executive Director Sean O’Connor

Sean O'Connor

I hope summer is seeing you healthy and safe. Over four months have passed since the Washington, D.C., area began to feel the impact of COVID-19. Now, as summer progresses and we start anticipating and planning for fall, we’re looking to navigate the new normal in the classroom, workplace, and of course in the virtual space.

In June, CPIP hosted the WIPO-CPIP Summer School on Intellectual Property for the third year running. Usually the program is held at Antonin Scalia Law School in Arlington, Virginia, and both U.S. and international attendees gather to study and network for two weeks in June. This year, however, we opted to move the entire program online, streaming it via Webex. Nearly one hundred attendees from all over the world were able to attend live virtual lectures and panels by a great lineup of experts, both in IP and related fields. We’re grateful to the CPIP staff, our IT support at Scalia Law, and to all our speakers and students for helping make this year’s Summer School successful and memorable in many ways.

As part of the Summer School, CPIP co-hosted a public panel, Patents on Life: Diamond v. Chakrabarty at 40, with the Smithsonian Institution’s Lemelson Center on June 17. We’re grateful to all the speakers who lent their expertise to this interesting and timely discussion, and most especially Dr. Ananda Chakrabarty, the inventor at the heart of the Diamond v. Chakrabarty case. Sadly, less than a month after the panel, we received the news that Dr. Chakrabarty had passed away. Our deepest condolences go out to his family and friends as we also remember his personal and professional legacy.

COVID-19 has complicated plans for many upcoming events, including ours. While we had hoped to hold our much-anticipated The Evolving Music Ecosystem conference in person by moving it from this past spring until the fall, best guidance now dictates that we move it online. We still look forward to a stellar event running from September 9-11, including a keynote address from Rosanne Cash. We will also move our Annual Fall Conference on October 8 to a fully online format. This year’s theme will focus on the IP issues surrounding the rollout of 5G wireless technology. Thank you for your patience as we pursue dual priorities: continuing to support the dialogue surrounding IP and keeping everyone involved safe and well.

I would like to congratulate and welcome Dr. Hina Mehta, Director of Mason’s Office of Technology Transfer, as an Affiliate Scholar with CPIP. Dr. Mehta has taught during the WIPO-CPIP Summer School these past two years, and we’re happy to have her join us and work with us on a more official basis.

I also want to thank those IP scholars who signed our May response to the Office of Science and Technology Policy’s call for comments on the possible effects of free, public access to scholarly research.

On a personal note, I have become a regular contributor to The Hill with a mix of IP and other opinion topics based on my broader historical research. Articles to date include: Avoiding Another Great Depression Through a Developmentally Layered Reopening of the Economy, Cancel Culture, Copyright, and the Harper’s Letter, and How We Finally Tip Into “Bread and Circuses’ Authoritarianism.

In May, I participated as a panelist for the COVID-19 CHHS Webinar Series with Mason’s College of Health and Human Services in the episode Weighing the Decision to Safely ‘Reopen’ Northern Virginia; the episode was also noted by DCist and Fairfax County Economic Development Authority. COVID-19 has not completely taken over all events and conversations, though. I spoke in April at a virtual session on copyright and social justice hosted by the University of Akron School of Law’s Intellectual Property & Technology Law Association, and in June at the NVTC Impact AI Conference on the panel Protecting AI Inventions: Current Issues and Best Practices.

I’d like to thank Akron’s Professor Camilla Hrdy for providing her comments on my paper Distinguishing Different Kinds of Property in Patents and Copyright, which was also shared on the Private Law Theory blog.

In conclusion, the past few months have been full and productive, and I look forward to seeing CPIP and our friends and supporters successfully navigate the remainder of 2020. I wish you the best over the coming months as we hope and cooperate to put COVID-19 behind us. Until then, we continue to be in this together.


Online Music Law Conference with Rosanne Cash on September 9-11

Rosanne Cash

We are excited to announce that the music law conference, The Evolving Music Ecosystem, which will be held online from Antonin Scalia Law School in Arlington, Virginia, has now been extended to a three-day event on September 9-11, 2020. The keynote address will be given by Rosanne Cash, and it features panel presentations from leading experts.

This unique conference continues a dialogue on the music ecosystem begun by CPIP Executive Director Sean O’Connor while at the University of Washington School of Law in Seattle. In its inaugural year in the D.C. area, the conference aims to bring together musicians, music fans, lawyers, artist advocates, business leaders, government policymakers, and anyone interested in supporting thriving music ecosystems in the U.S. and beyond.

For more information, and to register, please click here.


“Patents on Life” Panel Discussion Video Now Available

the U.S. Capitol

On June 17, 2020, CPIP and the Smithsonian Institution’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation co-hosted a virtual panel discussion entitled Patents on Life: Diamond v. Chakrabarty at 40. CPIP Executive Director Sean O’Connor delivered closing remarks after a panel presentation that included the late inventor and distinguished professor of microbiology and immunology Dr. Ananda Chakrabarty.

The panelists discussed the 1980 Supreme Court ruling in Diamond v. Chakrabarty that authorized the first patent on an intentionally genetically modified organism and that contributed to the rise of the modern biotechnology industry and reshaped the agriculture industry. Video from the panel discussion is available here, and our blog post summarizing it is available here.


Spotlight on Scholarship

a pair of glasses, an apple, and a stack of books

Christopher M. Holman, Congress Should Decline Ill-Advised Legislative Proposals Aimed at Evergreening of Pharmaceutical Patent Protection, 51 U. Pac. L. Rev. 493 (2020)

Many believe that drug prices in the U.S. are unnecessarily high because the pharmaceutical industry is exploiting legal loopholes and acquiring dubious patents to extend protection and delay generics from entering the market (so-called “evergreening” behavior by drug innovators). However, CPIP Senior Scholar Chris Holman of the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law has published a new paper arguing that these recent concerns regarding patents and drug prices are unfounded. The paper, entitled Congress Should Decline Ill-Advised Legislative Proposals Aimed at Evergreening of Pharmaceutical Patent Protection and published in the University of the Pacific Law Review, further challenges recent legislative proposals aimed at pharmaceutical evergreening, finding that they “are largely misguided, and, if enacted, would be likely to cause more harm than good by discouraging innovation in pharmaceuticals without effectively addressing the core concern.” Our blog post summarizing the paper is available here.

Michael S. Greve, Exceptional, After All and After Oil States: Judicial Review and the Patent System, 26 B.U. J. Sci. & Tech. L. 1 (2020)

What if there is a way for a patent applicant to obtain a “gold-plated patent” that is immune to administrative cancellation before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO)? This intriguing notion is the subject of a recent paper by Professor Mike Greve of Scalia Law, titled Exceptional, After All and After Oil States: Judicial Review and the Patent System and published in the Winter 2020 edition of the Boston University Journal of Science and Technology Law. Prof. Greve presented an early draft of this paper at the “Perspectives on the PTAB: The New Role of the Administrative State in the Innovation Economy” conference that was co-hosted by CPIP and the Gray Center at Scalia Law. Our blog post summarizing the paper is available here.


Activities, News, & Events

a lit lightbulb hanging next to unlit bulbs

CPIP Executive Director Sean O’Connor continues to lead the law school’s new Innovation Law Clinic. The Clinic teams law students (IP, corporate, tax) to analyze and counsel entrepreneurs, creators, and inventors from the University’s internal and external communities. The course teaches students about entrepreneurship and commercializing innovation and creativity, as well as how to craft an overall legal strategy in the context of a client’s business, technology, and/or artistic vision. A core deliverable is the Innovator’s Roadmap, which provides a comprehensive, client eyes-only analysis of the venture and legal issues it needs to address in the near and mid-term. Anticipated projects include hydrogen fuel cell refilling technology venture; edutainment and fundraising franchise system for community building; emerging fashion designer; online platform for fictional world-building authors; and an innovative medical device venture spinning out of the University. Specific legal services to be delivered can include entity formation; securing or licensing IP; drafting employment agreements; and advice on tax filings.

CPIP Director of Copyright Research & Policy Sandra Aistars will lead the law school’s Arts & Entertainment Advocacy Clinic again this fall. The Clinic teaches students the legal and policy skills required for engaging with Congress, agencies, and courts on behalf of copyright owners. Students will develop substantive legal knowledge in copyright and related areas of law as well as practical skills in research, writing, and advocacy by counseling clients and preparing legal and policy documents. Anticipated projects this fall include identifying ownership and clearing rights for illustration created in the 1960s, conducting an online legal clinic for members of Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts (WALA), contract drafting and strategic planning for a musician-owned music licensing service, and continued collaboration and special projects for the U.S. Copyright Office.

CPIP has published a new policy brief by CPIP Senior Fellow for Innovation Policy Jonathan Barnett entitled The Long Shadow of the Blackberry Shutdown That Wasn’t. The policy brief looks at how the Blackberry litigation and the “patent troll” narrative ultimately contributed to the Supreme Court’s 2006 decision in eBay v. MercExchange that limited the availability of injunctive relief for successful patentees. Prof. Barnett then examines the problematic legacy of the post-eBay case law, which significantly shifted the legal infrastructure supporting the U.S. innovation markets. In particular, he explains how this shift has led to opportunistic infringement that favors downstream incumbents with the resources to fund extensive litigation at the expense of upstream innovators—a dynamic that is exemplified in the recent litigation between Sonos and Google.


Categories
CPIP Roundup

CPIP Roundup – April 30, 2020


Greetings from CPIP Executive Director Sean O’Connor

Sean O'Connor

As we move into another month of stay-at-home here in the DMV—and perhaps some re-openings—we here at CPIP hope that you and yours are staying safe and healthy while we weather this crisis.

We continue to move forward, however. Our biggest news this month is the addition of Joshua Kresh as our new Deputy Director. Most recently an IP attorney at DLA Piper, he has worked at other major firms and is active in policy and new lawyer training with AIPLA and the Giles Rich Inn of Court. Joshua brings with him a patent-rich legal background, and he’ll be a valuable asset to the CPIP team and mission. We look forward to working with him and hope you wish him the best as he takes up this new role.

Like many other schools and organizations, Scalia Law School and CPIP have moved online for the time being—but that doesn’t mean we’ve stopped forging ahead and navigating new challenges. Because all George Mason University onsite events have been cancelled through August 8, we’ve moved our much-anticipated Music Law Conference back to September 10-11, 2020. We greatly appreciate the flexibility and understanding of every single person involved, not least our special guest and keynote speaker, Rosanne Cash. We hope you can still join us for the event in the fall—and, if you were unable to make the April dates, we hope this postponement works to your benefit!

CPIP’s main event this summer, the WIPO-CPIP Summer School on Intellectual Property for this coming June 8-19, 2020, has moved online as a virtual program via WebEx. CPIP primarily will serve participants in the Americas, although we’ll also be welcoming a number of attendees from other parts of the world who have opted to stay with the U.S.A. program.

As of March, I joined the Board of Directors for The Circle Foundation, an organization in the Republic of Korea that supports innovation and entrepreneurship to strengthen the start-up ecosystem. This new role brings CPIP and Scalia Law School into another level of connection with Mason Korea’s excellent in-country campus and activities.

In April, I was a virtual guest speaker for CPIP Co-Founder—and now University of Akron Goodyear Tire & Rubber Chair of Intellectual PropertyMark Schultz’s WebEx event, Copyright and Social Justice: How the “Blurred Lines” Case Brought Overdue Recognition for African American Artist. The talk was co-sponsored by the Black Law Students Association and the Intellectual Property and Technology Law Association. Also in April, I gave a virtual presentation to admitted Scalia Law prospective students on Cannabis: Creating a New Regulated Economy.

CPIP and our colleagues have remained productive over these past weeks, from rescheduling events to publishing timely pieces. My article Distinguishing Different Kinds of Property in Patents and Copyrights—based on an early presentation at CPIP’s Annual Fall Conference—was published in the George Mason Law Review, and my recent op-ed, Avoiding Another Great Depression Through a Developmentally Layered Reopening of the Economy, appeared in The Hill. I was interviewed on WBAL for this piece as well. Finally, CPIP along with many other organizations from around the world signed onto an open letter to WIPO’s Director-General for World IP Day.

This past month and a half have undoubtedly been difficult. At CPIP, our thoughts go out especially to all creators and innovators who are facing new challenges as they strive to protect their livelihoods and intellectual property in this difficult time. We truly hope this May brings improvements, both locally and globally. Stay well, safe, and sane.


CPIP Welcomes Joshua Kresh as Deputy Director

Joshua Kresh

CPIP is proud to welcome Joshua Kresh to our leadership team! As Deputy Director, Joshua will report to CPIP Executive Director Sean O’Connor while managing and participating in CPIP’s day-to-day operations. Joshua will oversee CPIP’s academic research, policy, and fundraising efforts, working as well on planning and executing CPIP events such as conferences, meetings, fellowships, and roundtables. Joshua will also consult with Professor O’Connor and the other faculty directors to develop CPIP’s long-term academic and policy plans.

Before joining CPIP as Deputy Director, Joshua was an Associate with DLA Piper in Washington, D.C., where he practiced patent litigation. He received his law degree with honors from The George Washington University Law School, and he holds master’s and bachelor’s degrees in computer science from Brandeis University. Joshua is the Chair of AIPLA’s New Lawyers Committee and Co-Mentoring Chair of the Giles Rich American Inn of Court, and he is a registered patent attorney with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

To read the rest of our announcement, please click here.


Music Law Conference with Rosanne Cash Moved to September 10-11, 2020

Rosanne Cash

We are excited to announce that the music law conference, The Evolving Music Ecosystem, which will be held at Antonin Scalia Law School in Arlington, Virginia, has now been moved to September 10-11, 2020. The keynote address will be given by Rosanne Cash, and it features two days of panel presentations from leading experts.

This unique conference continues a dialogue on the music ecosystem begun by CPIP Executive Director Sean O’Connor while at the University of Washington School of Law in Seattle. In its inaugural year in the D.C. area, the conference aims to bring together musicians, music fans, lawyers, artist advocates, business leaders, government policymakers, and anyone interested in supporting thriving music ecosystems in the U.S. and beyond.

For more information, and to register, please click here.


Registration Open for WIPO-CPIP Summer School on IP on June 8-19, 2020

WIPO Summer School flyer

CPIP has again partnered with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to host the third iteration of the WIPO-CPIP Summer School on Intellectual Property from Antonin Scalia Law School in Arlington, Virginia, on June 8-19, 2020. Registration is now open, and we recommend that participants apply early, as we expect the program to be full. In order to accommodate the global response to COVID-19, we have moved the course online this year.

The course provides a unique opportunity for students, professionals, and government officials to work with leading experts to gain a deeper knowledge of IP to advance their careers. The course consists of lectures, case studies, simulation exercises, group discussions, and panel discussions on selected IP topics, with an orientation towards the interface between IP and other disciplines. U.S. law students can receive 3 hours of academic credit from Scalia Law!

For more information, and to register, please click here.


Spotlight on Scholarship

a pair of glasses, an apple, and a stack of books

Sean M. O’Connor, Distinguishing Different Kinds of Property in Patents and Copyrights, 27 Geo. Mason L. Rev. 205 (2019)

In this paper from our Annual Fall Conference, CPIP Executive Director Sean O’Connor explores the different meanings of “property” with respect to patents and copyrights. Prof. O’Connor explains that, contrary to the current conventional wisdom, the purpose of protection in early modern Europe was to incentivize public disclosure and commercialization, not private creation. To demonstrate this, he traverses the evolution of different kinds of property, including private knowledge, ad hoc grants of rights, rights in goods that embody intellectual property, and contractual assignments or licenses. Prof. O’Connor then describes how confusion over these different kinds of property has lead people to talk past each other in intellectual property debates, and he argues that a more nuanced understanding of the various property interests at stake might enable more constructive engagements going forward.

Charles Delmotte, The Case Against Tax Subsidies in Innovation Policy, 48 Fla. St. U. L. Rev. ___ (forthcoming)

In this paper from our Thomas Edison Innovation Fellowship, Charles Delmotte of NYU Law assesses the proposal for replacing intellectual property rights with tax subsidies for research and development (R&D) firms. Dr. Delmotte explains that innovation scholarship neglects economic insights on efficiencies, such as how information problems prevent the efficient operationalization of tax subsidies since innovation outcomes turn on unpredictable market processes that cannot be steered in advance. Turning to public choice theory, Dr. Delmotte points out that tax subsidies are particularly susceptible to diversion by the rent-seeking behavior of the politically affluent, and relying on economic realism, he argues that the best way to promote innovation is by securing stable intellectual property rights that undergird the background institutions that facilitate competition and entrepreneurship.


Activities, News, & Events

a lit lightbulb hanging next to unlit bulbs

In a new CPIP policy brief entitled The End of Patent Groupthink, CPIP Senior Fellow for Innovation Policy Jonathan Barnett highlights some cracks that have emerged in the recent policy consensus that the U.S. patent system is “broken” and it is necessary to “fix” it. Policymakers have long operated on the basis of mostly unquestioned assumptions about the supposed explosion of low quality patents and the concomitant patent litigation that purportedly threaten the foundation of the innovation ecosystem. These assumptions have led to real-world policy actions that have weakened patent rights. But as Prof. Barnett discusses in the policy brief, that “groupthink” is now eroding as empirical evidence shows that the rhetoric doesn’t quite match up to the reality. This has translated into incremental but significant movements away from the patent-skeptical trajectory that has prevailed at the Supreme Court, the USPTO, and the federal antitrust agencies.

We have several new posts on the CPIP blog, including the first installment of our new series on recent copyright law developments. In a post entitled Copyright Notebook: Observations on Copyright in the Time of COVID-19, CPIP Director of Copyright Research and Policy Sandra Aistars discusses several current copyright cases and issues, including how artists, authors, and copyright industries have taken unprecedented steps to bring enjoyment to our circumscribed lives. We published a similarly hopeful piece entitled IP Industries Step Up in This Time of Crisis on how bio-pharma industries and scientific publishers have made crucial information and materials available when they are needed the most. CPIP Director of Communications Devlin Hartline published a piece entitled Supreme Court Paves Way for Revoking State Sovereign Immunity for Copyright Infringement that looks at the Supreme Court’s decision in Allen v. Cooper. And CPIP Senior Fellow for Life Sciences Erika Lietzan published a piece entitled The Tradeoffs Involved in New Drug Approval, Expanded Access, and Right to Try on the various issues with approving new medicines.

CPIP Senior Scholar Kristen Osenga joined Professors Greg Dolin and Irina Manta in filing an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to grant certiorari in Celgene v. Peter. The issue on appeal is one that was left unresolved in Oil States v. Greene’s Energy, namely, whether retrospective applications of inter partes review (IPR) proceedings under the 2011 American Invents Act are unconstitutional takings. The brief argues that, for several reasons, the Federal Circuit below reached the wrong conclusion in holding that they are not unconstitutional. First, IPRs are significantly different than ex parte and inter partes reexaminations, since patentees are not free to amend claims in order to resolve claim scope ambiguities. Second, empirical research shows that the economic impact of such IPRs is to devalue patents and chill investment. Finally, the cases relied on by the Federal Circuit to support its conclusion are inapposite or outdated. The amicus brief was featured in a recent article at IPWatchdog entitled Amici Urge Supreme Court to Grant Celgene’s Petition on Constitutionality of Retroactive IPRs.


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CPIP Roundup

CPIP Roundup – February 29, 2020


Greetings from CPIP Executive Director Sean O’Connor

Sean O'Connor

Happy Leap Day! The extra day here in February has allowed us to be extra productive here at CPIP. For example, I am in Jakarta, Indonesia speaking on multiple panels at the Second IP & Innovation Researchers of Asia Conference as part of our international initiative. On Tuesday, we launch our partnership with Biz Launch at Arlington Economic Development, Mason Law Clinic @ BizLaunch. As mentioned in last month’s Roundup, BizLaunch and Mason will co-host this series of lectures and clinical sessions to assist local entrepreneurs with legal issues they confront as they bring their ideas to life.

I’d like to commend CPIP Director of Copyright Research and Policy Sandra Aistars for amazing impact in the policy world this past month. On February 3, she spoke on a panel titled “AI and the Visual Arts” during Copyright in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, a symposium hosted by the U.S. Copyright Office and the World Intellectual Property Organization. Then, along with CPIP Senior Scholar Mark Schultz, Sandra participated in a February 11 hearing before the Senate Subcommittee on Intellectual Property: The Digital Millennium Copyright Act at 22: What Is It, Why Was it Enacted, and Where Are We Now?. We are proud of both Sandra and Mark for their articulate testimony during this timely and important DMCA review process. Sandra also filed an amicus brief in Google v. Oracle this month, working hard over a holiday weekend to send it out on time. Thank you, as well, to our fellow scholars who signed their names to the brief!

This past Thursday, we were proud to host Professor Kara Swanson, Northeastern University School of Law, who led Scalia Law School faculty and students in a scholarly discussion on her upcoming article, “Race and Selective Memory: Reflections on Invention of a Slave.” This was a collaboration with our partners at the Institute for Intellectual Property & Social Justice who brought Professor Swanson to the DMV for their Seventeenth Annual IP and Social Justice CLE Seminar at Howard University.

Looking ahead, please save the date for Sandra’s fireside chat with Grammy-winning musician, composer, and jazz orchestra leader Maria Schneider on April 9 at Scalia Law School in Arlington. They will discuss art and the music business, as well as the legal issues confronting independent artists. Art & Entertainment Advocacy Clinic law students will also be present at this event to help any attending independent artists with entertainment law and copyright issues. Then, on April 15, WIPO Chief Economist Carsten Fink will visit Scalia Law School to present the 2019 World Intellectual Property Report as a co-sponsored event between WIPO and CPIP. We appreciate the efforts and participation of USPTO’s Office of the Chief Economist in making this event possible. More details are to come for both events.

This week, we announced the full line-up of speakers for CPIP’s music law conference, The Evolving Music Ecosystem, which will take place at Scalia Law School in Arlington on April 23-24! We appreciate the opportunity to host this incredible lineup of artists, academics, and industry leaders, and I encourage you to take a look at the event’s website and register today.

Finally, registration has opened for the WIPO-CPIP Summer School on Intellectual Property, which will be hosted at Scalia Law School for the third year in a row. This year’s dates are June 8-19, and we look forward to another excellent turnout of both U.S. and international students.

I look forward to seeing you at some of CPIP’s exciting events in the near future.


Speakers Announced for Music Law Conference with Rosanne Cash on April 23-24, 2020

Rosanne Cash

We have announced the speakers for CPIP’s music law conference, The Evolving Music Ecosystem, which will be held at Antonin Scalia Law School in Arlington, Virginia, on April 23-24, 2020. The keynote address will be given by Rosanne Cash, and it features two days of panel presentations from leading experts.

This unique conference continues a dialogue on the music ecosystem begun by CPIP Executive Director Sean O’Connor while at the University of Washington School of Law in Seattle. In its inaugural year in the D.C. area, the conference aims to bring together musicians, music fans, lawyers, artist advocates, business leaders, government policymakers, and anyone interested in supporting thriving music ecosystems in the U.S. and beyond.

Please click here to register, and click here to visit our conference website.


Registration Open for WIPO-CPIP Summer School on IP on June 8-19, 2020

WIPO Summer School flyer

CPIP has again partnered with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to host the third iteration of the WIPO-CPIP Summer School on Intellectual Property at Antonin Scalia Law School in Arlington, Virginia, on June 8-19. Registration is now open, and we recommend that participants apply early, as we expect the program to be full.

The course provides a unique opportunity for students, professionals, and government officials to work with leading experts to gain a deeper knowledge of IP to advance their careers. The course consists of lectures, case studies, simulation exercises, group discussions, and panel discussions on selected IP topics, with an orientation towards the interface between IP and other disciplines.

Please click here for more information.


Early Registration Extended for Advanced Patent Law Institute on March 12-13, 2020

Advanced Patent Law Institute flyer

Antonin Scalia Law School and the University of Texas School of Law are presenting the 15th Annual Advanced Patent Law Institute at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in Alexandria, Virginia, on March 12-13. This conference offers a unique opportunity to join USPTO senior staff, leading practitioners, academics, and members of the federal judiciary for two days of presentations on the latest developments in patent law.

CPIP Director of Communications Devlin Hartline will be the Presiding Officer on the afternoon of March 12, where he will introduce Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO Andrei Iancu, among others.

The early registration discount has been extended to March 4. For more information about the conference and to register, please click here.


Spotlight on Scholarship

a pair of glasses, an apple, and a stack of books

Erika Lietzan, The ‘Evergreening’ Metaphor in Intellectual Property Scholarship, ___ Akron L. Rev. ___ (forthcoming)

In this paper that will be published in the Akron Law Review, CPIP Senior Fellow for Life Sciences Erika Lietzan takes a deep dive into the scholarly dialogue about so-called “evergreening” by drug companies. Prof. Lietzan canvasses 342 journal articles from legal, medical, scientific, and economic fields and finds that, while the metaphorical term “evergreening” is not used consistently, its use can be boiled down to the normative claim that drug innovators should not be able to enjoy an exclusive market for innovations that stem from a separate innovation. Prof. Lietzan argues that policymaking should be based on descriptive, empirical scholarship, and the use of “evergreening” obscures the fact that we do not have such studies today.

Jonathan Barnett & Ted M. Sichelman, The Case for Noncompetes, ___ U. Chi. L. Rev. ___ (2020)

In this paper that will be published in the University of Chicago Law Review, CPIP Senior Fellow for Innovation Policy Jonathan Barnett and CPIP Senior Scholar Ted Sichelman take on the common argument that noncompete agreements deter innovation. They note that recent steps by legislators to limit the enforcement of noncompetes are not based on sound theory or empirics. On theory, they note that the positive effect of noncompetes in encouraging firms to make investments in intellectual and human capital is overlooked. And on empirics, they demonstrate that the two main bodies of evidence cited do not in fact support the nonenforcement of noncompetes. Given these complexities, Profs. Barnett and Sichelman suggest an error-cost approach to provide an economic rationale for the reasonableness standard of assessing such provisions found in the common law.


Activities, News, & Events

a lit lightbulb hanging next to unlit bulbs

CPIP Director of Copyright Research and Policy Sandra Aistars and CPIP Senior Scholar Mark Schultz testified before Senate Subcommittee on Intellectual Property about the problems with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The hearing, entitled The Digital Millennium Copyright Act at 22: What Is It, Why Was it Enacted, and Where Are We Now?, is the first of ten such hearings that will evaluate the continued relevance of the DMCA. The Subcommittee is chaired by Senator Thom Tillis, and he has indicated that the DMCA has not “stood the test of time” and that he intends to “craft new legislation to modernize the DMCA for today’s internet.” Video from the hearing is available here, and you can download Prof. Aistars’ testimony here and Prof. Schultz’s testimony here. The hearing has been featured in several news articles, including at IPWatchdog, Law360, TorrentFreak, The Verge, and The Buchtelite.

CPIP Director of Copyright Research and Policy Sandra Aistars filed an amicus brief in the Google v. Oracle case that is currently before the U.S. Supreme Court. The brief was joined by eight other copyright scholars, including Stephen Carlisle, Jon Garon, Hugh Hansen, Devlin Hartline, Adam Mossoff, Chris Newman, Sean O’Connor, and Mark Schultz. The brief argues: “Google’s position is not only contrary to the statute—it would actively discourage innovation by original authors with knowledge that their work can be exploited without due compensation. It also would discourage intermediary business models built around generating, promoting, monetizing, and publishing original works of authorship, e.g., publishing houses. This is not what the Constitution had in mind.”

CPIP Senior Scholar Kristen Osenga has been busy this month. Prof. Osenga joined F. Scott Kieff for a Federalist Society teleforum entitled Litigation Update: FTC v. Qualcomm, which recapped the district court’s decision and discussed the arguments that were likely to be made in Qualcomm’s appeal to the Ninth Circuit in its antitrust litigation with the Federal Trade Commission. She also drafted a post at IPWatchdog detailing the oral argument before the Ninth Circuit. Prof. Osenga participated in a Federalist Society Regulatory Transparency Report Podcast entitled The New DOJ-USPTO-NIST Policy Statement on Remedies for Infringement of Standard-Essential Patents, which was moderated by Adam Mossoff. And she was featured in a recent article at Richmond Law, where she discussed her transition from engineering to patent law.


Categories
CPIP Roundup

CPIP Roundup – January 31, 2020


Greetings from CPIP Executive Director Sean O’Connor

As January 2020 draws to a close, I hope you have had a restful holiday season and a good start to the new decade. At CPIP, we are pushing forward with plans for an exciting new year, getting ready for some internal changes, and looking forward to the future.

In early December, I traveled to China to lecture on music law at Tsinghua University School of Law in Beijing and to meet with lawyers in firms and corporations regarding IP in China. At Mason, our students are back from the winter break and I am leading the second semester of the newly initiated Innovation Law Clinic. I am excited to announce that the Clinic is collaborating with BizLaunch, a unit of Arlington Economic Development, to assist entrepreneurs and advance Arlington as an innovation district—especially in preparation for Amazon’s impending arrival. Starting this semester, BizLaunch and Mason will be co-hosting a series of lectures and clinical sessions, entitled Mason Law Clinic @ BizLaunch, which will provide local entrepreneurs with ready access to legal information and assistance.

This past week, the CPIP team traveled to Miami Beach, Florida, for the fourth and final meeting of our Edison Fellowship for 2019-2020. We would like to thank our scholars and senior commentators for their investment of time, hard work, and generous feedback over the past year.

Looking further ahead, please note that CPIP’s The Evolving Music Ecosystem conference will now be a two-day affair, taking place at Scalia Law School in Arlington, Virginia, on April 23-24, 2020.

On a staffing note, you may have read in a CPIP email from last week that CPIP Deputy Director Kevin Madigan is leaving our team to join the Copyright Alliance as VP, Legal Policy and Copyright Counsel. Kevin has been an invaluable part of our team over the past four years and he will be greatly missed. Kevin’s contributions to CPIP are irreplaceable.

We look forward to continued work with him in his new role at the Copyright Alliance and we wish him all the best. Due to Kevin’s departure, we are now looking to hire a new Deputy Director. The job listing can be found here. Please circulate widely to help us fill this important CPIP position!


Registration Now Open for Music Law Conference on April 23-24, 2020

Registration is now open for CPIP’s music law conference, The Evolving Music Ecosystem, that will be held at Antonin Scalia Law School in Arlington, Virginia, on April 23-24, 2020. The keynote address will be given by Rosanne Cash, and it features two days of panel presentations from leading experts.

This unique conference continues a dialogue on the music ecosystem begun by CPIP Executive Director Sean O’Connor while at the University of Washington School of Law in Seattle. In its inaugural year in the D.C. area, the conference aims to bring together musicians, music fans, lawyers, artist advocates, business leaders, government policymakers, and anyone interested in supporting thriving music ecosystems in the U.S. and beyond.

Please click here to register, and click here to visit our conference website. We’ll be announcing the agenda and confirmed speakers soon!


WIPO-CPIP Summer School on IP on June 8-19, 2020

CPIP has again partnered with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to host the third iteration of the WIPO-CPIP Summer School on Intellectual Property at Antonin Scalia Law School in Arlington, Virginia, on June 8-19, 2020. Registration is now open, and we recommend that participants apply early, as we expect the program to be full.

The course provides a unique opportunity for students, professionals, and government officials to work with leading experts to gain a deeper knowledge of IP to advance their careers. The course consists of lectures, case studies, simulation exercises, group discussions, and panel discussions on selected IP topics, with an orientation towards the interface between IP and other disciplines.

Please click here for more information.


Spotlight on Scholarship

Eric Claeys, Claim Communication in Intellectual Property: A Comment on Right on Time, 100 B.U. L. Rev. Online 4 (2020)

In this paper that was supported by a CPIP Leonardo da Vinci Fellowship Research Grant, CPIP Senior Scholar Eric Claeys responds to a recent article discussing how original acquisition applies to intellectual property law and policy. Prof. Claeys explains that property rights help people to derive value from ownable resources and to coordinate the behavior of different people. Through what he calls “claim communication,” property rights inform people about who gets priority in managing and producing value from the asset. Prof. Claeys argues that this distinct function of property rights is integral to understanding how original acquisition applies to intellectual property.

Jonathan Barnett, The ‘License As Tax’ Fallacy (forthcoming)

In this forthcoming paper, CPIP Senior Scholar Jonathan Barnett rebuts claims that intellectual property licenses act as a “tax” that limits access to technological assets, stunts innovation, and inflates prices for end-users. Such claims have motivated competition regulators and courts to take a skeptical view of intellectual property licensing. Prof. Barnett explains that this skepticism overlooks how licensing supports a robust innovation ecosystem by facilitating exchanges that create value, promoting the division of labor, and lowering entry costs for innovative firms.


Activities, News, & Events

Earlier this month, a group of intellectual property scholars, including Sandra Aistars, Devlin Hartline, Kevin Madigan, Adam Mossoff, Sean O’Connor, and Mark Schultz, filed comments with the U.S. Trade Representative in advance of its hearing to review the generalized system of preferences (GSP) eligibility of several countries. The GSP program provides for the duty-free importation of designated articles into the U.S., and the U.S. Trade Representative is considering whether South Africa is meeting its eligibility criterion by providing adequate and effective protection of U.S. intellectual property rights. The comments submitted argue that South Africa’s copyright regime fails to adequately protect U.S. copyrighted works, and that proposed changes to its law that would greatly expand fair use and fair dealing would only exacerbate the problem.

CPIP Director of Copyright Research and Policy Sandra Aistars testifies today at the U.S. Trade Representative hearing on the GSP eligibility of South Africa, where she is discussing how South Africa fails to provide adequate and effective protection for U.S. copyrighted works. The work of Prof. Aistars’ Arts & Entertainment Advocacy Clinic in helping to protect artists and authors was featured in a recent article at Scalia Law News. Prof. Aistars will be speaking next month at the 94th Annual CMPA Convention in South Carolina, and she will be panelist at the Copyright in the Age of Artificial Intelligence event that is being co-hosted by the U.S. Copyright Office and WIPO in Washington, D.C. Prof. Aistars will also attend the 2020 CSUSA Midwinter Meeting in Arizona, where she will participate in an executive committee meeting to decide issues affecting the organization.

CPIP Senior Scholar Kristen Osenga recently published an essay at the Hudson Institute entitled Saving Functional Claiming: The Mismatch of § 112 Reform in the § 101 Reform Debate. In the essay, Prof. Osenga explains how the proposed revisions to § 112(f) that were included in a recent bill to reform patent subject matter eligibility under § 101 would result in negative consequences for innovation. § 112(f) is the statutory provision that governs functional claiming, and the amendment would narrow it out of concerns over preemption. Prof. Osenga explains that this change actually reduce the effectiveness and reliability of patent rights for all innovators. Prof. Osenga also co-authored a white paper for the Federalist Society’s Regulatory Transparency Project entitled Putting the Public Back In “Public Interest” in Patent Law. The white paper explains how recent interference in the patent system by several administrative agencies fails to promote the public interest that the patent system is intended to serve.


Categories
CPIP Roundup

CPIP Roundup – November 29, 2019


Greetings from CPIP Executive Director Sean O’Connor

Sean O'Connor

As we wind down the Thanksgiving holiday here in the U.S., the CPIP team is grateful for many things, most especially your support. If you are spending time with family—or enjoying a “Friendsgiving”—we hope it has been restful.

As part of CPIP’s enhanced focus on international engagement, I gave a series of lectures in South Korea earlier this month at Mason’s own Korea campus in Incheon and at Seoul National University. First up was “AI and IP: Who Owns What Non-Humans Create” at Mason Korea in Incheon. Next were two lectures at Seoul National University: “IP and Ethics in AI-Based Biomedical Research” at the medical school and “Complex Nature of Music Compositions for Copyright Litigation” at the law school. Finally, I presented “The New Music Economy: Data + Experiences” to an audience of copyright professionals. I very much appreciated SNU’s Professor Sang Jo Jong for providing me with his son’s guitar for performance demonstrations at the two music lectures.

Back in Arlington, we continued our international activities by hosting the Japan IP Association (JIPA) and Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) for their annual programs with DC-area IP professionals. As part of this, CPIP Deputy Director Kevin Madigan and I gave a joint talk to the JIPA delegation and I gave an overview of our new Innovation Law Clinic to the JETRO participants. Judge Randall Rader (ret.) and I also performed a musical set for the JIPA farewell dinner. Next month, I will be teaching at Tsinghua University School of Law in Beijing together with Judge Rader and John Whealan, Associate Dean for IP Studies at George Washington University School of Law.

In other important developments here at CPIP, we are excited to welcome CPIP Senior Scholar and Torrey H. Webb Professor of Law at USC Gould School of Law Jonathan Barnett as our non-resident Senior Fellow for Innovation Policy to direct our activities in that space. The kickoff event for the build-out of our current campus into the Arlington Innovation District—celebrating 40 years here already—was a great success with media coverage for the impressive vision set out by the Interim President, Anne Holton, and other senior administrators. We congratulate non-resident Senior Fellow for Life Sciences Erika Lietzan for her well-deserved promotion to full professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia! Finally, the remaining videos from this October’s Fall Conference have been uploaded to the CPIP website.

Enjoy those Thanksgiving leftovers, and we hope to see you at a CPIP event soon!


Spotlight on Scholarship

a pair of glasses, an apple, and a stack of books

Paul J. Heald & Ted M. Sichelman, Ranking the Academic Impact of 100 American Law Schools, 60 Jurimetrics J. ___ (2019)

In this paper that will be published in the Jurimetrics Journal, CPIP Senior Scholar Ted Sichelman and Paul Heald of Illinois Law analyze the limitations with measuring faculty impact at U.S. law schools using the methods of U.S. News & World Report and scholarly rankings that fail to capture the influence on the broader legal community. They overcome these shortcomings by offering citation-based rankings that utilize a more comprehensive database and impact rankings based on download counts, as well as a combination of the two metrics. Based on the data, Professors Sichelman and Heald explain why they support U.S. News’s plan to rank schools on the basis of citation counts and they recommend that U.S. News adopt a quantitative-based metric as a faculty reputation component of its overall rankings.

Patricia J. Zettler & Erika Lietzan, A Special Exception for CBD in Foods and Supplements?, ___ Drug Discov. Today ___ (2019)

In this article that will be published at Drug Discovery Today, CPIP Senior Fellow for Life Sciences Erika Lietzan and Patricia Zettler of Moritz College of Law look at the recent explosion of the cannabidiol (CBD) market, where CBD-containing oils, lotions, gummies, tea, coffee, water, popcorn, and cereal are widely available on store shelves and online. They explain how these sales violate the “drug exclusion rules” in the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA), yet the FDA has neglected to enforce those rules for the most part. As lawmakers and the FDA consider the path forward, Professors Lietzan and Zettler argue that the decision to give CBD special treatment should be made thoughtfully and with public participation, accounting for possible gains in consumer access and choice, as well as the lost opportunity to learn, and harness, CBD’s full therapeutic potential.