Intellectual Property Law – Page 21 – Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog

DeGuire Award Winner Explores Copyright Remedies

Post author:Michael M. O'Hear
Post published:April 19, 2011
Post category:Intellectual Property Law Marquette Law School

Congratulations to 3L Andy Spillane, the winner of this year’s DeGuire Award for best student comment published in the Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review. Andy’s paper discusses the availability of injunctive relief for copyright violations. Recently, some courts have abandoned the presumption of irreparable harm that traditionally benefitted copyright plaintiffs seeking injunctive relief. In the face of this emerging trend, Andy presents a strong case for maintaining the traditional presumption.

Andy’s paper, “The Continuing Vitality of the Presumption of Irreparable Harm in Copyright Cases,” is available here on SSRN.

That’s the Same Combination I Have on My Luggage!

Post author:Bruce E. Boyden
Post published:April 11, 2011
Post category:Computer Law Intellectual Property Law

Quick, which service do you think has the most strict password requirements I’ve ever encountered? My bank? Mutual funds? My law firm network login? Credit cards? Paypal? Email providers? Configuring my home server for remote access? Electronics sites like newegg.com and amazon.com? Westlaw and Lexis?

No. Not any of those. There is a service that, judging by its password requirements, contains either information far more sensitive or capabilities far more powerful than any of these. It’s…

Lemley Considers Whether Patent Office Can Be Fixed

Post author:Irene Calboli
Post published:April 2, 2011
Post category:Intellectual Property Law Speakers at Marquette

This past Friday was a memorable day for Marquette Intellectual Property & Technolgy Program. Professor Mark A. Lemley, the William H. Neukom Professor of Law at Stanford Law School, the Director of the Stanford Program in Law, Science and Technology, and a founding partner of Durie Tangri LLP, delivered the Distinguished Annual Hon. Helen Wilson Nies Lecture in Intellectual Property, “Can the Patent Office Be Fixed?”

In the Conference Center of Marquette’s Eckstein Hall, which was filled with students, alumni, faculty, and local practitioners, Professor Lemley stressed that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) faces primarily two problems in promoting innovation policy. On the one hand, the USPTO must contend with a backlog of around 700,000 patent applications that have not yet even been examined, let alone granted or denied. This may result in three- and five-year waits before the USPTO renders a decision on an application, which may prove detrimental for certain sectors in which technology develops at a more rapid pace, such as the software industry. On the other hand, the USPTO has granted a not insignificant number of patents of questionable validity and quality.