IP Geeks Rejoice: 13 Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review (2009) is Here
The thirteenth volume of the Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review (Summer Edition 2009) has recently been published and is now available. Our outgoing editor-in-chief, Melissa Benko and her excellent board have done an outstanding job once again.
Highlights of the issue include:
* Jessica Litman’s wonderful and innovative Nies lecture on current copyright reform;
* Interesting articles by Vanessa Rollins, Amy Tindall, Dmitriy Vinarov (and me, but I am not wearing that hat today!) on diverse subjects such as trademark fair use, the impact of the Seventh Amendment on patent litigation, and the re-thinking of patent fraud enforcement in light of current congressional reform;
* Our initial entry in the Emerging Scholars Series, which highlights works of intellectual property scholars in the first three years of their career, by Marketa Trimble, on cross border injunctions in the United States; and
* Our Annual Intellectual Property Law Review Banquet Speech, by the General Counsel of the Subway Advertising Trust Fund, Mary Jane Saunders, on her practitioner’s life in copyright.
In particular, I want to highlight the scholarship of two our students—Renee Metzler and Kevin Rizzuto—who in their comments, undertook innovative scholarship on grace periods in patent law as well as an empirical look at fixing continuation application at the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
I look forward to the work of incoming Board in the new school year!
The timing of released Wisconsin Supreme Court opinions is a popular topic this time of year among many members of the legal community. The Wisconsin Supreme Court begins hearing cases in September every year and generally hears between six and ten cases each month through April. In May, oral argument dates are set but not always used. No oral arguments are held in June, and the term officially ends at the end of June. This year, the court decided 57 cases. Of those decisions, 23 cases (40 percent) were released after the term ended, i.e., on or after July 1. In May and June, a total of 18 cases (32 percent) were released. Does it really matter that over 70 percent of the court’s cases were released either after the term ended or in the last two months of the term? I m not sure what the answer is to that question, but I do believe the Wisconsin Supreme Court should take measures to improve its appellate judicial efficiency.