DePaul Law News

Professor Livingston's article on music copyright selected as one of the best in the field

Professor Maggie Livingston’s article "Copyright Infringement of Music: Determining Whether What Sounds Alike is Alike," 15 Vand. J. Ent. & Tech. L. 227 (2013) (co-authored with J. Urbinato), was selected for republication in the 2013 edition of Entertainment, Publishing and the Arts Handbook, as one of the best law review articles in the fields of entertainment, publishing and the arts published within the last year. Professor Livingston co-authored the article with Dr. Joseph Urbinato, professor emeritus of music history, music theory and bassoon, Roosevelt University.

 

"I wanted to write about this topic because music is somewhat different from other art forms, such as literary works and works of visual art, in that there are only a limited number of ways to arrange the traditional scale of notes to produce a work that will be pleasing to the Western ear," said Professor Livingston. "Because the standard for copyright infringement requires the plaintiff to show that the defendant's work is substantially similar to the plaintiff's, one faces the difficulty of determining whether a defendant truly plagiarized the plaintiff's composition or merely drew upon common public domain antecedents and genre conventions to produce a similar (but not plagiarized) piece of music."

Entertainment, Publishing and the Arts Handbook is published by Thomson Reuters West and features information on industry trends, coverage of the latest issues, regulations, legislation and caselaws, and expert analysis and commentary.

DePaul intellectual property law professors present scholarship nationally

Professor Roberta Kwall

DePaul law professors Roberta R. Kwall and Joshua Sarnoff shared their scholarship and expertise in several recent intellectual property events.

In April, Professor Kwall, founding director of DePaul's Center for Intellectual Property Law & Information Technology (CIPLIT), gave the keynote address at the University of St. Thomas Law Journal Symposium, Intellectual Property and Religious Thought. The title of her talk was "Remember the Sabbath Day and Enhance Your Creativity." Her paper on this subject be published later this year in the St. Thomas Law Journal.  

She also recently lectured on "Authorship Norms and Human Rights: Comparative Traditions" at Indiana University Maurer School of Law.

Professor Josh Sarnoff

CIPLIT Director and Professor Joshua Sarnoff hosted the first of the Federal Circuit Bar Association’s Advanced Complex Litigation Series discussions on practice under the new patent pilot program rules in April.

Professor Sarnoff participated in national teleconferences hosted by the Intellectual Property Owners Association (ipo.org/IPChatChannel) and by American University on the Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics gene patent challenge currently pending in the Supreme Court. He has been asked to participate in an international videoconference hosted by the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA) on the Myriad case once the Supreme Court renders its decision. He also recently participated on a panel at the AIPLA Spring Meeting that addressed the current state of patent eligibility, focusing on business method patents and the Bilski v. Kappos case, but also addressing the Myriad case.

He presented a work in progress, “Rethinking [Patent] Application Drafting and Examination,” at the Drake University IP Scholars’ Roundtable and at PATCON3, this year held at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law. The developing paper addresses current calls for reform within the government, from industry and in academia to improve these aspects of the patent system.

In addition, Professor Sarnoff presented on the current state of patent issues in genetic diagnostics at Judaism, Health and Healing, a conference for physicians, attorneys, health care and community professionals that was sponsored by the DePaul Center for Jewish Law & Judaic Studies, Spertus Institute and University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine.

Professor Kellman discusses space debris and international law

Professor Barry Kellman presented "The Relevance of General International Law for Debris Questions" at an event held by the European Space Policy Institute on April 11.

 

 

Event Background:

Space Nuisance—An International Tort

The international space community has devoted considerable attention to the ever worsening problem of space debris. In 2008 guidelines on debris mitigation were endorsed by the UN General Assembly as a soft law instrument. A pervasive view holds that avoidable debris creation is undesirable and runs counter to the interests of the global community, but that no hard law norms ban such debris creation. It is the validity of this assumption which was tested at the ESPI event through a number of presentations by eminent international lawyers. In addition the question of the position of law relative to the new ideas on active debris removal was addressed.

 

Professor Michael Grynberg's article considers trademark's relationship to consumer information laws

Professor Michael Grynberg's article “More Than IP: Trademark Among the Consumer Information Laws” will be featured in The William and Mary Law Review in 2014. The article considers how trademark law is more closely related to other consumer information regimes—e.g., false advertising laws and FTC regulations—than to incentive-based IP laws like copyright and patent.

Professor Grynberg identifies situations in which optimal trademark policy depends on ascertaining the state of play in another consumer information regime. Yet, he proposes that the problem is more complicated than simply determining how another body of law treats a parallel issue, and notes that the resulting complexity has consequences for trademark’s future. He contends that courts should try to accommodate consumer information law’s variety by simplifying trademark issues in order to minimize the need for cross-doctrinal assessments. He also explores one approach to simplification—the prospect that trademark law would benefit from “offloading” some of its expanding scope to other consumer information regimes.

Professor Jacobs to present seminars on antitrust

In May, Professor Mike Jacobs will present a series of seminars about antitrust law and economics to the commissioners and staff of the competition regulatory agencies from Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic, at their request and as part of their annual conference.

 

 

 

Jacobs to keynote New Zealand competition workshop

International Aviation Law Institute Co-Director Michael Jacobs has been selected as the keynote speaker for the 24th annual workshop of the Competition Law & Policy Institute of New Zealand (CIPLINZ), which will take place on August 2 in Auckland. Professor Jacobs also will present a paper at the event. The CLPINZ serves as a key forum for experts to contribute to future competition legal and policy initiatives. The workshop is attended by lawyers, economists, regulators and judges from New Zealand, Australia and the Asia-Pacific region.

Havel, Mulligan at IATA Legal Symposium

IALI Director Brian Havel and FedEx/United Airlines Resident Research Fellow John Mulligan represented the institute at the 2013 IATA Legal Symposium February 17 to 19 in Berlin. The three-day conference included panels and presentations concerning a number of international aviation law and policy issues on which the institute has worked over the past few years, including aircraft finance, antitrust and dispute resolution. During the final session, Professor Havel participated in a lively panel debate entitled "Does International Air Law Still Matter?"

Professor Gerstenblith responds to new artifact acquisition guidelines

In a recent article in the New York Times titled "Museum Leaders Toughen Artifact Acquisition Guidelines," blogger Randy Kennedy discussed the new rules incorporated by the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD).

The vote will strengthen the requirements museums must meet in order publish pictures and information about antiquities that may be subject to questions of looting.

Since 2008, museums have posted information about antiquities they've acquired on an AAMD-sponsored website. Museums will now need to publish pictures and information about these artifacts, as well as cite a reason for acquisition.

Though the publication guidelines enforce greater ethical responsibility in cultural heritage, Professor Patty Gerstenblith, director of the Center for Art, Museum and Cultural Heritage Law, still expressed concern over the acquisition of these antiquities.

“What I want to see is the museums not acquiring these things in the first place,” Gerstenblith said. “It remains to be seen how they enforce that part."

 

DePaul Law's gun violence program responds to President Obama’s Chicago visit

Today President Obama is home in Chicago, pressing Congress to act on his proposals to reduce gun violence. The president’s proposals come at a critical time for our nation. This is a watershed moment when political leaders might exercise courage to curtail the epidemic of gun violence. 

At DePaul University College of Law, a Program on Gun Violence has been initiated by Professor Barry Kellman. This is the only such program at an American law school, and one of the very few law-based programs to focus on these issues. The mission of the DePaul Program on Gun Violence is to contribute to the understanding of the law of curtailing gun violence and thereby enable that law to be optimally effective. This mission is based on the recognition that these issues are complex with dimensions that go from international trafficking to local crime control. We strive to educate people about these issues (within and outside DePaul) and to contribute rigorous legal analysis to the public debate.

According to Professor Kellman, the president’s proposals are altogether consistent with the Second Amendment; in fact, the president’s proposals strengthen the Second Amendment’s express commitment to building the security of a free country. Certainly, the nation’s Founding Fathers understood that a democracy must have the right to decide how much lethal force private citizens can put to use. While everyone has a right to defend themselves, the Supreme Court has made clear that society has the right to regulate firearms for its security, and “dangerous and unusual” weapons, including machine guns and other military weapons, do not have Second Amendment protections.

Professor Sarnoff discusses issues in IP and climate change nationwide

In fall 2012, Professor Joshua Sarnoff presented on intellectual property and climate change as part of a panel on intellectual property and international law at the annual meeting of the American Branch of the International Law Association in New York City. 

Professor Sarnoff also presented on the recent Supreme Court patent case in Mayo v. Prometheus and the Myriad gene patent case, for which the Supreme Court just granted certiorari, as part of a panel with the lawyer representing Myriad at the National Association of College and University Attorney’s fall 2012 workshop in Washington, D.C. In January, he will be filing a law professor’s brief in the case. Professor Sarnoff made a presentation on these cases on a panel at the Indiana University’s Robert H. McKinney School of Law’s conference on intellectual property and public rights of access in November.

Finally, he published another article on problems with the new patent act with practicing lawyer Chico Gholz in the November issue of IP Today and a book review of Eric Lane’s "Clean Tech Intellectual Property" in the IP Law Book Review. 

Professor Sarnoff is a faculty member affiliated with the Center for Intellectual Property Law & Information Technology (CIPLIT). At DePaul, he teaches Patent Law and other intellectual property courses. He has written numerous articles and book chapters on patent law and has been involved in a wide range of intellectual property legal and policy disputes.