Tag Archives: conferences

Commemorating 50 Years of the Copyright Act, part 2

Posted on April 3, 2026 by rtushnet

The 1976 Copyright Act: Mostly Evolutionary, Not Revolutionary Tyler Ochoa 1790 Act adopted the Statute of Anne—not radical even though it was the first for the US. Similar here—major changes, but not radical. Expanded subject matter; protection on creation/fixation instead … Continue reading →

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Commemorating 50 Years of the 1976 Copyright Act, Stanford Law School

Posted on April 3, 2026 by rtushnet

The Copyright Act at 50: Evolution and Impact Shira Perlmutter Copyright Act took a long time, with input from lots of interest groups and attention to detail—hundreds of contending and overlapping interests were involved. Hard to imagine this process today. … Continue reading →

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WIPIP Panel 6: Design and Brand; Protectable Subject Matter; Copyright Theory and Doctrine II

Posted on February 28, 2026 by rtushnet

A Pantone Prerogative: Defining the Privilege to Standardize Color (Felicia Caponigri) Color standards have been around for a long time. Pantone developed standards and uses its system to promote the colors; registration for the matching system and the color chip. … Continue reading →

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WIPIP Panel 5: Trademark Doctrine

Posted on February 28, 2026 by rtushnet

 The Arbitrary Myth (Dustin Marlan) Connecting the Abercrombie critique literature w/some of the critical/cultural appropriation theory. Judge Friendly says: it need hardly be added that fanciful and arbitrary terms enjoy the protection accorded to suggestive terms. Catachresis: strained metaphor—arbitrary marks … Continue reading →

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WIPIP Panel 4: Emerging Technologies

Posted on February 27, 2026 by rtushnet

The European Accent of U.S. Digital Platform Speech (Brian Downing) We are often told that self-governance by corporate platforms is better than government control, but his experience was that freedom of action wasn’t free. US gov’t defers to platforms, but … Continue reading →

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WIPIP Panel 3: Deepfakes, Celebrities, and Movies

Posted on February 27, 2026 by rtushnet

A Digital Right of Publicity for the AI World (Emma Perot) Prehistory: ROP covers lookalikes, soundalikes, video game avatars (at least for realism). Persona as training data. Theories of personality: users informed about use; many social media companies do not … Continue reading →

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WIPIP Panel 2: Copyright and Culture

Posted on February 27, 2026 by rtushnet

  Copyright’s Invisible Hand: Subsidizing America’s Cultural Institutions (Guy Rub) © sometimes requires payment from more intensive users, sometimes not. Exclusive rights: unbundling—buy a book to read v. buy a book to adapt to movie. Fair use is sometimes bundling: … Continue reading →

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WIPIP, BU Panel 1: Trademark Theory and Practice

Posted on February 27, 2026 by rtushnet

Trademarks, Functionality, and Competition (Glynn Lunney)          Came in late; 3d Circuit is not a good circuit for trade dress (11.8% success for claimants, almost always on functionality (71% of wins)). 5th Circuit at the other end—50% … Continue reading →

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Santa Clara IP Conference: Where Do We Go From Here?

Posted on January 31, 2026 by rtushnet

Moderator: Edward Lee, Santa Clara Law BJ Ard (copyright), University of Wisconsin Law School © is often displaced by contract and other regimes in sectors—scaling it up or down would produce minimal impact. Consumer copying for example is often solved … Continue reading →

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Santa Clara IP conference: How It’s Going: What Went Wrong?

Posted on January 30, 2026 by rtushnet

Moderator: Zahr Said, Santa Clara Law Mark Lemley (patent), Stanford Law School After 40 years of radical change, things settled down for normalcy in the last 10 years until Trump. 1980-2017: we grant 350,000 a year up from 50,000; now … Continue reading →

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