The Cancer Immunotherapy Pilot Program and Chimeric Antigen Receptor-T Cell Treatments
Ellen Shamansky The Cancer Immunotherapy Pilot Program (also known as Patents 4 Patients) provides fast-track review to patent applications describing methods of treating cancer with immunotherapy, such as chimeric antigen receptor (“CAR”)- T cell treatments. This article explores considerations for claiming CAR-T cell treatments, including court rulings and examiner guidelines on patentable subject matter in the life sciences, the Federal Circuit’s decision in NantKwest, Inc. v. Lee in 2017, and pending applications and current litigation over CAR-T cell treatments. Read Full Text Here
Get Out of My Head: An Examination of Potential Brain-Computer Interface Data Privacy Concerns
Kevin Y. Li Brain-computer interfaces (“BCI”), which interpret brain impulses and translate them into real world outputs, currently exist in a variety of forms. With the continued development of BCIs and their increasing complexity, privacy issues will arise in regards to the data that they collect. Existing federal statutes, such as HIPAA, as well as state data privacy statutes offer some protection to BCI users, but it remains to be seen whether these laws will be sufficient to accommodate the amount and sensitivity of the data likely to be generated by future BCIs. Lastly, this article explores the possibility of...
Bring Your Own Trademark: Compensating College Football Players Through Trademark Royalties
Sarah Murphy College football players deserve compensation for the value they create in the sport. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (“NCAA”) Amateurism Rule, however, prohibits paying student-athletes, while coaches earn millions of dollars per year. A potential solution to combat this inequality is for universities to collect intellectual property licensing royalties from coaches and use that money toward compensating players. Additionally, college athletes should be informed about their right to trademark and should collect their own trademark licensing royalties in accordance with the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit’s decision in O’Bannon v. NCAA in 2015. Read...
IP Protection for Startups: The Role of Legislation in Stopping Patent Trolls and Encouraging Innovation
Kristin Garr In the past five years, the rate of startups entering the market has drastically increased, and it continues to see an upward trend, giving rise to the phenomenon known as the “startup boom.” While the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) has implemented major changes to the patent system in the past decade, the agency has not been able to address the problem that is crippling the success of emerging companies: patent trolls. Various states’ legislatures have recognized this issue and enacted statutes prohibiting bad faith patent assertions as a result. This article explains the startup industry’s...
Blockchain and Copyright: Vain Hope for Photographers?
Jason Kim Blockchain technology has near unlimited application potential, and its influence could extend all the way to the copyright industry. For photographers, blockchain technology might serve as a safe and efficient tool to detect infringement. However, this notion must be treated with caution. Blockchain’s security applications are indeed a valuable prospect, but the technology has critical flaws that prevent it from becoming the panacea for photographer. Read Full Text Here
Obtaining Marijuana Patents
Natali De Corso In the midst of a boom in the marijuana industry, marijuana breeders and companies have increasingly sought protection of their unique marijuana strains through patents. Their success, however, is limited given the fact that marijuana remains illegal under federal law and the United States Patent and Trademark Office has been reluctant to grant such patents. This article explores the current patentability of marijuana strains, discusses the difficulties marijuana breeders and companies face in patenting their product, and introduces successful marijuana-related patent applications. Read Full Text Here
Protection of Characters: Creator of The Moodsters Sues the Walt Disney Company over Allegedly Stolen Characters
Bertie Magit Movie studios, authors, musicians and other creative-types frequently find themselves on the receiving end of lawsuits for copyright infringement. Factual elements such as whose idea was first and whether the original work was protected under copyright may become wholly irrelevant if the two works are markedly different. In June 2017, Childhood Development expert Denise Daniels filed a complaint against The Walt Disney Company for copyright infringement of her anthropomorphous, color-coded emotion characters she originally conceived as The Moodsters. Daniels alleged that these characters were the real inspiration for Disney-Pixar’s Inside Out and Walt Disney Company has stolen the...
Resolving US-China IP Disputes Through the WTO: A Legal Alternative to Unilateral Sanctions
Stephen Garvey This article examines the United States’ ongoing trade dispute with China regarding Chinese abuses of American intellectual property rights. The U.S. has filed both a complaint against China before the WTO for violation of the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (“TRIPS”), and simultaneously imposed a series of unilateral sanctions on Chinese goods, in violation of the WTO Marrakesh Agreement. Imposing illegal sanctions while seeking redress from the WTO undermines the legitimacy of the U.S.’ claims and has provoked retaliatory tariffs. As the TRIPS agreement comprehensively covers the dispute in question, the U.S. should scale...