Warrantless Search and Seizure of E-Mail and Methods of Panoptical Prophylaxis
Paul Ham U.S. citizens are in a constant battle for their rights to privacy, fighting the government’s increasingly pervasive surveillance and justicial needs. One area where court opinions conflict with the public’s expectation of privacy is over the realm of personal electronic communications. The general public believes electronic communications must be afforded a certain level of privacy that is not currently recognized by case law or statutes. Under current case law, warrantless searches and seizures of your personal e-mail are not prohibited by the Fourth Amendment. The Fourth Amendment should be your source for protecting your e-mails when you are...
An Analysis of the Video Game Regulation Harmonization Effort in the European Union and Its Trans-Atlantic Chilling Effect on Constitutionally Protected Expression
Kyle Robertson Video games have become a prominent pastime for both children and adults in the United States (U.S.) and across the European Union (EU). Today, individuals are spending more time and money on electronic entertainment than ever before. In addition to similar video game consumption habits, violent, pre-meditated murders by video game players have stunned both the United States and Germany. As a result, legislators in both countries have taken action in attempts to restrict minors’ access to violent video games. The results have widely differed between the two countries, with the United States electing to treat video games...
Shopping for Expedient, Inexpensive & Predictable Patent Litigation
Kevin A. Meehan Intellectual property has experienced an explosion in recent decades as the value of American corporations has become increasingly reliant on intangible assets. This explosion is reflected in the massive increase in patents issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) and the corresponding spike in patent litigation. Moreover, patent litigation has become a high stakes game that is time consuming and unpredictable. Faced with a system of patent litigation that most people agree is too expensive, too time-consuming, and too unpredictable, plaintiffs frequently attempt to capitalize on their virtually unencumbered choice of venue to shop...
Interpreting Chamberlain’s “Reasonable Relation” Between Access and Infringement in the Digital Mill
Zoe Argento The nature of the “reasonable relation” test goes to the heart of the DMCA and its impact on innovation. If the “reasonable relation” between access and infringement is too broad, the DMCA will stifle many ideas which build on protected works, because the public will be prevented from accessing works for the purpose of creating improved versions and interoperable products. Innovation depends in large measure upon building on the works of others. As Sir Isaac Newton famously said, “If I have seen farther than others, it is because I have stood upon the shoulders of giants.” On the...
Inequitable Results in Transnational Patent Infringement Liability: Closing the Method Loophole
Alejandro Valencia A set of recent patent infringement cases are primed to have major impacts and, some argue, inequitable effects on the current patent scheme in the United States. A problem has arisen concerning what kind of patent protection, or lack thereof, method and process patents should receive when certain steps of those methods or processes are implemented outside the U.S. Read literally, as the courts have, current law requires a method to have taken place in the U.S. for protection. But what results when a method or process patent is infringed partially in the U.S. and partially abroad? Should...
Is Genericide a Matter of Fact or of Merit?
Shoshana Stern Courts’ analyses of genericness are rarely straightforward. Because few courts either say what they are doing or do what they say on this count, it can be difficult to determine what is actually going on. Through analysis of a number of historic cases and a few contemporary ones, this paper will explore the ways in which genericide has been treated. It will also investigate the extent to which courts’ vagueness in defining what a trademark owner must do to protect its mark has compelled mark owners to be excessively zealous in prosecuting infringers, out of fear that inaction...