Articles

Playing Nice With Patents: Do Voluntary Non-Aggression Pledges Provide a Sound Basis for Innovation?
Mar
03

As part of a growing phenomenon, patent holders are increasingly making voluntary, public commitments to limit their patent’s enforcement and other exploitation. While most of these commitments are FRAND commitments, in which patent holders promise to license their patents to manufacturers of standardized products on terms that are “fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory,” a growing number of voluntary patent pledges are made …

#CanHashtagsBeTrademarked: Trademark Law and the Development of Hashtags
Jan
15

Within the past several years, hashtags have become one of the most popular means of organizing content on social media. The experimental categorical tool is rampant in our society because it allows consumers to connect with and engage other social media users based on a common interest, theme, or topic. Brands started using trademarks in hashtags and even trademarking hashtags themselves …

The Destiny of Clean Energy: Legality of the EPA's Clean Power Plan with Respect to Emissions Trading
Jan
15

Cleaner energy is necessary to avoid significant health and climate risks in the future, and no energy is dirtier than our nation’s fossil-fuel burning power plants. The United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (“EPA”) Clean Power Plan seeks to address the hazards posed by the electricity sector, and proposes carbon dioxide (“CO2”) emissions trading as an efficient, cost-effective option to do so. …

Telemedicine: A Therapeutic Prescription for Our Healthcare System Contaminated by Old Economy Rules and Regulations
Jan
15

As technology has evolved over the past few decades, the power of the Internet has transformed how consumers purchase goods and services. The medical profession, though, has been slow to adapt to this changing marketplace. Telemedicine has the ability to change the future of medicine by providing quality, cost-effective care. However, the state medical boards impose an array of restrictions …

Avenues for Addressing the Exploitation of Inter Partes Review Process by Third Parties
Jan
15

An innovative new technique for gaming the financial markets emerged in late 2014 when a hedge fund manager began filing inter partes review petitions with the United States Patent and Trademark Office against pharmaceutical companies in an attempt to profit from the short selling of pharmaceutical stocks. The pharmaceutical industry deemed this practice an abuse of process and attempted to regulate …

Gucci v. Alibaba: A Balanced Approach to Secondary Liability for E-Commerce Platforms
Jan
15

This Recent Development discusses the future of secondary liability for e-commerce platforms whose users sell counterfeit goods in the wake of the ongoing Gucci v. Alibaba litigation. Should the plaintiffs prevail, e-commerce platforms will be held accountable to cooperate with brand owners by removing infringing listings in a timely fashion and sanctioning users who sell counterfeits in an effective manner, resulting …

Searching for Reputation: Reconciling Free Speech and the "Right to be Forgotten"
Dec
20

This article offers a comprehensive assessment of the tension between First Amendment law and the European Court of Justice’s decision in 2014 granting individuals the right to have search engines “forget” certain personal information about them. While the ECJ decision is vague on the boundaries of a “right to forget,” it correctly locates a problem …

The Costs of Regulatory Redundancy: Consumer Protection Oversight of Online Travel Agents and the Advantages of Sole FTC Jurisdiction
Dec
20

Every administration in recent history has attempted to reduce regulatory redundancies. One area of regulatory redundancy that deserves attention is the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) and Department of Transportation’s (DOT) consumer protection authority over online travel agents (OTAs), which generated $111 billion in revenue in 2013. This regulatory redundancy guarantees that two agencies will oversee …

One Centimeter Over My Back Yard: Where Does Federal Preemption of State Drone Regulation Start?
Dec
20

The proliferation of small unmanned aircraft systems (microdrones) invites reconsideration of the limits of exclusive federal authority over aviation, which currently preempts state law. Public reaction to the drone phenomenon is generally adverse, putting pressure on state and local legislators to regulate drones. Many of them have enacted or are considering legislation and ordinances to …

Categories