George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School

Artur Fischer's Life Illustrates the Power of Invention

Whether taking a photograph, hanging a picture, or doing some work around the house, it’s easy to take for granted all the inventions that make our lives better on a daily basis. But the devices, tools and machines we use every day are all the products of creative genius, hard work and constant innovation. Read more

#AliceStorm: When It Rains, It Pours…

The following guest post from Robert R. Sachs, Partner at Fenwick & West LLP, first appeared on the Bilski Blog, and it is reposted here with permission.

By Robert R. Sachs

Last year I christened the post-Alice impact on patents #Alicestorm, riffing on the hashtag #hellastorm used to refer to the Pineapple Express storms the drenched the Bay Area in December 2014. Read more

Notice-and-Staydown and Google Search: The Whack-A-Mole Problem Continues Unabated

After my last post discussing the necessity for notice-and-staydown to help copyright owners with the never-ending game of whack-a-mole under the DMCA, I was asked to clarify how this would work for Google Search in particular. The purpose of my post was to express the need for something better and the hope that fingerprinting technologies offer. Read more

Last Chance to Register for the Copyright and Technology NYC 2016 Conference

Tomorrow is the last chance to register for the Copyright and Technology NYC 2016 Conference. The conference will be held next Tuesday, January 19th, at New York University’s Kimmel Center.

In addition to Matthew Barblan and Devlin Hartline from CPIP, participants will come from the following organizations:

  • ASCAP
  • BMI
  • CBS
  • CCIA
  • Charter Communications
  • Cisco
  • Copyright Alliance
  • Copyright Clearance Center
  • Elsevier
  • Entertainment Software Assn.
Read more

Endless Whack-A-Mole: Why Notice-and-Staydown Just Makes Sense

Producer Richard Gladstein knows all about piracy. As he recently wrote for The Hollywood Reporter, his latest film, The Hateful Eight, was “viewed illegally in excess of 1.3 million times since its initial theatrical release on Christmas Day.” Gladstein is not shy about pointing fingers and naming names. Read more

Jennifer Lawrence Movie “Joy” Highlights the Need for Patent Protection

The following guest post comes from Rebecca Cusey, a second year law student at George Mason University School of Law and a movie critic at The Federalist.

By Rebecca Cusey

Rebecca_Cusey_Headshot

There are two patents in the movie “Joy”: the one the titular character failed to get and the one for which she is willing to fight tooth and nail. Read more

Join Us at the Copyright and Technology NYC 2016 Conference on January 19

Co-produced by GiantSteps, the Copyright Society, and Musonomics, the Copyright and Technology NYC 2016 Conference will be held at New York University’s Kimmel Center on Tuesday, January 19th. CPIP is a proud Media Sponsor of the event.

The conference program is available here, and registration is still open here. Read more

How Patents Help Startups Grow, Innovate, and Succeed

Many academic studies of the patent system focus on the negative, extrapolating from anecdotes about a few bad actors to make the case that our patent system is broken and to bolster cries for legislation weakening patent rights. Precious few studies focus on the countless honest and hardworking patent owners whose inventive labors benefit us all. Read more

Protecting Artists from Streaming Piracy Benefits Creativity and Technology

Here’s a brief excerpt of an op-ed by Devlin Hartline & Matthew Barblan that was published in The Hill:

In his recent op-ed in The Hill, Mike Montgomery argues that “[m]aking streaming copyright infringement a felony is a terrible idea” that will create “further rifts between tech and entertainment at a time when these two sectors are not only reliant upon one another, but melding.” Read more

How IP-Fueled Innovations in Biotechnology Have Led to the Gene Revolution

scientist looking through a microscopeWe’ve released a new issue paper, The Gene Revolution, by Amanda Maxham, a research associate and writer at the Ayn Rand Institute.

Dr. Maxham explores how innovations in biotechnology, enabled by the intellectual property rights that protect them, have led to the “Gene Revolution,” where scientists use genetic engineering to dramatically improve human life. Read more