George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School

CPIP Roundup – September 30, 2020

 


Greetings from CPIP Executive Director Sean O’ConnorSean O'Connor

As we move through our busy fall season here at CPIP, we are grateful for the efforts of everyone in the George Mason University community keeping us safe and healthy. We are fortunate that in these highly uncertain times, we are still able to focus on what we do best: bringing you the research, impact policy pieces, and programming that you have come to expect. Read more

The Evolving Music Ecosystem Conference: Day Three Recap

The following post comes from Bradfield Biggers, a graduate of Boston College Law School and Founder & CEO of Timshel Inc., a music fintech company that provides data-driven cashflow solutions to musical artists in Los Angeles, California. This is the third of three posts (see day one recap and day two recap) summarizing our three-day The Evolving Music Ecosystem conference that was held online from George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School on September 9-11, 2020. Read more

Scalia Law Students and CPIP Scholars Make an Impact in Copyright Office Section 512 Study

the word "copyright" written on a typewriterThe U.S. Copyright Office released its long-awaited report on Section 512 of Title 17 late last week. The Report is the culmination of more than four years of study by the Office of the safe harbor provisions for online service provider (OSP) liability in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA). Read more

CPIP Roundup – April 30, 2020


Greetings from CPIP Executive Director Sean O’Connor

Sean O'Connor

As we move into another month of stay-at-home here in the DMV—and perhaps some re-openings—we here at CPIP hope that you and yours are staying safe and healthy while we weather this crisis.

We continue to move forward, however. Read more

Twenty Years Later, DMCA More Broken Than Ever

a lightbulb shatteringWith Section 512 of the DMCA, Congress sought to “preserve[] strong incentives for service providers and copyright owners to cooperate to detect and deal with copyright infringements that take place in the digital networked environment.”[1] Given the symbiotic relationship between copyright owners and service providers, Congress meant to establish an online ecosystem where both would take on the benefits and burdens of policing copyright infringement. Read more

How the Supreme Court Made it Harder for Copyright Owners to Protect Their Rights—And Why Congress Should Fix It

U.S. Supreme Court buildingEarlier this week, the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Fourth Estate v. Wall-Street.com, a case examining the registration precondition to filing a suit for copyright infringement in the federal district courts. While I agree with the Court’s exegesis of the statute at issue, it’s worth noting how the Court’s construction leaves many, if not most, copyright owners in the lurch. Read more

New “Invalidated” Documentary Highlights the Problems With the PTAB: Free Screening on October 26

a lit lightbulb hanging next to unlit bulbsBy Devlin Hartline and Aditi Kulkarni*

The “Invalidated” documentary will be screened this Friday, October 26, at 5:30 PM in Washington, D.C. To register for this free event, which features a presentation by Bunch O Balloons inventor Josh Malone among others, please click here. Read more

CPIP Scholars Ask Supreme Court to Resist Call to Restrict Venue Choices for Patent Owners

U.S. Supreme Court buildingOn March 8, 2017, CPIP Scholars Adam Mossoff, Devlin Hartline, Chris Holman, Sean O’Connor, Kristen Osenga, & Mark Schultz joined an amicus brief in TC Heartland v. Kraft Foods. CPIP Scholars worked with USD Law’s Ted Sichelman to organize, write, and file the brief. Read more

Intellectual Property Backgrounds of President Trump’s Potential Supreme Court Nominees

U.S. Supreme Court buildingBy Andrew Baluch[1] & Devlin Hartline

President Donald Trump will soon announce his nominee to fill the vacancy left at the Supreme Court by late Associate Justice Antonin Scalia. On September 23, 2016, the Trump campaign revealed that there are twenty-one candidates under consideration for the nomination. Read more

FTC’s PAE Study Makes Unsupported Recommendations

Washington, D.C. at nightThe FTC released its long-awaited study of so-called patent assertion entities, or PAEs, today. As many predicted, the FTC makes several broad recommendations for substantive and procedural reforms. The problem with this, however, is that the study was not designed to reveal the sort of data that could support such policy recommendations. Read more