Articles

Coding Creativity: Copyright and the Artificially Intelligent Author

Annemarie Bridy

For more than a quarter century, interest among copyright scholars in the question of AI authorship has waxed and waned as the popular conversation about AI has oscillated between exaggerated predictions for its future and premature pronouncements of its death. For policymakers, the issue has sat on the horizon, always within view but never actually pressing. To recognize this fact, however, is not to say that we can or should ignore the challenge that AI authorship presents to copyright law’s underlying assumptions about creativity.... Read more about Coding Creativity: Copyright and the Artificially Intelligent Author

  • March 29, 2012
  • Stan. Tech. L. Rev. 5
  • Articles

A Neurological Foundation for Freedom

Nita Farahany

Few people have read or watched the film adaptation of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly without proclaiming it a triumph of human will. Jean-Dominique Bauby authored the original memoir after suffering a major stroke that left him paralyzed from head to toe with minor exception, but with his mental capacities intact. He did so through a novel form of dictation. Slowly and repeatedly a transcriber recited a French language frequency-ordered alphabet, to which Bauby communicated his story through the blinks of his one working eye.... Read more about A Neurological Foundation for Freedom

  • February 14, 2012
  • Stan. Tech. L. Rev. 4
  • Articles

Patent Litigation and the Internet

John R. Allison
Emerson H. Tiller
Samatha Zyontz
Tristan Bligh

Patent infringement litigation has not only increased dramatically in frequency over the past few decades, but also has also seen striking growth in both stakes and cost. Although a relatively rich literature has added much to our understanding of the nature, causes, and consequences of patent litigation during the past two decades, many interesting questions remain inadequately addressed.... Read more about Patent Litigation and the Internet

  • February 14, 2012
  • Stan. Tech. L. Rev. 3
  • Articles

The Role of Consumers in Deterring Settlement Agreements Based on Invalid Patents: The Case of Non-Practicing Entities

Stijepko Tokic

According to an often-cited study on the number of invalidated patents, nearly half of litigated patents were held invalid. Moreover, a new study published in March of 2011 has found that even the “most-litigated” patents, defined as patents that have been litigated eight or more times, fare very poorly in patent litigation. Perhaps not surprisingly, nearly 70% of merit-based losses in the most-litigated patent cases are due to findings of invalidity of the repeat plaintiffs’ patents. This data is particularly interesting in light of the current debate about non-practicing en... Read more about The Role of Consumers in Deterring Settlement Agreements Based on Invalid Patents: The Case of Non-Practicing Entities

  • January 9, 2012
  • Stan. Tech. L. Rev. 2
  • Articles

The Giants Among Us

Tom Ewing
Robin Feldman

The patent world is quietly undergoing a change of seismic proportions. In a few short years, a handful of entities have amassed vast treasuries of patents on an unprecedented scale. To give some sense of the magnitude of this change, our research shows that in a little more than five years, the most massive of these has accumulated 30,000-60,000 patents worldwide, which would make it the 5th largest patent portfolio of any domestic US company and the 15th largest of any company in the world.... Read more about The Giants Among Us

  • January 9, 2012
  • Stan. Tech. L. Rev. 1
  • Articles

The 10 Year Anniversary of the FTC’s Data Security Program

David Alan Zetoony

An online company provides products to individuals and small businesses. Like most online companies, it collects various types of information from its customers such as email addresses for notifications, mailing addresses for product shipment, and credit and debit card numbers for payment.... Read more about The 10 Year Anniversary of the FTC’s Data Security Program

  • December 27, 2011
  • Stan. Tech. L. Rev. 12
  • Articles

Probabilistic Knowledge of Third-Party Trademark Infringement

Mark P. McKenna

This essay views secondary trademark liability in light of tort law’s treatment of parties whose actions expose a plaintiff to third-party wrongdoing.  Broadly speaking, tort law imposes liability on a party for contributing to the tortious activity of another in two different ways. In vicarious and accomplice liability cases, courts impose on defendants the same liability to which the direct tortfeasors would have been subject, had they been defendants. If, for example, the third-party wrongdoer was a batterer, then the defendant is liable for battery.... Read more about Probabilistic Knowledge of Third-Party Trademark Infringement

  • October 16, 2011
  • Stan. Tech. L. Rev. 10
  • Articles

Why the Reasonable Anticipation Standard Is the Reasonable Way to Assess Contributory Trademark Liability in the Online Marketplace

David H. Bernstein
Michael R. Potenza

Trafficking in counterfeit and trademark-infringing goods is a widespread and serious problem, particularly in online marketplaces that provide a forum where third parties, with relative anonymity and at limited cost, can ply their trade.  Fortunately, the law has long provided a fair, balanced standard for determining when a party can be held liable for contributing to the infringing actions of another.  In Inwood Laboratories, Inc. v.... Read more about Why the Reasonable Anticipation Standard Is the Reasonable Way to Assess Contributory Trademark Liability in the Online Marketplace

  • September 23, 2011
  • Stan. Tech. L. Rev. 9
  • Articles

The Relationship Between the ISP Safe Harbors and Liability for Inducement

R. Anthony Reese

The extent to which online service providers can be held liable for copyright infringement committed by users of their services is one of the more complicated and contentious copyright issues of our day. Courts have struggled with how to apply common-law doctrines of secondary liability to online activity. Congress has enacted limitations on the liability of service providers, but conditioned those limitations on a fairly complicated set of conditions. And technology continues to evolve and to raise new questions.... Read more about The Relationship Between the ISP Safe Harbors and Liability for Inducement

  • September 19, 2011
  • Stan. Tech. L. Rev. 8
  • Articles

"We Know It When We See It": Intermediary Trademark Liability and the Internet

Stacey L. Dogan

The recent history of intermediary liability decisions in copyright and trademark law reflects a notable resistance to rules that might constrain judicial discretion to ferret out bad guys. The Supreme Court in Grokster suggested such resistance, by limiting the Sony safe harbor to defendants with squeaky-clean intentions. In the trademark context, recent decisions have shown great solicitude toward good-faith actors, while reserving the option to condemn those who act with the apparent design to sow confusion.... Read more about "We Know It When We See It": Intermediary Trademark Liability and the Internet

  • July 23, 2011
  • Stan. Tech. L. Rev. 7
  • Articles

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