Our Fall 2019 issue, Volume 9, Issue 1, includes an exciting and rich collection of works that spans an unusually broad, yet timely and relevant, variety of topics in the areas of IP and entertainment law and policy.
First, Professors Landry and Baker expertly explore the history of name, image, and likeness (NIL) rights for student-athletes within the NCAA, advocating a novel framework solution that would revolutionize student-athlete rights to use their own NILs. In their work, Professors Landry and Baker offer a blueprint for the NCAA as it works to develop rules and regulations pertaining to student-athlete use of their NILs. This work is remarkably timely, given the NCAA’s recent announcement to develop rules to permit student-athletes to benefit from the use of their NILs.
Next, Professors Adornato and Horsfall examine the use of trade secret laws on the part of employers to assert ownership of employees’ social media accounts within the journalism industry. They deftly argue that this constitutes an improper application of the trade secret laws. Instead, they encourage the development of a novel policy that would provide employers and employees with guidelines addressing employees’ use of social media in their professional lives as journalists.
Moving from the worlds of NIL rights and trade secrecy, Professor Guerra-Pujol skillfully investigates the world of literary fan art, reframing related copyright disputes within the Coasean context of law and economics. To illustrate his argument, Professor Guerra- Pujol uses Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea and the extensive collection of fan art inspired by the original novella.
Next, Dr. Yang Li’s Note discusses the “Patent Dance,” a procedural requirement in which drug companies engage prior to the production of a generic version of a branded pharmaceutical product. In her work, Dr. Li carefully analyzes implications of appellate and Supreme Court decisions that have, in effect, rendered this requirement optional. Dr. Li explores the policy and procedural implications of these decisions, including effects on litigation gamesmanship, litigation incentives, and requirements for pleading standards.
Finally, Kyung Taeck Minn’s forward-looking Note delves into the high-tech world of self-governing Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), smart contracts, and blockchain. In his work, Minn contends that self-governed resolution of governance problems within these organizations is unrealistic, and he proposes an elegant solution to the challenges presented by self-governance of these organizations.
I am excited to announce a new initiative that will begin with Volume 9, Issue 2. In an effort to embrace more fully our online-only format, we will begin publishing articles online as soon as they are finalized by our editorial board instead of waiting for all articles in an issue to be finalized before publishing any of them. All submissions will still be considered part of an issue that will be assembled once all articles are published. As an IP and entertainment law journal, we regularly publish on the most cutting-edge topics where legal issues are often driven by rapid technological developments. This initiative will result in a shorter turnaround between accepting a manuscript for publication and when it is published. Our board looks forward to this change, and we hope that our authors and readers do as well.
You may view and download a PDF of the complete issue here.
I hope that you enjoy this issue, and on behalf of the 2019-2020 JIPEL editorial board, thank you for reading.
Sincerely,
Nicholas G. Vincent, Ph.D.
Editor-in-Chief
NYU Journal of Intellectual Property & Entertainment Law