Cutting Costs: Tax Deductions for Artists
Under the Internal Revenue Code § 183, individuals or corporations cannot take deductions for activities if “such activity is not engaged in for profit.” The IRS does not want to…
JIPEL Symposium
You finally got a gig as a standup comedian and your competitor stole your best joke? Your favorite chef created a new culinary masterpiece and a week later the restaurant…
Start on a Good Foot: The Implications of Grooveshark’s Guilty Verdict
A recent Federal Court ruling has left the online streaming service Grooveshark in critical condition. On September 29th, 2014, the Southern District of New York, in an opinion delivered by…
Linking to the Past: Week of October 13
WikiLeaks released another draft of the Trans-Pacific Partnership’s intellectual property chapter. As you might have guessed, many are displeased. Congratulations, European librarians! You can digitize your books without infringing copyrights.…
Publicity Rights in Major College Sports Telecasts: To Whom Do They Belong?
“Whether Division I student-athletes hold any ownership rights in their athletic performances does not depend on the scope of broadcasters’ First Amendment rights but, rather, on whether the student-athletes themselves…
A ®ose By Any Other Name
A successful trademark can provide more than just brand recognition or notoriety. In fact, Forbes reports that the 10 most valuable trademarks have a collective worth of over $300 billion.…
Linking to the Past: Week of September 29
Fresh off Eliza’s and Prof. Sprigman’s discussion of sampling, LMFAO argues that “Every day I’m shufflin’” constitutes fair use of Rick Ross’ “Every day I’m hustlin’.” Good luck trademarking McAnything.…
Restructuring the Federal Circuit
The de facto steward of U.S. patent law is the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which is the exclusive appellate venue for patent cases. As the…
3-D Printing Your Way down the Garden Path: 3-D Printers, the Copyrightization of Patents, and a Method for Manufacturers to Avoid the Entertainment Industry’s Fate
What happens when a home user can scan and print a physical item, or download plans to print a physical item from the Internet, as easily as he or she…
Bridging the Gap: Improving Intellectual Property Protection for the Look and Feel of Websites
Every company strives for a unique and memorable website. There is a growing threat, however, that this valuable investment in website design will be copied by competitors without effective legal…