Jay-Z and Kanye West have decided to settle a sampling lawsuit brought forth by soul musician, Syl Johnson.  The pair was accused of illegally sampling one of Johnson’s songs on a track entitled, “The Joy,” on their joint album, Watch the Throne.  Johnson has had a history of pursuing rappers for sampling, including a $29 [...]

Posted in Copyright, Fair Dealing, Infringement, Music Industry, Music Industry, US
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On March 20, 2012, the United States Supreme Court decided Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories, Inc., 132 S. Ct. 1289 (U.S. 2012). The case was unanimous and emphatically reaffirmed that United States patent law does not allow ownership of “laws of nature.” The context was a pair of patents owned by Prometheus which claimed [...]

Posted in IP, Jurisdiction, Patent Practice, Patentability, Patents, US
Comment: 1

In September 2012, United States patent reform legislation goes into effect. (The “America Invents Act.” or AIA, Pub.L. No. 112–29; House Report No. 112–98 ,112TH Cong., 1ST Sess. 2011. Referenced as “Report.”) The Report states that the AIA was the first “comprehensive patent law reform in nearly 60 years.” The legislative process took six years [...]

Posted in Feature Post, Jurisdiction, Patents, US
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It must have been really nice to have worked as an IP expert for the US Trade Representative (USTR) during the 1990s. Almost everything they proposed would become law. The global maximalist agenda had the large international institutions on its side. The golden age of international maximalism saw the creation of the WTO, the TRIPS [...]

Posted in Canada, Feature Post, IP, IP Reform, Technology, UK, US, WIPO
Comments: 0