Politics
More good law school news: Today I was elected president of the DePaul Intellectual Property Law Society. This has been an underutilized organization in the past, but I look forward to turning it into a vehicle to increase the connections between our IP students and the wider IP community. We’ve got a good executive board in place, and I think we can do good things. If you are involved in the IP community, either as an attorney or in another capacity, and you would like to come and talk to some very sharp and enthusiastic students, drop us a line.
Trademark and Twitter
With everyone and their grandmas getting onto Twitter lately, it only makes sense that there would be an influx of businesses with plans for exploiting that exploding user base. Over at the Spam Notes blog, Venkat Balasubramani has been examining the potential trademark implications for Twitter. In his most recent post, he aggregates his previous posts and takes a look at some of the potential pitfalls of this new-found popularity.
IP Journal
I just received some great news. I was selected to write for the DePaul Journal of Arts, Technology and Intellectual Property. I’m thrilled.
The selection process was based on a write-on competition. I picked-up the instruction packet last week and gave it a try, despite being a little unsure about my chances as a 1L. The competition required the completion of a case summary and a short quiz on Blue Book citation.
The case summary was the most challenging but also the most enjoyable part. We summarized Zomba Enterprises, Inc. v. Panorama Records, Inc., which evaluated a fair use argument as put forward by a karaoke disc manufacturer. 491 F.3d 574, (6th Cir. 2007). Even if I hadn’t gotten on the journal, it would have been worth the effort. It was a good exercise and the case was interesting. But seeing as how I did get on, it definitely was worth it.
Real World Application
As I mentioned before, it is nice to occasionally get some hint that I might be learning some very useful information. Such was the case when I read this case summary of CoStar Realty Information, Inc. v. Field by Evan Brown of internetcases.com. Having recently covered jurisdiction in Civil Procedure, I was pleased to find that I understood the discussion of personal jurisdiction via website terms-of-service and the validity of a forum selection clause. I have no doubt that Professor Greenberger is imparting highly relevant and usefull information in every class, but it’s nice to see an application of that recently obtained knowledge in the real world.
Mr. Brown, to whom I was first introduced by the consistently excellent This Week In Law podcast, also makes an appearance in this Chicago Tribune article about lawyers and social networks. He makes the astute observation that lawyers are just like any other group, in that there is a spectrum of comfort with and adaptation of new technology. For a more humorous take on this issue, see his April 1st post about technology ethics and responsible telephone use.
Home Stretch
Last week was spring break and my wife and I made a trip back to Kentucky to see our new nephew. I finished what I wanted to finish before leaving and was able to leave it all behind for the entire week. It was a nice breather, but it’s over now. Waiting for me back in Chicago were (in addition to a few inches of snow) a LARC assignment, a write-on competition for the IP Journal, and of course a bunch of reading.
The summer break is almost here, but before that gets here I have to deal with a big trial brief and three finals. I feel good about where I am, and I’m sure the next few weeks will fly by, but that is a lot of work to do before it is all said and done. Time to dig back in. I’ll see you on the other side.
Law School News
The most exciting news is that I found summer work. After no luck out on the general summer job market, I received an offer to work as a research assistant for one of the Intellectual Property professors at DePaul. As much as I have enjoyed research so far in my legal writing course, I think this will be even more fun, because his work focuses on areas in which I am very interested: e-commerce law, copyright and fair use. It’s an exciting opportunity and I can’t wait to get started.
In other news, I am considering applying for the joint J.D./M.S. degree program. I spoke with a recent graduate who went through it and recommends it highly. It got me thinking. The downside would be an additional year of school. (Though, if the job market doesn’t turn around quickly, another year out of circulation wouldn’t hurt.) The upside would be that I would become eligible to take the Patent bar, and would theoretically be more employable upon graduation.
Another factor pushing me in that direction is my newly rediscovered enthusiasm for school. Having spent a good seven years out of school and in the working world, I came to law school with a renewed enthusiasm. I have always enjoyed learning, so it’s not terribly surprising that I would be having this much fun. But I never thought that I’d be so enthusiastic that I would be considering going for another degree. As recently as the summer before law school started I had no interest in the joint degree program.
I haven’t made up my mind yet, but I’m going to talk to the people who run the program to find out if I will be a good fit. I’ve got a couple of months to decide, and as the recent past has illustrated, anything can happen in a couple of months.
RIAA Layoffs
As a music junkie, I find myself indulging in a bit of schadenfreude over this story. I have nothing but sympathy for the workers losing their jobs, but I can’t help but grin when I read the quote ” The ‘RIAA as you know it is probably history by Tuesday of next week.’” Lets hope that if the RIAA does in fact collapse, that something smarter and more beneficial to artists rises from the ashes.
Kindle Follow-Up
Bad news on the Kindle text-to-speech issue. Here’s an overview by Lawrence Lessig. There is also some interesting discussion in the comments following his post. It looks like the device, which is already laden with DRM issues, just became a little less enticing to consumers.
Text-to-Speech on the Kindle
At the risk of turning this into the Cory Doctorow fan club, I point you to his thorough examination of the argument being put forth against the text-to-speech feature of the Amazon Kindle by Roy Blount Jr., president of the Author’s Guild. The problem is another good example of where technology is testing the viability of the existing copyright laws. As an author and copyright activist, Mr. Doctorow has a unique perspective on the issue.
Websites and Personal Jurisdiction
R. David Donoghue over at the excellent Chicago IP Litigation Blog has a write-up of Richter v. INSTAR Enterprises Int’l, Inc., a case from the Northern District of Illinois where a company’s website was found to be insufficient to create personal jurisdiction. This one caught my eye because we are currently covering jurisdiction in Civil Procedure, and if I had come across the same story a week ago, I would not have understood the implications. It’s nice to have these kind of concrete illustrations of how the topics we cover here in school will apply in the real world.
