Intellectual Property
Technology increasingly impacts our lives in the modern world — from websites and mobile devices that provide education and entertainment to life-saving drugs and medical devices that contribute to our health and safety. Intellectual property laws such as those governing patents, copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets play a key role in providing both incentives to innovate and promote these technologies as well as protections and permissions for the public to enjoy them. They also protect and provide artistic content that we often experience and enjoy using technology. The Samuelson Clinic focuses on working to resolve the tensions that arise from this system of private rights and public interests with the goal of promoting social advancement as well as social justice.
For example, as more and more people use technology to communicate and create, to learn and explore, and to express and expound, the intellectual property laws that govern these technologies often control what we can say, what we read and watch, and even what we can learn. Thus, our very rights to freedom of speech, expression, and education are implicated in how these laws are written and regulated. The Clinic’s advocacy focuses on identifying the impact of these laws on individual and consumer rights in order to ensure their perseverance while remaining committed to adequately rewarding creators and innovators for their inventions and artistic contributions. This includes examination of new technologies such as Digital Rights Management (DRM) and community-based efforts at innovation such as free and open source software projects.
Intellectual property laws can also dictate who has access to life-saving medicines or the latest scientific knowledge. While there must certainly be rewards for companies and individuals who provide us with these resources and discoveries, there must also be opportunity for a wide array of the world to enjoy their benefits. The Clinic’s work in this area strives to help disadvantaged groups and the organizations that serve them increase access to essential medical technologies in order to improve public health and social well-being.
| Title | Year | Type |
| Samuelson Clinic Students File Amicus Brief on Behalf of the National Alliance for Media Art and Culture in the Viacom-YouTube Appeal in the Second Circuit | 2011 | Brief |
| Clinic files Amicus Brief in Bilski case on behalf of consumer groups; asks court to protect consumers and set serious limits on what patents can cover | 2008 | Brief |
| The Magnificance of the Disaster: Reconstructing the Sony BMG Rootkit Incident | 2007 | Research Paper |
| The Magnificance of the Disaster: Reconstructing the Sony BMG Rootkit Incident | 2007 | Research Paper |
| Samuelson Clinic Director and Student Testified Before the Copyright Office | 2006 | Clinical Project, Testimony |
| Samuelson Clinic Submitted Comment to U.S. Copyright Office on behalf of Edward Felten and J. Alex Halderman | 2005 | Clinical Project, Comments |
| Samuelson Clinic Non-Resident Fellow Co-Authors Report on Cease-and-Desist Letters Submitted to Chilling Effects | 2005 | Clinical Project, Report |
| Clinic Filed Amicus Brief in Second Circuit Court of Appeals in United States v. Martignon | 2005 | Brief |
| Clinic Submitted Reply Comments to U.S. Copyright Office on behalf of Internet Archive regarding Orphan Works | 2005 | Comments |
| Clinic Submitted Comments to U.S. Copyright Office on behalf of Internet Archive regarding Orphan Works | 2005 | Clinical Project, Comments |
| MGM v. Grokster in Supreme Court | 2005 | Brief |
| Davidson & Associates v. Internet Gateway, Inc. in Eighth Circuit | 2005 | Brief |
| The Technical and Legal Dangers of Code-Based Fair Use Enforcement | 2004 | Research Paper |
| The Technical and Legal Dangers of Code-Based Fair Use Enforcement | 2004 | Research Paper |
| Chamberlain v. Skylink in Federal Circuit | 2004 | Brief |
| Court Ruling Protects Consumers and Competition | 2004 | Brief, News Item |
| Clinic asks Supreme Court to deny certiorari in MGM v. Grokster | 2004 | Brief |
| MGM v. Grokster in Ninth Circuit | 2003 | Brief |
| Chamberlain v. Skylink in US International Trade Court | 2003 | Brief |
| How DRM-based Content Delivery Systems Disrupt Expectations of "Personal Use" | 2003 | Research Paper, Presentation |
| Digital Rights Management and Fair Use by Design | 2003 | Research Paper |
| How DRM-based Content Delivery Systems Disrupt Expectations of "Personal Use" | 2003 | Presentation, Research Paper |
| Consumers Union Amicus Briefs | 2003 | Brief |
| Digital Rights Management and Fair Use by Design | 2003 | Research Paper |
| Neglecting the National Memory: How Copyright Extensions Compromise the Development of Digital Archives | 2002 | Research Paper |
| Neglecting the National Memory: How Copyright Extensions Compromise the Development of Digital Archives | 2002 | Research Paper |
| Memorandum Addressing the Need for a Treatment Agenda | 2002 | Report |
| Oasis Rights Language Technical Committee | 2002 | Clinical Project, Research Paper |
| Oasis Rights Language Technical Committee | 2002 | Clinical Project, Research Paper |
| Copyright, the Archivist, and the Public Interest | 2002 | Clinical Project, Project |
| Implementing Copyright Limitations in Rights Expression Languages | 2002 | Research Paper |
| ACM Digital Rights Management Workshop | 2002 | Research Paper |
| Open Resource for Open Source | 2002 | Clinical Project, Project |
| Amicus Brief for Google in Kelly v. Arriba Soft | 2002 | Brief |
| Sony Bono Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 | 2001 | Brief |
