The Goodson Blogson

New Year's Day is a time for many to take stock of personal goals for the future. But January 1 also merits a look back to the past, as this year thousands of copyrighted works from 1926 will enter the public domain, along with hundreds of thousands of pre-1923 sound recordings. Duke's Center for the Study of the Public Domain outlines these exciting new additions at Public Domain Day 2022 . Books entering the U.S. public domain this year include early works by Ernest Hemingway, Dorothy Parker, Langston Hughes, and Agatha Christie. Films starring the likes of Buster Keaton, Greta Garbo, and Rudolph Valentino will join them, along with compositions by George Gershwin, Jelly Roll Morton, and Irving Berlin. As noted at the Public Domain Day site, this year features the first major entry of sound recordings into the public domain, under the schedule created by Congress in the 2018 Music Modernization Act . (These older compositions were already in the public domain, but the indi...

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its opinion in Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org Inc. , with a 5-4 majority ruling that the non-binding annotations in the Official Code of Georgia Annotated were not eligible for copyright protection under the government edicts doctrine. As the New York Times noted , the voting blocs were not the typical 5-4 ideological division: Chief Justice Roberts’s majority opinion was joined by Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh. Justice Thomas wrote one dissenting opinion, joined by Justice Alito in full and Justice Breyer in part. Justice Ginsburg authored a separate dissenting opinion, which was also joined by Justice Breyer. SCOTUSblog includes photo illustrations of vote alignment by both ideology and seniority , each demonstrating the unusual alliances in this case. The Code Revision Commission of Georgia had contracted with LEXIS to prepare the revisions; annotations were drafted by Lexis staff as a work-for-hire. Lexis sells h...

Today would have been the library's ninth annual National Library Week Alumni Author event, with featured speaker Randolph J. May (B.A. 1968/J.D. 1971) of the Free State Foundation. While the global coronavirus pandemic has indefinitely postponed our planned event with May to discuss his new book (with co-author Seth Cooper), Modernizing Copyright Law for the Digital Age: Constitutional Foundations for Reform , we still wanted to recognize May, as well as to celebrate our many Duke Law alumni who have published books on a wide variety of topics, both legal and non-legal. Books by Duke Law School alumni are marked in the Duke Libraries Catalog with the collection name "Alumni Authors." The items are still shelved by their Library of Congress call number, rather than in a separately-located collection, to aid the discovery of works on a particular topic. You can view recordings of our eight past Alumni Author event speakers on the National Library Week at the Goodson ...

On January 1, many U.S. works originally published in 1923 entered the public domain , making them freely available for use, copying, and modification. Duke Law's Center for the Study of the Public Domain provides a sample of the newly-available titles in film, literature, and music , with a link to a fuller Excel spreadsheet. The 2019 release is notable since it marks the first major addition to the U.S. public domain in more than twenty years. With works from 1923 slated to enter the public domain in 1999 under their original 75-year copyright term, Congress enacted the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 , which added 20 years to existing copyright terms and stalled the expansion of the public domain until now. (Without that extension, notes the Center for the Study of the Public Domain, works from 1962 would be entering the public domain this year instead; the Center provides a list of those titles as well.) This development opens new avenues for res...

Need to punch up a presentation with some visual interest? Duke University's Visual Studies Librarian Lee Sorensen has created a new online portal to help you with Finding Images , along with tips for using them without running afoul of copyright laws. The guide includes tips for locating images and maps online, such as through many of Duke's subscription databases like the AP Image Archive . Links also include copyright-free resources like Creative Commons images on the photo-sharing site Flickr or Google Advanced Image Search . However, as the guide sagely notes, the copyright status of images found online is often unclear. Sorensen states two basic rules of image-finding on the Internet: Assume an image is copyrighted unless there is an explicit indication that it is copyright free. People and institutions frequently claim ownership to images they don’t own. The Finding Images guide includes information about Copyright and Fair Use . Many educational uses of copyri...

Earlier this week, Los Angeles-based artist Tuesday Bassen accused international clothing retailer Zara of stealing several of her designs for its clothing and jewelry. Her Instagram post featured side-by-side comparisons of Bassen's art next to Zara's designs, which incorporated suspiciously similar elements. Bassen was incensed by the company's response, which denied any legal wrongdoing and insinuated that Bassen is not well-known enough for the public to confuse Zara's designs for hers. In a follow-up social media post , Bassen noted that she had retained "an aggressive lawyer" and is pursuing litigation. In fashion, runway "knockoffs" are nothing new – many clothing companies produce low-cost variations on high-end designer duds, usually taking sufficient steps to change the design enough to avoid legal problems. But lesser-known clothing designers and independent artists sometimes find their work emblazoned on an international retailer...

Earlier this week, the New York Public Library announced that it has made nearly 200,000 public domain images available as free high-resolution downloads in its NYPL Digital Collections . Previously, the items had been available to search and view, but could be downloaded only in low-resolution formats; high-resolution downloads were available by request and required a processing fee. Marion Post Wolcott, "Spectators and witnesses on second day of Superior Court during trial of automobile accident case during Court Week in Granville County Court House, Oxford, North Carolina. November 1939." From New York Public Library Digital Collections. This is welcome news for researchers who are looking to enhance a presentation or other multimedia with some visual interest. While sites like Google Image Search and Flickr provide easy access to millions of images, the image quality may be lower than needed for an audiovisual project, and there are added concerns about copyrig...

The Framers of the U.S. Constitution vested Congress with the power "[t]o promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries." The earliest American patent statute was enacted in April 1790 , and provided successful applicants with exclusive rights in their inventions for a period of fourteen years. Only three inventors were granted patents under this version of the Act (which would be revised in 1793). The first was " Samuel Hopkins of the city of Philadelphia ," who was granted patent number X0000001 on July 31, 1790. Hopkins received the first U.S. patent, signed by President George Washington himself, for his method of manufacturing pot ash and pearl ash, forms of potassium carbonate which were commonly used in the production of soap or fertilizer. U.S. Patent No. X000001, granted to Samuel Hopkins on July 31, 1790. The enterprising Hopk...

Yesterday, Google announced a new Patent Purchase Promotion plan on its Public Policy blog. For two weeks in May, Google will open an experimental web portal through which U.S. patent holders can submit proposals to sell their patents to the search giant this summer. (Patent holders will be granted a license to continue practicing their invention, although Google will assume legal ownership and may also license the patent to others.) Details of the Patent Purchase Program are available at http://www.google.com/patents/licensing/ . Google's stated motive for setting up this program (besides adding to its bulky patent portfolio, of course) is "to remove friction from the patent market." In particular, Deputy General Counsel Allen Lo cited the "bad things" that happen when non-practicing entities (NPEs), or " patent trolls ," obtain ownership of patents for the sole purpose of filing profitable patent infringement lawsuits against others. TV host Joh...

One of the newest titles in the Goodson Law Library is Invented by Law: Alexander Graham Bell and the Patent That Changed America (KF3116 .B43 2015), by Brooklyn Law School professor Christopher Beauchamp. This engaging, accessible work details the legal battles surrounding the invention of the telephone, giving a fascinating history of American patent law in the process. On March 7, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell's patent for Improvement of Telegraphy (No. 174,465) was approved by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (PTO). It was an unusually fast approval process, with three applications hand-delivered by Bell's lawyer on February 14, mere hours before a competing application was submitted by engineer Elisha Gray. Bell's legal maneuvering strongly suggested that an unknown informant within the PTO was assisting efforts to beat Gray to the telephone patent. Subsequent litigation reached the U.S. Supreme Court twice in 1888, first with The Telephone Cases (126 U.S. 1...

To the dismay of schoolteachers everywhere, the Internet has made copying simpler than ever. With a single click, entire passages of a research paper can be lifted from Wikipedia; someone else's photo can be saved as your own; and all of this can happen countless times per day. The growing ease of copying digital content has led to increased confusion about fair use and obtaining permission , particularly when using images. Fortunately, blogger Curtis Newbold (a.k.a. The Visual Communication Guy ) is here to help. Lifehacker recently highlighted his detailed July 2014 flowchart, Can I Use That Picture? The Terms, Laws, and Ethics for Using Copyrighted Images . The flowchart walks novice would-be image users through the minefield of fair use considerations, Creative Commons attribution, and stock photo licensing. "My rule above all else?" he concludes: "Ask permission to use all images. If in doubt, don't use the image!" Want to use a particular image, b...

By all accounts, Ohio native Lillian Mountweazel (1942-1973) lived an interesting life. The former fountain designer turned to photography at the tender age of 21, exhibiting and publishing her critically-acclaimed photographs of such far-ranging subjects as Parisian cemeteries and American mailboxes. Mountweazel died at just 31 years old in an explosion, while on an assignment for Combustibles magazine. Had she lived a bit longer, she might have eventually settled down in Agloe, New York or Argleton, England -- places which, like Lillian Mountweazel, never really existed. Those are just a few examples of copyright traps : fabrications deliberately tucked into otherwise factual publications in order to detect third-party copying. Copyright traps can be found in a variety of sources like: Encyclopedias : Lillian Mountweazel was an invention of The New Columbia Encyclopedia (1975). "If someone copied Lillian," editor Richard Steins told The New Yorker in 2005 , "the...

Among the many reasons why legal research can be frustrating, especially for non-lawyers, is the relative inaccessibility of research materials. Secondary sources , such as scholarly treatises, are often invaluable tools to help researchers untangle the complex interrelationships of legislation, regulations and case law. But usually these expensive and highly specialized sources can be found only on the shelves of law libraries, or locked behind subscription-only databases like Bloomberg Law, LexisNexis and Westlaw. In addition, resources which are written primarily for an audience of practicing attorneys can be difficult to understand without a legal background. The new Copyright Codex: A Free Treatise for Lawyers and Artists attempts to remedy both of these problems, at least for the topic of copyright law. Maintained by Eric Adler, a partner in the New York office of intellectual property firm Adler Vermillion & Skocilich, this free online treatise presents copyright law in p...

Since 1933, the Practising Law Institute (PLI) has been a leading provider of continuing legal education (CLE) materials. The Goodson Law Library has more than 1,000 PLI titles on its shelves , with particularly strong collections of corporate/securities law, intellectual property, and civil practice materials. Electronic access to the PLI library is now available campus-wide until the end of the year via the PLI Discover PLUS database. PLI Discover PLUS is accessible through the library's Legal Databases & Links page, under Legal Links. Discover Plus includes the full text of PLI treatises and course handbooks from 2005 to the present, as well as a growing collection of legal forms and seminar transcripts. Selected PLI titles (including The Pocket MBA , Electronic Discovery Deskbook , W orking with Contracts: What Law School Doesn't Teach You , and Duke Law Professor Steven L. Schwarcz's Structured Finance: A Guide to the Principles of Asset Securitization ) are ...

The Duke Law School now has access to Intellectual Property Watch (IP Watch) , a source for the latest news and developments in copyright, trademark, and patent law around the world. Current Law School students, faculty and staff may access the website anywhere in the Law School building or from off-campus with a NetID and password. IP Watch provides frequent updates about international and domestic intellectual property law. A unique feature for subscribers is its annual series " The Year Ahead in IP Policy ,"  which explores current trends like 2013's focus on public health and genetically-modified food. An RSS feed is available to keep up with the latest stories, and the site also offers categories to help readers find stories on particular aspects of IP, including human rights, indigenous knowledge, and innovation policy. IP Watch joins several other available sources at the Law School for IP news. Bloomberg BNA provides the IP Law Resource Center & Worl...

Today’s issue of the Federal Register contains a new final rule from the Copyright Office, “ Exemption to Prohibition on Circumvention of Copyright Protection Systems for Access Control Technologies ”( background and supplemental documents ). The new rule outlines six situations which are now exempted from the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s prohibition against “circumvention” of copyright law. The news was welcomed by a wide audience, including smartphone users (it’s now considered “fair use” to “jailbreak” your iPhone; see analysis at Ars Technica ), computer programmers (“good faith testing” of computer and video game security is no longer punishable), and e-book fans who require accessibility software (it’s OK to “crack” your e-book reader for the purpose of enabling read-aloud software, if the reader software or e-book title does not already offer this feature) (sorry e-book fans; this recommendation from the Librarian of Congress actually didn't make it into the final ...

During library tours, there's usually a collective chuckle on Level 2 when groups pass by the call numbers beginning with KFC—the prefix for library materials about the law of California, Connecticut and Colorado. Blame the Library of Congress, whose classification system has forever linked the law of these states with the popular fast-food restaurant. But as the Goodson Blogson recently discovered, there’s another KFC connection buried in the Archives on Level 1—a mysterious box full of files about Kentucky Fried Chicken trademarks and service marks (click for enlarged image). As the catalog record suggests, these folders contain copies of file wrappers , the contents of files at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office related to a particular patent, trademark or service mark. The file wrappers contain the original application, as well as any subsequent correspondence about the application. Although some of these same documents are available online through the USPTO (search TESS...

Last night, 60 Minutes aired a fascinating segment about Mark Roesler, an intellectual property lawyer who made his career by representing dead celebrities (or as correspondent Steve Kroft rather tastelessly calls them, "working stiffs"). Roesler’s Indianapolis-based company CMG Worldwide manages and licenses the likenesses of Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Bettie Page, and Babe Ruth, to name just a few. ( read transcript ) Roesler’s work falls under a section of intellectual property law called the postmortem right of publicity . It’s an area of law that can elicit strong emotions from fans, particularly when dead celebrities’ images are used to endorse products that the celebrity would likely have not endorsed during life. (Sure, manly-man Steve McQueen might not mind starring in a postmortem ad for Ford Mustangs , but would he really have wanted his face adorning a $200 t-shirt from Dolce & Gabbana ?) There has been a wealth of interesting case law on the topic, involv...

Current members of the Duke Law community now have access to World Intellectual Property Report , a monthly newsletter of global developments in patents, trademarks, copyrights, and related topics. WIPR includes analysis of intellectual property legislation, case law, treaties and other news from all over the world. A “country index” allows quick access to news from particular places of interest; the European Union and World Intellectual Property Organization are also featured regularly. Access the WIPR current issues and article archive (back to 1997) through the BNA Publications Library ( http://library.duke.edu/metasearch/db/id/DUK02057 ). You can choose to read or search the WIPR on-site or sign up for e-mail delivery of upcoming issues. Looking for more IP information? Our newly-updated Intellectual Property Law research guide ( http://www.law.duke.edu/lib/researchguides/intprop ) now includes a link to WIPR, as well as recommended treatises, websites, and research strategies fo...

Last week, the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office ( http://www.uspto.gov ) unveiled a complete digital archive of its Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP), at http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/old/index.htm . The archive includes PDF copies of all editions and revisions since the debut of the Manual in 1948. Previously, editions of MPEP prior to 1995 were available from USPTO only on microform, and had to be requested from the agency or accessed in person at the USPTO Public Search Facility. Duke University users have online access to archives of MPEP via HeinOnline 's Manual of Patent Examining Procedure Library ( http://library.duke.edu/metasearch/db/id/DUK00693 ), although not all revisions are yet available there. (The HeinOnline library also does not include the "original" 1948 edition of MPEP, which precedes the "original" Nov. 1949 1st edition which begins the Hein collection.) For more information about researching patent law, check out t...