IPKAT AT IP SCHOLARS' CONFERENCE

One half of the IPKat sends greeting from New York, where he (should that be she?) is a attending the 5th Annual IP Scholars’ Conference at the Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University.

Today’s highlights included:

* Julia Cromer of the Thomas Jefferson School of Law on how there’s a need for the de minimis doctrine to protect very small uses of copyright works such as music sampling of a very few notes.

* Sonya Katyal of Fordham on the IP/free speech implications of “jamming” advertising messages

* David Barnes of Seton Hall arguing that, contrary to received wisdom, trade marks constitute public goods as (in some circumstances) they work perfectly well if more than one entity uses them.

* Christina Bohanna of the University of Iowa on how courts are starting to use dilution concepts in copyright in order to, in some way, protect the distinctiveness of works.

* Michael Carroll of Villanova proposing a fair use tribunal to provide non-precedential, case-specific ruling on the availability of the fair use defence in copyright

* Matthew Sag of Northwestern saying that case-by-case economic analysis of fair use by the courts isn’t such a good idea

* Tom Bell of Chapman on how the Supreme Court’s Dastar case may lead to US state unfair competition laws being considered pre-empted.

A number of the papers are available from the conference website here