Author Archive | David Post

Tomorrow at the annual convention of the American Constitution Society in Washington there will be a panel on the impact of Lawrence v. Texas five years after the decision. The panel is scheduled for 2:45 pm to 4:15 pm. The panelists are: Nan Hunter, Paul Smith, Joseph Guerra, H. Alexander Robinson, and me. If you’re […]

So here’s a summary of my 24 hours, beginning this past Sunday morning. I was going from my home in DC to New York, where I was meeting some friends and going out to the soccer game (U.S. v. Argentina) that evening at the Meadlowlands. The following morning, I had to take the train to […]

The past few weeks have provided more evidence of confusion and disagreement in the federal courts about the meaning and implications of Lawrence v. Texas, and specifically whether that decision recognized a fundamental right or merely applied a rational-basis test to the Texas sodomy law. Today, in Seegmiller v. Laverkin City, a panel of the […]

So Euro 2008, the European soccer championships – the world’s second-greatest sporting event – has begun, as some of you, at least, are aware. Let’s skip over the usual soccer meta-discussion, which we’ve had a number of times here before: Is soccer the world’s greatest sport? Will Americans will ever become true soccer-philes on the […]

[Oops indeed – hoist by my own petard. I’ve corrected the typo (“sam-sex marriage”) below.DavidP] For connoisseurs and aficionados of the NY Times “Corrections” page (and I am definitely among that number), it doesn’t get much better than this, from Monday’s edition (June 2): “An article on Saturday about attorneys general from 10 states asking […]

[I misunderstood/mis-characterized Orin’s position in the post below – my apologies for that – as Orin points out in a later posting. Strike out any references below to Orin’s advocacy for the “treatise approach” – I was thinking of deleting my posting in its entirety, but have decided not to; I think, though I won’t […]

Copyright guru Bill Patry has a wonderful blog posting about the recent death of Harvey Schein, a former Sony Corp. exec who was instrumental in the development of the VCR (and in the events leading up to the seminal Sony v. Universal Supreme Court case in 1984). [He also references a book, James Lardner’s “Fast […]

IT’s been a really interesting discussion regarding the use of edited vs. unedited cases — Daniel Solove’s added some thoughts on the debate at Concurring Opinions as well. Orin’s last comment: “In my view, a well-edited case still requires the student to do all the work that you think is so important. It may be […]

There’s been an interesting discussion in regard to my posting about my “experiment” in using unedited judicial opinions in my classes; though there are lots of interesting questions raised, one in particular, from fellow-blogger Orin Kerr, requires a response. Orin wrote: I don’t think I understand the skill that is being taught. Is the skill […]

A while back I reported on an experiment I was undertaking in my first-year second-semester Introduction to Intellectual Property class. For the Spring 2007 semester, the required reading consisted entirely of material from a “coursepack” I had prepared, which contained only (a) the relevant statutory material (Patent Act, Copyright Act, Lanham Act) and (b) unedited […]

The State of Oregon, bless its heart, has begun sending out cease-and-desist letters to websites like Justia and Public.Resource.Org, demanding that the sites take down copies of the Oregon Revised Statutes posted there on the grounds that the posting infringes the State’s copyright in the statutes. Hard to believe, but apparently true. [See Cory Doctorow’s […]

When I teach Intellectual Property, I always have a lot of fun with the important early patent case of Egbert v. Lippmann (104 US 333(1881)). In Egbert, the inventor of a new kind of corset-spring gave one of them to his then-girlfriend (who later became his wife) for use in her corset — and the […]

A survey from the market research firm of Millward Brown puts Google™ at the top of all global brands in terms of consumer recognition. I have no idea whether the survey is or isn’t accurate, though it strikes me as a plausible result. The interesting thing, though, is this. As those of you who know […]

So when Monster Cable Corp. sent a cease-and-desist letter to Blue Jeans Cable, Inc., alleging that the latter’s “Tartan” brand cables infringed various patents belonging to Monster, they may have bitten off more than they can chew. Tuns out that Kurt Denke, President of Blue Jeans, was a lawyer in a former life, and the […]

I’ve been predicting this for a LONG time, and now it’s happening: Radiohead is releasing the separate components or ‘stems’ (bass, voice, guitar, strings/FX and drums) for download and remixing (and then allowing users to upload their own versions of the song to a site where everyone can vote on the ones they like best). […]