By Abby St. Hilaire

Music sampling has become a mainstay in nearly all genres of popular music. Sampling involves selecting portions of pre-existing sound recordings to use as components of new musical compositions. The amount of work “sampled” ranges from entire “hooks” to a mere a note or two. Nearly as common as this method of music creation are the lawsuits that accompany it—most claiming copyright infringement. As a word of advice to those planning on dabbling in music sampling, it’s best to obtain a license or avoid the Sixth Circuit. The Ninth Circuit, on the other hand, might be a pretty good place to dabble.

Continue reading →

Attorney General Eric Holder

By Alexandra Krakow

At a press conference on February 20, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced the Obama administration’s aim to make the investigation and prosecution of trade secret theft and economic espionage a top priority of the Department of Justice (DOJ). Taking such measures to protect against trade secret theft is a worthy priority. According to Dutch Ruppersberger, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, U.S. companies suffered estimated losses in 2012 of more than $300 billion due to theft of trade secrets, a large share due to Chinese cyber-espionage. Holder elaborated on the problem: “In some industries, a single trade secret can be worth millions—or even billions—of dollars. Trade secret theft can require companies to lay off employees, close factories, to lose sales and profits, to experience a decline in competitive position and advantage, or even to go out of business. And this type of crime can have significant impacts not only on our country’s economic well-being, but on our national security as well.”

Continue reading →

By Caitlin Forsyth

Earlier this week, the United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc. The case involves challenges to the practice of gene patenting and specifically Myriad Genetics’ seven patents on isolated gene sequences. The American Medical Association (AMA), “concerned about the effect that the decision will have on the practice of medicine and on medical research,” contributed an amicus brief to the court.

Continue reading →

By Evan Brown

On March 30, Judge Richard J. Sullivan of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York issued a groundbreaking ruling denying first sale protection to resellers of digital music. Along with the Kirtsaeng case, on which the Supreme Court ruled in March, the ReDigi case was watched by many in the arts and technology spheres as a case in which the courts would determine the applicability of the first sale doctrine in the 21st-century economy. Yet, while the Supreme Court in Kirtsaeng viewed the doctrine expansively, holding that copyrighted materials purchased in foreign countries could be legally resold in the United States, the ReDigi court held that the nature of digital file transfers renders the files unfit for resale.

Continue reading →

The Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts (LTA Journal) has published its Winter 2013 Issue. The LTA Journal publishes concise legal analysis aimed at practicing attorneys on a quarterly basis. This quarter’s edition includes two articles by student members of the LTA Journal and two articles by legal practitioners. 

The issue’s first article is “What Your Tweet Doesn’t Say: Twitter, Non-Content Data, and the Stored Communications Act,” written by 2012-2013 Associate Editor-in-Chief Daniel Shickich. This article discusses a recent federal district court decision which held Twitter users have no privacy rights regarding non-content information associated with their use of Twitter. The article examines the court’s Stored Communications Act and Fourth Amendment analyses and discusses the impact of expanded warrantless disclosures of non-content electronic records.

J.C. Lundberg, 2012-2013 Associate Editor-in-Chief, contributed “When Is a Phone a Computer?.” This article compares what constitutes a computer for federal sentencing guidelines with the law federal courts apply in determining whether a mobile phone is a computer for search and seizure purposes.

Practicing attorneys Daniel B. Garrie and Yoav M. Griver coauthored the third article, “Unchaining E-Discovery in the Patent Courts.” This article analyzes the Federal Circuit’s Model Order Regarding E-Discovery in Patent Cases (the “Model Order”). The article briefly describes the purpose behind the Model Order, describes its key provisions, analyzes the Model Order to identify some areas of continuing concern, and defines predictive coding to examine the impact, or lack thereof, on the Model Order.

Attorney and UW Law Intellectual Property Law and Policy LL.M. graduate Kristen L. Burge contributed the final article. Her article, “Personalized Medicine, Genetic Exceptionalism, and the Rule of Law: An Analysis of the Prevailing Justification for Invalidating BRCA1/2 Patents in Association of Molecular Pathology v. USPTO,”  analyzes the district court’s incorporation of genetic exceptionalism into the Patent Act in Association of Molecular Pathology v. USPTO (“Myriad”) and further examines the case through the lens of genetic exceptionalism.