Fall 2014 Intellectual Property Law Newsletter

T H E GEORGE WA SHI NGTON U N I V ER SIT Y L AW SCHOOL SECTION HEAD HERE

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW

Perspectives

PROGRAM ESTABLISHED 1895

PERSPECTIVES

Chief Judge Prost Offers Insights from a Career in Government Service

FALL 2014 ISSUE PERSPECTIVES 1–2 RECENT EVENTS 1–4 IP SPEAKER SERIES 4 UPCOMING IP EVENTS 5 PROGRAM NEWS 5–9 FACULT Y Q&A 10–11

RECENT EVENTS

Judge Prost is interviewed by former law clerks.

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ver the course of her career, Chief Judge Sharon Prost of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has served in all three branches of the federal government.

In March she joined the Intellectual Property Law Program for the Spring 2014 A. Sidney Katz Lecture to discuss her experiences on the bench, at the U.S. Senate, and in the administration.

The lecture, which occurs twice each year through an endowment by the late Sidney Katz, JD ’66, took place in front of an audience of legal professionals, current and prospective law students, and many of Judge Prost’s former law clerks. Three former clerks, Rama Elluru, Matthias Kamber, JD ’02, and Adam Shartzer, JD ’08, sat with Judge Prost to conduct the lecture in an interview format.

Chief Judge Prost first shared the story of her unusual path to the federal bench. Her parents never attended high school, but instilled in her the belief that an education was the key to success. While holding a government job in Washington, D.C., she took night classes to complete JD, MBA, and LLM degrees, the last two of which were earned at GW. Early in her career, Chief Judge Prost worked as a labor lawyer and was tapped by Senator Orrin Hatch for the Senate Labor Committee, eventually serving as Chief Counsel before being nominated to the judiciary by President George W. Bush in 2001. She assumed the duties of Chief Circuit Judge on May 31, 2014. continued on page 2

GW Hosts Weeklong Immersion Program for Hispanic Law Students 2014 marked the second year of the Hispanic National Bar Association (HNBA) and Microsoft Corporation IP Law Institute (IPLI) weeklong immersion program hosted by GW Law. Part of the HNBA’s “Su Futuro” Initiative, the program brings together 25 law students from schools around the country with the goal of increasing the number of Latinos in the intellectual property field.

Students gathered at GW June 1–7 to hear speeches from some of the top IP practitioners in the country in addition to visiting the U.S. Patent and Trademark continued on page 4

RECENT EVENTS • PERSPECTIVES

Recent Events IP Symposium Recap

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n May 6 GW’s Intellectual Property Law Program, together with law firm co-sponsors Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP and Mayer Brown LLP, hosted its annual IP symposium featuring notable speakers from district courts, law firms, and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Co-sponsors John Whealan, Associate Dean for Intellectual Property Law Studies, and Alan Grimaldi of Mayer Brown, gave opening remarks. Kicking off the daylong event, Nathan Kelley, Deputy General Counsel for Intellectual Property Law and Solicitor at the USPTO, gave a keynote address with a clear message: the patent law landscape is rapidly shifting, and while change can create opportunity, it can also cause confusion.

Mr. Kelley’s message of change led into four panel discussions. The first focused on post-issuance USPTO proceedings. The panel was moderated

by Jack Barufka from Pillsbury, and included panelists the Honorable Thomas Giannetti, USPTO Administrative Patent Judge, Adan Ayala from Stanley Black & Decker, David Steffes from Royal

Prost from page 1

For the majority of the lecture, Chief Judge Prost answered questions about current topics related to her work on

Alan M. Grimaldi of Mayer Brown moderates a panel on tips and trends for litigating patent cases in the federal courts.

DSM, and Sharon A. Israel from Mayer Brown.

The second panel focused on tips for litigating patent cases in the federal courts and was moderated by Alan Grimaldi. The judges panel included the Honorable Leonard Davis of the District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, the Honorable Nora Barry Fischer of the District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, and the Honorable Faith Hochberg of the District Court for the District of New Jersey. The second panel was followed by a networking lunch.

The third panel focused on recent developments and current trends at the U.S. International Trade Commission

(USITC). The panel was moderated by William Atkins of Pillsbury. Panelists included the Honorable Theodore Essex and Lynn Levine, both of the USITC, as well as Gary Hnath of Mayer Brown.

The last panel focused on defensive strategies for patent litigation. The panel was moderated by John Mancini of Mayer Brown and included panelists Edward Blocker of Philips Intellectual Property & Standards, John LaBarre of Google, Vaishali Udupa of Hewlett-Packard, and Richard Zaitlen of Pillsbury. Associate Dean John Whealan and Jack Barufka of Pillsbury gave closing remarks. n

the Federal Circuit, including how the court’s operation has changed over the years, her opinion on the patent reform legislation currently before Congress, and

the progress of the court’s international outreach. A judge for 13 years, she also shared a rare glimpse into the court’s inner workings, explaining what it is like to integrate newly appointed judges and the collaboration that occurs between judges and their clerks when deciding cases.

Throughout all her responses, Chief Judge Prost’s passion for the IP field, the court’s docket, and the Federal Circuit itself was evident. Summing up her work, she said, “The issues are fabulous. There’s not a month that goes by when I get my briefs that I don’t see a new and interesting issue that I haven’t seen before.” n

Judge Prost (center) surrounded by several of her law clerks.

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RECENT EVENTS

GW Hosts Interactive panel on Leading Patent–Antitrust Issues

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n January 8 the law school’s Competition Law Center and IP program collaborated to host “The Patent–Antitrust Crossroads: To F/RAND and Beyond,” a conversation between two GW faculty members: The Honorable Randall R. Rader, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (retired) , and William E. Kovacic, former Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission. Associate Dean John Whealan and Dina Kallay, Director of Intellectual Property and Competition for Ericsson, moderated the conversation.

The interactive panel focused on topics including injunctions for standardsessential patents, the role of patent and antitrust law in the F/RAND arena, and new developments in this area. n

Judge Rader speaks with students before the program begins.

Dina Kallay (far left) and Associate Dean Whealan (far right) moderate a conversation between Professor Kovacic (center left) and Judge Rader (center right).

Giles Rich Moot Court

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he annual Giles Rich IP Moot Court Competition was held at the law school on January 22. Sam Dillon, JD ’14, and Saurabh Prabhakar, JD ’14, were the winning team, with second place going to Tanya Gillis, JD ’14, and Peter Manno, JD ’14. Mr. Dillon drafted the best brief and was also selected as the best oral advocate and best overall competitor. Mr. Prabhakar also wrote the best brief and was awarded second best oral advocate and second best overall competitor.

All four finalists were sent to Palo Alto, CA, to compete in the Silicon Valley regional competition on March 21–23 where Ms. Gillis and Mr. Manno were both recognized for “best oral argument.” n

Giles Rich Moot Court winners Peter Manno and Tanya Gillis (far left) and Sam Dillon and Saurabh Prabhakar (far right) with judges William Jenks, Randall Rader, and John Whealan.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW PERSPECTIVES 3

IP SPEAKER SERIES • RECENT EVENTS

IP Speaker Series

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staple of the law school’s IP Program, the IP Speaker Series brings engaging and timely lectures and networking opportunities for GW students, alumni, and faculty, and the larger IP community. This past spring, notable scholars and experts shared their work and projects on topics ranging from the psychology of IP to the impact of patents on global competition.

Professor Marketa Trimble from the University of Las Vegas William Boyd School of Law began the spring IP Speaker

Series in February with an international perspective on IP law in her presentation on “Advancing National Intellectual Property Policies in a Transnational Context.” In March, Professor Amir H. Khoury from Tel Aviv University (who was visiting at the University of Kansas School of Law in 2013–2014) presented his work on “The Case Against the Protection of Negative Trade Secrets: Sisyphus’ Entrepreneurship.”

This fall brings another exciting lineup of speakers, including: • Thursday, September 25: Professor Guy A. Rub, Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, will present his work “Copyright and Contracts Meet and Conflict: Copyright

Preemption of Contracts.” 1:30pm, Faculty Conference Center* • Thursday, October 16: Professor Sarah Burstein, University of Oklahoma College of Law, will discuss “Costly Designs.” 1:30pm, Faculty Conference Center* • Monday, November 17: Professor Guido Westkamp, Queen Mary University of London, UK, will discuss “Films in Schools and the limits of the EU Copyright Approximation.” 1:30pm, Faculty Conference Center* • Thursday, November 20: Professor Yvette Joy Liebesman, Saint Louis University School of Law, will present her work on “Aiken’s (Blue) Toothache.” 1:30pm, Student Conference Center, 2nd Floor Lisner Hall, 2023 G Street, NW For more information about upcoming IP Speaker events visit law.gwu.edu/ipevents.

The IP Speaker Series is made possible by a generous endowment by the Bureau of National Affairs. n *GW Law Faculty Conference Center, 5th Floor, Jacob Burns Law Library, 716 20th Street, NW

Guy A. Rub

Sarah Burstein

Yvette Joy Liebesman

Immersion Program from page 1

Office, International Trade Commission, Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Copyright Office, Senate, and the White House. According to Miguel Pozo, President of the HNBA, “This second year has cemented the extraordinary value of the IPLI program, bringing measurable benefits to not only the students but to the fellows and partners who have contributed their time, effort, and funds to the IPLI’s success.”

Students who attended came from law schools including Loyola Law School, University of Miami School of Law, UC Berkeley School of Law, Gonzaga University School of Law, Florida Coastal School of Law, Chicago-Kent College of Law, Seattle University School of Law, Rutgers School of Law, George Washington University Law School,

IPLI students at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit where Judge Jimmie V. Reyna and his clerks discuss the court’s role in deciding cases.

Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, University of Texas School of Law, Florida State University College of Law, Boston College Law School, UC Irvine School

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of Law, Southwestern Law School, and Columbia University Law School.

For information on applying for the 2015 HNBA/Microsoft IPLI program visit hnba.com/main/view/programs. n

UPCOMING IP EVENTS • PROGRAM NEWS

Upcoming IP Events SEPTEMBER

NOVEMBER

Thursday, September 18 Careers In Copyright: A Panel Discussion and Networking Reception 6–8pm Faculty Conference Center*

November 6–7 Patents in Telecoms Conference University College London (UK) and GW Law in cooperation with The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) and Groupe Speciale Mobile (GSMA) 8:45am–4:45pm GW Jack Morton Auditorium 805 21st Street, NW

Thursday, September 25 IP Speaker Series Professor Guy A. Rub Ohio State University Moritz College of Law “Copyright and Contracts Meet and Conflict: Copyright Preemption of Contracts.”

1:30–3:30pm Faculty Conference Center*

OCTOBER Thursday, October 16 IP Speaker Series Professor Sarah Burnstein University of Oklahoma College of Law “Costly Designs” 1:30–3:30pm Faculty Conference Center*

The Honorable Pauline Newman

Wednesday, October 22 A. Sidney Katz Lecture The Honorable Judge Pauline Newman U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit 5:30–8:00pm Faculty Conference Center*

Thursday, October 23 GW AIPLA Reception 5:30–7:30pm Marriott Wardman Park Stone’s Throw Restaurant & Bar, Chef’s Lounge Table 2260 Woodley Road, NW Washington, DC 20008

Monday, November 17 IP Speaker Series Professor Guido Westkamp Queen Mary University of London, UK “Films in Schools and the Limits of EU Copyright Approximation” 1:30–3:30pm Faculty Conference Center* Thursday, November 20 IP Speaker Series Professor Yvette Joy Liebesman St. Louis University School of Law “Aiken’s (Blue) Toothache” 1:30–3:30pm Student Conference Center 2nd Floor Lisner Hall 2023 G Street, NW Friday, November 21 Design Law Symposium 8:30am–5:30pm Lerner Hall Room 201 2000 H Street, NW

Program News IP Program Welcomes New Marks Fellow

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ichael Goodman joined the law school this fall as a Visiting Associate Professor of Law and the 2014–2016 Frank H. Marks Fellow in Intellectual Property. Before coming to GW, Professor Goodman worked as a trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice where he represented the United States and its agencies as attorney of record in more than 50 cases before the U.S. Court of Federal Claims and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. He graduated from Mary Washington College and received both an MA in psychology and a Ph.D. in neuroscience and animal behavior from Emory University before attending Duke University School of Law. After law school, he served as a clerk to Judge William Bryson of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Professor Goodman will teach Patent Law in spring 2015. n

DECEMBER Friday, December 5 Fourth Annual China IP Conference 10:00am–5:15pm, reception to follow Faculty Conference Center* To confirm event dates and start times visit law.gwu/ip/events. n

Michael Goodman

*GW Law Faculty Conference Center, 5th Floor, Jacob Burns Law Library, 716 20th Street, NW

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PROGRAM NEWS

Whealan and Rader Teach Patent Law at Tsinghua University in China

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n April, Associate Dean John Whealan and Judge Randall R. Rader were invited by Goubin Cui, a visiting scholar at the law school, to co-teach a one-week course on patent law to more than 30 students at Tsinghua University School of Law in Beijing. The course was similar to the U.S. patent law one that Dean Whealan and Judge Rader co-teach at GW, and focused on validity, infringement, damages, and other areas of IP Law. n

Judge Rader teaching from a unique vantage point.

Alumnus Bruce Sewell Delivers Diploma Ceremony Address

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pple, Inc. General Counsel D. Bruce Sewell, JD ’86, delivered the Susan N. and Augustus diZerega Jr. Lecture during the law school’s Diploma Ceremony on May 18. Sewell is Apple’s General Counsel and Senior Vice President of Legal and Government Affairs, serving on the company’s executive team and managing all legal matters, including corporate governance, intellectual property, litigation and securities compliance, and government affairs.

Sewell is a champion for the tradition of public service and the responsibility

to give back. He has been recognized by his peers with accolades such as the 2008 ACC/CPBO Pro Bono Award, the 2009 Equal Justice Works’ Scales of Justice Award, and the 2011 George Washington University Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award, given for dedication to serving well the public and the university community. At GW, Sewell and his wife Cynthia, BA ’82, MBA ’87, established an endowed scholarship fund to support qualified JD students studying intellectual property law. The scholarship is named for Sewell’s father, the late Homer B. Sewell, a GW professor and department chair devoted to the university. In addition to philanthropic support of GW, Sewell gives back his time. He is an active alumnus in leadership roles who also takes the time to speak and meet with students at several events each year. n

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Bruce Sewell addresses GW Law graduates.

PROGRAM NEWS

Munich IP Law Summer Program

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rom June 30–July 25 GW Law brought together approximately 30 students from law schools around the world to study IP in Munich at the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property. Students were able to select up to four of the eight ABA-accredited courses offered over the four-week program. The program included special lectures and visits to local IP institutions such as the European Patent office, BMW, German Performance Rights Organization (GEMA), the Munich University of Technology (TUM), and the German Federal Patent Court. This year, Associate Dean John Whealan oversaw the program in Munich and was ably assisted by Jan Chayt, Administrative Coordinator of the Munich Program, and Katherine White, GW Law’s Director of Employer Outreach. The program received significant positive feedback from students such as: “I really enjoyed my experience in Munich. Overall, [the program] was an excellent experience and something I get to talk about a lot during my interviews,” and, “The program has been one of the most memorable experiences of my life, not only in terms of the immense learning that I underwent, but also in terms of personal development. The professors were outstanding and subjects were very interesting.”

Courses offered included: • Philosophical Foundations of IP (Professor Michael Madison, University of Pittsburgh School of Law) • Cross-Border Trade in IP (Professor Dan Burk, UC Irvine School of Law) • Artistic Freedom and Control in Copyright (Professor Kristelia Garcia, GW Law) • Internet Law (Professor Robert Heverly, Albany Law School)

Students explore Munich on wheels.

Outside TUM (the Munich University of Technology).

• The Federal Circuit ( Judge Randall Rader and Associate Dean John Whealan, GW Law) • Patent Enforcement ( Judge Dee Benson, U.S. District Court for the District of Utah) • Technical Protection of Authors’ Rights ( Judge Edward Damich, U.S. Court of Federal Claims) • Chinese IP Law (Catherine Sun, China IP Limited) For more information about the Munich IP Law Summer Program, or to learn how to apply for summer 2015, visit law.gwu.edu/munichsummer. n

Students watch as Germany wins the 2014 World Cup.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW PERSPECTIVES 7

PROGRAM NEWS

Vikrant Narayan Vasudeva, LLM ’08, Publishes Book on Open Source Software and IP Rights

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lumnus Vikrant Narayan Vasudeva has published his first book, Open Source Software and Intellectual Property Rights (Wolters Kluwer, 2014). The book discusses the debate regarding IP and software, and considers alternative development models, most notably the open source

software model. The author approaches his proposal of a model software law via a thorough analysis of the various issues and topics through the prism of open source software. Mr. Vasudeva’s analysis draws on case law, legal commentaries, books, journal articles, trade journals, and magazines, as well as informal interviews and discussions with academicians and practitioners.

The book can be found at http://bit.ly/ amazon_vasudeva. n

Marks Fellows Appointed to Tenure-Track Positions

Sarah R. Wasserman Rajec

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Kristelia Garcia

he Frank H. Marks Fellowship in Intellectual Property was established through a generous gift from Frank H. Marks for the purpose of allowing a visiting scholar the opportunity to research, write, and teach, while also providing administrative support to the IP program. Each Marks Fellow joins the IP faculty for a two-year period, during which time they teach IP courses and prepare to go on the law teaching market.

Despite a very tough market, the Marks Fellows have established a remarkable track record in securing tenure-track teaching positions. The last two Marks Fellow both accepted tenure-track jobs at top-tier law schools this past season. This fall, Sarah R. Wasserman Rajec (Marks Fellow 2008–2009 and 2011–2012) will join the faculty at William & Mary Law School in Williamsburg, Virginia, where she will teach Torts, Patent Law, and other IP courses. Kristelia Garcia (Marks Fellow 2012–2014) will join the University of Colorado in Boulder, where she will teach Trademark, Property, and other IP courses, and will also serve as Director of the Silicon Flatirons Center for Law & Technology. n

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INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW PERSPECTIVES Intellectual Property Law Perspectives is published by the Intellectual Property Law Program at The George Washington University Law School.

Questions or comments should be sent to: Associate Dean John Whealan jwhealan@law.gwu.edu 202.994.2195 The George Washington University Law School Intellectual Property Law Program 2000 H Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20052 Connect with us: iplaw@law.gwu.edu www.law.gwu.edu/IP Search “GW Law IP” @GWIPLaw

PROGRAM NEWS

DLA Piper, LLP (US) Finnegan, LLP Fish & Richardson, PC Frommer Lawrence & Haug, LLP Greenblum & Bernstein, PLC Harrity & Harrity, LLP Hogan Lovells Hunton & Williams, LLP Husch Blackwell, LLP Jones Day K&L Gates, LLP Kenyon & Kenyon LLP Knobbe, Martens, Olson & Bear, LLP Kramer & Amado Kratz, Quintos & Hanson, LLP Latham & Watkins, LLP Maier & Maier, PLLC Mayer Brown, LLP Miles & Stockbridge, PC Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, LLP Morrison & Foerster, LLP

Oblon, Spivak, McClelland, Maier & Neustadt, LLP Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe, LLP Paul Hastings Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, LLP Ropes & Gray, LLP Rothwell, Figg, Ernst & Manbeck, P.C. Shearman & Sterling, LLP Sidley Austin, LLP Steptoe & Johnson, LLP Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox, PLLC Sughrue Mion, PLLC Weil, Gotshal & Manges, LLP White & Case, LLP WilmerHale Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

2014 Student Awards for Excellence in Intellectual Property

Finnegan Prize in Intellectual Property Law—Given to the members of the graduating Juris Doctor or Master of Laws class who wrote the best publishable articles on an aspect of intellectual property law:

Peter D. Rosenberg Award in Patent and Intellectual Property Law— Given to a member of the graduating Juris Doctor class who exhibited excellence in the study of patent and intellectual property law:

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1st Place Saraub Prabhakar, “Discarding use of ‘Reasonable and Nondiscriminatory’ Licensing terms in Standard Setting”

10th Annual IP Networking Fair

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n February 7 the law school’s Center for Professional Development & Career Strategy (Career Center) held its 10th Annual Intellectual Property Networking fair in GW’s Marvin Center Grand Ballroom.

The following firms attended: Alston & Bird, LLP Baker Botts, LLP Banner & Witcoff, Ltd. Bookoff McAndrews, PLLC Cooley, LLP Covington & Burling Crowell & Moring Dickstein Shapiro, LLP Ditthavong Mori & Steiner, PC

t GW Law’s May 18 commencement ceremony, the following awards were bestowed on graduating students for achievements in the field of intellectual property law: American Bar Association/Bureau of National Affairs Award—Given to members of the graduating Juris Doctor class who demonstrated excellence in the study of intellectual property law: Sam Dillon Chiaki Fujiwara Sarah Greibrok Yanhong Hu Christopher Johns Jennifer Rea

Those interested in attending next year’s networking fair should contact Katherine White at the Career Center, kwhite@law.gwu.edu. n

Mao Wang n

2nd Place (tie) Daniel Musher, “Putting Frankenstein to Shame: The Rise of Bioprinting and its Patent Eligible Products”; and Jared Hartzman, “The Hateful Aid: How a Hollywood Filmmaker’s Claim Holds the Key to Fixing Copyright Law’s Fixation Requirement”

Chris Bartok Memorial Award in Patent Law—Given to members of the graduating Juris Doctor class who exhibited excellence in the study of patent law: Daniel Filstrup Yieyie Yang

Saurabh Prabhakar, co-winner of the 2014 Giles Rich Competition and 1st place in the Finnegan Writing Competition, poses with Associate Dean Whealan and Intirim Dean Maggs at the 2014 Academic Awards Ceremony

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FACULT Y Q& A

Faculty Q&A doesn’t make sense for electronically submitted documents. Rather than just trying to duplicate what you do on paper and move it online, the issue is how you might adjust the whole system in order to make it more efficient.

Q+A with Professor Robert Brauneis, Kaminstein Scholar in Residence

GW Law: What are the main challenges in moving to an electronic system?

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or the 2013–2014 academic year, Professor Robert Brauneis served as the inaugural Abraham L. Kaminstein Scholar in Residence at the U.S. Copyright Office, a position that allows leading copyright academics to spend time conducting research and working on mutually beneficial projects.

Professor Brauneis sat down to answer a few questions about his work.

GW Law: For those who don’t know, can you explain the functions of the Copyright Office?

A: Many people may not know that the Copyright Office is located within the Library of Congress, and that it has historically been connected with the development of the Library’s collection.

One of the main things that it does is register claims of copyright in all types of works of authorship, from books to movies, songs, and photographs. In order to register a claim of copyright, you usually have to submit copies of that work that you want register, and the Library of Congress chooses to keep many of those copies to form its collection.

The Office examines applications for registration to make sure that the works contain copyrightable content, and it maintains a catalog of registered works so that interested parties can learn who created and who owns the works. It does a lot of other things as well. It accepts documents related to copyright and places them on public record, advises Congress about copyright matters, is involved with drafting legislation and regulations related to copyright, monitors important copyright litigation, and is

Robert Brauneis

involved with international negotiations relating to copyright.

GW Law: What projects did you focus on during your time as Scholar in Residence?

A: Two main projects. The first of them is related is related to something that the Copyright Office wants to do—namely to move from a paper-based system of recording documents to an electronic system.

When the Copyright Office first started recording in 1870, people sent in paper documents, and the specialists at the Office copied some of the information to form an index. With a few changes it’s basically doing the same thing today more than 140 years later, and it’s very expensive to maintain. Maria Pallante, JD ’90, the Register of Copyrights (the official title of the head of the Copyright Office), wants to move to an electronic system, but there are lots of issues involved. You don’t just want to copy whatever you’ve been doing on paper and make it electronic. For example, the office currently requires ink signatures on paper, which

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A: Traditionally, each document has been examined as it comes in by a human to make sure that it’s more or less in order before it’s placed on the public record. It doesn’t mean that anybody has ever read the legal language and made sure that it was expressing the intent of the parties exactly right—that’s way too in-depth— but to make sure that it’s legible, complete, and not missing pages. Humans would also transcribe the names of the parties to the document and the names of the works involved into an index so that they can be retrieved. This is incredibly labor-intensive and incredibly costly. As a result in the past 10 to 15 years, the cost of recordation has tripled and the number of documents recorded has gone down.

So how do you maintain the quality of the database while avoiding some of the labor intensive work? The Internet gives us lots of opportunities that paper didn’t. Everyone is now used to filling in forms online and having entries rejected because they didn’t meet certain validation criteria. There’s a lot of opportunity in these interactive forms to have the document submitters enter the catalog information themselves through an electronically-guided process, rather than having Copyright Office employees do it. Most folks these days also probably already have their information in electronic form. Giving them the ability to simply submit that information in electronic form from their own databases rather than having somebody rekey it in is an important part of the electronic system.

FACULT Y Q& A • IN MEMORIAM

GW Law: What’s the other major project you’ve been working on?

A: My other main area of focus has been to develop a database that contains all of the Copyright Office’s catalog in a format that allows large-scale statistical research. The current electronic catalog runs on the same system as the Library of Congress’s book catalog does, and there are some pretty severe limitations.

The format in which those records are kept was developed more than 40 years ago to automate the printing of catalog cards, and it’s one of the earliest computer formats that’s still in use. There are limitations on the search interface that prevent the system being overloaded with requests. The system only returns 10,000 records for any one search, which makes sense if you’re looking for a book, but not if you’re looking to understand how the patterns in registrations and recorded documents have changed over time. The Copyright Office Catalog now contains more than 26 million electronic records, and there are many single days on which more than 10,000 new records are added, so a search return of 10,000 is not going to get you anywhere.

GW Law: What kinds of questions could you answer with a fully searchable database?

A: Some of them have to do simply with economic activity in the copyright industries. Who is generating more content and who is generating less content? Also, where is stuff being produced? There’s information about the addresses of everybody who is registering, so in theory I can tell you if the San Francisco Bay area is producing more or less software than someplace less intuitive like Charlotte.

For Copyright Office purposes, the question of whether the change in fees for recording and registering has had an impact on the number of recorded documents or registrations is important.

The Office needs to recover its costs, but ultimately it’s most interested in having as much information as possible about copyrighted works in its database. It would be worrisome if it turned out that fees are deterring people from registering works or from recording documents. You might use database information to understand that registration of certain kinds of works

is not deterred by fees as much as other kinds of works. This ties into a difficult policy question: do you charge more to the people who will continue to pay anyways more than you charge the people who otherwise won’t register?

GW Law: Will your time at the Copyright Office inform your classes or future research?

A: Having this source of information that nobody had before will undoubtedly inform my research. There’s no question that I plan to write about this database, and my articles will be informed by what I learned by having access to registration and recorded document records from the past 35-plus years. In teaching, having been inside the Office for a year has given me a lot of experience and insight into how the office works, how copyright policy is made, and what sources of information there are that can inform future policymaking. I can’t help but bring that into the classroom. n

In Memoriam Contributions by Harold C. Wegner

ALBERT E. “AL” FEY, JD ’58

Albert E. “Al” Fey was one of the nation’s leading patent litigators during the second half of the twentieth century, and one of the better known members of the highly regarded New York patent boutique of that era, Fish & Neave. Al was loyal to the law school, continuing to serve on the Dean’s IP Advisory Board after his retirement from Ropes & Gray (successor to his boutique). “Al was a pillar of the IP community and a really nice guy,” commented Associate Dean John Whealan. “I fondly remember working with Al and learning from him at Fish & Neave.”

FRANK T. PEARTREE, LLB ’51

World War II veteran Frank T. Peartree spent nearly 40 years in the federal court system, beginning in 1952 as a member of the staff of the U.S. Court of Claims, where he rose to the position of Clerk of the Court. He was the final person to hold that position, until the court was merged with the U.S. Court of Customs and Patent Appeals in 1982 to create the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Thereafter, he served for nearly 10 years as the first Clerk of the Court of Federal Claims until his retirement from the judicial system in 1991. n

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