Law Podcasts and Our Future

This week I have researched and listened to three podcasts from three different sources on three very different topics that media professionals should all be aware of.

The first podcast is hosted by Colette Vogele Rules for the Revolution: The Podcast. She interviews Alex Curtis, the Director of Policy and New Media at Public Knowledge. They discuss the topic of Orphan Works, which has become a problem for copyright law in Congress. Orphan Works occur when the owners of copyrighted materials cannot be found. Some organizations believe that laws should be put into place so that there would be proof that someone who wanted to use an Orphan Work had tried to find the copyright owner in order to ask for permission. Those of us who find great materials such as old photographs and sound recordings might not be able to use them in our own materials with the expanding copyrights terms that are available today. 

The next topic I have listened to comes from TED and covers the problems and challenges of copyright in fashion. Johanna Blakley opens with a scene where a woman discovers a unique piece of clothing and not only tells her friend she is going to buy the jacket, she is going to replicate it. In the fashion industry, copyrights are not available to clothing and fashion. Trademarks and logos are protected but the design and craftsmanship are not. She says that the reason for this is that the "courts decided long ago that the apparel is too utilitarian to qualify for copyright protection. They didn't want a handful of designers owning the seminal building blocks of our clothing". Having a creative field without the pressures and restrictions creates two things, dilution and creativity. Trends grow and expand but once they have reached their peak, it's time for something new to take over. 

The final topic I have listened to covers Design Patent Infringement and Gohram Vs. White - How one Man's Spoon Revolutionized Design Law from Suffolk University's intellectual property law series. Christopher V. Cariani describes Gorham Mfg. Company's created a design for a spoon handle that was patented in 1861. Leroy S. White was accused of patent infringement when he tried to patent his own spoon handle designs. The lower court ruled that there was no infringement as the ordinary observer test but the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Gorham and declared infringement on the other designs. This is the only time that the Supreme Court has ruled on a design patent case. They ruled that if the design were to be very similar to the common person but enough that it would force the consumer to choose one over the other, then it was infringing on the original patent.