Christopher Buccafusco of Cardozo School of Law and Jonathan Masur of University of Chicago Law School on “Intelligent Design”

Professors Buccafusco and Masur will speak on Monday, March 19, noon – 1 p.m. on their forthcoming article (with Professor Mark Lemley of Stanford) on “Intelligent Design.”

Abstract:

IP law has employed a series of doctrinal and costly screens to channel designs into the appropriate regime — copyright law, design patent law, or utility patent law. Unfortunately, those screens are no longer working. Designers are able to obtain powerful IP protection over the utilitarian aspects of their creations without demonstrating that they have made socially valuable contributions and without paying substantial fees that weed out weaker designs. This is bad for competition and bad for consumers. In this article, we integrate theories of doctrinal and costly screens, and we explore their roles in channeling IP rights. We demonstrate how these two types of screens can serve as complements in the efficient regulation of design protection, and we illustrate the inefficiencies that have arisen through their misapplication in copyright and design patent laws. Finally, we propose a variety of solutions that would move design protection towards a successful channeling regime, balancing the law’s needs for incentives and competition.

Speaker Biographies

Christopher J. Buccafusco is Professor of Law, the Director of the Intellectual Property & Information Law Program, and and Associate Dean for Faculty Development at Cardozo School of Law.  He graduated with a B.S. from Georgia Tech: Science, Technology & Culture; J.D. from University of Georgia School of Law; and M.A. from University of Chicago: History of Culture. Before moving to Cardozo, he taught at Chicago-Kent and won the SBA teaching award and the university-wide teaching award for his excellence in teaching, and also co-founded the Center for Empirical Study of Intellectual Property.

Jonathan S. Masur is the John P. Wilson Professor of Law, David and Celia Hilliard Research Scholar, and the Director of the Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz Program in Behavioral Law, Finance and Economics.  He received a BS in physics and an AB in political science from Stanford University in 1999 and his JD from Harvard Law School in 2003. After graduating from law school, he clerked for Chief Judge Marilyn Hall Patel of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California and for Judge Richard Posner of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.