This Note discusses recent developments in the law of protection of ideas. The present law of protection of ideas differs from state to state. The range in protection theories results from the conflicting goal of protecting one’s “property” from theft and the belief that ideas should be in the public domain. Courts have vied with …

Vote swappers nationwide organized during the 2000 campaign to cast their presidential ballots strategically within the Electoral College system. Their mission: help Vice President Al Gore win enough states to take the presidency while ensuring that Ralph Nader received five percent of the popular vote, thus qualifying the Green Party for federal campaign funding in …

Patent law will always be a unique crossover of the legal field with scientific and engineering disciplines. As computer technology takes its place in the landscape of civilization, patent law has had an increasingly difficult time keeping pace with the revolution. The parallel development of internet technology, particularly e-business, has further compounded the problem by …

Statistics show that more and more Americans are using the World Wide Web, making the Internet an increasingly integral part of everyday life. Fifty-six percent of Americans now have Internet access and are using it for the exchange of text, images, video and sound. During the last six months of 2000, the number of American …

Not many years ago, a person needing medical or legal advice picked up the telephone and called a local professional, and often she made an appointment to see that professional in person. Today, telephone calls and in-person appointments are viewed by some as inefficient uses of time and energy, especially since with just a click …

The Internet has revolutionized the world by providing virtually unlimited access to information and by creating a new medium for social interaction. While extremely advantageous, this unlimited access to information also leads to children being exposed to potentially harmful, sexually explicit material. With its vast number of sites, it is estimated that the World Wide …

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) recently granted a number of “obvious” patents, which beg the question: is everything patentable? According to the Supreme Court in holding that an artificially-created, oil-eating bacteria was patentable, patentable subject matter consists of “anything under the sun made by man.” Although the Court’s definition of patentability appears …

Imagine you’re an attorney for an entertainment company and one of your job responsibilities is to protect your company’s copyrights. The company has, among other valuable properties, a top-rated television series. You discover someone is making unauthorized use of copyrighted images and sound clips from the hit show. Following standard procedure, you send out a …

Undoubtedly, if you are reading this article, your life has been affected dramatically by inventions. You may be reading this on the printed page, thereby owing much of your enjoyment to the printing press. You could also be reading this from the screen of a computer, an invention that has more recently had a tremendous …

From the American Revolution to the present day, change has been a salient factor of the American psyche. Americans have confronted, and indeed embraced, change. Alexis de Tocqueville suggested almost a century and a half ago that Americans are constantly modifying or abrogating their laws, but they “by no means display revolutionary passions.” The Framers …