Friday’s Endnotes – 07/08/16

The IP Platform: Supporting Invention & Inspiration — Last fall, the Center for Protection of Intellectual Property hosted a conference exploring how IP, including copyright, operates as a platform supporting invention and inspiration. The George Mason Law Review this week published its summer issue containing articles originating from that conference. Lots of great stuff, including a piece on copyright and remix by me.

‘Courts Have Twisted Themselves Into Knots’: U.S. Copyright Protection for Applied Art — Copyright scholar Jane Ginsburg looks at the issue of conceptual separability, which distinguishes between what is protected by copyright and what is not for useful articles. This question is currently in front of the Supreme Court, which will hear Varsity Brands v. Star Athletica next term.

Canada’s Accession to Marrakesh Treaty Brings Treaty into Force — Says WIPO, “Canada today became the key 20th nation to accede to the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled, which will bring the Treaty into force in three month’s time on September 30, 2016.” The treaty requires parties to adopt copyright provisions that permit the copying and distribution of published works in accessible formats such as Braille.

The Trusted Notifier Program: Outcomes of First Referrals by MPAA — In February, film studios reached an agreement with the Donuts domain name registry that created a framework for notifying the service of sites engaged in clear and pervasive infringement. Recently, Donuts revealed some early outcomes of the program so far. In a blog post, the registry announced that two sites were confirmed to be engaged in infringement, and Donuts suspended their domain names. A third referral is being investigated further.