Commerce Clause and Copyright Clause

(sorry if somebody has already pointed out the following, running a couple days behind)

Someone was nice enough to cite me a piece that shows why Congress couldn't use the Commerce Clause to get around limits in the Patent and Copyright Clause, the Trademarks Cases notwithstanding: Heald, The Vices of Originality, 1991 S. Ct. Rev. 168 et seq.

To summarize: in Railway Execs., 455 U.S. 457 (1982), the Court held that Congress could not use the Commerce Clause to pass a non-uniform bankruptcy law, for that would circumvent the Bankruptcy Clause, which permits Congress to pass "uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies." Similar reasoning would apply to the extension of copyright, but not to trademarks, which fit more aptly within the Commerce Clause.

Steve McJohn Suffolk Law
<smcjohn[_at_]acad.suffolk.edu> Received on Mon Apr 22 1996 - 18:38:51 GMT