Re: Copyright and UCC 2B

David Crosby <dcrosby[_at_]lappinkusmer.com> wrote:
>
> I could be wrong, but as I recall, Art. 2B is directed to the transfer
> of intellectual property, ie standardizing licensing the like. From
> that stand point, I don't see any conflict between state law and
> federal law the would give rise to preemption. Does Art. 2B treat
> copyrights directly?
>

The scope of article 2B is a matter of some discussion. As best I can make out, currently it applies to all transactions in "information." This includes virtually all of copyright law (whether applied to software, books, music, videos, etc.), virtually all of trade secret law, software patent law, miscellaneous "information law" cases like INS v. AP and the idea submission cases, and a few stray patent licenses where the licensed device contains executable software (this last may well be an accident on the part of the drafters).

Article 2B significantly changes the licensing rules in each of these cases. Whether it is preempted will thus depend on whether any of the existing licensing rules are determined by federal rather than state law. To the extent they are, or to the extent that the new article 2B conflicts with federal IP policy, it will be preempted.

Mark Lemley
Assistant Professor, University of Texas School of Law Of Counsel, Fish & Richardson, P.C.
mlemley[_at_]mail.law.utexas.edu

For information on the Intellectual Property program at UT, see http://www.utexas.edu/law/intelprop/ Received on Tue Feb 04 1997 - 15:42:31 GMT