Re: Protecting boat hulls

On 2/27/98, John R. Allison <allisonj[_at_]mail.utexas.edu> wrote:
>
> This could be asked on any of several discussion lists, but
> cni-copyright seems appropriate. I would like to hear the opinions
> of others on HR 2696, "The Vessel Hull Design Protection Act,"
> introduced by Howard Coble on Oct. 22, and very similar to several
> bills introduced last year. This one was just approved, apparently
> with little controversy, by the House Subcommittee on Courts &
> Intellectual Property, and is headed to the House Judiciary
> Committee. Its proponents characterize it as "plugging a loophole
> in protection of rights in the design of boat hulls created by the
> Court in Bonito Boats."
>
> Registration of the boat hull designs will be in the Copyright Office,
> with 10-years' protection. I see no provision for examination. My
> take on it is that it essentially provides (1) design patent-like
> protection for designs because they are original and attractive,
> despite being primarily, or at least substantially, utilitarian,
> (2) utility patent-like protection for something that cannot pass
> muster under 101, 102, or 103 of the patent act, and perhaps even
> (3) trademark-like protection for something that is functional and
> does not have to possess any source-identifier characteristics.
>
> I believe the entire concept to be fundamentally flawed, but I really
> would like to hear from others. Any day now, I'm expecting to receive
> intellectual property rights in the route I drive to work. Thanks.
>

It is remarkable that what only ten years ago were thought to be intentional limits on the concept of intellectual property -- the view that not all ideas must necessarily be owned by someone -- is now viewed as a "loophole."

By the way, John, I have already patented a method of getting from off-campus to UT. Reasonable license available . . .

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

Come to the Berkeley conference on UCC Article 2B, April 23-25 1998. Find out how at http://sims.berkeley.edu/BCLT/events/ucc2b/

For information on the Intellectual Property program at UT, see http://www.utexas.edu/law/acadaff/intelprop/

For an updated list of my publications, and how to find them, see http://www.law.utexas.edu/lemley/pubs.htm Received on Mon Mar 02 1998 - 15:54:30 GMT