Re: State Susceptibility to Suit for Copyright and Patent Infringement

On 7/29/98, Pat Sloane <patsloane[_at_]aol.com> wrote:
>
> The angel stamp being sold by the US Postal Service is a detail from a
> painting by Raphael (The Sistine Madonna) that I believe is owned by the
> Vatican.
>
> Assuming that no permission has been sought, and no royalties are
> being paid, am I correct in assuming -- from the drift of the State
> susceptibility thread -- that the Postal Service would be immune to
> suit as a branch of the US government?
>

The Eleventh Amendment (and Seminole Tribe) apply only to the immunity of *state* governments from suit in federal court. The federal government can declare itself immune from its own laws or not, as it chooses. I believe they have permitted themselves to be sued under the trademark laws.

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

NOTE: From August 10 through December 15, I will be visiting at the Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California at Berkeley. The email address above should reach me there.

Information on UT's Intellectual Property program: http://www.utexas.edu/law/acadaff/intelprop/

My publications list: http://www.law.utexas.edu/lemley/pubs.htm Received on Thu Jul 30 1998 - 15:12:11 GMT