Copyrights, Moral Rights

What Artists Need to Know About Moral Rights

From the outside the art world seems beautiful and luxurious, creative, and carefree. While this is true, it is also full of tense litigation over rightful ownership, issues of authenticity, and copyright violations. Copyright protection is important to artists. Most people believe that copyright is important because it can prevent others from literally copying the artist’s works without permission. While this is true, there are another reasons why copyright protection is important. Continue reading “What Artists Need to Know About Moral Rights”

Madeleine Morris
Behind the Scenes

An IP Student’s Guide to Patent Law: What I Wish I Knew Before My First Interview

I came to Loyola with an interest in intellectual property, specifically patents. Patents are granted by a country to protect inventions by granting the inventor certain rights. When it came time to start my job search for my 1L summer, I knew I wanted to try and get experience in the field of IP. In every IP interview I’ve had thus far, the interviewer has always asked what kind of patent law I want to practice. Do I want to “prosecute” patents, meaning writing and obtaining a patent for an inventor? Or, do I want to litigate issues for granted patents? These are the two most common areas of patent law. In my early interviews, I would answer patent litigation. I have previous experience as a litigation consultant prior to law school, and have always romanticized being a trial attorney. However, as I gained interview experience and spoke with more attorneys, I realized there were many different areas of patent law of which I had no idea existed. I realized I had an interest in a lot of them. After learning more about these fields, I was able to better tailor my job search to firms that offered those types of patent law.

Continue reading “An IP Student’s Guide to Patent Law: What I Wish I Knew Before My First Interview”

Jack Hynes
Fun Facts, Patents

The Sound of Science: Musicians Who Were Also Inventors

When people think about musicians, they usually don’t think inventor. But some musicians broke the mold when they patented their inventions. Let’s explore these true renaissance people.  We should make note of these talented folks who generally own both copyright on their music (and sound recordings) AND patents on their inventions

Continue reading “The Sound of Science: Musicians Who Were Also Inventors”

Andrew Sutherland
Why Loyola

Dancing into Intellectual Property Law

I unknowingly have been interested in intellectual property law, specifically copyright law, since I attended dance classes as a child. When I was about 10, I began to wonder why certain songs were chosen and others were not for our annual productions. Why could we perform to Michael Jackson songs while wearing white, sparkly gloves, but we were not allowed to dance to Disney songs from “The Lion King.” Continue reading “Dancing into Intellectual Property Law”

Madeleine Morris
Loyola Spotlight

Making Her (Trade)mark: Professor Patricia Lee’s Work in Trademarks

Companies have all kinds of intellectual property (IP), including trademarks, but just how important is that IP to a company? As a business attorney for nearly 40 years, Professor Patricia Lee of Loyola can tell you that trademarks and other forms of IP are hugely important and becoming more important every day.

As the director of the Loyola Business Law Clinic, Prof. Lee and her students find that trademark and other IP issues are a natural part of assisting and counseling the clinic’s clients. “Trademarks are very important to business startups and non-profit organizations,” said Prof. Lee.

So, where is Prof. Lee from and how did she get into business?

Continue reading “Making Her (Trade)mark: Professor Patricia Lee’s Work in Trademarks”

Brendan Zdunek
Loyola Spotlight

IP Lawyer-ing in a Pandemic World: a Conversation with Jessica Fenton

I had the chance to interview Loyola Alumni Jessica Fenton about her legal career and how it’s been affected by the COVID pandemic. Jessica is currently in-house counsel for RUSH University Medical Center. Working as in-house counsel means an attorney provides legal assistance solely to a single corporation or entity, rather than working at a law firm for multiple clients. She was previously an Intellectual Property (IP) litigator. As an IP litigator, Jessica defended and challenged intellectual property in court. Continue reading “IP Lawyer-ing in a Pandemic World: a Conversation with Jessica Fenton”

Madison Causey
Trademarks

Getting A RISE Out of PepsiCo

While big companies may have dozens of trademarks, smaller and lesser-known companies can also have valid trademarks, as long as they satisfy the trademark criteria.

Can a large company infringe a smaller company’s mark? Yes! This is sometimes referred to as “reverse confusion,” where the small company is the first user and the large company is the later user. But, there can still be confusion among consumers. The larger company may use its money and resources (like ads) to infiltrate the smaller company’s market with a similar mark on similar goods or services.

Continue reading “Getting A RISE Out of PepsiCo”

Suet Lee
Loyola Spotlight

“TRIPS” Down Memory Lane: An Interview with Sarah Johnson

Sarah Johnson is an in-house attorney at Kemin Industries. She handles the everyday business concerns regarding intellectual property (IP), international business, and contracting. Prior to working at Kemin Industries, Sarah learned successful litigation strategies as an associate attorney at Foran Glennon Palandech Ponzi & Rudloff.

She graduated from Cornell College in Iowa with a Bachelor of Arts in Biology and a minor in Religion before attending Loyola University Chicago School of Law. While at Loyola, she competed on the National Health Law Moot Court Team and the Appellate Lawyers Association Moot Court Team. She wrote for the Annals of Health Law and Journal of Regulatory Compliance. Sarah externed at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab and clerked for the Honorable Judge Neil Hartigan in the Court of Claims. She was also a research assistant for Professor Cynthia Ho, who mentored Sarah during her time at Loyola after connecting during a prospective student tour. Sarah then went onto take all of Professor Ho’s IP courses in addition to completing the Advocacy and Health Law certificates. She was also a member of IP Bytes.

We recently spoke about her background, her Loyola experiences, and how IP has influenced her legal career.

Continue reading ““TRIPS” Down Memory Lane: An Interview with Sarah Johnson”

Suet Lee