Stanford Technology Law Review (STLR) 2

The Stanford Technology Law Review (STLR) strives to present well-rounded analyses of the legal, business, and policy issues that arise at the intersection of intellectual property law, science and technology, and industry. STLR publishes exclusively online, providing timely coverage of emerging issues to its readership base of legal academics and practitioners.

STLR publishes feature articles, working papers, and perspectives from scholars, distinguished practitioners, and students. Membership in STLR provides students with interests in technology the opportunity to work with noted scholars in their fields of interest, develop strong writing and editing skills, and gain experience with Internet publishing technology. As a relatively new and growing organization, STLR also affords unparalleled opportunities for leadership and a chance to leave a legacy at Stanford Law School.

Current Issue: Volume 23, Issue 2

The Distributive Effects of IP Registration

Stanford Technology Law Review

Although the law often seeks to level the playing field, all too often the law has the opposite effect and tilts the playing field in favor of some over others. Intellectual property (IP) law is no different. Registering IP rights yields significant advantages, but it also imposes significant costs, which in turn may create distributive effects by hindering some more than others. Acknowledging IP rights without registration can therefore be a more egalitarian way of protecting innovation and creativity. Indeed, some forms of IP—specifically copyright and trademark—allow for both registered and unregistered rights. This article is the first to explore the distributive implications of such two-tiered regimes. On the one hand, registering IP rights helps provide the public with notice of those rights and their (approximate) boundaries. Some registration systems, such as those in U.S. patent and trademark law, also examine whether the work in question substantively qualifies for protection. On the other hand, registration of IP rights can be not only a complex and costly process (particularly for patent rights) but also one fraught with inherent biases. Requiring registration of IP rights therefore has serious negative implications for women, racial minorities, and other disadvantaged creators. Protection of IP rights without registration, by contrast, gives creators of innovative works greater access to IP protections and the consequent possibility of leveraging the value of their own works. Until the gender, racial, economic, and other gaps in IP rights are remedied, maintaining a two-tiered regime of both registered and unregistered rights for all forms of IP alongside minimizing the gaps between registered and unregistered rights offers a promising way to level the playing field for creators of protectable works. We therefore propose not only more equality in the treatment of registered and unregistered rights in copyright and trademark but also the creation of an unregistered rights regime in patent law to provide automatic rights in patentable inventions, albeit for a very short period of time and only against direct copying. These measures, in combination with other efforts to level the playing field for creators, could go a long way toward a more egalitarian distribution of benefits from innovation and creativity.

Past Volumes

2020-21 Leadership

Editors-in-Chief
Trillium Chang
Chris Fu

Managing Editor
Tyler McClure

Executive Editors
Olivia Malone
Alex Evelson

Articles Editors
Isabella Corbo
Matthew Dhaiti

Online Editor
Sam Henick

Symposium Chairs
Justin Garfinkle
Matt Krantz

Undergraduate Articles Committee
Darius Namazi

Undergraduate Chair
Nivedha Soundappan

Contact

Mailing Address
Stanford Technology Law Review
Crown Quadrangle, Stanford Law School, Stanford University
Stanford, California 94305

Email
Contact the editors via email at STLR@law.stanford.edu. Please note that we only accept submissions electronically, preferably through ScholasticaHQ.

2019-20 Leadership

Editors-in-Chief
Rebecca Weires
Andrew McCreary

Executive Editor
Hannah Song

Managing Editor
Trillium Chang

Articles Committee
Elena Goldstein
Collin Hong

Online Editor
Abigail Pace

Symposium Director
Caroline Lebel

Contact

Mailing Address
Stanford Technology Law Review
Crown Quadrangle, Stanford Law School, Stanford University
Stanford, California 94305

Email
Contact the editors via email at STLR@law.stanford.edu. Please note that we only accept submissions electronically, preferably through ScholasticaHQ.