Authors: want some help in protecting your works? Here is the text of a talk I will give to the Cornell Entrepreneur Network on November 17 on how authors can protect their intellectual property. This post is long and ignores conventional wisdom that blog readers stop reading after 1,000 words.
But you may find some useful tips here.

 
Andrew will moderate a webinar on Wednesday October 26,2011, sponsored by BNA entitled Alternatives Now Available to Copyright and Trademark Owners to Combat Gray Market and Counterfeit Goods: Recent First Sale and Related Litigation. The 90-minute program will focus on recent 9th and 2d Circuit cases involving the clash between the first sale doctrine and Section 602(a)(1) of the Copyright Act barring the importation of goods made abroad without the copyright holder’s consent.

§602 (a)(1) Trumps the First Sale Doctrine
The cloud lingering over the gray market industry since the Supreme Court split 4-4 in Costco just got a lot darker. Gray market goods are those made by the copyright holder abroad and then imported into this country without the permission of the copyright holder. Just last week it seemed the 2d Circuit would never decide John Wiley v.

The huge gray market industry, disappointed with the Supreme Court’s 4-4 split in Costco v. Omega, has been hoping for better news from the 2^nd Circuit. They keep waiting and hoping.
Different panels of the 2^nd Circuit have now heard argument in three cases raising identical issues to those raised but not decided in Costco. But the 2^nd Circuit has not decided any of these cases, even though the earliest, John Wiley v.

 
Andrew will be a panelist at a webinar on the first sale doctrine sponsored by the American Bar Association Forum on the Entertainment and Sports Industries and the ABA Center for Continuing Legal Education. The program is entitled: The First Sale Doctrine After Costco and Vernor:  Where Do We Go From Here?
The webinar will take place on Thursday, July 28, 2011 from 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM Eastern Standard Time.  For more information, please click here.

 
The BNA Patent, Trademark & Copyright Journal recently published my article dealing with the aftermath of the deadlock in Costco v. Omega. The article analyzes the policy issues in conflict and provides some guidance about how those in the copyright supply chain-manufacturers, importers, distributors and retailers- can protect themselves from claims under Section 602 of the Copyright Act.

First, my apologies to those who want a quick fix on this issue; I have miserably failed to shorten this piece. The conflict between §§ 109(a) and 602 of the Copyright Act divided the Supreme Court in Costco v. Omega as it has vexed the district courts. Because I try to fairly present both sides of the issue and the policy questions raised, I have gone way beyond recommended blog length.  So with that warning, let’s begin.

 
 
Andrew will speak at a luncheon program sponsored by the Copyright Society of the U.S.A. on March 16, 2011 on what the copyright supply chain (copyright holders, manufacturers, importers and distributors) should anticipate following the Supreme Court’s deadlock in Costco v. Omega. As a result of the deadlock we have no guidance whether gray market goods are subject to the first-sale doctrine.

 
Sponsored by Hudson Valley Bank and CUNY Law School on October 23, 2008 and presented by Andrew Berger and Donald Prutzman. Andrew outlined copyright basics; and Donald explained trademark basics. For an outline of copyright basics presentation, please click here. For an outline of the trademark basics presentation, please click here.