Two members of the Pierce Law community, alum Jason Tuttle ’07 and student Takashi Saito ’08, have recently published law review articles on intellectual property topics. Tuttle’s “Fame v. Infamy: An Analysis of Self-Dilution Under the Trademark Dilution Revision Act of 2006”, appears in the Fall 2007 issue of Bright Ideas, also known as The New York State Bar Association Intellectual Property Section Newsletter. The Journal of the Patent and Trademark Office Society is publishing Saito’s article, “Dressing Design Patent: A Proposal for Amending the Design Patent Law in Light of Trade Dress” in its August 2007 issue.

Saito’s article analyzes the competing public interests of allowing the public to make, use, and sell inventions for which the patents have expired, v. the right of buyers to know the source of products they are buying through trade dress rights, which are perpetual. A few recent court decisions have held that product designs can be protected as trade dress after the expiration of design patents, but Saito argues that the two types of rights should be based on the same policy.

The Trademark Dilution Revision Act gives special protection to famous trademarks. "Fame v. Infamy" discusses the legal consequences of a trademark’s “fame” being gained by negative behavior on the part of the trademark owner or licensees (self-dilution), rather than the goodwill which the TDRA was intended to protect. Tuttle focuses on self-dilution caused by the owner’s activity.