At a Michigan State University College of Law conference, Elon Law professor David Levine evaluated the validity of the concept of government trade secrets, and at a Hamline Law Review symposium, Levine provided a comparative analysis of key federal law related to trade secrets. The presentations took place on April 2 and April 16 respectively.
In “The People’s Trade Secrets?,” presented at MSU Law’s third annual Junior Scholars in IP Workshop, Levine examines, “whether a government trade secret should be allowed to exist, and if so, whether governments should be allowed to shield government trade secrets from public disclosure.”
After reviewing relevant trade secrecy law, legal theory related to transparency and accountability, and specific examples of government trade secrets, Levine concludes that government trade secrets are unjustifiable. His article also provides recommendations for state legislatures to eliminate trade secret practices and initiate the release of “significant and valuable public information.”
Levine participated in the MSU Law conference after his article was accepted for presentation through a blind-review selection process. Details about the MSU Junior Scholars in IP Workshop can be found here.
At Hamline University School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota, for the 2010 symposium of the Hamline Law Review, Levine presented, “What Can the Uniform Trade Secrets Act Learn from the Bayh-Dole Act?” That paper reviews key federal law related to trade secrecy and argues that the Uniform Trade Secrets Act should “take heed of the wise unwillingness of Bayh-Dole to utilize trade secrecy in a situation where there is a strong need for public disclosure.”
Levine’s paper will be published in the next edition of the Hamline Law Review, detailed here.
Levine also led a panel on the future of intellectual property and the Web on April 29, at FutureWeb2010, a conference organized by the Imagining the Internet Center of Elon University’s School of Communications. Details about that panel can be found here.
HEARSAY CULTURE ANNOUNCEMENT:
Levine’s radio show and podcast, Hearsay Culture, broadcasts interviews with leading Intellectual Property law faculty and other scholars about emerging issues in technology and intellectual property law.
Highlights of guests this summer include: Shubha Ghosh, professor of law at the University of Wisconsin Law School, author of two intellectual property casebooks, and of the forthcoming book, Global Patent Law (Thomson West 2010), and Ken Wark, associate professor of media and cultural studies at Eugene Lang College at The New School, and author of several books on global media, national identity, and the cultural impacts of intellectual property law.
Levine’s complete summer line-up of interviews on Hearsay Culture can be found here.
Click here for more information about Elon Law professor David Levine.