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80 J. Pat. & Trademark Off. Soc'y 808 (1998)
Be a Good Sport and Refrain from Using my Patented Putt: Intellectual Property Protection for Sports Related Movements

handle is hein.journals/jpatos80 and id is 822 raw text is: Be a Good Sport and Refrain from Using my Patented Putt: Intellectual Property Protection for Sports Related Movements Carl A. Kukkonen, III* I. INTRODUCTION n an age where the average athlete in Major League Baseball an- nually receives a salary in excess of $1.3 million,' the protection of sports moves and related actions have increasingly been sought through existing intellectual property laws. While the average sports fan finds such a notion ridiculous, there are some strong arguments in its favor. The Constitution authorized Congress to pass laws to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.'2 The Supreme Court and other courts have read this to include a wide variety of subject matter which could not have been foreseen by the Founding Fathers. Sports methods and other processes involving movement of the human body have received protection by the Patent Office and sports formations have been registered with the Copyright Office. This article will explore the various mechanisms un- der the guise of intellectual property law which may be able to protect athletic movements in the future. * The author is a graduate of Harvey Mudd College (B.S. 1995) and the George Washington University Law School (J.D. 1998). He would like to thank the thoughtful assistance of Prof. John R. Thomas in the preparation of this article. I See CNN MONEYLINE WITH LOU DOBBS, Transcript # 98031900V19 Mar. 19, 1998; Michael Jordan has been the highest paid athlete since 1990 by having received over $300 million in salary and endorsements (approximately $78 million was received in 1997 alone). Mike Tyson is a distant second at $182 million. Peter Spiegel, Sports Top 40, p. 180, FORBES, December 15, 1997; Sergei Federov is on course to receive $28 million dollar this season from the Detroit Red Wings after holding out for more than half of the regular season. Off the Wire, THE ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE, Feb. 27, 1998 at C2. 2 U.S. Const. art. I § 8.

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