Copyright Law and the Creative Industries

QUT Faculty of Law 

Thursday, 29 October 2020

10:00am to 3:00pm

Session 5.    Copyright Law and New Technologies

Lady Ada: Limor Fried, Adafruit Industries, Intellectual Property and Open Source Hardware

Matthew Rimmer

Abstract

This paper provides a profile of Limor Fried of Adafruit Industries – as an advocate of open source hardware, and a policy campaigner for intellectual property law reform. In terms of methodology, the work draws upon the techniques of biographical life writing, the media corporate case studies and the open source community mapping. This paper considers the copyright challenges for open source hardware – particularly with the Supreme Court of the United States decision on copyright subsistence in Star Athletica LLC. v. Varsity Brands Inc., and ongoing conflicts over technological protection measures. It reviews the trademark disputes of Adafruit Industries – looking at the matter of Fried v. Linco Inc. It explores the intervention of the Open Source Hardware Association in the design patent dispute in Luxembourg v. Home Expressions Inc. It analyses how Adafruit Industries has engaged in defensive patenting, and pushed for patent law reform with President Barack Obama. It finally considers the tensions between open source hardware and enhanced protection of trade secrets. The conclusion considers how open source hardware advocates such as Limor Fried can play an important role in intellectual property law reform in the future. It also explores current and future challenges for Adafruit Industries and open source hardware – including the current coronavirus COVID-19 public health crisis.

Biography 

Dr Matthew Rimmer is a Professor in Intellectual Property and Innovation Law at the Faculty of Law, at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT). He has published widely on copyright law and information technology, patent law and biotechnology, access to medicines, plain packaging of tobacco products, intellectual property and climate change, Indigenous Intellectual Property, and intellectual property and trade. He is undertaking research on intellectual property and 3D printing; the regulation of robotics and artificial intelligence; and intellectual property and public health (particularly looking at the coronavirus COVID-19). His work is archived at QUT ePrints, SSRN Abstracts, Bepress Selected Works, and Open Science Framework.