Technology Law Insights by Ray Millien

The following article is the third of a three-part series.  An abbreviated version of this article originally appeared in the Sept./Oct. 2012 issue of IAM Magazine. In part one of this series, I explained that as a first-generation American whose parents emigrated from Haiti, the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, my mother always dreamed that her Ivy League-educated, lawyer son would become a civil rights lawyer.  In an aim not to disappoint her, I explained that the civil rights movement was really about fighting for the economic rights of Black Americans.  And, in the 21st century innovation-led world, economic rights are all about IP rights.  Thus, as an IP lawyer, I can be a civil rights lawyer. Also in part one, I pointed out the “gaps” or “divides” in our lexicon that measure the opportunity (or lack thereof) that certain populations have for economic success.  These disparities include the “digital divide,” “education gap” a...

The following article is the first of a three-part series.  An abbreviated version of this article originally appeared in the Sept./Oct. 2012 issue of IAM Magazine. Elijiah McCoy, holder of 57 patents and a member of the National Inventors Hall of Fame. As a first-generation American whose parents emigrated from Haiti, the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, the Civil Rights movement has always interested me.  In fact, my mother always dreamed that her Ivy League-educated, lawyer son would become a civil rights lawyer.  I am, however, an Intellectual Property (IP) lawyer.  That is, I deal with the patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret laws for clients who are mostly in the electronics, software, financial services and e-commerce fields.  This is not exactly the job description of an NAACP attorney. In an aim not to disappoint my mother, however, I’ve always argued to her as follows:  “The civil rights movement was really ...

One of the more indelible images of the civil rights movement are those from the Spring of 1968 as  Black sanitation workers went on strike in Memphis, Tennessee  holding signs that read “I am a Man,” in their fight for economic equality.  (This is the reason that civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. was visiting Memphis when he was assassinated on April 4, 1968.)  Now those signs should not only read “I am a Man Who Thinks,” but “I am a Man Who Thinks and My Thoughts are Valuable.” In part one of this series, I pointed out the “gaps” or “divides” in our lexicon that measure the opportunity (or lack thereof) that certain populations have for economic success.  These disparities include the “digital divide,” “education gap” and “wealth gap” that exist between the Black and White populations in the U.S.  I also gave some historical perspective on the negative views of Black intellectual capacity against which we can look to the c...