Admission (ABA's JIOP)

I'm admitted to the finalist of ABA's JIOP.

Feel so good.

New semester starts today !!!

It's bittersweet moment. Today is the first day of new Spring semester.

Partly, it's great, but it's sad.

Well, I know that this is the way it has to be.

How to think like lawyer

http://nationaljurist.com/filedownload.aspx?f=ScNLx4P8XyYD+BX9RN+kOg==

An article from National Jurist. I like this stuff.

Supplimentary aid for Constitutional Law

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/educators/lp1.html

You can watch the video of PBS.

Link for criminal law

Click Here.

A useful website for criminal law

Links for Constitutional Law

Finally, the second semester begins.

Here are the links that the professor of Constitutional law recommend;

http://www.supremecourtus.gov/

http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/index.html

http://docket.medill.northwestern.edu/

http://findlaw.com/casecode/supreme.html

http://scotusblog.com/

Licensed component requires patent exhaustion or implied license for the combination?

Note - I received this e-mail from JH Kim, a patent lawyer of my former company. This is his material, not mine. I just translated his e-mail into English.

Question) Company A has a patent about Baseband modem chip and another patent that has the same elements as previous one and an additional element of antenna. The latter patent claims cellular phones. Company A gave a license of the first patent to licensees, but it did not give a license of the second patent to licensees. Then, company A can claim royalty of the second patent against licensees?



Answer) Probably not. Because baseband chip is only used for cellular phone. Implied license and patent exhaustion may apply, unless an express disclaimer exists. See LG Electronicsm, Inc. v. Bizxom electronics, Inc., 453 F.3f 1354 (Fed. Cir. 2006)

LG Electronicsm, Inc. v. Bizxom electronics, Inc., 453 F.3f 1354.

* “To prevail, defendants were required to establish that the products have no noninfringing uses and that the circumstances of the sale ··· ‘plainly indicate that the grant of a license should be inferred.’ . . . Regardless of any noninfringing uses, Intel expressly informed them that Intel's license agreement with LGE did not extend to any of defendants' products made by combining an Intel product with non-Intel products. In light of this express disclaimer, no license can be implied.”

* “This exhaustion doctrine, however, does not apply to an expressly conditional sale or license.”

Two interviews in January

I'll have two interviews for a summer associate in law firms.

One firm is in Dallas, another is in D.C.

Wish me luck!

Happy New Year !!!

Finally, year 2007 begins.

Happy new year, y'all ~

Waiting

Textbook for Property

I just purchased Dukeminier's Property hornbook from one seller through Amazon.com. This book is new edition, so, it cost me 90 dollars. (New book is 114 dollars.) Well, I prefer having used book, because I'd like to rely on other person's underlines. ^_^

Do I need to buy a study aid for Property? Well, it will depend on the professor's style.

Another book for legal writing

This is another book from Mr. Garner. My professor recommended this book for legal writing. It's lengthier and more complicated than the book I mentioned below. I just bought this book from Amazon.com.

A book for legal writing

Click here!

As an international student, I have difficulty in writing in English. Especially, it's a big burden to write a legal memorandum. Before I moved to Houston, one of my friends - U.S. lawyers - recommended a well-known book, "The Element of Style" by Strunk and White. But, the delemma I had was that that book was not for law students.

In Legal Analysis and Research class, my professor, Smith, recommended a book titled "The Redbook" by Mr. Garner, an editor of Black's Law Dictionary. While I searched that book in Amazon.com, I found his another book, "The Element of Legal Style, 2nd." In the introductionary section of this book, Mr. Garner stated this book would be another version of "The Element of Style" for LAW students and lawyers.

Yes! This is it. This is what I've been looking for.

A Brief history of the Bill of Rights

1791, the first ten amendments to the Constitution - religious liberty, free speech, personal privacy, private property, procedural fairness against the power of the democratic majority.

After Civil War (1861 ~ 1865), a second Bill of Rights (the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments) - outlawing slavery, guaranteeing equal protection of the laws, assuring the right to vote to members of racial minorities.

1919, the Nineteenth Amemdment - women's right to vote

1970, the Twenty-fifth Amendment - right to vote for youths 18 and over


cf. For constitutional law, this site, Justice Learning, is so good!

Kemah, Kemah

As a newcomer of Houston, I asked to my classmates which place would be good for my short trips during winter break. One of them recommended Kemah, a beach city adjacent to Houston. I got the visitor information from www.kemah.net

Kemah is a small and attractive place for half-day sightseeing.

I enjoyed nice views of Gulf of Maxico.

Museum of Fine Arts in Houston

Houston, as one of big cities in U.S.A., has a lot of advantages. One of them is to have many attractions like Museum of Fine Arts(MFA).

I've been to MFA today. One good news is that the admission is free on every Thursday.

The photo above is not taken in MFA. I took it in a sculpture garden in front of MFA.

It was so amazing to see the valuables from Aztec, Maya, Inca civilizations. I strongly recommend it to you.

Law school ranking article from Posner

Click here!

It's quite fun that Richard Posner published a paper about Law school ranking. Surely, his law & economics viewpoints would be the basis of this article.

I didn't read it and will not read it, but it's funny.

Writing Tip - Parallelism

- Legal writing center provides `Writing Tip of Week` article, once in a week. This is one of my favorite e-mails in UHLC.


October 16, 2006
Writing Tip of the Week
Parallelism

1. Items in a series should be in parallel form to make a sentence easy to follow. Parallelism is achieved by joining words with similar words: nouns with nouns, adjectives with adjectives, adverbs with adverbs, prepositions (or prepositional phrases) with prepositions, and so forth.

The defense argued that the evidence was inconclusive, prejudicial, and irrelevant. (adjectives)

The defendant claims that on the day of the murder he was at home alone washing his car, mowing his lawn, and bathing his dog. (gerund phrases)

The witness told the police officer that the car rolled down the hill, over the lawn, and into the swimming pool. (prepositional phrases)

2. Use Parallel Structure With Coordinating Conjunctions. In general, use the same grammatical structure on both sides of any of the coordinating conjunctions—and, but, or, nor, so, yet.

Nonparallel Louise spent three years in Houston going to law school and clerked for a tax firm.
Parallel Louise spent three years in Houston going to law school and clerking for a tax firm.

3. Use Parallel Structure With Correlative Conjunctions. Use the same structure after both parts of a correlative conjunction—either . . . or, both . . . and, neither . . . nor, not . . . but, not only . . . but also, just as . . . so, whether . . . or.

Nonparallel I told my father that my intentions were either to study law or learning tenor saxophone.
Parallel I told my father that my intentions were either to study law or to learn to play tenor saxophone.

Nonparallel The purpose of the rule is to ensure that actual notice is provided either by personal or constructive service.
Parallel The purpose of the rule is to ensure that actual notice is provided either by personal or by constructive service. Or
Parallel The purpose of the rule is to ensure that actual notice is provided by either personal or constructive service.

Adapted from: St. Martin’s Handbook-- Lunsford and Connors
The Legal Writing Handbook-- Oates, Enquist, and Kunsch
Prepared by James Wright and Chris Dunn

"Pencil Case" episode

Twe weeks ago, I left or dropped my pencil case somewhere in school building. I was so disappointed about it, because I carried my MP3 player in the pencil case. The MP3 player is a necessity for my survival in law school, because I record the lectures from professors who permitted me to do recording. Also, my MP3 player cannot be easily bought in Houson. I sent e-mails to all of my classmates, and they really sympathized with me.

But, after several days, I found my pencil case in Lost&Found office of law library. Below is the e-mail I sent to my classmates.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note) Sorry to mess up your mail box. If you don’t know or have any interest in my pencil case, just ignore this mail. ^_^



First of all, I really appreciate people who were concerned about my pencil case. Some of you might wonder why I was obsessed with a cheap pencil case.

I have carried a thumb-sized, multi functional, 1G bytes, MP3 player in the pencil case. Because it’s hard for me to keep track of lectures in classes, I record them using my MP3.

As I mentioned to some of you, I gave up finding the pencil case and MP3 player and bought new ones. But, MP3 players I bought from Circuit City and Best Buy were not as satisfactory as the one I used. So, I returned them and ordered the same model to Amazon.com. It was scheduled to arrive in my house at 1 o’clock.



Today, around noon, I was in a hurry to go home to get the ordered package from UPS guy. While I went to my car, I saw a gold-colored tumbler dropped on the ground of the parking lot. Well, the tumbler didn’t look expensive. I was busy. I didn’t start to rescue the tumbler and I had my autonomy not to pick up that tumbler, so there was no `special relationship` between me and the tumbler. I didn’t have any duty… ^^ But, suddenly, the tumbler reminded me of my adorable pencil case. (Well, the tumbler might whisper to me, “save me, save me. Don’t leave me here in hot ground.”) I lost the same kind of stuff a few days ago. The owner might have the same feelings that I got.



So, I took the tumbler on the ground and went to the library. I met the assistant who was in charge of Lost & Found. I already met him three times these days. I said “I got this one on the ground of parking lot. The owner might come here to get it back.” The assistant just nodded and didn’t promptly move to the inside room for Lost & Found. In the moment I turned my back and headed for the parking lot again, I just recalled my pencil case again. I gave it up, but, I wanted to check it one more time. I talked to the assistant, “You’ll go to Lost & Found room, right? Would you please check my pencil case again? It’s made of fabric and blue-colored, as you know.” Carrying the tumbler, he slowly moved to the inside room. After a few seconds, he came back. My pencil case was in his hand!!! Thank god.



I got a lesson from this episode – “Heaven helps those who help others.”



Did anyone drop a gold-colored tumbler on the ground, today? It’s in the library. ^_^



Dae-Gunn.

Web Broadcast - Townhall meeting with Dean

Click here!

The interim dean, Mr. Nimmer, had the chance to get the candid talk with UHLC members.