Recent graduate wins award for copyright law article
Jessica L. Santiago, a May 2016 graduate, recently won an award for her article examining a legal question getting under people’s skin – whether or not tattoos should be subject to copyright law.
Her article “Tattoos: Meaning of Tangible Medium in 21st Century” earned third place in the 2016 Pennsylvania Bar Association (PBA) International Property Law Writing Competition, and will be published on the PBA website in the International Property Law Section.
The PBA Intellectual Property Law Section Writing Contest was established in 2004 and calls for law students to submit articles expressing their insight and knowledge in the areas of patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets or trade dress.
Santiago became interested in the issue while researching topics related to entertainment, copyright and trademark law to present in her international property law class with Associate Professor Tonya Evans. After her presentation, Santiago worked with Evans to develop the topic for her article.
“The selection of my topic was a process. I was also writing this topic for my seminar paper, but at the same time I needed it to satisfy my writing requirement for the Widener Journal of Law, Economics, and Race,” Santiago said. “Professor Evans and I started bouncing ideas back and forth about how I could incorporate race and economics. I knew that this was what my article was going to be about. I looked for books, cases, news articles, statutes, and just wrote my little heart out.”
In her article, Santiago argued that tattoos are copyrightable; however, as a matter of public policy a person should not allow for another person to have rights to their body. She concluded that tattoos should be included as a tenth category of specially commissioned work in the work-for-hire doctrine.