The Future of Resale Royalties in the United States

In my thesis, I will provide a detailed overview of resale royalty law and its history, addressing and analyzing why the attempts at its adoption in the United States have been unsuccessful. I will begin with its origins in Europe, explore American efforts to establish resale royalty law (especially the enactment and subsequent repeal of the California Resale Royalties Act), and will finally investigate possibilities for these laws in the near and distant future. First, I will provide an expository overview of the subject of resale royalty laws, examining their history both internationally and domestically. I will then evaluate the positions of legal scholars on resale royalties and embody an advocacy approach, detailing potential prescriptive recommendations for federal enactment in the United States. To substantiate the case for establishing resale royalties in the United States, I will address examples of their implementation and further evaluate other scholars' recommendations for future legislative possibilities.