Law Commons^™

Patentability Of Micro-Organisms, Diamond V. Chakrabarty, Ann Amer Brennan

Akron Law Review

The decision rendered by the Supreme Court in Diamond v. Chakrabarty allows the new science of biotechnology to come out of the closet and to take its place in the public domain with other scientific achievements that have, for better or for worse, shaped the industrial life of the United States. It is probable that the products which will result from this emerging science will affect each of us in some way during our lifetimes.

Patent Law Reform Via The Federal Courts Improvement Act Of 1982: The Transformation Of Patentability Jurisprudence, Timothy J. O'Hearn

Akron Law Review

The Federal Courts Improvement Act was signed into law on April 2, 1982. Set for an effective date of October 1, 1982, the result of this enactment has been the merger of the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals and the Court of Claims into a new appellate federal court: the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Unlike most appellate courts, the jurisdiction of the new Federal Circuit is determined primarily by subject matter, rather than geography. As a result, this change in the federal judiciary will be felt directly in only a few special legal subject areas. Among …

Protecting The High-Tech Frontier: The Need For Stronger Process Patent Laws, Bruce Kramer

Akron Law Review

But difficulties exist in transforming technological possibilities into realities. Aside from scientific and engineering problems, legal obstacles stand in the way of technological development. One major legal impediment is the lack of protection afforded by U.S. process patent laws. All too often, foreign companies infringe on process patents obtained by American companies. For example, Sohio developed a process to manufacture ceramic heat seals for turbine engines and obtained a patent on it, but Japanese competitor Kyocera soon entered the market with a similar process." Other major companies which claim their process patents have been violated include Allied-Signal, Corning Glass Works, …

Human Creativity For Economic Development: Patents Propel Technology, Robert M. Sherwood

Akron Law Review

Intellectual property both leads and lags the development of new technology. It lags in the sense that developments usually precede the law. Today science is accelerating so rapidly that the lawyers and policy analysts can barely grasp what the new questions are, much less supply answers. How are we to adapt the historic forms of protection to deal with new things like patents for genetically modified life forms, or for the Internet? Yet, this process of adaptation is not new. There was a time when maps were all the rage in Europe and judges puzzled over how much difference was …

Selecting An Appropriate Damages Expert In A Patent Case; An Examination Of The Current Status Of Daubert, Michael H. King, Steven M. Evans

Akron Law Review

The determination of damages is a critical part of any patent case. As a plaintiff, maximizing awarded damages, whether financial or injunctive, is the ultimate objective of the patent case. As a defendant, minimizing or preventing any awarded damages is the ultimate objective.

Multimillion dollar verdicts in patent cases are now the norm and hundred plus million dollar verdicts are becoming more frequent. A lawyer who fails to devote sufficient time to this critical component of a case does the client a disservice.

There are generally two types of damages in patent cases: lost profits and a reasonable royalty. A …

Beyond Incentives: Expanding The Theoretical Framework For Patent Law Analysis, Ofer Tur-Sinai

Akron Law Review

This Article challenges this one-dimensional approach and calls for a more frequent use of non-utilitarian considerations in discussions of the patent system. To be sure, this Article does not call for the complete abolition of economic analysis of patent law, which, despite its shortcomings, remains the most important tool in the evaluation of legal rules in this arena, where the vast majority of the players are motivated primarily by economic considerations. However, it does call for a broader use of non-economic considerations, particularly those embedded in the labor theory and the personality theory, alongside the economic analysis. As will be …