Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Keyword
-
- Patent disclosure (4)
- Patent law (4)
- Patent disclosures (2)
- Patent system (2)
- Chevron (1)
-
- Claim construction (1)
- Commercialization (1)
- Concept of embodiments (1)
- Design patent (1)
- Disclosure function (1)
- Disclosure obligations (1)
- Disclosure theory (1)
- Dissemination of technical information (1)
- Dissemination of useful information (1)
- Enablement (1)
- Federal circuit (1)
- Ignition and constraint (1)
- Infringement (1)
- Invention (1)
- Jurisprudence (1)
- Non-disclosure (1)
- Non-practicing entities (1)
- Nontechnical disclosure (1)
- Patent and trademark (1)
- Patent content (1)
- Patent theory (1)
- Patents (1)
- Peer review (1)
- Photocopies (1)
- Physicalism (1)
Articles 1 - 14 of 14
Full-Text Articles in Law
Patent Disclosures And Time, Timothy R. Holbrook
Patent Disclosures And Time, Timothy R. Holbrook
Vanderbilt Law Review
Patents by their very nature are pregnant with considerations of time. The exclusive rights they afford only last for a finite period- generally from issuance until twenty years from the filing date of the application. Moreover, since patents necessarily engage with the evolution of technology, patents reflect various "snap shots" in time that reflect the state of the art at a particular moment. Patent law must constantly wrestle with time. Many of these topics have been explored extensively in both judicial decisions and the literature. The most obvious example of considering the temporal aspect of patent law is ... obviousness. …
Nontechnical Disclosure, J. Jonas Anderson
Nontechnical Disclosure, J. Jonas Anderson
Vanderbilt Law Review
One of the primary goals of the patent system is the broad dissemination of technical knowledge. Patent law forces inventors to disclose how their inventions work. Inventors seeking a patent are required to describe "the manner and process of making and using" the patented invention. Additionally, a patent must "enable any person skilled in the art.., to make and use" the invention. Despite this explicit statutory disclosure requirement, patent law could do better at ensuring that patents convey useful information to the public. Academics have vigorously debated about whether and to what degree the patent system performs its disclosure function. …
Pierson, Peer Review, And Patent Law, Lisa L. Ouellette
Pierson, Peer Review, And Patent Law, Lisa L. Ouellette
Vanderbilt Law Review
When has a researcher done enough to merit a patent? Should the patent belong to the researcher who first suggests an invention or the one who brings it to fruition? The canonical dispute over a fox in Pierson v. Post is used to illustrate the competing policy considerations in deciding when to award a new property right, including providing efficient incentives, setting forth clear rules to guide future behavior, and respecting natural rights. In patent law, all of these considerations suggest that in practice, many patents are awarded too early, before an applicant has demonstrated that the invention is likely …
The Doctrinal Structure Of Patent Law's Enablement Requirement, Jason Rantanen
The Doctrinal Structure Of Patent Law's Enablement Requirement, Jason Rantanen
Vanderbilt Law Review
This Article examines the formal law of enablement, focusing on a perceived split in the enablement doctrine: whether disclosure of a single mode of an invention is necessarily sufficient to satisfy the requirement of enablement or whether the full scope of the claim must be enabled. In examining this split, this Article articulates the enablement inquiry in conceptual terms, identifying two elements of the courts' analyses that are implicit in every enablement determination: the nature of enablement disputes, as challenges and the articulation of a target or targets that must be enabled. , With this understanding in mind, the "full …
Legal Fictions And The Role Of Information In Patent Law, Craig A. Nard
Legal Fictions And The Role Of Information In Patent Law, Craig A. Nard
Vanderbilt Law Review
In his 1974 Nobel Prize Lecture, Freidrich Hayek admonished us, as he did throughout so much of his work, about the limitations of our knowledge and stressed what knowledge we do have should be used "not to shape the results as the craftsman shapes his handiwork, but rather to cultivate a growth by providing the appropriate environment." This analogy-what Hayek referred to as the "pretense of knowledge"-is germane to legal systems where the common law plays a prominent role. Patent law is such a field. Judicial stewardship of the patent space can be seen as an institutional advantage, one that …
Photocopies, Patents, And Knowledge Transfer: "The Uneasy Case" Of Justice Breyer's Patentable Subject Matter Jurisprudence, Dmitry Karshtedt
Photocopies, Patents, And Knowledge Transfer: "The Uneasy Case" Of Justice Breyer's Patentable Subject Matter Jurisprudence, Dmitry Karshtedt
Vanderbilt Law Review
One aspect of Justice Stephen Breyer's discomfort with patents, as expressed in his opinion for the Supreme Court in Mayo v. Prometheus and his dissent from the order dismissing certiorari in LabCorp v. Metabolite, is strikingly similar to one of his critiques of copyright law in The Uneasy Case for Copyright, a well-known article he wrote as Professor Breyer more than forty-five years ago. In The Uneasy Case, Breyer argued that the burdens on duplication of technical articles imposed by copyright law restrict the flow of information and prevent scientists from enjoying spillover benefits of published research. His patent opinions …
Dynamic Patent Disclosure, Jeanne C. Fromer
Dynamic Patent Disclosure, Jeanne C. Fromer
Vanderbilt Law Review
Those who tout the role of disclosure as a benefit of the patent system emphasize-as the Supreme Court has-that the information in patents "add[s] to the general store of knowledge [and is] of such importance to the public weal that the Federal Government is willing to pay the high price of ... exclusive use for its disclosure, which disclosure ... will stimulate ideas and the eventual development of further significant advances in the art." As I excavate in this Article, the current state of patent disclosure-which many think is poor and does not achieve its objective of stimulating innovation-is impoverished …
Symposium: The Disclosure Function Of The Patent System, Sean B. Seymore
Symposium: The Disclosure Function Of The Patent System, Sean B. Seymore
Vanderbilt Law Review
A fundamental goal of the patent system is to encourage the dissemination of technical knowledge.' The patent system achieves this goal through a quid pro quo-in exchange for the right to exclude, the inventor must fully disclose the technical details of the invention. As soon as a patent document publishes, there is hope that the public will use the technical details disclosed therein to improve upon the invention, to design around it, or to engage in other innovative activities. So while the patentee maintains the right to exclude others from practicing the invention until the patent expires, the technical information …
Disclosing Designs, Jason Du Mont, Mark D. Janis
Disclosing Designs, Jason Du Mont, Mark D. Janis
Vanderbilt Law Review
The disclosure function figures prominently in many accounts of the utility patent system. But what of its role in the design patent system? Should it be dismissed as trivial? And if so, what are the practical consequences for design patent doctrine in view of the fact that the doctrines that implement the disclosure function in utility patent law also apply to design patents by statutory mandate? The disclosure theory posits that patent documents disclose technical information that serves as a quid pro quo for the patent grant. Even aside from controversies about whether the disclosure function is robust for utility …
The Structural Implications Of Inventors' Disclosure Obligations, Kevin E. Collins
The Structural Implications Of Inventors' Disclosure Obligations, Kevin E. Collins
Vanderbilt Law Review
Disclosure theory posits that inventors must disclose knowledge about their inventions and make that knowledge freely available for certain uses during the term of a patent as part of the price that they pay for their exclusive patent rights. This Article identifies an overlooked implication of this disclosure obligation. The availability of disclosed knowledge itself for free public use during the term of a patent means that there must be limits on inventors' rights: inventors must not be allowed to transform the use of disclosed knowledge itself into infringement through strategic claiming. If they could, inventors would, oddly, be able …
Physicalism And Patent Theory, Christopher A. Cotropia
Physicalism And Patent Theory, Christopher A. Cotropia
Vanderbilt Law Review
United States patent law's view on the need for a physical embodiment of the invention, and the continued production and use of an embodiment, has varied over the last two centuries. In the early days, the requirement for 'physicalism" was high, with the inventor being required to actually reduce the invention to practice prior to patenting, and enforceability was tied to "working" the claimed invention. By the early 1900s, these requirements of physicalism disappeared. This changing view on physicalism speaks volumes as to which major patent theory the law emphasizes, with physicalism supporting the incentive to invent theory and the …
Patent Silences, Dan L. Burk
Patent Silences, Dan L. Burk
Vanderbilt Law Review
A great deal has been said in recent years about patent disclosure. But to say that there is a disclosure function in the patent system implies that there is non-disclosure functioning in the patent system as well. For some information to be disclosed in a patent, other information must go undisclosed; for some things to be included, other things must be excluded. In this article I review the surprising number of doctrines that allow and encourage patent applicants to remain silent about aspects of their inventions. I find that some silences in patents are inadvertent, while some are deliberate; some …
Contextualizing Patent Disclosure, Colleen V. Chien
Contextualizing Patent Disclosure, Colleen V. Chien
Vanderbilt Law Review
One of the main justifications for a patent system is that patents disclose useful technical information that others can learn from. However, patents are not performing this function well. The average patent is written in legalese, uses vague language, and is hard to connect to commercial activity. Legal scholars have responded with calls to improve the patent document through better writing, more examples, and better enforcement of patent doctrines. The courts have sought to ensure that patent specifications are robust and justify the grant of a monopoly. This follows from the Supreme Court's characterization of technical teachings within a patent …
The Great Balancing Act: The Effect Of The America Invents Act On The Division Of Power Between The Patent And Trademark Office And The Federal Circuit, Samiyyah R. Ali
The Great Balancing Act: The Effect Of The America Invents Act On The Division Of Power Between The Patent And Trademark Office And The Federal Circuit, Samiyyah R. Ali
Vanderbilt Law Review
The United States Constitution grants Congress the power "(t)o promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts" by entering into a bargain that drives patent policy: Congress grants a patent to the inventor for a limited time, in exchange for the benefit to society of the invention. The Constitution empowered Congress with broad authority, and Congress has, as in many areas of the law, created several entities that shape patent policy. Despite Congress's creation of the United States Patent and Trademark Office ("PTO"), tasked with the regulation of patent applications and grants, courts-specifically semi-specialized appellate courts-have driven patent policy for …