Law Commons^™

Formalism, Realism, And Patent Scope, Tun-Jen Chiang

IP Theory

No abstract provided.

Patent Challenges And Royalty Inflation, Michael Risch

Michael Risch

Eliminating bad patents is supposed to be a good thing, and so federal law allows any interested party to challenge a patent's validity almost any time. But the law goes a step further than merely conferring broad challenge rights. It also makes them nearly impossible to contract away. Instead, federal law voids any agreement not to challenge a patent. While a contract ordinarily signifies a final resolution of all issues covered by its terms, no such peace exists in patent licensing. This inalienability of patent challenge rights comes at a cost, a cost borne by many patent licensees and their …

Reinventing Usefulness, Michael Risch

Michael Risch

Patent law includes one of this country’s oldest continuous statutory requirements: since 1790, and without variance, inventors are only entitled to patent “new and useful” inventions. While “newness” receives constant attention and debate, usefulness has been largely ignored. Usefulness has transformed into the toothless and misunderstood “utility” doctrine, which requires that patents only have a bare minimum potential for use. This article seeks to reinvent patentable usefulness. It is the first comprehensive look at usefulness and it reasons that a core benefit of the requirement is to aid in the commercialization of inventions. The article then proposes two ways that …

A Brief Defense Of The Written Description Requirement, Michael Risch

Michael Risch

This essay provides a brief defense of the much maligned "written description" requirement in patent law. Many argue that there is no such requirement, and that a patent specification that enables a person having ordinary skill in the art (the PHOSITA) to make and use the invention is sufficient, even if the specification contains no description of the invention. This essay briefly describes the dispute, and then raises an important but under-theorized argument in favor of a separate written description requirement. The essay accepts the persuasive grammatical reading of the statute proposed by opponents of a separate written description requirement. …

Self-Realizing Inventions And The Utilitarian Foundation Of Patent Law, Alan Devlin, Neel Sukhatme

William & Mary Law Review

Unlike other forms of intellectual property, patents are universally justified on utilitarian grounds alone. Valuable inventions and discoveries, bearing the characteristics of public goods, are easily appropriated by third parties. Because much technological innovation occurs pursuant to significant expenditures—both in terms of upfront research and subsequent commercialization costs—inventors must be permitted to extract at least part of the social gain associated with their technological contributions. Absent some form of proprietary control or alternative reward system, economics predicts that suboptimal capital will be devoted to the innovative process. This widely accepted principle comes with an important corollary: namely, that canons of …

Patent Infringement Remedies, Lawrence M. Sung

Lawrence M. Sung

An accurate determination of patent infringement liability, whether during litigation or as part of pre-litigation risk management and business decision making, depends on not only the probability of infringement, but also the potential damages exposure. Accordingly, a keen understanding of the applicable patent infringement remedies and their quantitative measure is critical to both patent owners and competitors alike to establish an informed calculus of prudent business options in the litigation settlement and litigation avoidance contexts.

The New Private Ordering Of Intellectual Property, Lawrence Sung

Lawrence M. Sung

One consequence of the renewed U.S. Supreme Court interest in patent cases in recent years is an enhanced scrutiny on patent rights generally and, in particular, on the importance of better defining contracts to govern the patent rights among the parties. The Intellectual Property Law Program of the University of Maryland School of Law, in collaboratoin with the Business Law Program and the Journal of Business & Technology Law, convened a symposium on April 18, 2008 to consider the pertinent jurisprudence to inform prudent business practices in managing patent rights by private agreements. This Issue of the Journal includes a …

In The Wake Of Reinvigorated U.S. Supreme Court Activity In Patent Appeals, Lawrence M. Sung

Lawrence M. Sung

No abstract provided.

Piercing The Academic Veil: Disaffecting The Common Law Exception To Patent Infringement Liability And The Future Of A Bona Fide Research Use Exemption After Madey V. Duke University , Lawrence M. Sung

Lawrence M. Sung

No abstract provided.

Echoes Of Scientific Truth In The Halls Of Justice: The Standards Of Review Applied By The United States Court Of Appeals For The Federal Circuit In Patent-Related Matters, Lawrence M. Sung

Lawrence M. Sung

No abstract provided.

Stifling Or Stimulating - The Role Of Gene Patents In Research And Genetic Testing, Lawrence M. Sung

Lawrence M. Sung

No abstract provided.

Stranger In A Strange Land: Biotechnology And The Federal Circuit, Lawrence Sung

Lawrence M. Sung

No abstract provided.

Strangers In A Strange Land: Specialized Courts Resolving Patent Disputes, Lawrence M. Sung

Lawrence M. Sung

As the number of cases and disputes involving proprietary technology subject to intellectual property rights has increased in recent years, a decades-old view that such matters should be adjudicated exclusively by specialized courts and judges has experienced a renaissance. This call for specialized, or problem-solving, courts at both the federal and state levels is not unique to the intellectual property field, however. Indeed, there has been a significant movement over the past several years to establish specialized drug courts, community courts, mental health courts, and domestic violence courts. One common element among these efforts is the idea that specialized courts …

1995 Patent Law Decisions Of The United States Court Of Appeals For The Federal Circuit, Lawrence M. Sung

Lawrence M. Sung

No abstract provided.

The Road To Copenhagen: Intellectual Property And Climate Change, Matthew Rimmer

Matthew Rimmer

The draft negotiating text on long-term co-operative action under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change FCCC/AWGLCA/2009/8; the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 2010 and 2011 HR 2410 (United States); the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 HR 2454 (United States); the Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act 2010 HR. 3081 (United States); and the TRIPS Agreement 1994.In the lead-up to the discussions over IP and climate change in Copenhagen in 2009, the US House of Representatives passed a resolution that it should be the policy of US government officials in discussions over the long-term …

A Submission To The Senate Community Affairs Committee Inquiry Into Gene Patents, Matthew Rimmer

Matthew Rimmer

I am a senior lecturer and the associate director for research at the Australian National University College of Law based in Canberra, Australia. I am also an associate director of the Australian Centre for Intellectual Property in Agriculture (ACIPA). I have a BA (Hons) and a University Medal in literature, and a LLB (Hons) from the Australian National University, and a PhD in law from the University of New South Wales. I am a member of the Copyright and Intellectual Property Advisory Group of the Australian Library and Information Association, and a director of the Australian Digital Alliance. I am …

Recent Developments In Patent Law, Kristen Jakobsen Osenga

Law Faculty Publications

In the last year, the landscape of patent law was altered by court opinions from the Supreme Court and U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, as well as in opinions rendered by the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences (hereafter BP AI) at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. In addition, patent reform legislation was introduced that could have shaken up patent practice even further. Although none of the reform proposals were passed, revised versions of these legislative initiatives have already been introduced in 2009. This brief write-up summarizes many (but by no means all) of the …

Courting Specialization: An Empirical Study Of Claim Construction Comparing Patent Litigation Before Federal District Courts And The International Trade Commission, David Schwartz

David L. Schwartz

No abstract provided.

A Realistic Approach To The Obviousness Of Inventions, Daralyn J. Durie, Mark A. Lemley

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Practice Makes Perfect? An Empirical Study Of Claim Construction Reversal Rates In Patent Cases, David Schwartz

David L. Schwartz

No abstract provided.

Everything Is Patentable, Michael Risch

Michael Risch

The currently confused and inconsistent jurisprudence of patentable subject matter can be clarified by implementing a single rule - that which is otherwise patentable under the Patent Act is patentable subject matter. In other words, if a discovery otherwise meets the requirements of patentability - namely category, utility, novelty, non-obviousness, and specification - then the discovery will be properly patentable without need to consider traditional non-statutory subject matter issues such as mathematical algorithms, products of nature, or natural phenomena. The primary virtue of the proposed rule is that it provides a more rigorous and consistent doctrinal framework for determining patentability. …

The Genographic Project: Traditional Knowledge And Population Genetics, Matthew Rimmer

Matthew Rimmer

This article considers the debate over patent law, informed consent, and benefit-sharing in the context of biomedical research in respect of Indigenous communities. In particular, it focuses upon three key controversies over large-scale biology projects, involving Indigenous populations. These case studies are representative of the tensions between research organisations, Indigenous communities, and funding agencies. Section two considers the aims and origins of the Human Genome Diversity Project, and criticisms levelled against the venture by Indigenous peak bodies and anti-biotechnology groups, such as the Rural Advancement Foundation International. It examines the ways in which the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural …

The Hong Kong Amendment To The Trips Agreement: A Submission To The Joint Standing Committee On Treaties., Matthew Rimmer

Matthew Rimmer

In the wake of the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health 2001 and the WTO General Council Decision 2003, there is a need for industrialised nations to implement legislation to enable the export of pharmaceutical drugs to address public health concerns.I would argue that the Patents Act 1990 (Cth) should make provision for the grant of a compulsory licence over a patented invention in circumstances of ‘a national emergency or other circumstances of extreme urgency, or in cases of public non-commercial use’. Such a measure is necessary to deal with the possibility of public health epidemics that …

Survey Of The Federal Circuit's Patent Law Decisions In 2006: A New Chapter In The Ongoing Dialogue With The Supreme Court, Gregory A. Castanias, Lawrence D. Rosenberg, Michael S. Fried, Todd R. Geremia

American University Law Review

In 2006, the Federal Circuit decided only one portion of one patent case en banc, and that was done mainly as a procedural matter (the entire case was not argued to an en banc court) in order to reconcile prior conflicting precedent on the issue of induced patent infringement with the recent Supreme Court decision in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd., involving induced copyright infringement. But in light of the Supreme Court’s much more muscular review of the Federal Circuit’s patent cases—which may not even reflect the full extent of the Court’s interest in the Federal Circuit’s patent decisions—the …

Economics And The Design Of Patent Systems, Robert M. Hunt

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

I use intuition derived from several of my research papers to make three points. First, in the absence of a common law balancing test, application of uniform patentability criteria favors some industries over others. Policymakers must decide the optimal tradeoff across industries. Second, if patent rights are not closely related to the underlying inventions, more patenting may reduce R&D in industries that are both R&D and patent intensive. Third, the U.S. private innovation system has become far more decentralized than it was a generation ago. It is reasonable to inquire whether a patent system that worked well in an era …

The Failure Of Public Notice In Patent Prosecution, Michael Risch

Michael Risch

Patents often contain technical information intertwined with legal meaning, and inventions are often difficult to describe in words. Despite complex interpretive rules, patent law has failed in one of its essential missions - giving those who need to read patents the ability to understand the scope of a patent's claims in a consistent and predictable manner. As a result, those who rely on patents - patentees, potential and actual licensees, potential and actual defendants, future patent applicants, courts, and even the Patent and Trademark Office - may find it difficult or impossible to discern the metes and bounds of any …

Inherency, Dan L. Burk, Mark A. Lemley

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Patent Portfolios, Gideon Parchomovsky, R. Polk Wagner

All Faculty Scholarship

This article presents a new theory of patent value, responding to growing empirical evidence that the traditional appropriability premise of patents is fundamentally incomplete in the modern innovation environment. We find that for patents, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts: the true value of patents lies not in their individual worth, but in their aggregation into a collection of related patents, a patent portfolio. The patent portfolio theory thus explains what is known as “the patent paradox”: in recent years patent intensity—patents obtained per research and development dollar—has risen dramatically even as the expected value of …

Patent Claim Interpretation Methodologies And Their Claim Scope Paradigms, Christopher A. Cotropia

William & Mary Law Review

The optimal scope of patent protection is an issue with which patent system observers have struggled for decades. Various patent doctrines have been recognized as tools for creating specific patent scopes and, as a result, implementing specific patent theories. One area of patent law that has not been addressed in the discussion on patent scope and theories is patent claim interpretation. This omission is particularly noteworthy because of the substantive role patent claims and the interpretation thereof play in the patent system, namely the framing of questions of patent infringement and validity. This Article will explore the not-yet-discussed relationship between …

Innovation Policy In Telecommunications: Revisiting The Successes Of Guglielmo Marconi, John M. Williamson

Federal Communications Law Journal

Book Review: Signor Marconi's Magic Box: The Most Remarkable Invention of the 19th Century & the Amateur Inventor Whose Genius Sparked a Revolution, Gavin Weightman, Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo Press, 2003, 312 pages.

A review of Gavin Weightman's Signor Marconi's Magic Box, Da Capo Press, 2003. An entertaining and informative biography of the inventor of applied wireless communications, this book also gives practical insight into the effect of patent policy on innovation. The Marconi story parallels the challenges faced by today's telecommunications innovators and offers a significant historical perspective relevant to present-day debates over the direction of innovation policy and …