Law Commons^™

Limiting Patentees' Market Power Without Reducing Innovation Incentives: The Perverse Benefits Of Uncertainty And Non-Injunctive Remedies, Ian Ayres, Paul Klemperer

Michigan Law Review

Uncertainty and delay in patent litigation may have unforeseen virtues. The combination of these oft-criticized characteristics might induce a limited amount of infringement that enhances social welfare without reducing (or without substantially reducing) the profitability of the patentee. Patent infringement is generally viewed as socially inefficient because infringement reduces the patentee's ex ante incentive to innovate. Limited amounts of infringement combined with increased patent duration, however, can substantially reduce the distortionary ex post effects of supracompetitive pricing without reducing the patentee's ex ante incentives to innovate. Indeed, this Article derives a legal regime that preserves the incentive to innovate by …

Antitrust-Patents-Licenses-Regulation Of Patent License Royalty Rates Under The Antitrust Laws, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Neither the Constitution nor federal legislation defines a patentee's licensing rights; consequently, it has devolved upon the courts to control patent marketing practices. A patentee is entitled to a limited monopoly on his invention, and proper use of this grant is not a violation of any law regulating trade practices. Yet licensing affords an opportunity to enlarge the scope of this monopoly, and courts using various rationales have declared illegal different forms of patent licensing arrangements found to be outside the protective coverage of the patent grant. Until recently, however, the courts have not dealt with the problem of whether …

Know-How Licensing And The Antitrust Laws, David R. Macdonald

Michigan Law Review

The purpose of this article is to re-analyze the present antitrust status of know-how licensing for the purpose of clarifying the extent of the protection which the exploiter of know-how may accord himself without abusing the public interest in unfettered competition.

Patents--Prior Publication-Application Of Section 102(B) To Plant Patents, Ira J. Jaffe S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Appellant applied for a plant patent on two roses which he had developed. The Patent Office Board of Appeals affirmed the final rejection of the application on the basis of section 102(b) of the patent statute. Pictures and classifications of the varieties of roses sought to be patented had appeared in printed publications more than one year before appellant's application. On appeal, held, reversed. In order to bar issuance of a plant patent, a description in a printed publication must convey such knowledge as to place the invention within the public domain. In re LeGrice, 301 F.2d 929 …

The Patent-Antitrust Problem, Bartholomew Diggins

Michigan Law Review

The Patent-Antitrust section of the Report of the Attorney General's National Committee to Study the Antitrust Laws is an excellent analysis of the existing law and is an invaluable handbook for practitioners in this difficult field. The writer's approach to the problem is different from that of the committee and before commenting specifically on the Report it is only fair to state the writer's views of the problem lest differences in viewpoint give the impression of criticism of the Report.

In any approach to the patent-antitrust problem there is a basic question: does a "patent-antitrust problem" exist? The Report …

Contributory Infringement And The Combination Patent, Samuel Ewer Eastman

Michigan Law Review

The right of action for contributory infringement of a patent was forged by judicial legislation, and, as limited and subjected to opposing rules of law, has been tempered by that same process. The history is exemplary of the control over society exercisable by the courts according to their own individual economic outlook.

In tracing this history, buying agreements, price-fixing, agreements not to deal in the goods of a competitor, conspiracies to restrain trade through licensing, and other business arrangements subject to scrutiny under the anti-trust laws will be dealt with only incidentally. It is not possible to deal only with …

Patents - Estoppel Of Licensee To Deny Validity - Restrictions On Licensee's Sale Prices

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff sued to recover royalties alleged to be due under a contract licensing defendant to manufacture articles covered by a patent owned by the plaintiff. The agreement provided that defendant licensee should not sell embodiments of the invention manufactured under the license at prices or under conditions more favorable to its customers than those prescribed by the licensor for its own customers. The defendant set up the defense that plaintiff "by reason of the price control provisions of the licensing contract and the invalidity of [the patent]" was not entitled to recover the royalties. The district court and the circuit …