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The Disputed Quality Of Software Patents, John R. Allison, Ronald J. Mann
The Disputed Quality Of Software Patents, John R. Allison, Ronald J. Mann
Faculty Scholarship
We analyze the characteristics of the patents held by firms in the software industry. Unlike prior researchers, we rely on the examination of individual patents to determine which patents involve software inventions. This method of identifying the relevant patents is more laborious than the methods that previous scholars have used, but it produces a data set from which we can learn more about the role of patents in the software industry. In general, we find that patents the computer technology firms obtain on software inventions have more prior art references, claims, and forward citations than the patents that the same …
An Empirical Investigation Of Liquidation Choices Of Failed High Tech Firms, Ronald J. Mann
An Empirical Investigation Of Liquidation Choices Of Failed High Tech Firms, Ronald J. Mann
Faculty Scholarship
Perhaps it is merely a reflection of my interests, but to my mind, empirical research requires a certain risk-preferent boldness. I like projects that explore how and why particular businesses make important decisions. After I identify a topic, I typically try to gather as much qualitative and quantitative information about it as I can, with the expectation that when I have learned a great deal about the topic something interesting will emerge that relates in some important way to an ongoing academic debate. Those projects usually do not begin with a specific hypothesis to prove or disprove-often either answer will …
Misstatements Of Fact In Adam Vangrack's Student Note: A Letter To The Editors Of The Washington University Law Quarterly, Jeffery Fagan, James S. Liebman, Valerie West
Misstatements Of Fact In Adam Vangrack's Student Note: A Letter To The Editors Of The Washington University Law Quarterly, Jeffery Fagan, James S. Liebman, Valerie West
Faculty Scholarship
The Quarterly's Fall 2001 issue published a Note reviewing our report, A Broken System: Error Rates in Capital Cases, 1973-1995. That Note has three inaccuracies that are so clear and frequently repeated, and are the result of such clear cite-checking lapses, that remedial steps are required. These matters do not involve differences of opinion, judgment, or interpretation between us and the Note's author. Matters of that sort are appropriately addressed in a response. All instead are misstatements of fact that result from the Quarterly's failure to fulfill its basic obligation to check the accuracy of verifiable factual statements it …
Vangrack's Explanations: Treating The Truth As A Mere Matter Of "Form", Jeffery Fagan, James S. Liebman, Valerie West
Vangrack's Explanations: Treating The Truth As A Mere Matter Of "Form", Jeffery Fagan, James S. Liebman, Valerie West
Faculty Scholarship
We welcome criticism by responsible scholars and readers, and the chance to address it in journals that enforce appropriate standards of accuracy and integrity. We have done just that in exchanges in Judicature and the Indiana Law Journal.
But the inaccuracies in Adam VanGrack's Note, and new problems with his present explanation, lead us to conclude that it is not useful to exchange views with him in the Washington University Law Quarterly. Beyond all is Mr. VanGrack's dismissal of matters serious enough to trigger an extraordinary instruction to explain himself in print, and to prompt him to rescind …
Textualism And The Future Of The Chevron Doctrine, Thomas W. Merrill
Textualism And The Future Of The Chevron Doctrine, Thomas W. Merrill
Faculty Scholarship
The last decade has been a remarkable one for statutory interpretation. For most of our history, American judges have been pragmatists when it comes to interpreting statutes. They have drawn on various conventions – the plain meaning rule, legislative history, considerations of statutory purpose, canons of construction – "much as a golfer selects the proper club when he gauges the distance to the pin and the contours of the course." The arrival of Justice Scalia on the Supreme Court has changed this. Justice Scalia is a foundationalist, insisting that certain interpretational tools should be permanently banned from judicial use. What …