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Articles 1 - 9 of 9
Full-Text Articles in Law
Patent Term Tailoring, Sarah R. Wasserman Rajec
Patent Term Tailoring, Sarah R. Wasserman Rajec
Faculty Publications
Patent rights are designed to encourage innovation with both the promise of a patent and with its expiration. Currently, patent term lasts from issuance until twenty years from the application date, with minor exceptions. The patent term is limited so that rewards for past invention do not overly hinder future progress. Although the goal is laudable, a uniform patent term is a blunt instrument to achieve such a nuanced balance. Historically, the patent system was not averse to tailoring terms through, for example, individually granted extensions to undercompensated inventors or term curtailment when a foreign patent holder failed to “work” …
Advances In Patent Rights Acquisition In International Patent Law, Sarah R. Wasserman Rajec
Advances In Patent Rights Acquisition In International Patent Law, Sarah R. Wasserman Rajec
Faculty Publications
At this centennial event, we have been asked to reflect on the most consequential developments in international intellectual property law of the last 100 years, with an eye towards important future developments as well. This is no small task, given the proliferation of intellectual property-related treaties and the profound changes in business structures, manufacturing, and trade that the last century has seen. The rise of the multinational corporation has been fueled in part by changes to trade laws, and the inclusion of intellectual property in trade-related treaties has facilitated cross-border research and development, manufacturing, and distribution of goods subject to …
Wrongly Affirmed Without Opinion, Dennis D. Crouch
Wrongly Affirmed Without Opinion, Dennis D. Crouch
Faculty Publications
In his 1909 treatise on appellate jurisdiction, the future Justice Benjamin Cardozo explained the role of appellate courts - not simply "declaring justice between man and man, but . .. settling the law." In Justice Cardozo's view, the appellate courts exist "not for the individual litigant, but for the indefinite body of litigants, whose causes are potentially involved in the specific cause at issue." Justice Cardozo's vision more than a century ago still resonates, and precedential opinions form a mainstay of appellate court activity nationwide. However, one court of appeals is quite different from the rest. The Court of Appeals …
Is It Time For A Rule 11 For The Patent Bar?, Ralph D. Clifford
Is It Time For A Rule 11 For The Patent Bar?, Ralph D. Clifford
Faculty Publications
The failure to require the patent bar to be completely candid in its dealings with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”) is one of the reasons behind the patent quality problem in the United States. Although PTO regulations impose a duty of candor on both the patent applicant and his or he attorney, this duty of disclosure is limited to matters already known by the parties. The regulations impose no duty to become educated about the technology that underlies a claimed invention. Indeed, there are rational reasons why a patent applicant might seek an uneducated attorney and order him …
Should Frand Patents Get Exclusion Orders?, Colleen Chien
Should Frand Patents Get Exclusion Orders?, Colleen Chien
Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.
The Misuse Of Reasonable Royalty Damages As A Patent Infringement Deterrent, Brian J. Love
The Misuse Of Reasonable Royalty Damages As A Patent Infringement Deterrent, Brian J. Love
Faculty Publications
This Article studies the Federal Circuit's use of excessive reasonable royalty awards as a patent infringement deterrent. I argue against this practice, explaining that, properly viewed in context of the patent system as a whole, distorting the reasonable royalty measure of damages is an unnecessary and ineffective means of ensuring an optimal level of reward for inventors and deterrence for infringers. First, I introduce cases in which the Federal Circuit and other courts following its lead have awarded punitive reasonable royalty awards and explain the Federal Circuit's professed rationale for doing so. Next, I demonstrate that this practice makes little …
Patentee Overcompensation And The Entire Market Value Rule, Brian J. Love
Patentee Overcompensation And The Entire Market Value Rule, Brian J. Love
Faculty Publications
Imagine a computer chip composed of millions of transistors and hundreds or even thousands of individually patented inventions. Could just one of those patented components ever account for the entire economic value of the chip? Could just one such invention ever account for the entire value of a total personal computer system-monitor, keyboard, mouse, printer, software, and all-sold along with the chip? While these questions may seem far-fetched, they may soon be answered in the affirmative under a U.S. patent law doctrine known as the "entire market value rule."
Patent Donations And Tax Policy, Xuan-Thao Nguyen, Jeffrey A. Maine
Patent Donations And Tax Policy, Xuan-Thao Nguyen, Jeffrey A. Maine
Faculty Publications
To achieve the policy goals of ultimate innovation, the government should provide incentives to encourage the patentees to donate, rather than abandon, their "orphan" patents to universities, hospitals, and other nonprofit organizations with research and development facilities that can properly exploit the patents. The authors advocate for the implementation of incentives that would encourage donors to surrender their monopolistic ownership of patents for the benefit of charitable organizations and, in tum, the development and growth of society.
Intellectual Property In The Era Of The Creative Computer Program, Ralph D. Clifford
Intellectual Property In The Era Of The Creative Computer Program, Ralph D. Clifford
Faculty Publications
Computer scientists, using artificial intelligence techniques such as neural networks, are enabling computers to independently create works that appear to qualify for federal intellectual property protection. In at least one case, the creator of this kind of program has registered its output, a series of musical compositions, under his name as author with United States Copyright Office. Whether the output of the computer satisfies the statutory and constitutional requisites for protection is questionable, however. The author of this Article argues that the output of an autonomously creative computer program cannot be protected under the current copyright and patent laws. Further, …