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Full-Text Articles in Law

Commercializing Open Source Software: Do Property Rights Still Matter?, Ronald J. Mann Jan 2006

Commercializing Open Source Software: Do Property Rights Still Matter?, Ronald J. Mann

Faculty Scholarship

For several years now, open source software products have been gaining prominence and market share. Yet the products themselves are not as provocative as the way in which they are developed and distributed. Two related features of the open source model are distinctive: the use of collaborative development structures that extend beyond the boundaries of a single firm, and the lack of reliance on intellectual property ("IP") rights as a means of appropriating the value of the underlying technologies. Firm-level control of intellectual property is replaced by a complex set of relations, both informal and sometimes contractual, among strategic partners …


Open Access In Law Teaching: A New Approach To Legal Education, Matthew T. Bodie Jan 2006

Open Access In Law Teaching: A New Approach To Legal Education, Matthew T. Bodie

All Faculty Scholarship

The "open access" movement seeks to change our approach to the distribution of scholarship in the fields of science, medicine, the social sciences, and law. This Essay argues for the application of these principles to legal education itself. Open access would mean greater flexibility, interaction, and innovation in the creation of course materials. It would lead to new teaching methods and new forms of feedback between student and professor. Open access centers on particular legal subject areas could facilitate national and international collaboration. Ultimately, the open access law school would ameliorate the growing standardization and commodification of legal education by …


The Impact Of Open Source On Preinvention Assignment Contracts, Michael Mattioli Jan 2006

The Impact Of Open Source On Preinvention Assignment Contracts, Michael Mattioli

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This comment studies the implications of open source on pre-invention assignment agreements. Part I analyzes the basis for past enforcement of these contracts, with an eye toward distinctions between open source projects and more traditional commercial endeavors. Part II briefly reviews the history of patents and explores constitutional and contract-based arguments against the pre-invention assignment. Part III begins with a discussion of open source and then explores how this new phenomenon perfectly fulfills the goals behind the Patent Act. With these addressed, the central inquiry of pre-invention assignment agreements, as they could conflict with open source inventions, will be addressed. …