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Full-Text Articles in Law
Patent Pool Outsiders, Michael Mattioli
Patent Pool Outsiders, Michael Mattioli
Articles by Maurer Faculty
Individuals who decline to join cooperative groups — outsiders — raise concerns in many areas of law and policy. From trade policy to climate agreements to class action procedures, the fundamental concern is the same: a single member of the group who drops out could weaken the remaining union. This Article analyzes the outsider problem as it affects patents.
The outsider question has important bearing on patent and antitrust policy. By centralizing and simplifying complex patent licensing deals, patent pools conserve tremendous transaction costs. This allows for the widespread production and competitive sale of many useful technologies, particularly in the …
Measuring The Costs And Benefits Of Patent Pools, Michael Mattioli, Robert P. Merges
Measuring The Costs And Benefits Of Patent Pools, Michael Mattioli, Robert P. Merges
Articles by Maurer Faculty
This Article addresses a policy question that has challenged scholars and lawmakers since the 1850s: Do the transaction cost benefits of patent pools outweigh their potential for consumer harm? This question has special importance today. Patent pools are on the increase, due to large numbers of patents in critical industries such as software and mobile phones. In this Article, we present the first empirically-based estimate of the transaction costs savings engendered by patent pools. Drawing on interviews with administrators of prominent pools, we document the costs of assembling and administering a functioning pool. We then estimate the transaction costs that …
Patent Law's Audience, Mark D. Janis, Timothy R. Holbrook
Patent Law's Audience, Mark D. Janis, Timothy R. Holbrook
Articles by Maurer Faculty
Many rules of patent law rest on a false premise about their target audience. Rules of patentability purport to provide subtle incentives to innovators. However, innovators typically encounter these rules only indirectly, through intermediaries such as lawyers, venture capitalists, managers, and others. Rules of patent scope strive to provide notice of the boundaries of the patent right to anyone whose activities might approach those boundaries, including, in theory, any member of the general public. But the rules of patent scope are practically incomprehensible to the general public. In this Article, we argue that rules of patent law should be designed …
Tuning The Obviousness Inquiry After Ksr, Mark D. Janis
Tuning The Obviousness Inquiry After Ksr, Mark D. Janis
Articles by Maurer Faculty
One of the most important and delicate judicial tasks in patent law is to keep the obviousness doctrine in reasonable working order. There are several reasons why the obviousness doctrine has been the subject of frequent judicial tinkering. First, patentability doctrines interact with each other, so doctrinal alterations that seem to be entirely external to the obviousness doctrine frequently have ripple effects on obviousness. The interaction between the utility and obviousness doctrines provides one good example. Second, the obviousness doctrine is internally complex. Cases in the chemical and biotechnology areas over the past several decades have amply illustrated this point. …
Partial Patents, Michael Mattioli, Gideon Parchomovsky
Partial Patents, Michael Mattioli, Gideon Parchomovsky
Articles by Maurer Faculty
In this Article, we propose a way to improve the workings of the patent system. Unlike most extant reform proposals that focus on the USPTO and the Federal Circuit and the procedures they employ, our proposal is conceptual in nature. We introduce two new intellectual property forms—“quasi-patents” and “semi-patents.” Quasi-patents, as we define them, would avail only against direct business competitors of the inventor, but not against anyone else. Semi-patents would have the same scope as traditional patents, but their grant would be conditioned on an applicant’s consent to publish all research information pertaining to the protected invention. These two …
The Impact Of Open Source On Preinvention Assignment Contracts, Michael Mattioli
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. …
Reforming Patent Validity Litigation: The "Dubious Preponderance", Mark D. Janis
Reforming Patent Validity Litigation: The "Dubious Preponderance", Mark D. Janis
Articles by Maurer Faculty
No abstract provided.
On Courts Herding Cats: Contending With The "Written Description" Requirement (And Other Unruly Patent Disclosure Doctrines), Mark D. Janis
On Courts Herding Cats: Contending With The "Written Description" Requirement (And Other Unruly Patent Disclosure Doctrines), Mark D. Janis
Articles by Maurer Faculty
No abstract provided.
Inter Partes Patent Reexamination, Mark D. Janis
Inter Partes Patent Reexamination, Mark D. Janis
Articles by Maurer Faculty
No abstract provided.
Second Tier Patent Protection, Mark D. Janis
Second Tier Patent Protection, Mark D. Janis
Articles by Maurer Faculty
No abstract provided.