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Full-Text Articles in Law
The Need For Better Analysis Of High Capacity Services, George S. Ford, Lawrence J. Spiwak
The Need For Better Analysis Of High Capacity Services, George S. Ford, Lawrence J. Spiwak
GEORGE S FORD
In 1999, the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) began to grant incumbent local exchange carriers (“LECs”) pricing flexibility on special access services in some Metropolitan Statistical Areas (“MSAs”) when specific evidence of competitive alternatives is present. The propriety of that deregulatory move by the FCC has been criticized by the purchasers of such services ever since. Proponents of special access price regulation rely on three central arguments to support a retreat to strict price regulation: (1) the market(s) for special access and similar services is unduly concentrated; (2) rates of return on special access services, computed using FCC ARMIS data, are …
Quantifying The Cost Of Substandard Patents: Some Preliminary Evidence, George S. Ford, T. Randolph Beard, Thomas M. Koutsky, Lawrence J. Spiwak
Quantifying The Cost Of Substandard Patents: Some Preliminary Evidence, George S. Ford, T. Randolph Beard, Thomas M. Koutsky, Lawrence J. Spiwak
GEORGE S FORD
The purpose of patent policy is to balance the incentive to invent against the ability of the economy to utilize and incorporate new inventions and innovations. Substandard patents that upset this balance impose deadweight losses and other costs on the economy. In this paper, we examine some of the deadweight losses that result from granting substandard patents in the United States. Under plausible assumptions, we find that the economic losses resulting from the grant of substandard patents can reach $21 billion per year by deterring valid research with an additional deadweight loss from litigation and administrative costs of $4.5 billion …