Law Commons^™

Spam Works: Evidence From Stock Touts And Corresponding Market Activit, Jonathan Zittrain

Jonathan Zittrain

We assess the impact of spam that touts stocks upon the trading activity of those stocks and sketch how profitable such spamming might be for spammers and how harmful it is to those who heed advice in stock-touting e-mails. We find convincing evidence that stock prices are being manipulated through spam. We suggest that the effectiveness of spammed stock touting calls into question prevailing models of securities regulation that rely principally on the proper labeling of information and disclosure of conflicts of interest as means of protecting consumers, and we propose several regulatory and industry interventions. Based on a large …

Separating Marketing Innovation From Actual Invention: A Proposal For A New, Improved, Lighter And Better-Tasting Form Of Patent Protection, Ann Bartow

Ann Bartow

This Article suggests that commercial entities sometimes obtain patents for reasons unrelated to securing profitable technological monopolies. Patents, especially those with narrow scopes that are easily designed around, may be obtained to disadvantage competitors or to make the patent holder appear innovative, rather than to fence off an invention for commercial exploitation. Patents obtained for nontraditional reasons - denoted leverage and keeping up appearances patents in this Article - may represent highly inefficient uses of both public and private resources. To solve some of these efficiency problems, the author proposes creating a second-tier Origination Patent option, which would offer patentees …

Competing Conceptions Of Autonomy: A Reappraisal Of The Basis Of Tort Law, Martin A. Kotler

Martin A. Kotler

Seeking to identify and describe the essential values underlying tort law, this Article attempts to demonstrate that tort law is a system that simultaneously seeks to promote both efficiency and individual autonomy. It argues, however, that efficiency is a secondary goal of tort law that comes to the fore when it is inexpedient, impossible or unnecessary to promote the primary value of autonomy.

The primacy of autonomy, however, is often obscured by the fact that our conception of autonomy has evolved over the years. Once understood in terms of an individual’s rights in private property, autonomy is now widely perceived …